Historical Paper Mill Area History Sope Creek is a major stream located in Cobb County, Georgia. It is a significant tributary of the Chattahoochee River. It was originally known as Soap Creek during the 19th century. The Old Covered Bridge Paper Mill Road crosses the creek about one mile upstream from the point where the Sope empties into the Chattahoochee. Paper Mill Road has to wind down the gorge in order to cross over the creek. The beauty of the area that was lost is beyond measure. The Atlanta Journal once said of the area, “Sope Creek, particularly in the springtime, is a place of unusual beauty. A quaint old covered bridge spans the stream just below where the log dam used to be. The stream is strewn with great boulders and the water dashes over these in a series of cascades, causing such masses of foam that they look like soapsuds.” The Industrial Center Located at the intersection of Paper Mill Road and Sope Creek are old industrial ruins. These ruins used to be the center of an industrial center based on the waterpower that the creek produced. During the period from 1850 to 1940, a paper mill, twine plant, flourmill and hydroelectric power plant occupied an area about one mile long. In 1933, the Atlanta Journal printed an article reminiscing about the Marietta Paper Mills. In an editorial note that accompanied the article, a senior staff member at the Journal, H.H. Cabaniss, recalled that the Marietta Paper Mills, under the ownership of Saxon A. Anderson supplied paper for a great many of the Atlanta area daily newspapers. That senior staff member was H.H. Cabaniss. In 1867, he had been the business manager for the Atlanta New Era and bought his paper in rolls from the Marietta Paper Mills. The paper supply became even harder to come by when on July 5, 1864, Union soldiers under the command of General Gerrard burned the Marietta Paper Mill, along with Denmead’s Flour Mill. The Paper Mill was rebuilt in 1865, only to burn again in 1870 and be rebuilt in 1871. The mill struggled to survive the years immediately following the second rebuilding. The mills were sold at a public sale in 1873 and restructured as the Marietta Paper Manufacturing Company. In 1888 and 1889, a wood pulp mill and a twine factory were added to the site, respectively. Finally, in 1902, production at that location stopped. Along with the Paper Mill was Denmead’s Flour Mill. Founded in 1855, Edward Denmead had built a Flour Mill on the west bank about 200 yards up from where Paper Mill Road and the Sope Creek intersect. Denmead apparently ran this operation and shared a road off of Paper Mill Road with the Marietta Paper Mills. The flourmill was burnt at the same time as the Paper Mill, but apparently was never rebuilt. When the GHC submitted its report in March 1973, they gave great detail to the purpose of every remaining structure. Additionally, the description of the layout of the site was accurate enough that someone could attempt to locate and identify all remaining structures. The mill room was “The largest structure remaining is the mill building downstream from Paper Mill Road approximately ¼ mile on the east bank of the Creek. It contained five rooms and is approximately 300 feet long.” The oil room and office was “nearby… just across a small creek.” The pulp-grinding mill was “just south of Paper Mill Road. It is two stories high and approximately 100 feet long.” Denmead’s flourmill was described, although evidence is difficult to spot today, due to construction. Even the foundations of an old bridge, which lay near the aforementioned dam, were identified.
Sope Creek & the Civil War During the March to the Sea, troops first crossed the Chattahoochee at Sope Creek. On May 4, 1864, Major-General William T. Sherman took control of the Military Division of the Mississippi and began to engage Confederate General Joseph Johnston and his Army of Tennessee. From the beginning, Johnston was persistent in his effort to fight a defensive battle, rather than offensive. Rightly so, Sherman had a two-to-one advantage on Johnston. Additionally, Johnston claimed he was waiting for the right opportunity when Sherman would leave himself exposed. Sherman, unwilling to charge headlong against Johnston, decides to outmaneuver Johnston. Thus, every time Johnston found a superior defensive position, Sherman would maneuver around Johnston, forcing Johnston to retreat to a tactically superior position. The two engaged in this ‘dance’ for nearly two months, with one exception, the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, in which Sherman lost his nerve, attacked head on, and suffered a bloody defeat. Even though this was the strategically sound theory, this was a personal gamble for Johnston, for every time he retreated, despite the fact that he was outmanned by Sherman, he aggravated Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Sherman ’s troops were divided into three armies. These were the Army of the Cumberland, the Army of the Ohio, and the Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Major Generals George H. Thomas, John M. Schofield, and James B. McPherson, respectively. Johnston was waiting for one of these three armies to be exposed. While they all moved together, they