PEGRAMVILLE

This is from SOME PEGRAMS OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE written by Dorothy Pegram Rowland who has graciously given us permission to share her research with others.

Pegramville is on early maps, and is recorded on public records, at least as early as 1908. It is shown right next to the railroad, near Marrabone Creek, where William Mastin Pegram once owned land. It was apparently named for him. The place of birth of an infant, born October 6, 1908, was recorded as Pegramville, School District 1, Cheatham County, Tennessee. The name of the father was listed as Vernon Demonbreun.°

PEGRAM, TENNESSEE POST OFFICE HISTORY

Pegram's Station

From 1866 until 1882, the official name of the town located eighteen miles west of Nashville, that we now call Pegram, was Pegram's Station. The United States Postal Service records have the name spelled incorrectly as Peagram, up through the appointment of the present postmaster, Frank Woodrow Greer. How they came up with this spelling is a mystery, since none of the Pegrams who settled here, and gave the town their name, spelled it Peagram.

FIRST POSTMASTER

The first postmaster to serve here was Robert Pegram, appointed October 9, 1866. He was the son of Roger Pegram. The first post office was located in the general store of John Peter Pegram. Records show that  John Peter owned a store on Thompson Road then, near the foot of the hill, next to the railroad tracks. It is said that there was once a long, two storied frame building next to the tracks, about where the first house is now, on the right after you turn off of Highway 70. Morris Hannah, of Pegram, was born in the upstairs of this building, which was torn down in 1935.°

John Peter died, May 21, 1867, and on October 25, 1867, five years after his death, the post office at Pegram's Station was discontinued  and the town was without a post office. Robert had served only one year when it was closed.

After three years, it was reopened, on November 22, 1870, with the appointment of Zachary Taylor Pegram. Zachary was the second postmaster to be appointed to the town, and was a younger brother of Robert Pegram, who was the first. He is believed to have served out of the same general store, which now belonged to John James Pegram. It had been willed to him by his father, John Peter. Zachary served almost nine years.

On January 15, 1879, George W. (Washington) Pegram was appointed the town's third postmaster. He was a brother of Robert and Zachary, the first and second postmasters, making him the third Pegram brother in a row to be appointed to this office, in the same town. They were the sons of Roger Pegram. George is believed to have served from the same location, in the general store.

Below are excerpts from a letter Dorothy Pegram Rowland from Mary Lou (Linton) Beach, of Memphis, Tennessee, daughter of Minnie George (Pegram) Thompson Linton, the seventh postmaster of, what is now, the Town of Pegram. Minnie was the daughter of John James Pegram, and granddaughter of John Peter Pegram.

"I remember going over to Pegram, (we lived on what is now called the Anderson place), about 1 mile from the bldg. which was General Mdse. Grocery store, Pegram Post Office of which was operated by Cousin George W.Pegram, he was postmaster, ticket agent for the R.R. clerk for the general merchandise, it was one room frame bldg. and according to my age this must have been in year 1905 or 1906." 

Note: It was a little earlier, since George left office in April of 1904, after nearly twenty-five years service. On April 29, 1882,  near the end of his term of office, the town's name was officially changed. The apostrophe and the s were dropped from the name Pegram, and also the word Station. It was now Pegram, Tennessee.

Pegram, Tennessee

The first building in which the town's post office was housed separately, is said to have been a small, crudely built plank building, that resembled, an old smokehouse. When it was use, it stood about where the railroad caboose is now, in front of the old railroad depot, (now the Pegram Community Club building). After it was no longer used, it stood for many years on the property of Walter and Buelah Sawyer, next to the old railroad depot, and has since been torn down. George Washington Pegram is believed to have served the last part of his tenure of office from this building. This was the second location of the post office.

The second post office building is said to have belonged to Minnie George (Pegram) Thompson Linton, and to have been located about where the Pegram City Park, (George Farmer Park), is now. It had compartments in it to place the mail as it was sorted, which the first building apparently did not have.

On April 13, 1904, William C. Greer was appointed the fourth postmaster to serve the town. He was in office a little over a year. The fifth appointment went to Phillip H. (Henry) Mitchell on June 22, 1905. It is not certain what building Mr. Greet served in, but Mr. Mitchell is believed to have served from the second post office building, which was at the third location of the post office.

Again from Mary Lou Linton Beach:

"Mr. Mitchell was an elderly man. He had a bed in the P.O. to rest on, on bad weather nights he spent the night there, one a.m. his asst. P.M. couldn't get in, he had died in the night of a heart condition. Miss Hattie Jones was his assistant."

Mr. Mitchell died in office in 1908, after serving four years.

