A Brief History of the Nashville - Charlotte Turnpike

A Brief History of the Nashville - Charlotte Turnpike

In 1804, James Robertson cut the path of what would later be known as the Nashville - Charlotte Turnpike, often referred to as the Charlotte Road or Charlotte Pike.  Robertson owned several iron furnaces in the area, including several in Dickson County near the town of Charlotte, which was founded in 1803, the same year Dickson County was established.  Charlotte was named after Robertson's wife.

Two years after Robertson had cut the path, one of the earliest mentions of the road comes from The Nashville Impartial Review, dated July 12th, 1806, announcing various mail routes in Middle Tennessee, in this case the opening of a route between Nashville and Charlotte. Stages would "leave Nashville every Friday at 6 A.M., and arrive in Charlotte by noon." It took 6 hours to travel the 40 miles or so of the road at that time.

The next mention of the road being used as a thoroughfare for business or trade comes from an advertisement in The Arkansas Gazette of February 2nd, 1830. The ad itself is dated December 12, 1829, and announces the start of a stage line between Nashville and Memphis, with operations beginning in January 1830. The stage coaches would operate 3 days a week, with a one way trip between the two cities taking three and a half days (not taking into account broken axles, muddy roads, and other obstacles) It boasts "four horse Coaches, fitted up in superior style" for the passengers. (see photo below)

The Nashville - Charlotte Turnpike Company had been chartered sometime around 1829, and when this ad ran, the Company was owned by Jetton, Walker & Co.

By the 1840s, at least 2 tollgates had been established on the Turnpike. The first was located 6 miles or so from Nashville on top of the first of several ridges known as Sullivan's ridge. Samuel Adkisson, the engineer who had built the tunnel at the Narrows in 1818, operated the 2nd tollgate located near his home on Dog Creek. This would have been located near modern day Dog Creek Cemetery.

With the advent and rapid construction of railroads by the 1850s, the use for turnpikes in Middle Tennessee waned, and the use of stage coaches as a means of transportation became an inconvenience. The Nashville & Northwestern Railroad had been completed from Nashville to Kingston Springs by the beginning of the Civil War, and on to Dickson in 1863. The trip from Dickson to Nashville took only 3 hours or so by train, compared to the 6 hours it took by stage.

From the late 1860's up until the turn of the century, those still making the journey along the road could stop for a rest or an overnight stay at Nichol's Inn, operated by Lydia Nichols, whose husband was killed fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The large orchard that surrounded the Inn was famous for its apples and pears. The structure still stands to this day on Old Charlotte pike, one mile from the first climb up Sullivan's Ridge.

The entire length of the road was still traversable as late as the 1920s, but with the construction of the Memphis -Bristol highway, sections were cut off or closed, an example being the section that had ran along Dog Creek Road.

Sources:

