ADMIN GENERAL 1925-1927 Correspondence - Creech Cabin

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 06: ADMIN GENERAL
Letters to/from Co-directors Pettit and Zande
Concerning Creech Cabin, Fundraising,
Letters of Recommendation
1925-1927

GOVERNANCE BOT 1925-1926 Correspondence - Creech Cabin

[Laurel House I with Creech Cabin] in foreground. Bassett Album, c. 1928-29.[pmss_bas045.jpg]

TAGS: Director’s general correspondence 1925-1927, Katherine Pettit, Ethel de Long Zande, Creech Cabin, Aunt Sal’s Cabin, American Red Cross, fundraising, Big Laurel Settlement, letters of recommendation

ADMIN 1925-1927 Correspondence – Creech Cabin

The following are summaries and images of letters which PMSS Co-directors Katherine Pettit and Ethel de Long Zande wrote to various contacts and friends in 1925 through 1927. Two fundraising letters (004-005) refer to the School’s plans to move Creech Cabin (Aunt Sal’s Cabin) to PMSS campus and its restoration. Some of the correspondence concerns letters of recommendation. Colorful anecdotes and personal accounts in these letters reveal glimpses into the co-directors’ lives.

SUMMARIES

[Note: Letters from PMSS staff in the PMSS Collections are carbon copies, typewritten, unsigned, and meant for the Office files. The original signed documents were sent to the correspondents. Letters from others are typewritten originals unless specified otherwise. The following list of contents is in chronological order and not necessarily in the order of the image numbers.

The following may not be a complete listing of letters for this time period. This page will be updated with additional material as it is found and processed.]

1925

001 March 28, 1925. To Miss [Katherine] Pettit from J. Arthur Jeffers, Assistant to the Vice Chairman, on letterhead for The American Red Cross, National Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Pettit is asked for a statement of reference for Miss Elizabeth Gibson Smith, who applied “for a position as Executive Secretary in one of our Red Cross Chapters. Miss Smith has manifested an interest in rural or urban work and will, therefore, be considered for a Chapter in a rural territory.”

002 March 31, 1925. To Jeffers from KP {Pettit], recommending Miss Smith “most highly. She is a young woman of remarkably high culture, good training, executive ability, humor and pleasing personality…”

1926

004 April 3, 1926. To Mrs. Eve Newman Gilmoure, Wilmington, CA, from [unsigned], explaining that the School needs about $250 to restore the Creech Cabin, given to the School by William Creech’s children and his wife, Aunt Sal, “to be restored as a little memorial to them and as a link with the past history of this part of the country.” The writer explains why the Creech’s children decided to relocate the Cabin to the PMSS campus. The writer then describes the plans that PMSS staff have for the Cabin and repairs that are needed. Creech’s three sons (Bill, Henry, and Columbus) “will do the work of moving and setting up the house.” The writer suggests that Gilmore help with funding other expenses.

005 June 1. 1926. To Gilmoure from EZ [Ethel de Long Zande], thanking her for the two dollars to restore the Cabin. The donors will be listed in the Cabin. She tells an anecdote concerning Miss [Evelyn K.] Wells and her dulcimer.

006 August 12, 1926. To Charles F. Nesbitt, Greenville, SC, from [last line(s) are truncated], updating him on “Big Laurel” [Big Laurel Medical Settlement]. The writer tells of the burning of the playhouse last year which was replaced by a new building, which she describes such as, a plan for a Little Laurel school this year, and who will manage it; changes brought about by logging; Miss [Anna] Brockschlager is housekeeper this year; radium treatments for Aunt Judy and Uncle John Lewis; increase in the number of school children; return of Elsie Turner to Berea College. The writer then asks how Nesbit is “getting on with…college work and when you and Miss Lewis are…to be married.”

007-007a November 9, 1926. Two-page letter to Dr. Abby Noyes Little, Laconia, NH, from EZ [Zande], who updates her on her family and recuperation from surgery. She appreciates Little’s support of the School’s growth; admires the author and the autobiography, The Life of Osler; and thanks Little for the gifts to herself and her children. Zande mentions Miss Dodge, a visitor to the School.

003 November 24, 1925. To Zande from H. Adele Howe, Manager, on letterhead for “Employers and Executives Exchange” in Boston, MA, requesting reference information for Miss Mary Angela Melville, Boston, MA. Howe asks for her business experience, why she is changing jobs, what she earned, and how she “gets along with her associates.”

1927

008 February 28, 1927. To Virginia (Mrs. Albert Kelly), Cleveland, OH from EZ [Zande], who tells Kelly of the gift to Berto of St. Francis, a book from her mother. Mentions Josephine Preston Peabody; recommendations for Louise Ireland; and Zande’s plans to go to Johns Hopkins for a check-up. She regrets her delay in writing to Dr. Gardiner; and Allan Neilson’s death. She would like “some sweet yellow dimity for a dress for Elena…”; and has written to the Kettlewells.