great for one day's travel. It is uncertain when New London officially became Snellville, but the location of the partners' store was referred to as Snellville in their advertising, and the young town began to show a promising future. The partnership later dissolved, and Sawyer kept the old store, building granite stone above and around the old frame and then disassembling the wood frame from within. Snell built a new store of granite. In 1883 Sawyer built a home and married Emma Webb, of the historic Snellville Webb family, on November 15. Sawyer opened Snellville's first post office in 1885 and served as postmaster from the back of his store. Snell died at age 39 in 1896 due to complications following an appendicitis operation. He was buried in Brownlee Mountain, presently known as Nob Hill, and was later reburied in nearby Lithonia. Initially forced into partial retirement due to failing eyesight, Sawyer later lost his sight completely. After that time the store was owned and operated by various merchants. It was eventually destroyed in 1960 and replaced by a service station. James Sawyer died in 1948 at age 91 and is buried in the Baptist Cemetery (now Snellville Historical Cemetery). City beginnings The City of Snellville received its charter from the General Assembly of the State of Georgia in 1923. Recent times As of the 2010 census, Snellville's population was 18,242 and included 7,069 housing units. Snellville's political system now includes a mayor and five council members. There are over 100 employees working for the city of Snellville, which operates from five departments: Administration, Parks & Recreation, Planning & Development, Public Safety, and Public Works. The city limits have grown to , and there are fourteen houses of worship located within the city limits. As of early 2011, new housing construction, much of it upscale, continues in Snellville and in areas of southern Gwinnett County carrying a Snellville address. This is the only area of metro Atlanta where this is occurring on such a large scale, despite the recession. Also, the upscale Governor's Walk neighborhood in Snellville went on to be completed after the recession was well under way. Though many of the spec homes in Governor's Walk went into repossession during the recession, all were bought and completed, or were in the process of being completed, as of January 2011. Lake Norris had new upscale construction going on as