Land Lot 178 located in NE Cobb County, was purchased in 1904 for $100 by my grandfather, Virgil Mabry. By 1914, he and his brother, Harley Mabry, had acquired 180 additional acres making a 220-acre farm. Virgil sawed the timber on the 40 acres and used some of the lumber to build a farmhouse. Virgil borrowed the money and purchased Harley's interest in 1918. Virgil grew cotton, corn to feed the farm animals, and a vegetable garden to feed his family. He operated a dairy, hauling the milk 30 miles to Atlanta and sold the milk and char-coal he had burned door to door until 1925. In 1936 Virgil was severely injured in a sawmill accident; the doctor at the hospital left him in a room for three hours waiting for him to die. When he did not die, he was admitted to the hospital and his head wound was cleaned and bandaged. He was not able to work for the next 2 years but he recovered from the injury. After the accident, Virgil used all his savings making the mortgage payments. In 1942, behind on the mortgage payments, Virgil called a meeting of his five children and asked them to pay the mortgage payments. My father, J. N. Mabry, made the first payment even though he had two small children and his wife (my mother) had to wash all their clothes on a rub board. After my father used the family savings to make a mortgage payment, my mother went to Sears and Roebuck and purchased a washing machine on credit. My aunt Edna Mabry Dean made the second payment. The other children decided not to make any mortgage payments. J N and Edna paid the mortgage off during the next 3 years. After the mortgage was paid off in 1945 the farm was deeded to my father, J.N. Mabry, and his sister, Edna Mabry Dean, Virgil and Mamie Mabry retained a life estate in the farm and continued to grow corn and soybeans until 1960. In 1961,
J. N. Mabry and Edna Dean divided the remaining 180-acre farm with each getting 90 acres. In the 1970’s Edna Mabry Dean sold all but 9 acres of her part of Mabry farm to a developer who started to develop Rain Tree Forrest. Edna was talked into taking a second mortgage on the sale of her property, and all she received for her property was the down payment. The developer got a first mortgage on the property and wasted the money in the development process. The bank foreclosed on the property and sold it to another developer, who developed Rain Tree Forest. After Virgil and Mamie Mabry died In 1969 and 1971 no one lived in the farm house and it fell into disrepair.
In the 1990’s Edna’s granddaughter Kelly built a large riding ring and repaired the old farm house to make it a club house for her daughters and their friends who had horses on the farm. A bathroom was installed at this time. After Kelly’s daughters lost interest in horses, the house and back yard which had a 100 year old oak tree as the focal point was used for parties. In July 2016 Jim Mabry a grandson of Virgil and Mamie Mabry had his 80th birthday party in the back yard and it was the last time a group used the house and grounds. In 2017 Edna’s children Lanier, Pat and Gary sold the last 9 acres of Mabry Farm to a developer who developed Mabry Grove. The developer tried to give the farmhouse and $10,000 to Cobb County to be placed in Mabry Park. Cobb County declined the gift of the house because they did not want to have the expense of maintaining the farm house. The farm house was located in lot 4371 and it faced Wesley Chapel Rd.
