“Trickum seems to be a wordplay on the phrase, ‘trick‘em,’ going back to the mid-1800’s,” said Carl H. Tiegreen, author of History of Possum Corner, Trickum, Goddess & Mountain Park: As Seen from the William Garner Home of Gwinnett County, GA.”
“According to the descendants of that era’s citizens, the name Trickum either refers to a local proprietor’s dishonest ways (which also is how the Trickum community near Marietta got its name) or the desire of some of the area’s residents to trick the Union army as it foraged through here during the Civil War.”.
“But records show that by Union General Geary‘s use of the name Trickum, when he filed a report stating his encampment at Trickum Crossroads, the name had been well-established and already familiar. So, origin seems to lean towards pre-war time, and more likely a reference to the tale of a dishonest proprietor.”
The view looking at the back part of the Garner home.
The original Camp Creek Primitive Baptist Church located at 302 Camp Creek Road, Lilburn. The first building was constructed in 1825, and behind the church is a cemetery dating back to the 19th century with approximately 60 members of the Garner family buried there. The church is open for Sunday services.Another early community, which lay within the current 
This is the original barn located behind the William Garner home.Mountain Park area, was known as Possum Corner until the mid-20th Century, last listed as such on a 1953 topographical map. This name was chosen in 1846 because of a community dinner in which the large size of possums was recognized, and the name humorously suggested. Nearby Lake Lucerne, formed in the mid-1900’s, was originally known as Possum Lake and served as a baptism site for the Bethany Baptist Church.
Tiegreen’s book, available in the Gwinnett County Library System, centers on the Garner family from South Carolina who bought land parcels here in a lottery, dividing them up among family members. The Garners built their original cabins near the east end of Garner Creek before a Garner descendant built the more recognizable dwelling on Five Forks Trickum Road.
Although not much is remembered of John Garner, he had two sons William and Thomas. According to Tiegreen, sometime after William married Martha Lanier, he built a “dogtrot house” on nearby property. These were typical southern homes of the time—two sides with open center corridor, a design that offered natural air circulation and protection from southern summer heat. Over the years the home was updated.
This home also was the early 1900’s postal stop called Goddess. Newt Garner, who lived there then, was postmaster for this area and the actual post-collection was done in a hut where his driveway meets the road.
This was the home of J.B. Williams and is located adjacent to the park named after him on Five Forks Trickum Road. The large water oak in front of the house is being protected and under the supervision of the county arborist.
“If a young man wished to marry, he went on the other side of the spring, or other side of his father’s soil, built his log cabin, cleared a…patch, married and went to multiplying,” Gwinnett County Judge Richard D. Winn was quoted as saying about the first settlers.
In 1864 during the Civil War, Union forces under Gens. Geary and Garrard (attached to Sherman’s Army) had the assignment of foraging the countryside for food and supplies while moving through Atlanta. Each of the detachments camped overnight on the farm of James Bracewell, sheriff of Gwinnett County. The farm was located on the county line behind today’s Kroger at “Trickum’s Crossroads,” the intersection at Five Forks Trickum and Rockbridge Roads, and did their gathering of supplies from there.
The Hudson-Nash Home, now being reconstructed on Five Forks Trickum Road as part of the Yellow River Post Office Park. It was moved there from across the street in 2019. An early resident, Thomas Hudson, owner of 500 acres near the Yellow River, was the postmaster and proprietor of the general store. Hudson supported Hudson’s Guards, a local Confederate militia, during the Civil War. No major battles were fought in this area, but five Union soldiers were killed at a skirmish at the Yellow River Bridge.
