-Chapter IV- TOWNS, COMMUNITIES, AND MILITIA DISTRICTS (1880-1980)
Other Communities in Chatsworth District
Within what is now Chatsworth was once the village of Oran. This rather widespread community "moved" twice within a decade. The first Oran was located "on the old Johnson Place near Duvall Road and Industrial Boulevard." Here W.R. Black had a store and was postmaster from 1892 until 1898. Mary E. Black succeeded him as postmaster. By this time the central point in the community had become the Davis Store on Old Ellijay Road near the present Murray County Recreation Center. The Davises were large landowners in the area and their land extended northward to near the Black store site. The Isaac Davis Family Cemetery is on Industrial Boulevard, the only remnant of the Oran community.
In addition to the Davises. John L, Woods and D.F. McMahan owned a great deal of land in the area. Woods. McMahan, and Thomas B. Davis provided land for the Chestnut Grove School in 1891. Located near what is now Green Road, the school generally went by the name of Oran. Teachers here included Thad Moreland (1896). A.R. Howard (1896-97), C.H. Shriner (1897). R.S. Vining (1899), Dee Parsons (1900). Gid Jackson, Vie Jackson Osborn. Mollie Glass Brown. Joe Anderson. Owen Terry. John Camey and ____ Freeman. In even earlier days a school had been located east of the Oran (near the intersection of Green and Charles Roads) called "Pull Tight" School. At a later time Bates Smith taught school in a log house on the Davis Place. The Davis Estate became part of the Murray County High School and Farm while part of the Woods property is now Woods Estate subdivision.
In 1902 Robert C. Logan, Jr. became Oran's postmaster and moved the office to his store east of present-day Highway 411 (across from Hardees near Chats-worth Ready Mix). About that same time the proposed railroad to Dalton from Murray County was to pass through Oran as it curved southwestward from Pleasant Valley (Eton) on its way to Spring Place. This railroad failed, but in 1905 the LAN was built and went through Oran. Thus there was still hope that Oran would become an important town, bul it lost the depot to Eton and then Chatsworth was founded which was the beginning of the end for Oran. By 1911 the post office was closed.
Oran at its height consisted of Lydia Jackson's house. Balis Hunsucker's house and blacksmith shop, and carpenter Spencer Davis's residence east of the Old Federal Road while the Guy Adams house, the Wright store and home, the Logan store, the Johnson (later Logan) gin. and the Gid Jackson house were between the Old Federal Road and the L&N tracks. The Wrights were sawmillers and related to the Logaris whose house was just west of the railroad. Most of the buildings in Oran were along the Old Ellijay Road. In earlier times a school called Logansville had existed, possibly near this community. Miss Lucinda Bates and Miss N.B. Welborn (1884) taught there.
Just north of Oran near the Jackson Lake area was Murray Campground, a Methodist facility equipped with tents and cabins for use during summer religious services. George A. Edmondson deeded land on lot 130 (9th District, 3rd Section) to "Methodist Episcopal Church South" trustees John Gates, Jathan Gregory. Samuel B. McCamy. W.W. Staples, and William Steed in July, 1872. The North Georgia Citizen, printed in Dalton, said that in July, 1874 "the camp meeting of M.E. Church South begins at the campgrounds four miles east of Spring Place on 20th of August next. Rev. A. Odom now on Spring Place Circuit . . . will remain in charge of his churches until October." The Wesleyan Christian Advocate of September 29, 1886 said that Murray Campground "has well nigh rotted down. Only six tents were occupied. Something must be done or the place must be given up."
Apparently something was done because use continued into the 1890's. During that same decade a Murray Campground School reported to the County Board of Education. Teachers known are Rev. H. Morris and John Anderson (1891), Samuel Jackson (1892), R.E. Logan (1893), and Mrs. Mattie Bradford (1894), when Campground was "not received as a public school" according to county records. Today Lakeview Baptist Church exists between the former sites of Murray Campground and Oran. The name of Oran was preserved in recent years in the name of a carpet mill.
Lakeview Baptist Church was organized on June 16. 1951. The concrete-block building was erected on land obtained from C.N. King and I.M. Peeples. Before the construction work was completed services were held under a brush arbor on the same site. In the 1970's an addition was built and the original building remodeled. In 1978 Lakeview had 176 members. Pastors of the church have been Clinton Lunsford. Thurman Hightower, Riley Bartley. Fletcher Gos-wick, Charlie Pritchett, Houston Allen , David Watson. Hoyt Rogers, Monroe Steelrnan, D.V. Mathis, Bobby Souther, and James Whitmore. Carl Flood, Ed Dotson, Farris Turner, D.A. Young, Elmer Cline, Willie Morrison, R.L. Williams, Cullie Huffines, and Donald Elrod have served as deacons at Lakeview.
Murray County Heritage