During the Civil War, Eleanor Stewart and her son Charles lived on this site at the Stewart Farm as Union loyalists in an area dominated by Southern supporters, and their neighbors called them “Yankees.” Proud of their beliefs, the Stewarts raised a Union flag over their house at the beginning of the war. Federal troops used the house as a field hospital and encamped nearby, and during the Battle of Ox Hill on September 1, 1862, Confederate troops established lines of battle on a portion of the Stewart property on the opposite side of the road. As settlement in the Ox Hill area expanded onto smaller lots, especially near the intersection of present-day West Ox Road and Route 50, a new post office became necessary. In 1890, a post office was established in Wilby J. French’s store and named Pender. The community also had a blacksmith shop near French’s store, operated by Berkley Kidwell, who had purchased the lot in 1883. In 1907, the Methodist Episcopal Church of Pender began holding services in its newly constructed church.