Reminiscences of Peggy Dickinson Fleming, Granddaughter of Jacob McGavock Dickinson, Sr.

Editor's note: We thank the gracious Peggy Fleming for submitting the remembrances below. To find more about Nashville's Jacob McGavock Dickinson (1851-1928), type his name into Internet search engines such as "Google."

By Peggy Dickinson Fleming

Throughout my life I have been a very lucky person. I am thinking of the luck that brought me to be one of the grandchildren of Jacob McGavock Dickinson, Sr. Specifically, this meant that I was the heiress to all sorts of good things connected with him: namely, the many great names that brought about the cities of Nashville, Memphis, and other places in Tennessee. Perhaps I inherited a small portion of his greatness and love of life.

When I was born, my father, Captain Jacob McGavock Dickinson, Jr., was in the trenches in France, specifically in the Battle of Champagne in WWI. When he received the news of my arrival, he had the chaplain of his regiment christen me in absentia with a small vial of holy water that he had for the purpose, using his helmet for the basin. When the 42nd Rainbow Division was reactivated in 1943, he took his family with him to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of the reactivation. Upon hearing the news of my "activation" in the Rainbow, the General of the Regiment, Colonel Harry J. Collins, officially designated me "The Rainbow Girl." I have attended many reunions of the 42nd Division since that time, basking in the recognition and praise for "The Rainbow Girl."

After the death of my grandfather, my father and mother moved as a family back to Nashville. This was in the late 1920s. They purchased my father's ancestral home, Travellers Rest, where his mother, Martha Maxwell Overton, had been born and raised. Many happy years were spent at Travelers Rest as well as at Antrim in Columbia, where I moved after my marriage to Stuart Swope Fleming.

My life has indeed been a happy one, and I like to think that perhaps some of that happiness is due to my close association with and love of my grandfather, Jacob McGavock Dickinson, Sr.

Grandfather loved his family very much. He bought Belle Meade with the idea of having it as a place to entertain and as a retreat. When business called elsewhere, his eldest son, Overton, and family lived there. A very unfortunate tragedy occurred: both Overton and his wife died from complications incurred with influenza. Grandfather sold Belle Meade, and as far as I know never went there again. The two little girls were entrusted to the care of his sister-in-law. Grandfather was very attentive to their education and took them on many wonderful trips.

All of this occurred before I was born. Grandfather moved to Chicago where he had been counsel for the Illinois Central Railroad. He established law offices there; and my father, mother, and family moved to Chicago also. We lived in Winnetka, IL, where Grandfather was a most loving grandfather. He came out on the train on Sundays for lunch. He was always armed with Hershey chocolates that I, being of a saving nature, squirreled away in my closet. I remember sitting on his lap, and he would run his finger up my spine and admonish me to always hold my back straight.

Grandfather was very fond of my mother. She would sometimes have lunch with him, and he would order only the best. Once, this included raw oysters. Mother was dismayed, but gamely tried to eat them. She actually was cutting them up. Grandfather looked across the table and sternly admonished her to "Stop murdering those oysters!"

When Grandfather was Secretary of War under President Taft, who was a great friend of his, he was in great demand as a dinner guest. I don't think that Grandfather was particularly interested in these constant dinner parties. One persistent hostess kept after him, starting with an invitation for Monday night, which he declined. Upon progressing through the week, when she reached the weekend, Grandfather's reply was, "Dammit madam, I'll just come Monday!"

We would go into Chicago on occasion and have lunch with him in his apartment. The chairs for the dining table were upholstered in horsehair, a very scratchy material at best. It was a very dark green. He had an elegant bedroom set consisting of bed, armoire, dresser, and night stand. I am fortunate enough to have that now here in my house. When he was taken ill, he of course was propped up in that big bed. I can see him now.

After his death, we all traveled to Nashville on the train to accompany his body, which lay in state in the State Capitol.