Leonard “Len” Chapel of North Wilkesboro pauses for a photo with a gravestone he and other descendants placed for John Daniel and Anna Maria “Mary” Hoppers in Whitehead.

‘Fender Blenders’ to publish genealogy

A number of Alleghany families will be able to further trace their lineage with a book that is anticipated to be published in September, according to Christian Fender (also Finter) decedent Leonard “Len” Chapel of North Wilkesboro.

Chapel noted that a number of people in the county are related, tracing their families’ beginnings to Christian Fender. One individual is Carolyn Spencer, who according to Chapel was the person “in charge” of the overall culmination of the book.

“She and I are cousins about umpteen different ways,” Chapel said. “She descended from the Crouses, Killens, Moxleys and the Fenders.” During the course of the research, Chapel and others learned that Christian Fender had several children. Their names are Silas, Gabriel, Nimrod, Anna Maria (also known as Mary), Michael, Henry S., John, Sara (also known as Sally) and Catherine Fender. Christian Fender’s son in turn had a lot of children and they in turn had a lot of children, according to Chapel.

“If you take Nimrod Fender and all the kids he had — and he had a bunch and his children had a bunch,” Chapel said. Commenting that the Germans intermarried, this caused the Hoppers (also Hoppas and Hoppus), Crouses, Wagoners (also Wagners and Waggoners) and Fenders to be related. Members of Spurlin, Choate, Moxley, Gentry, Carpenter, Toliver and Edwards families married in, according to Chapel.

The Killen family became related in 1846, when 15-year-old Frances Louisa Killen gave birth to John, the son of 31-year-old Allen Fender. “I searched high and low to find out who my grandfather’s great grandfather was,” Chapel recalls. “My grandfather was told not to marry any Fenders because he was related, so he married Verna Moxley. They are third cousins.”

Nimrod Fender was the only son of Christian Fender to live in Alleghany. Nimrod’s daughter, Anna Maria, spent her entire life here.

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