The Bonlee Post Office is a full service Postal Facility. It offers customers the expertise of a large Post Office while giving the friendly and courteous service of a small community Post Office

Hours of operation: Monday-Friday 8:00am-11:30am/1:00pm-4:30pm
Saturday 8:30am-11:45am.

Telephone: 919.837.5471

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History of Bonlee

My grandmother, Ina Dunlap Andrews, born in what became Bonlee in 1895, told the story of how Bonlee got it's name many many times. In fact, I have a recording of her recounting the story when she was in her 80s. My husband and I made a video of my dad, Ike Andrews, interviewing his mother about the history of the village and the Dunlap family.

Bonlee, she said, means "gentle (or lovely or good) breeze." It's a combination of two French words, bonne, meaning good (or gentle or lovely), as in the French bonjour, meaning good day. The "lee" comes from the French lea, meaning breeze or slight wind. She well remembered the excitement about the contest to name the town.

It may be in the video I have, but I don't remember the name of the man who proposed the name, "Bonlee." But I do know that it was the result of a contest when it was discovered that there was another incorporated town in N.C. named Causey. As that name was taken, it was necessary to come up with another one.

The Dunlap brothers, partners in the lumber and the grain mills businesses, initiated the contest. The prize was a free sack of their flour.

Through the 1950s and '60s, my grandmother made pillowcases, underwear, pajamas and aprons out of the flour sacks left over from the days when her father and uncle owned and operated the mill.

As she told it, the brothers John and Ike Dunlap together started the railroad the Bonlee and Western, to carry their lumber and flour to on to Sanford and eventually to Fayetteville.

My dad, grandson of Ike Dunlap, inherited the bell from the railroad from his grandfather. For many years the bell sat in my grandparents' garage - the house on the road directly across from the school and the ball field. When I was a child it was a huge treat to go out and ring the big bell. You could hear it all the way across the pasture to our Andrews cousins' house.

At some point my dad, no longer living in Chatham Co. himself, decided he wanted to insure that the bell would remain in Chatham for the years to come after his mother passed away (his dad had died years earlier).

So he gave the bell to his cousin, Tommy Emerson of Siler City, the son of John Dunlap, because Tommy was raising his family in Siler City on the old Emerson home place, and my dad knew Tommy would always live there.

Tommy and his wife Anna built a stand for the bell, and it is proudly displayed there. My dad loved going to visit both the Emersons' and the bell.

My grandmother, known around there as "Miss Ina" was a math teacher for many years and taught many of the the children in and around Bonlee. She was well educated for her time and interested in history, current events, the church (for years she was treasurer at Bonlee Baptist), all sports and everything Bonlee, as was my father.

She would be proud of your website about Bonlee, and in her behalf, I hope you will consider adding John Dunlap's brother, Ike Dunlap's name to your history of the railroad.

Thank you,

Alice Andrews Joyce
aliceajoyce@gmail.com
(919) 942-4704 (in Chapel Hill)