The late Roy Thompson, the Winston-Salem Journal’s legendary columnist, wrote quite a few very funny pieces about the Ponder Boys of Madison County over the years. When Zeno Ponder went into politics there in 1950, the Republicans had held a 2/3 majority in voter registration since Civil War times. Zeno and his cohorts scoured the county, visiting places that no roads went to, and a few cemeteries as well, it is said. When they were done, the numbers were reversed.

But that didn’t make things easy right away. When Zeno’s brother E.Y. won his first race for sheriff, the Republican incumbent refused to surrender the office. He set up a machine gun and dared the Ponders to storm the courthouse.

You can read a terrific piece about Zeno by another Winston-Salem writer, Hunter James, at http://www.grassyforkdays.com/ponder.htm

Or you can hear Zeno in his own words, or read transcripts of interviews by the Southern Oral History Program at http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/A-0326/menu.html