Graves

George Lawrence Graves, born in1840 in Henry County GA, moved with his wife Mary Jane to farmland east of Norcross in 1876, and they and their descendants are well-remembered in that area, with Graves Road, Graves County Park and the soon-to-open Avery Graves School all carrying their name. Their son George William Graves, known as GW or Will, farmed the same land as his father. He married Hattie Lee Ola Purcell in 1908, and Ms. Ola sold eggs, milk and home churned butter from their home. Together they raised three sons, Avery, Lawrence and Fred. 

Avery Graves, born in 1909, attended the elementary grades at the Glover School, near his home, before attending schools in Decatur and Norcross. After study at Oglethorpe University and the University of Georgia he served as a teacher, coach and administrator in the Gwinnett, Dekalb and City of Calhoun school systems. He was ordained as a Baptist minister and served as a chaplain during World War II. He played baseball as a young man, and worked to preserve Norcross baseball history in his later years. He and his wife Myrtle Dickens Graves had five children.

Lawrence Graves, born in 1911, married Fannie Warbington, a member of a pioneer Gwinnett family, in 1930, and they raised three children on the Graves property. He worked for many years at the Chevrolet assembly plant in Atlanta, and followed his passion for gospel singing on the weekends, traveling with his family around Georgia to “sings” held in many locations, even staging them at their house. He was born and died in the same room in the family home.Fred Graves, born in 1922, attended Glover School as well, and recalled that after the school burned to the ground around 1932 the families in the area rebuilt it themselves – the residents harvested trees from their farms for lumber, and local resident W. R. Lietch allowed them to use his sawmill to prepare the wood. Fred also recalled that when he was a young boy he accompanied his father to Norcross  on a trip that included a visit to the bank there.Gus McDaniel, the Cashier, asked the young boy to come to the back to see something of interest. They made their way to the vault, and the Cashier pulled out a $1000.00 bill, a vast sum of money in those days, to show the young man. Fred finished high school in Tucker and served in the Pacific campaign during World War II; after the war he worked at the auto assembly plant in Doraville for many years, and married his wife Betty Staples Adams later in life.”