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Wilkes

June 14, 2023

Robert “Bee Bob” Bauguess

In 1896, The Elkin Times reported that Traphill apiarist Robert Bauguess had 94 bee stands and over 10,000 pounds of honey onhand. At 73 years old, he had been in the bee business for 19 years and was managing five different types of bees. He was certainly deserving of his nickname “Bee Bob”!

Robert Jackson “Bee Bob” Bauguess, c1900.

Robert Jackson Bauguess was born in 1823, the son of Robert Bauguess and Mary Sparks. He was perhaps the 12^th out of 13 children. While he was a teenager living with his parents and siblings in Traphill, the Eng and Chang Bunker, the Siamese Twins, showed up at their doorstep asking to rent a room in his father's house. They lived there several months before building their own home nearby. The twins had traveled the world as performers for more than 15 years. Imagine the stories that young Robert heard them tell about their adventures as they sat by the fireplace before retiring for the evening!

In 1855, Robert was a witness in a court case where his father was fighting to keep his land. I wrote about that case a few months ago.

Just after the Civil War, his younger brother Lewis went west, leaving his wife and six children behind. No one ever heard from Lewis again. Robert and his wife Nancy took in and raised several of his brother's children.

Later in life, Robert took up beekeeping. Based on newspaper articles, he began this chapter of his life about 1877 when he was 54 years old. He was known throughout Wilkes, Surry, and Alleghany Counties for his high-quality pure white sourwood honey.

In 1893, The Chronicle newspaper printed an article about saying that Robert had traveled to Elkin to secure barrels for storing his latest crop of honey which he planned to sell for 12.5 cents per pound. The price has gone up a little since those days!

The Chronicle, June 29, 1893.

In 1895, The Elkin Times reported that “Uncle Bob Bauguss, the Wilkes bee king, stored several thousand pounds of his excellent honey in Elkin.”

The Elkin Times, April 11, 1895.

In 1896, The Elkin Times published an extended article about the status of Robert’s bee operation. In the recent harvest, he collected 353 gallons of honey in 17 days. At ten pounds per gallon, that’s 3,530 pounds of honey! The newspaper reported that he sells about $200 worth of queen bees every year. That’s over $7,000 in today’s dollars.

The Elkin Times, September 10, 1896.

In 1902, The Chronicle reported on a discovery by John Vance Bauguess who, perhaps not coincidentally, was the nephew of Bee Bob. J. V. Bauguess lived in Rock Creek, not too far from where the airport is today. He found a “bee tree” in an old log with honeycomb up to six feet long! His uncle must have been excited to hear about that discovery!

The Chronicle, July 23, 1902.

Robert Bauguess died in 1914 at the age of 91. He was buried at Old Roaring River Baptist Church in Traphill. I descend from his grandfather Richard Bauguess.

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