were in fact, three separate units. The largest body of water between Chattanooga where Sherman started, and Atlanta, was the Chattahoochee River. If there was any time in which the one portion of the Army of the Mississippi could become separated, and therefore vulnerable, crossing the Chattahoochee was it. As the Union Army approached the Chattahoochee, they moved in from the west and took up positions at Vinings Station. Johnston held the bridgehead on the west side of the river, and had a majority of his troops just across the railroad bridge. On the night of July 7, Sherman gave orders to Schofield to move his troops around and to the left, bypassing Johnston. Sherman had given Schofield orders to find a location between Roswell and Sope Creek in which to ford the Chattahoochee. Sherman said, “I wish you to make an examination thereabouts and secure a foothold, fortified on the other side, anywhere about Roswell or mouth of Soap Creek. I also know that Johnston's cavalry has moved to the south flank. It is important to do this at once, for the fords are very important to us.” Schofield located a ford on the Chattahoochee one half mile upstream of the mouth of Sope Creek. Sherman decided that McPherson would hold his position across from Johnston, and at the last moment, swing around in the same fashion as Schofield and cross the Chattahoochee at Shallow Ford, what is today known as Shallowford Road. Sherman wrote to Schofield saying: You may move to the neighborhood of the mouth of Soap Creek. Mask well your command and make a lodgment across the Chattahoochee, but do not attempt it until you have a ford nearby by which to reinforce the party first sent, or by which it may be necessary to retire. We can, after lodgement [sic], make roads to the crossing and may add pontoon bridges, of which we have enough for four bridges. After securing a point opposite Soap Creek, Roswell will follow as a matter of course, and will be additional. The moment I hear that General Garrard has made a lodgment at Roswell, I will send a division of General McPherson to hold fast all he makes. With Roswell and mouth of Soap Creek, we have plenty of room, with Marietta as the depot. I will go down to General McPherson's and stir them up in the morning by way of diversion. Schofield advanced a division across the river at the ford and instructed them to take up positions opposite of the mouth of Sope Creek. There, they would support bridge-building operations and provide cover while the engineers constructed a pontoon bridge at Isom’s Ferry. For nearly thirty-six hours, Schofield’s troops were isolated on the other side of the Chattahoochee. Even at the end of that time, when McPherson was on the east bank of the river, he was still miles away from Schofield in Roswell. The opportunity for a counter-offensive that Johnston had been waiting for the previous two months presented itself in those thirty-six hours. Instead of a counter-offensive, Johnston was caught complete by surprise and therefore out of position. The majority of his forces were still in defensive positions at Vinings Station on the east side of the Chattahoochee. By 8:30 p.m. on the night of July 8, Schofield had laid a bridge crossing the Chattahoochee at Isom’s Ferry and had relocated four divisions to the east bank. Fearing a flanking maneuver by Sherman, Johnston had no alternative but to abandon the west side of the river. He withdrew into Atlanta, burning the railroad bridge behind him. It was after this debacle that Jefferson Davis decided to replace Johnston with General John B. Hood. Copied from Wikipedia 2/2010 |
At the crossing, circa 1960, lay one of Cobb County’s two remaining covered bridges; the other crossed Nickajack Creek near Smyrna. The Sope Creek Bridge was a state-declared historic structure and only had a weight capacity of 2000 pounds (one U.S. ton). In 1963, a grossly overweight truck crossed the bridge and damaged the support structure. That summer, the structure was reinforced with steel shanks. On March 29, 1964, the covered bridge burned to the ground, leaving behind only the steel shanks and masonry. Arson was suspected, as the Nickajack Covered Bridge (now known as Concord Covered Bridge) had been partially burned only a few weeks prior. 
The company that ran the paper mill at Sope Creek was called the Marietta Paper Mills. The Marietta Paper Mills were incorporated on December 19 of 1859, possibly by Andrew Schofield Edmondston and Saxon A. Anderson. Facilities at the Paper Mill included a mill, oil room, office, mill sluice (raceway), storeroom, dam, machine shop, pulp-grinding mill, and two shelters. 
In 1922, a hydroelectric dam and a power plant were built on the west side of the creek 900 yards (~820m) upstream from where Paper Mill Road crosses. As of 1973, this dam was inoperable. 
Author David Conyngham best described it in his book, Sherman’s March Through the South, when he wrote “True, such movements would not break up Johnston’s Army, but it gave us a victory; besides, Sherman and Johnston were watching each other’s movements, like two expert wrestlers, to know who would make a slip, for they knew that to attack an intrenched [sic] position was likely to prove a defeat.” 
