Bapchor became a village with the amalgamation of three smaller villages in the year 1660 A.D. These villages were : Kosiak, Selishcha and Sveti-Tanas. Where Bapchor now stands, there used to be a Bachilo. The villagers gathered at the Bachilo and formed Bapchor. At first it consisted of sixty families. They built a big church, called St. George.

The first Reeve of the village was a good man called, Mencho. The villagers were very poor, they could not pay their taxes. Mencho the Reeve was a good hearted man. He paid the taxes to the tax collectors Bapchortsi, to show their appreciation composed a song for the good Reeve. The song went like this :

"Mencho, Mencho, our good-hearted Reeve,
You sold your beautiful horse to pay our taxes,
We shall remember you for ever and ever."

Bapchor was surrounded by the following villages : Lagen, Neret, Turje, Konomlaty, Precopana, and Visheni. All the above villages were inhabited by Macedonian Slavs. Zherveni only was made by force to change their nationality

by George Stoetes
Taken from the book "Macedonian Immigrants in Canada and their Background"

REVIEWS

• January 4, 2006
  Reviewed by: Thomas Lebamoff from Naperville, IL USA
  Bravo George. My Mothers Father George Tsiguloff was from Bapchur. I have many pictures of the village from my trip this Summer. We took pictures of the church and the name plate of all families living there prior to the bombing. Please send me your email and phone number I would like to talk to you to find out more. thank you. Tom