1. "West Nashville, Its People and Environs" by Sarah Foster Kelly, 1988

2. The Economic & Social Beginnings of Tennessee" by Albert C Holt, page 303

3. The Arkansas Gazette, February 2, 1830

4. The Daily Republican Banner (Nashville) February 6, 1830

5. Early North Carolina & Tennessee Land Records, ancestry.com

Pegram Elementary

The history of Pegram Elementary School dates back to at least the 1890's, though it is very likely that a school of some kind had been established much earlier than that, perhaps as early as the mid 1800's. In the July 14th, 1896 edition of The Tennessean, it was noted that a Professor John Smith was to teach the summer session which began on that day. In the same article, the school is referred to as simply "Pegram School".
The first classes were held in a large room in the back of a house that was located near the corner of Riverview Drive and Thompson Rd, or across from modern day Pegram City Park. (see photo below) The second school, built in 1911, was located near the intersection of Thompson Rd. and Beech Hill Rd. This building was later torn down after the third school was built at the top of the first hill on Thompson Rd around 1930-31.
The following paragraphs on the history of the current Pegram Elementary School come from the book "Some Middle Tennessee Pegrams and Their Ancestors" by Dorothy Pegram Roland.
The Fourth Pegram Elementary School:
"This school was called the "Old Belvedere School". After the old Belvedere night club on Highway 70 was abandoned, the county paid the owners of the property fifteen hundred dollars for it, to use for an elementary school. The people of the community raised part of the money to purchase the property.° The present Pegram Elementary School is located on this same land. This building was about one hundred feet long and fifty feet wide. When it was used as a club, it consisted of a large "dance hall", gambling room, kitchen, a long hall, office, and two rest rooms. According to former students the night club had used a warning system, to alert it's owners of an impending raid. The first person who became aware that the law was approaching, would drop a nail in a hole in the floor of the rooms, this activated a bell to the gambling room.° The school used the dance hall area for grades 4-8, and the smaller gambling room for grades 1-3. The cafeteria was located behind the stage, which was at one end of the dance hall. The two rest rooms were at the opposite end of the building. A coal stove was used for heat.
The first Parent Teachers Association Meeting at Pegram was held December 15, 1948, at the home of Noel and Pearl (Stuart) March, on Thompson Road. (See photo of officers elected below) Around 1950, while Mr. Jack Nicholson was Superintendent of Schools for Cheatham County, the county built a new school at Kingston Springs, and at the same time added on to one of the rooms of this school at Pegram, built one new room, and remodeled the rest rooms. The school now had a library.
In 1952, two years after the school had been remodeled, fire dostroyed it. Minnie Mai (Clark) Greer, one of the cooks at the school at the time, when asked (tongue in cheek) by this writer if the cooks started the fire, laughingly declared that they did not. It had started in a closet, which was used by them for a pantry. Minnie Mai opened the door to get supplies out and discovered the blaze, already in progress. It very quickly spread, burning the hairnet off of the head of Mrs. Grace James, one of the teachers. The students barely escaped. Mr. George Hickey was the other teacher at the time, and there were fifty-three students enrolled.
After this school burned the Pegram students were bussed to Kingston Springs to the school there, until a new school was built and opened in Pegram in 1963. The school at Kingston had the first through the ninth grades. For many years, all students who graduated from this school had been bussed to Bellevue High School, in Davidson County, to graduate. Their tuition was paid to that county by Cheatham County. This writer's oldest son was in the first class to graduate from the new Pegram Elementary School. Miss Carrie Street was appointed principal of the new school at Pegram. She had been principal at the school at Kingston Springs for many years, and was an outstanding educator, loved by students and parents alike. She ran her school like a big home, but was a firm, no nonsense individual.

Both schools were immaculately kept when she was principal. She put the students to work to help keep it that way. She took pride in the way the school looked and instilled this in her students. (more about Miss Carrie below)
Some of the teachers who taught at the old Belvedere School were: Rose Emma Justice (Cooper); Helen Robinson (Greer); Mary B. Clifton; Mabel Miller, (mother of Warren Miller), Leura Henry; Lillian Grimes; William Walker; Grace Frazer, (mother of Joe Frazer, husband of Martha Frazer, who was the principal at PES from 1968-1993 (see paragraph below), Grace James; George Hickey; Hattie Reeder; and Annie Anderson. William Walker and Ethel Thompson were principals here.
Some of the cooks here: Lillian (Judd) Marsh; Jeanette Hamilton; Maudie Rust; Susie Knight; Louise Palmore; and Minnie Mai Greer."
Pegram Elementary School Principals
"Miss Carrie" Elizabeth Street
"Miss Carrie" was born November 22, 1908, in Cheatham County, Tennessee, near the "Narrows of the Harpeth". She was the daughter of D.W. Street and Lula (Pack) Street, and attended elementary school at Cedar Hill School. At about the age of fourteen, she moved with her parents, to White Bluff, in Dickson County, Tennessee, and attended William James High School. After graduating, she earned a B.S. Degree in Social Science, at Middle Tennessee State University, at Murfreesboro, where she was an English major in elementary education.
Carrie began her teaching career in 1926, at the age of nineteen, at the Harpeth Valley School, in Dickson County. She then moved back to Cheatham County, and taught school at Dog Creek Elementary. (this school house, torn down a few years ago, was located on Dog Creek Rd. behind Foggy Bottom) Next she taught at Chapmansboro, and then later, at Kingston Springs, where she became principal. When the new elementary school was built at Pegram, she was appointed it's principal, where she remained until her retirement. Miss Carrie never married but raised her two nephews, Homer. and Woodrow Dodson, and was like a mother to them. She died April 5, 1984, and is buried in the Scott Cemetery, on Dog Creek. (Cedar Hill Rd.)
Dr. Martha Frazer, principal 1968-1993
Martha Louise Johnson, born November 15, 1932, was the daughter of William Wade and Gertrude Guthrie Johnson of the Pond Creek community, Cheatham County. Pegram Elementary School principal Miss Carrie Street asked Martha to substitute teach at Pegram. She began teaching full time the following year, and became principal one year later. Despite being diagnosed with metatistic cancer in 1970, she continued her career as an educator in Cheatham County. In 1993, she retired after 25 years at at Pegram Elementary. She passed away in 1998, after her 27 year battle with cancer.