While Pegram’s history as a settlement goes back to about 1823 when it was built as a stagecoach station, today the old train station that replaced the former building still stands as a reminder of the city’s past as a rest stop for those traveling between Nashville and Charlotte, North Carolina. Recently celebrating 50 years as a city, it is now believed to be a rest stop for those visiting from the other side. In fact, there are those who think it is a cursed city.
The haunting was not brought about by some tragic act of madness or murder, as most are thought to be. This haunting has a very 20th-century vibe – straight out of the movies in fact.
It all began with the development of the Harpeth Haven subdivision along the Harpeth River in 1970. Previous to building the subdivision the area rarely saw flooding, to the point where the old Pegram Cemetery had almost been forgotten.
The subdivision was in fact built on the grounds of Pegram Cemetery and partly in Davidson County. And like in the movie “Poltergeist,” only some of the headstones and coffins were moved. So, part of the development was built on top of the dead, and the developers also sold soil and other materials from the graveyard as fill that was used in different places all over the city, and county. That’s when the weird things started to happen.
Weird things started happening in 1975, with the beginning of the flooding where it had never flooded before. Then, as part of the development, small homes were built on concrete slabs, and with monies made off the development, they built a new Town Hall for the city of Pegram. A Town Hall that ended up being plagued with all kinds of legal issues that mounted up to $500,000 in fees. The new sewer system, also built using development fees, has never worked quite right. Then there have been fires put out that start back up again as if by magic in water-sogged areas. And finally, a newly built grocery store burnt to the ground for no reason.
Problems with trains that go through the town near the development also occur. Frequently they get caught on the track on Highway 70, blocking the only entrance and exit to the Harpeth Haven subdivision.
Ever since the building of the subdivision, things have just been hard. Finally, Metro Nashville moved the county line so these were no longer their problem.
Then there is the bit about the coffin of Miss Carrie Pegram Heath, the first postmistress of the city. During the flood of 1975, her coffin appeared in the front yard of one Archie Greer, found casually leaning against a tree. They reburied it. During the flood of 2010, that coffin rose up once again. They have since put a fence around the grave to keep the coffin in its place.
According to nashvilleghosts.com, “One person who lived on the property states that there were still tombstones in the yards of some of the houses. From the years that the man lived there from 1980 until 1998, Carrie Heath’s headstone was in his yard. It was never removed. Another person who lived there stated that several tombstones were found along the river and that there were always weird things happening inside their house.”
Said one man who lived in the development, on the tennesseehauntedhouses.com website, “My wife and I were both in bed reading when we heard a voice from the other side of the bedroom door. It said “Well, you think you’ve got it bad.” We both heard the exact same voice, that sounded like a man in his thirties. There were no computers, cell phones, radios, TV or weather radio on… I searched the entire house, every room, every closet, every electronic device, and checked every door lock. Nothing was on and the locks were set. There was no reasonable explanation for the voice….”
Another story is of the night a young family moved into one of the homes. When the husband left to get the last load of items from their old house, the wife and two children had to lay in the hall and not move while the house shook as if there was an earthquake, but there was not one.
“They had just moved in,” according to Nashville ghosts.com, and there were no curtains on their windows, and at this time there were no cell phones, and their home phone had not been connected yet. This shaking occurred seven times. This family had no idea about the stories of the graveyard that they were living on.” During the nine years they lived in the home, this shaking happened several more times, and not just to their home.
On Hillbilly Horror Stories, host Jerry Paulley talks about how this is like the famous case of building homes on burial lands that took place just outside Houston, Texas. In that case, a subdivision was built on top of the graves of former slaves. It was discovered when one of the residents of the area went to build a pool and bodies were discovered while digging. This incident is the basis for the “Poltergeist” movie.
What a load of crock!