Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 02: GOVERNANCE – Board of Trustees
Executive Committee: Katherine Pettit and Ethel de Long
Report to the Board
July 9, 1913
“Dry Fork – 1948.” Cabin, haystacks, mountainside. [nace_II_album_024.jpg]
TAGS: Directors’ report to the Board, Katherine Pettit, Ethel de Long, gift mules from Mr. Durrett, Mr. McSwayne, Southern Industrial Educational Association, coal mining, donor of sawmill, gifts of farming implements from B.F. Avery and Company, Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company, fundraising, kindergarten, Solomon Dash Norcross Company, acquiring board members, “haint” story
GOVERNANCE 1913 de Long BOT Report July 9
TRANSCRIPTION
[The text has been slightly edited for clarity.]
Page 1
KATHERINE PETTIT and ETHEL de LONG REPORT TO THE BOARD
July 9, 1913
The month of June has held so many important events for the school that we are wondering how we can make this letter short enough for you to read.
Early in the month, our farmer came from Berea, bringing the pair of fine mules given to the school by Mr. Durrett of Woodford County, Kentucky. They are five and six-year-old mules strong and good-looking. And they save the school $1.75 a day. Mr. Durrett also included in his gift the harness and a pair of saddle pockets.
Mr. [Horace] McSwain is proving his worth every day. His intelligence in regard to the sawmill and lumber problems is most helpful and he is carrying the farm work on as rapidly as possible. We are interested to see how his farming methods arouse the neighbors. He is cutting our hay now, while the country people here leave theirs till late summer or September because they have thought the hay had to be dead before it was cut, not knowing how to cure it. He has explained the fact that hay must be cut while there is life in it, and his methods of curing. They have said, “Well, it stands to reason that you’re right. We never thought about that before.” We are glad to report that the Southern Industrial Educational Association has sent him money for half his salary and we will try to raise the rest of it before the year is out.
We have ordered a first-rate sawmill and planer and shall begin to saw the timber cut last winter, as soon as the mill comes. It was Miss Helen King Hall of Boston, who made possible this purchase, for she saw the necessity of our owning a mill for many years In a country absolutely unprovided with mills. We are also having one of the coal veins on the land opened so as to be ready for winter.
We have had to provide the school with many supplies that would not be needed in a less isolated community. A derrick, a forge, farm tools, [and] building tools are necessities without which we would [not] work. To no advantage, Miss Pettit, by letters to business firms, has gotten substantial reductions on many things as well as. Out and out gifts, notably a most generous supply of farming implements from B.F. Avery and Company of Louisville. The president of the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company, is offering us fencing.
You will be interested to know that the $8500 already given to this school has come from only 100 givers. We have had so little opportunity to present the work. We feel encouraged to believe that it can be supported even with an independent board, as a widening circle comes to know of it. The annual subscription cards so far pledge $191 toward next year’s expenses. We are concentrating our efforts now on getting money for the central settlement building and a good-sized dwelling house for which the stone should be cut this fall.
Page 2
The people are “awful well pleased” that an expert kindergartner, Miss Bishop from Cleveland, is to have a summer school for the little ones in the primaries. The masons have allowed us the use of the lodge room, and it has had the first scrubbing in its history this last week. Bertha, our 18-year-old helper, says, ” I aim to take some old Tin cans down for him to spit in and tell them they just got to use them. And clean ’em too.” She is now our most ardent reformer of the spitting habit, though, six weeks ago, she was as careless as every one else around here.
Last week, matters of great moment began when Mr. Norcross of the Solomon-Norcross Company, Engineers, Atlanta, Georgia, came to look over the land to advise us on water supply, sanitation, et cetera. He also is giving his services and we are most fortunate to have such an advisor. He cannot make definite plans for our reservoir or septic tanks until we have had a plat made of our boundaries, showing all springs, water courses, probable location of buildings, et cetera. We are trying now to get a good transit man from State University to do the work this summer.
We feel that Mr. Norcross would be a valuable person to have on our board. But we are a little uncertain as to the method by which new members should be invited to serve. Perhaps the executive committee overstepped its authority in inviting Dr. Campbell of Cincinnati to serve as a trustee, informing her, of course, that her name would have to be voted on in the January meeting. We would like now to ask Mr. Norcross, and we are considering two men, one in Boston, one in New York who, it seems, would be valuable members. May we ask them to allow us to present their names in January, after careful thought? We continue to want them, too. If we have acted too much on our own initiative in inviting Dr. Campbell, please excuse us and tell us what we ought to do in the case of these others.
Just a story in closing to show you the great faith people have in our nurse. The other night, Uncle William [Creech] nearly sent for Miss [Clara] Davis to cure a boy of the “haints.” Two boys had spent the forenoon drinking moonshine. They were going home late at night when they saw a haint [a haunted being], white-headed and in a long, white dress. She rose from beside the path and came toward them. One of them started home, way across Pine Mountain, and the other ran in great leaps, squealing at every step to Uncle William’s. They saw him coming in the moonlight. He fell across the porch and was senseless[?] all the rest of the night, so that everybody was mighty sorrowful over him. The boy who went home ran all the way across the mountain, never even stopping for a breath till he got clear to the top where he felt as if he might be safe for a moment.
We wish you could all come to see us now that the rhododendron is blooming. It is so wonderfully beautiful, but there will be beauty for you to see whenever you can come. The latch string is always out.
Faithfully yours.
[Unsigned copy, Ethel de Long]
See Also:
GOVERNANCE – Introduction
GOVERNANCE Guide
GOVERNANCE Directors Annual Reports to BOT Guide
ETHEL De LONG ZANDE Director – Biography
KATHERINE PETTIT Director – Biography
Return To:
ETHEL DE LONG ZANDE Writings and Publications
GOVERNANCE 1913 Directors Annual Reports to BOT
