John Dilbeck and the lost town of Johntown (Dawson County)
Updated: Sep 2
1886 Map with Johntown, Georgia
John Dilbeck was born in 1787 in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Around 1839 he moved to Dawson County (Gilmer at the time) and purchased 160 acres near the present Steve Tate/Faucett Lake area. He acquired Land Lot 160, and Land Lot 129. This was where the area of Johntown sprung up. Upon his death in 1857, the land passed to John L. Grogran, the brother of John Dilbeck's son-in-law. The descendants of the Dilbecks lived near Burnt Mountain for a time before moving to Jasper.
Johntown was on maps starting as early as 1886 and as late as the 1950s. Prominent surnames from the area were Anderson, Burt, Cantrell, Champion, Chastain, Crane, Densmore, Dilbeck, Faucett, Foster, Gaddis, Grogan, Hammontree, Kincaid, Lowman, Padgett, Pendley, Reece, and Turner. You can still find many of these surnames in Cherokee, Forsyth, and Pickens Counties as well.
A hand-drawn map by a descendant of the Densmore family.
Current aerial map of the old Johntown area
A chimney and a foundation are all that remain at Johntown location number 3.
Over the years there were many houses that were used as post offices. In my opinion, this accounts for the various different map locations of Johntown. Historically, this area was remote and postal inspections were viewed as unpleasant. Oftentimes, the postal inspector would have to take private transportation and get stuck staying the night.
This former Densmore House was located south of 136 and
east of Steve Tate Road.
There are the remains of an old well at this site in Johntown. It serves as a reminder of the peril one could have by not being careful. When people die by falling in wells, its not because they get injured or starve to death. People run out of air first. The oxygen in those deep and tight spaces quickly gets replaced by too much carbon dioxide. They die from asphyxiation.
Many of the children attended the local one-room schoolhouse known as Mount Pleasant. (The school is no longer standing) Churchgoers frequented Goshen Baptist Church. In the northwest corner of the Goshen cemetery, there is an abandoned roadbed that climbs the mountain. Several hundred yards away there is a large number of graves, most of them having tombstones so eroded by weather and time they’re no longer legible. Of the few that are, the Densmores stand out in number. It was likely a family plot.
Mount Pleasant School, Johntown
In 1939 a convict camp was opened in Johntown, close to Amicalola Falls.
Convict Camp, Johntown, Georgia (1939-1943)
A total of 125 prisoners were brought in to work on various projects. Sadly, J.G. (Bugs) Glover, the Superintendent of the convicts used the labor illegally and for personal gain. He was convicted on 20 counts in Federal Court. He had three houses in three different counties built by the convicts. The houses were later torn down by the convicts.
Mr. Glover was indicted on 20 counts but later had the case thrown out on account of most of the witnesses being deployed in the Second World War.
One of the three convict built houses being dismantled...by the convicts.
By 1943, the convict camp was dismantled and the equipment was sent to the convict camp in Pickens County.
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John's Dilbeck's youngest brother, William W. Dilbeck was born in North Carolina in 1805 and got married to Debra Ann Farriba (b. 1825, NC). This grave is located just over the Dawson County line near HWY 136.
Debra Ann is the aunt of William Clinton Farriba, (b.1858), and was connected to the Hendrix families of the Long Swamp area of Pickens County. The Dilbeck family moved from Johntown into Pickens County sometime after the 1900s.
The Dilbecks of Pickens County were one of the first gas station owners and also known for their photography.
J.H. Dilbeck later was a photographer for the Alanta Journal and Constitution and took one of Pickens County's most iconic photos, the burning of the Connahaynee Lodge.
NOTE: John Dilbeck is the great-grandfather of Pickens County resident William Dilbeck.
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