10/06/2026
We are so excited today! A wonderful article came out sharing the news that Pea Ridge Partnership received a grant to help recognize and preserve the history of Ponderville School and our community.
This moment means so much because this work did not begin with the grant.
Back in 2023, Pea Ridge Partnership had already begun searching for a vendor to purchase a historical marker to help recognize and preserve this history. We asked around, reached out to others, and searched for information about where these markers could be purchased, but it was difficult to find anyone who could point us in the right direction.
We kept searching.
Then something happened that we could not have planned.
The State of North Carolina reached out to Pea Ridge Partnership to assist with historical research in our community. Through that relationship, doors began to open, and we began working closely together to document the history of Pea Ridge and the people who have called this community home for generations.
It is a reminder that God’s timing is everything.
What began as a desire to simply recognize and preserve **our history—including our schools, churches, cemeteries, historic homes, families, land, and our living history—**grew into an opportunity for our community’s story to finally be researched, documented, and recognized on a much larger level.
One of the most surprising things we learned through this preservation work is that the history of our area of Pea Ridge had never been documented in the State archives, and very little of it had been documented here in Polk County.
That was difficult to understand because our families have been here for more than 100 years. For generations, our ancestors lived here, owned land here, raised families here, worshiped here, worked here, and educated their children here.
And what is even more surprising is that although Pea Ridge Road runs from one end to the other, only one portion of the road had been identified as the Pea Ridge community. That area even has its own Pea Ridge Community Center.
For many years, we believed our families and our section of Pea Ridge Road were included in that same recognized community.
But through our research and understanding of the records, we were not.
That was eye-opening.
How could families who had lived, owned land, built homes, attended school, worshiped, and created community along Pea Ridge for more than 100 years not have their own area clearly identified in the historical record?
Today, that has changed.
Through the research that has now been done, our area has its own identity in the historic survey records: the Ponderville Community of Pea Ridge.
We cannot express how exciting and meaningful that is.
We are not taking anything away from another part of Pea Ridge or its history. We are simply making sure that our part of the story is finally documented too.
The original Rosenwald-funded school was known as Coxe School. Our elders remember that name, but they also remember calling it Ponderville School.
And here is the beautiful part: the area could have been identified as the Coxe Community since Coxe was the original name of the Rosenwald school. But out of respect for the living history—for the people who actually attended the school and called it Ponderville—the surveyor identified our area as the Ponderville Community of Pea Ridge.
That means so much because it honors not only what was written on paper, but also what lived in the hearts and memories of the people.
And here is something that still makes us smile: when we ask our elders, “Why did you call it Ponderville?” nobody seems to know! 😂 They remember Coxe School, but somewhere along the way, the students and community gave it their own name.
What makes this history even more special is that we still have former students living today who can tell us what it was like to walk through those doors, sit in those classrooms, learn from their teachers, and grow up in this community.
Those stories are priceless.
We want to give a big thank you to everyone who has participated in the surveys and everyone who has trusted us enough to share your history, your memories, your photographs, and your family stories.
Because you shared them, those stories can now be preserved for generations to come.
You will live on through this history forever.
If you or your family still have history connected to Pea Ridge, Ponderville School, Coxe School, our churches, cemeteries, historic homes, land, families, or this community—and you are interested in sharing it—please reach out to Pea Ridge Partnership and let us know.
Your story matters, and there is still time to make sure it becomes part of the history we preserve.
We are grateful for every elder, graduate, descendant, family member, and community member who has helped keep this history alive.
And above everything, we are grateful to God for allowing Pea Ridge Partnership to be part of this work.
We were here.
Our ancestors were here.
Our families have been rooted here for more than 100 years.
They owned land.
They built families.
They created community.
They worshiped.
They educated their children.
And their stories matter.
This grant is about more than putting up a marker.
It is about preserving a legacy.
It is about honoring our ancestors.
It is about preserving our schools, churches, cemeteries, historic places, family stories, and the voices of the people who are still here to tell us what life was like.
And it is about making sure future generations know the history of the Ponderville Community of Pea Ridge.
What started in 2023 with a search for where to purchase a historical marker has become something so much bigger than we ever imagined.
Our history is finally being documented. Our community now has an identified place in the historical record. Our stories are being preserved. And God’s timing really is everything. ❤️
POLK COUNTY—Pea Ridge Partnership has received a grant from the Polk County Community Foundation to purchase historical markers recognizing the Ponderville area of Pea Ridge and the families, schools, and […]
