|
James Len Pegram |
|
|
The story of James Len Pegram has intrigued me for sometime but I have been reluctant to post it since it seems so sad. However, the past few years have demonstrated the power of the internet to reach people that we would otherwise have no hopes of finding so we have decided to post the story of James Len Pegram in the event there may be descendants who are searching for their roots. I would truly consider it a miracle if we could determine what happened to Lilian Mary Pegram. Len was born May 1, 1878, in Humphreys County, Tennessee. At the age of sixteen he joined the United States Navy. He was discharged ca 1906, at the age of twenty-eight, after serving twelve years. He married a Native American Indian girl named Jeanetta, in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. It is believed that they married ca 1903, before his discharge. They moved to Humphreys County, where he bought a house and some land in Morgan Hollow. The parents of the late country music star, George Morgan, lived there, and the place was named for them. It is said that another country music star, Loretta Lynn, later acquired the property. Len and Jeanetta had a daughter, Lilian Mary, born around 1904. After his discharge, Len went to work for the railroad. Jeanetta left him and their little girl, who was about four years old. It is believed that she went back to Shelby County to her tribe. After she left, Len enlisted the help of a neighbor family to keep the child for him, while he went out on runs for the railroad. According to family tradition, the neighborhood family grew very fond of of Lilian Mary, and moved away taking her with them. Neither Len, nor any of his family, ever heard from his little daughter, his wife, or the former neighbors again. The Pegram family believed that the child eventually was returned to her mother. On December 4, 1908, at the age of thirty, Len was scalded to death in a railroad explosion. The accident occurred on his first trip as engineer, after being promoted from fireman. He is buried in the Turner-Johnson Cemetery, in Waverly, Humphreys County. The inscription on his tombstone reads: "Passed through the golden gate into the beautiful shiny land." After Len's death, his father, Benjamin Petus, was made guardian of the Estate of Lilian Mary indicating there may have been benefits due to her as a result of her father's death. However, there is no indication she or her mother were ever located. |
|
