Snellville: the Georgia Town Founded by a Gay Couple

Snellville, Georgia, in Gwinnett County about halfway between Atlanta and Athens, has an interesting name: "All the Snells down in Snellville liked Christmas a lot."

Or maybe it's a tv show, with Papa Snell, Handy Snell, Vanity Snell, and Snellette.

 It is actually named after Thomas Snell.  In 1874, the 17-year old London boy was making secret plans to run away with his "friend" James Sawyer.

James and his brother Charles got on the boat, but Thomas' parents caught wind of the plan at the last minute and prevented him from going.  Eventually he managed to get out, but when he arrived in New York, he couldn't find James, who had returned to England to look for him.

Nobody sent telegrams in 1874?


After lots of searching, the two "friends" were reunited in 1879, and built a house and general store together in what they called Snellville.

The relationship ended in 1883, when James married -- I guess Thomas was the jealous type, although he was married, too -- but the exes stayed friends, and continued to live in Snellville.  Thomas died in 1896.  James lived until 1948.



Today Snellville is an affluent bedroom community for Atlanta, so there's not a lot to do but go to Stone Mountain (7 miles away), where the Ku Klux Klan was reborn in 1915.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum was hired to do a rock sculpture of clan members, but he abandoned the project to do Mount Rushmore.  In 1972, it was completed, but with Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson and president Jefferson Davis on the horses instead of the clan.  There's also an ante-bellum plantation with a petting zoo, but no slaves.



For a town of 20,000, it has a lot of high schools: Grayson, Shiloh, South Gwinnet.    And of course the University of Georgia is nearby.  So there are lots of beefcake opportunities: swimming, wrestling, powerlifting.

















A lot of gingers in Snellville, for some reason.

"All the gingers down in Snellville liked Christmas a lot."