James E. Agee was appointed the sixth postmaster, July 10, 1909,and is thought to have served in the same building and location. "Newt" Clement, father of Phillip Clement, of Pegram, was mail carrier when Mr. Agee was postmaster. He delivered the mail on horseback, or by horse and buggy.°

Minnie G. (Pegram) Thompson was appointed the seventh postmaster for the town, December 6, 1910.° She served nearly four years. All who serve in this capacity, male or female, are officially called postmaster.° Minnie George was the daughter of John James Pegram. The next to be appointed to this office was Ethel P. (Pegram) Washington, daughter of George Washington Pegram, who was the town's third postmaster. She was the eighth person to hold this office in the town.

On March 4, 1920,  Minnie G. (Pegram) Thompson was again appointed postmaster of Pegram, and served nearly five years this time. Between 1920 and 1924, while she was still in office, she married William Linton, and served the rest of her tenure under the name of Minnie G. Linton. She served in the office a total of a little over seven years.

On December 5, 1924, Carrie P. (Pegram) Heath was appointed Pegram's postmaster, the ninth person to hold the office here. After her appointment, it is said that Minnie George (Pegram)° Linton had logs placed under her building that had been used as the post office, and a team of mules hitched to it, then it was drug across the railroad tracks and highway, to the property of Charlie Hale, (Virginia Pendergrass's father), on Hannah Ford Road, in Pegram, where it still stands. The Hale family used it for a chicken house.° Carrie was the daughter of Zachary Taylor Pegram, the town's second postmaster.

The next post office building, (See picture), is believed to have been in about the same location as the building that had belonged to Minnie George. While Carrie was in office the post office was moved to a fifth location, in the railroad depot. Carrie served here until her retirement in 1946, after over twenty-one years in office. She was living in her home, on what is now, Frances Lane, in Pegram.

At that time the depot was located nearer to the railroad tracks, than it is presently located. The Pegram Community Club purchased the building in 1956, for seventy-five dollars, and had it moved to the place where it now stands. The club still owns the building and continues to hold monthly meetings there. Various other community activities are held in it also.

Noel Edgar Marsh was appointed Pegram's tenth postmaster, April 1, 1946.  Edwin Sears carried the mail while Noel was postmaster.° Edwin's wife, Lucille (Kellam) Sears, substituted for him in the early days, and delivered the mail on horseback riding sidesaddle.° Later, Henry Greer and Silas Hutcherson, both now deceased, were his substitutes.

The railroad made four deliveries of mail bags to the town daily, in the early part of Noel's tenure as postmaster. Outgoing mail from the post office was put in a bag, then hung on a crane next to the tracks. One of the postal employees from the mail car of the train, would then snatch the bag off with a hook, while the train slowed down in passing through the town. George Washington and Charlie Woodard, both black men, had the job of getting this bag to, and onto the crane. They then picked up the bag of incoming mail that was thrown off of the moving train, and took it to the post office. The RPO (Railway Post Office), clerks hurriedly sorted the mail, and then threw it off at it's destination along the line. There was a great deal of pride among these clerks in seeing how fast they could get the job done. Sometime in the 1960s this practice stopped, and the mail began to be sent out, and picked up, by truck.

While Noel was still postmaster, the post office was moved to it's seventh location. It was now at the lower left end of the yellowstone building, at the corner cf Highway 70 and Hannah Ford Road, across the highway from the old depot. This building was built by Edwin Sears, and was leased from him by The United States Postal Service. Mr. Sears retired as mail carrier, and after serving eleven years as postmaster, Noel retired from the office, and took Mr. Sears place as mail carrier. Considering payment for mileage, the mail carrier earned more than the postmaster. Noel continued to carry the mail until his retirement.

Howard B. Payne was appointed the ninth postmaster of Pegram, May 15, 1957, and served five years in this sixth location of the post office. He was the second husband of France (Althauser) Robinson, for whom Frances Lane, of Pegram, was named.

Frank Woodrow Greer was appointed postmaster of Pegram, September 14, 1962, and served almost three years. He was the tenth postmaster to serve here. Mildred L. (Louise Marsh) Palmore was appointed the eleventh postmaster of Pegram, on July 9, 1965. The postoffice was still at the same location. Frank was again appointed postmaster of Pegram, on October 7, 1966. The post office was moved to larger quarters, in the other end of the same building. This was it's eighth location. In 1963, the United States Postmaster General ordered into use a Zip Code system, (Code Improvement Program), to expedite the movement of the country's mail. The Pegram Post Office was given the number 37143

The United States Postal Service leased it s present quarters from Billy Stevens, owner of the Harmony House print shop. This nice brick building, located in the shopping center of the town, became the ninth location, of the Pegram Post Office. Frank is still postmaster at this writing, and has served nearly twenty-five years. Present employees at the Pegram post office, in addition to Frank, are:

Asst. Postmaster, and Casual Clerk: Lorena (Greer) Anderson.
Mail Carrier: Margaret Anderson.
Substitute Mail Carrier: Grover Anderson.

Below is a list of postmasters who have served the Pegram, Tennessee area since the inception of the post office here, and their effective dates of appointment.

Name changed to Pegram