Mark Millican: Memories of Little Rome

By Mark Millican | Dalton Daily Citizen

Like many Dalton residents, I had eaten pizza and pasta at Little Rome many times before I began working at the newspaper in Chatsworth in the year 2000. Along with the job of editor and publisher came a membership in the Rotary Club of Murray County. Our weekly lunches were at Spring Lakes Golf Club, but in an attempt to get the meetings closer to Chatsworth I suggested Little Rome when it came my turn to serve as president.

It was during those Thursday lunches that I got to know founder and head chef Milton Clarke better, and although it seemed everyone called him “Clarke” he was OK with me addressing him by his first name. I learned Milton was an avid Civil War collector and historian.

Around that time the Mountain View Boys Group Home, under the auspices of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Homes that included Cherokee Estate in Whitfield County, was built in Murray County. As a board member, I and several other directors treated the young men under our purview to a pizza party at Little Rome. The local Sons of Confederate Veterans unit, of which Milton was a part, exhibited three or four tables of their Civil War mementos, including uniforms, rifles, minié balls, belt buckles, bayonets and dozens of other items.