Craven-Pegram Family

The children and grandchildren of Braxton Craven (1822-1882), first president of Trinity College in Randolph County, N.C., and his wife, Irene (Leach) Craven, are the principals in the Craven-Pegram Family Papers. The children of Braxton Craven most prominently represented are Sallie Kate (Kate) and Emma Lenora Craven, who married William Howell (W. H.) Pegram. The grandchildren primarily featured are those of Emma L. and W. H. Pegram, George Braxton, Annie McKinnie, Irene Craven, John Edward, and William Howell Pegram, Jr.

Kate Craven, who attended Greensboro College, returned to her family's home in Trinity, N.C. to live until 1928, when she moved to Durham. Kate lived with two of Emma and W. H. Pegram's children, Irene and John Edward (Edward or Ned) Pegram, until her death in 1945.

Emma L. Craven (d. 1904) and W. H. Pegram (d. 1928) married in 1875 and lived in Trinity, N.C. until 1892, when they moved to Durham, N.C. W. H. Pegram was a professor in Trinity College from 1873 to 1919 and professor emeritus from 1919 to 1928. He taught chemistry and for many years was secretary to the faculty.

Annie M. Craven (d. 1966) graduated from Trinity College and began teaching German and mathematics at Greensboro Female College in 1901. She was involved with the social and religious life on the campus and also taught Sunday school at the Greensboro jail for several years. During the 1920s, the N.C. Board of Charities and Public Welfare appointed her to the Guilford Board of Public Welfare. In 1938, she became a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. With only a brief interruption in her tenure at Greensboro Female College, after a fire in 1904, she retired from the College in 1948. After her retirement, she lived in Durham with her sister Irene and her brother John Edward.

William H. Pegram, Jr. worked in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas. In 1916 he married Rosalie Pitzlin of Houston, and they settled there.

John Edward Pegram (d. 1951) tried several different occupations including school principal, lawyer, businessman, and farmer.

Irene Craven Pegram (d. 1958) taught for several years at West Durham High School and in the Durham city school system into the 1920s. After a period of ill health, she retired to manage the Pegram family home. Irene and John Edward, both of whom never married, continued to live in the home.

George Braxton Pegram (1876-1958) graduated from Trinity College and served as a school administrator in Trinity and Roxboro, N.C. In the fall of 1899, he went to Columbia University where, during his fifty seven years of association with the school, he was a student, professor of physics, dean of graduate studies, vice-president, and adviser to the president. He was a pioneer in the field of atomic energy research, became one of the country's leading physicists. During the 1950s, he was an educational consultant at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies in Tennessee. He married Florence Bement in 1909, and they had two children William Braxton and John Bement Pegram. The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, 1970-1971 describes a collection of about 35,000 items of his professional and personal papers located at Columbia University.

The daughter-in-law of Braxton and Irene (Leach) Craven, Nannie (Bulla) Craven (d. 1937), married James Lucius Craven, a physician. He died in 1885 at the age of thirty-five, leaving her with five sons to rear. She supported herself and the children by teaching at Archdale and then at Trinity High School in Trinity, N.C.

From the guide to the Craven-Pegram Family Papers, 1785-1966, (Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library)