[Published in The Yadkin Ripple, July 26, 1945]

Reminiscences of Bovender Village

There is so much that could be said and written about Bovender Town that it is hard to decide on a beginning.  First of all it was nestled among the hills on Forbush Creek.  Sherrill Adams is the present owner of the home place of Bill Bovender.  As we have said, Mr. Bovender manufactured Plug tobacco in summer employing from 12 to 25 hands, mostly young folks.  In the cool of the evening when the day’s work was done they would group together for fun and recreation and those hills and valleys would resound with laughter and song, for their activities were restricted at night.  Later we might list the names of many of these workers.

In those days Mr. Bovender made coffins for the community.  He also gathered and housed ice from his mill pond during the late Fall and Winter for use the following summer.  The aching fevered brow of many sick persons was cooled with ice from his ice house.

He was successful in all his undertakings except the perfecting of perpetual motion.

His distinction for being a brother to ten half sisters was unusual.  Their names follow:  Mary, Bet, Lid, Lute, Till, Kate, Bid, Fatima, Irene, and Rachel.

He owned one of the finest and fastest traveling horses in the country.  The devotion between himself and the horse, Charlie, was almost human.

In connection with all the other businesses carried on in this town, a large dry goods store was operated for some time by Messrs. Caleb Warden, a Methodist preacher, and Joshua Hobson, noted school teacher of his day and veteran of the war between the States.  One would never get tired of listening to the thrilling experiences he had in the war, and his hearty laughter was a tonic for any chronic complainer.

The Republic Post Office served a large territory until it was discontinued about 1902.

This article would not be complete without a word of praise and gratitude in behalf of Mrs. Bovender, mother of ten children, six living today, making a good contribution to their county.  In all our ten years of contact with her, we have never seen a more even tempered, kind and gentle wife and mother than she was, a woman loved by all who knew her.  [To be continued.}

By B. C. Money