By Tom Perry
We have been writing about the families who lived at Laurel Hill after the Stuarts, but one of the families who lived next door to the Stuarts was the Pedigos. Their family connection continued with Porter Bondurant and his sister Carrie Sue Bondurant Culler. Many times, I went and just talked with the brother and sister, sometimes together, and sometimes separately. These descendants of the Pedigos brought many oral traditions about Laurel Hill to the present day. Carolyn Susan “Carrie Sue” Culler, whose grandmother knew the Stuart children, tells many interesting stories. One of these states that Archibald Stuart taught law to several local boys in a log cabin, including the Pedigo sons and others such as Jack Reeves and George Duncan. Another tells of Victoria Stuart Boyden giving Mary Pedigo a picture and a hat.
My friend, Theodore Guynn, who was like a second father to me, was my source for many things about Ararat history, and if he did not know the answer, he would say, “Let’s go see Carrie Sue; she will know.” Carrie Sue was born in 1909, when Theodore Roosevelt, not Franklin, was President of the United States. We used to inaugurate the POTUS in March, not on January 20 as we do now. Carrie Sue lived to the age of 107, and she once told me about one of her ancestors who grew up with J. E. B. Stuart and even went to school with the future general and his siblings. She even said the teacher was named Monday, “Uncle John Mundey.” It is hard to doubt someone with that level of detail. I always say, find the oldest person you know, talk to them, record them, and write down your impressions.
Those in Ararat descend from David Floyd Pedigo, who lived in Ohio and Henry County. He married Sallie May and had four children: Elizabeth, who married Walter Taylor, who is part of the Lynch Hollow story and later moved to California; Manie, who married Joseph H. Bondurant; Their children were Mack Abe Bondurant 1901–1973, Sarah Phoebe Bondurant Brown 1904–2001, who was the mother of Joe Bill Brown, who gave the option to preserve the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace. Next came Edward G Bondurant, 1906–1906, Caroline Susan “Carrie Sue” Bondurant Culler 1909–2016, Peter Floyd Bondurant 1910–1994, Horace Porter Bondurant Sr. 1914–2008, and Josephine Bondurant Cochran 1916–2012.
The Pedigos ran The Hollow Post Office, which for years was in the home of Porter Bondurant. Porter’s house is being remodeled as I write. Today, the post office is officially Ararat, but for many years, there were two post offices named The Hollow or Ararat, or one using one of the names, depending on the political party in control locally and nationally, as the story goes. Porter’s home was also Pedigo Station on “The Dinky” Railroad.
One interesting thing is that the Mount Airy and Eastern Railroad, “The Dinky,” ran through Porter’s property. He and Carrie Sue rode the train that went from Mount Airy, North Carolina, to Kibler Valley. That will be the next story of Laurel Hill’s many histories.
Tom Perry can be reached at freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com, and the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace’s website is www.jebstuart.org.
