Post Office Address
How Bolivia Got Its Name
By EUGENE FALLON
The year was 1892 and John
Peter Cox was in a bit of a
quandary. In his hand he held a
letter from the U. S. Post Office
Department which informed him
that the name he had chosen for
his community was already in
use as a postal department of the
United States mails, and request
ed that he forward another name.
Cox looked out his window
thoughtfully. He loved the set
tlement astride a dirt trail head
ing toward Town Creek. His
father had brought him here when
he was very young. He barely
remembered any other place. He
and other spirited neighbors in
the little community nestling in
the pines had fought long and
hal’d for mail delivery. John Cox
was not going to be stymied by
a technicality. Here he was, an
appointed postmaster and the
nearest mail delivery a dozen or
more miles west of where he sat
—on what was known as the Old
Georgetown Road, a wide-crowned
dirt road leading from Wilming
ton to Georgetown. South Caro
lina.
J. P. Cox, like most Carolinians
of his period, had never seen the
inside of a college, but here was
a self-taught man, one who read
everything he could get his hands
on. Suddenly he brightened. Why
not ? he thought. Surely there
could be no danger of repetition.
If Bolivia could exist in South
America, why one could exist in
North Carolina. And so it came to
pass. A town was born, and it
was born with a postmaster.
Seventy years later finds Bo
livia roughly about three times as
large as it was at birth. If there
were 100 citizens in 1892, there
are today 300, give or take a
dozen. There are no banking faci
lities, no doctor, no drugstore, no
theatres, but there are two fine
churches in town, Bethel Metho
dist and Bolivia Baptist. And
there is Bolivia High School, an
excellent brick edifice in which
Bolivia youngsters may matricu
late from the first grade through
high school. And there's U. S.
Highway 17, running like an eager
athlete right through the heart
of town. South it leads, to Shal
lotte and South Carolina and on
to Jacksonville, Florida. North it
leads to Wilmington, New Bern
and Norfolk. At once a blessing
and a curse is this shining high
Bolivia Is Motor Sales Center
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Two modern automobile sales agencies dominate the Bolivia business scene,
and it is the only town in the county with two authorized agencies. Top photo
shows Elmore Motor Co., Chevrolet agency, and the lower photo is of Willetts &
Son, Ford dealer.— (Elgie Clemmons Photo.)
road. High school over, the young
folks take to it in great numbers.
Many never return except for
brief visits for sentimental rea
sons.
And most of the working' pop
ulation of Bolivia is employed at
Wilmington, in another county,
20 miles away.
This is not to say that pro
gress has bypassed the village in
north-central Brunswick.
Bolivia has several worthy
boasts. First and foremost of
these are two thriving automobile
agencies — something no other
community in the county can
claim, including the county seat
at Southport and bustling Shal
lotte. America’s favorite cars are
dispensed at Bolivia: Fords at
the C. P. Willetts and Son agency,
and Chevrolets at Elmore Motor
Company. And, mixing business
with beauty in true Southern
fashion, is the Elmore Nursery—
10 flourishing acres of camellias
and azaleas taking root almost
within shouting distance of High
way 17.
The writer visited the nurseries,
located on the very edge of an
enchanted forest. The soil was
richer than a king. Compost,
SEE PICTl'RE ON PAGE 4
peat and other aids seemed like
a redundancy, heaped upon some !
of the darkest soil this side of the
famed Nile River Valley. One
enters between wide rustic gates,
to be met with a clamor from a
colony of geese and the subdued
cooing of half-a-hundred pigeons.
All this feathered choir are en
closed behind wire. Beneath lat
ticed overhead three young ladies,
tanned and happy, worked tender
ly among the seedlings.
There was an office, unpainted
and carrying through the w'ood
land motif, upon which hung a
sign reading: “American Camellia
Society.” A pleasant gentleman
of middleage invited us inside,
where he introduced himself as
John Elmore. There was a pert
and slender girl present also. El
more introduced her as Miss Mil
dred Mercer, manager of the
nursery.
Elmore, a resident of Wilming
ton, is no stranger to Bolivia,
having come here in 1934, when
he opened an auto agency. In
1944 Elmore took in a partner,
J. Foster Mintz, a local man. The
business prospered, but Elmore
found time for flowers, something
he had always loved.
“It started as a hobby,” he ex
plained. “At first I planted a few
camellias and azaleas to root in
the yard of my Wilmington home.
I scratched up a few feet of earth
alongside my garage. But the dirt
was hard from packing, or some
thing, and after a while I came
down here and bought this bit of
good earth.”
The bit of good earth is located
down a long dirt street as far as
one can travel for the woods.
According to Elmore, “Brunswick
has both the sorriest and the best
growing-land in the world.” It
was obvious enough that the
nursery lies upon some of the
latter.
The geese, said the nurseryman,
keep down the grasses. The pig
eons are but another hobby.
From a hobby, Elmore Nurse
ries developed into a paying busi
ness. On the very day of my visit
an Elmore truck had left for the
Jersey coast, bearing a big ship
ment of azaleas. Elmore Nursery
ships frequently to Asheville, and
last year 100,000 azaleas were
grown here, plus 2,000 camellias.
