09/21/2026
THE RINARD FAMILY AT BLACKACRE FARM
Dr. Gil Rinard spent several days back in 1995 driving the roads of northern Paulding County looking for just the right place for his family to settle. He, his wife Janet, and 10-year-old daughter, Susanna, were living in Decatur, Georgia, close to Emory University where Dr. Rinard had been a professor at the School of Medicine since 1968.
A move so far away from the big city was an act of desperation for Dr. Rinard. After decades of growth, the air in the city of Atlanta and surrounding close-in communities was becoming so polluted that people with sensitivity to vehicle exhaust, like Dr. Rinard, were developing health problems. An air pollution researcher at Georgia Tech told him that the air was cleaner on the west side of Atlanta. There, Paulding County northwest of Atlanta, was still largely rural, with one of the smallest population densities in the area, was the focus of his search.
When Dr. Rinard learned that Blackacre Farm, a beautiful old 200-acre homestead on Dabbs Bridge Road was available to rent, he and his wife, city folks, both of whom had grown up on the West Coast, made a big decision to try country life. The owner of Blackacre Farm, Mr. Hubert Holland, an attorney in Marietta, had spent his childhood on the place. He, with his wife, Naomi Corley Holland, made every effort to welcome the Rinard family. Right away the Rinards were introduced to kind country neighbors, folks like the Hollingsheds, who have farmed the family property next to Blackacre Farm for generations. As a gift for the newcomers, the Hollingsheds came over to Blackacre Farm to stack a winter’s supply of firewood for the Rinards to use in the four fireplaces in the old home place.
The old house, whose original rooms date back to 1855, sit on a high ridge with wonderful long-range views to both north and south, Red Top Mountain and Signal Mountain are in view from the front porch. From the back porch, one can see Little Kennesaw Mountain and Lost Mountain on the horizon, with nothing but wooded hills in between. Blackacre Farm is a museum, an existing testimony of an older way of life to the rapidly changing world approaching it. When the Hollands visit the farm, they sometimes reminisce about the former uses of the two red barns, smoke house, well house, goat shed, and woodshed, thereby explaining life on the farm generations ago.
Mr. and Mrs. Holland were happy to tell the history of the Blackacre Farm and surrounding community. Mailings from them which contained articles about the country people of earlier times, local cemeteries and the geography of the area began to arrive weekly. Soon the Rinards heard the story of the Indians who lived in a village on the banks of the nearby Pumpkinvine Creek, and they were told that the huge black walnut tree in the south pasture was planted by an Indian woman. The Hollands once took the Rinard family on a long walk to a secluded spot on the property where they have placed two engraved stones. These mark the graves of two members of the Blackman family, a black family that once lived on the site in a little house years ago.
Daughter Susanna Rinard has spent her formative years at Blackacre Farm. She has taken to the environment with much enthusiasm. One of the first things she noticed was an abundance of wild birds. From observing them she has become something of an expert on local birds. Blackacre Farm has a variety of habitats – woods, open fields, streams, lakes, and pastures, a mix that attracts the different species of birds she is documenting from year to year.
The Rinards have loved living at Blackacre Farm. They came seeking cleaner air. What they found was that and much more. But, the surrounding landscape has suddenly taken on a new look. Only a short distance down the road tall brick houses are being built in a subdivision, called Senators Ridge, on land that was once in the hands of family who lived at Blackacre Farm. These new residents, fleeing more congested areas, feel fortunate to have found such a beautiful place. Change is coming.
From the Heritage of Paulding County, Ga, 1832-1999, Published & Sold by the Paulding County Historical Society
Written in 1999 by Janet and Gil Rinard
From “The Heritage of Paulding County, Georgia 1832—1999”
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