Had Bolivia ever boasted a
large industry? Mercer Cox, son
of the town’s first postmaster,
says it did.
He was born at Bolivia in 1883.
Now retired, he lives in a white
bungalow with his wife. In a
two-story white home within call
ing distance lives their daughter.
“In 1910 the Waccamaw Shin
gle Company came to Bolivia,”
recalled the octogenarian. “They
came here from Bolton in Co
lumbus County and located about
a quarter-mile west of Highway
17. Remained in business about
ten years. They employed about
one-hundred men—as many people
as were in all Bolivia at the
time.”
Mercer Cox ought to know. He
worked for the shingle-makers
for about 18 months himself. At
first he ran a locomotive hauling
logs; later as woods-boss.
“They turned out an honest
product,” said Cox. “A lot of
their shingles still cover roofs in
this area. They used nothing but
cedar. And they had some skilled
men, too.”
It wasn’t all boon and blessing,
however. Mercer Cox attested for
that fact in the following infor
mation :
“Up till the coming of the shin
gle company we had no need in
Bolivia for either a policeman or
a jail. But we soon got one of
each. The boys were rough, some
of them, and Saturday nights
were inclined to be a bit on the
boisterous side. Still, in all my
days in Bolivia I can recall no
serious trouble. No murders,
lynchings or rapines.”
After the shingle mill pulled
stakes the Bolivia Lumber Com
pany operated a big sawmill. J. D.
Johnson owned that outfit, which
also worked about 100 men at its
peak of operation. Johnson leased
the business to Felton Garner of
Greensboro, in order that he,
Johnson, might open a motel and
restaurant. That motel, called,
like the restaurant, the “Green
and White”, happens to be the
very first motel opened in Bruns
wick County. Johnson and his
wife still operate the combined
business, but the Bolivia Lumber
Company is no more. It was clos
ed down about ten years ago,
leaving Bolivia without an in
Waterfront
It may seem a little rediculous
to read about swimming on a day
when the temperature dipped into
the mid-twenties here, but a cou
ple of contacts we have had this
week with young couples that
have moved into the community
turned our thinking to this sport,
even though it is definitely out of
season.
—
We were talking last night to
Hal Reeves, who has moved with
his wife and young daughter into
one of the new brick homes at
Boiling Spring Lakes, an dfound
that during his undergraduate
days at Georgia Tech he was a
member of the varsity swimming
team. In fact, he was a member
of the free-style relay team which
won the Southeastern Conference
400-yard championship one sea
son; and at the end of his junior
year was elected captain of the
dustrial payroll of any kind.
J. D. Johnson, the same man
mentioned above, remembers well
the opening of the Bolivia School.
Although he was living in South
port during the building of the
consolidated house of learning,
his daughter taught classes that
first year of operation. Johnson
wasn’t sure whether it was 1927
or 1928, although he inclines to
ward the earlier date.
Only recently Bolivia has ac
quired its first fire department,
details of which appeared in the
pages of this newspaper. And only
recently has the town adopted a
formal government, complete with
mayor and town board. This is the
second time around for municipal
government in Bolivia. An highly
placed citizen of Bolivia, who
prefers to remain anonymous, had
this to say about politics on a
local scale:
“There are two viewpoints here.
Should Bolivia remain a country
community or should it bend
every effort toward being a town.
That is the big question. And
that is why our first town gov
ernment fell by the wayside.’’
A WANT-AD
e2idit!
swimming team. “I love swim
ming,” he confessed; “and just
look where I ended up. With all
these lakes here, it couldn’t be
Charles Blake, his wife Katie,
and their son have moved to
Southport following his gradua
tion at UNC at the end of the
winter semester. This Southport
boy did not go out for the swim
ming team while a student at
Carolina, but when he was a
cadet at Georgia Military Aca
demy he was a member of the
swimming team, as a diver, no
less. One year he competed in
the Regional Championship at
Chapel Hill and his whole family
went up to watch him perform.
An then there’s Hoyle Dosher,
now skipper of the Idle On IV,
who was a member of the var
sity swimming team when he was
in school at Carolina.
With three former college per
formers living here now, it would
seem that the coming season
would be a likely time to focus
interest on the wonderful sport
of swimming. It has much to rec
ommend it: It is good exercise,
it is a sport which can be enjoyed
by young and old; and Brunswick
county affords access to an ocean,
countless lakes, rivers and sounds
where swimming may be enjoyed.
There will even be a new facili
ty, come summer, for Clarence
Murphy already has dog the hole
and has let a contract for the
installation of a freshwater pool
at his oceanfront motel at Yau
pon Beach. He says that another
motel owner is seriously consider
ing putting in a pool before sum
mer.
Here in Southport workmen
have completed the task this week
of unveiling the basement of the
old Miller Hotel. It is a 30X80-ft
hole in the ground that is 10-feet
deep and walled in with poured
concrete. Naturally there has been
some speculation as to what will
be done at this site, and there
has been a lot of free advice of
fered. It is noteworthy that far
in the lead in this latter category
is the suggestion that a public
swimming pool be added as a
local tourist attraction on our
waterfront.
FROSTY MORN
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