NOTES – 1938

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 17: PUBLICATIONS PMSS
NOTES 1938
October and Silver Jubilee Editions

NOTES – 1938

“Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School”
October and Silver Jubilee Editions

GALLERY: NOTES – 1938 October

When the ground was being cleared for [Pine Mountain School’s] first building, school was held in the upper story of the local store and post office.

NOTES – 1938 OCTOBER: commemoration, history, folk dances, running set, honorary committee, patrons, box holders, committee in charge of Jubilee, Katherine Pettit, Ethel de Long Zande, William Creech, Spelman linoleum cut, student print shop, English Folk Dance and Song Society of America

 TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 1938 October

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NOTES FROM THE
PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL

PINE MOUNTAIN * HARLAN COUNTY * KENTUCKY
Copyright, 1938, by Pine Mountain Settlement School

Volume XI     OCTOBER, 1938    Number 1

THIS YEAR MARKS PINE MOUNTAIN’S silver jubilee, twenty-five years of service to children and grown-ups in our niche of the Kentucky Mountains, and marks, too, the time to take a “backward look” as we go on to future service. Time has given bolder relief to the story of how Mrs. Ethel de Long Zande and Miss Katherine Pettit answered Uncle William‘s urgent plea to found a school where the young-uns might have “good and evil laid before them”. All friends of Pine Mountain cherish the memory of these two brave women who rode on horseback from Hindman to begin a school on the 136 acres which Uncle William had given, with a starting gift of 45c provided by a Bible class of mountain boys. We cherish, too, the memory of their courage as they struggled in a wilderness against disease and fire and many other hardships of the frontier to reclaim a people who knew so little of the world that one not far from here made claim that her “grandpappy” had accompanied Noah in the Ark because “she heard him give out that the north side of the Ark was mighty weatherbeaten”.

Crossing from the far side of Pine Mountain and looking down upon the School, tucked away in the narrow valley, it hardly seems possible that there could be such a place in such remoteness. It fairly blooms! Amid the green well-tended fields the white buildings gleam with promise. Its own uncut forest stands out on the mountain side in contrast to the woods about, preserving in the driest weather moisture for our fields below; and standing behind the Chapel are the stately, lovely poplars of the “perfect acre” planted nearly twenty years ago. The straightened creek, the well-drained fields that once were swamp, the ordered beauty everywhere hide all evidence of the gigantic task that faced the two women. Who would suspect that their first dwelling was an old shed from which they had, in the beginning, to remove the carcass of a dead calf?

Meanwhile, hundreds and hundreds of lives have been touched and within the confines of the School itself each year one hundred twenty young people find opportunity unequaled in this area. In keeping with Uncle William’s profound observation that “hit’s better for folks’ characters to larn’ em to do things with their hands” — they learn by doing. Each student shares in the responsibility of maintaining the school, and each day two hours of labor is given in good spirit. A recent guest said repeatedly” — Everyone is so busy and happy”.

Careful study is made of each student before entrance so that the opportunities of the school may be used to best advantage. For John perhaps, it seems best that he learn well only the elementary ways of keeping a good garden and not to stay at Pine…

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…Mountain too long. While for William it may be best that he plan to go to college. After careful guidance, it seems wise to help Jane go to a nurses’ training school, and equally as wise to give Alice only what she needs to be a good housewife and mother. Classroom work is as individualized as possible and there are no grades. Although a detailed and cumulative record is kept, neither marks nor credits are given, because working for them brings hypocrisy and superficiality. But students are taught to evaluate themselves. Re- ports to parents are written by the students themselves, supplemented only rarely by the staff.

Much time is given to the actual practice of habits of responsibility and inner discipline. A Citizenship Committee of students and staff members meets twice each week and all problems of citizenship are cleared there. Careful and frank discussion of the problems of living together, weighing values, compromising on issues, make valuable training for democracy. Practically every older student has some trust for which he is responsible to the Citizenship Committee. Much of the classroom time is given over to the study of local problems, both social and economic, and because no civics text book has been written for mountain boys and girls, we have written and printed our own.

Each year a new group has as its special task the operation of a student and staff owned Consumers’ Cooperative Store. Much of the group’s classroom work is related to the problems of buying wisely and making the most out of a little.

Pine Mountain does not take part in athletic contests with other schools, but rather, has a well-rounded and more normal program of recreation in which everyone takes a part. Here again the students share largely in planning what shall be done — and it is not an academic interest that prompts them to eat one meal each week of mush and milk that the swimming pool might be repaired.

Below is an excerpt from a talk given last spring by one of our sixteen-year-old-girls to her schoolmates. In fairness to her I cannot tell you of the contrast of her background with what she found at Pine Mountain. What she says, however, breathes promise and hope for the mountains.

“In the wide field of study we can take situations apart and see why they are thus and may study their solution. By our quiet services here in the Chapel we acquire a reverence for the church and religion which is lasting and which can be infectious. Along with this respect for religion comes an appreciation of the simple beauty of nature. By being surrounded by beauty here we invariably look for it elsewhere. After leaving here we wonder why other people cannot see things in the light we see them.

“Many people, having grown up to it and never learning any better, make light of the church and all it stands for. By our own conduct and attitude we could help young children, our brothers and sisters especially, to understand more about religion. We are able to see the beauty of worship. But children not used to it will not look for it. Our job is to show it to them.

“In mining camps there is little natural beauty left. Most of the landscape is marred by coal tipples and slate dumps. We see none of that in our life over here. Yet we are taught to take care of the trees and flowers left. We could begin in our own yard. For after all, when we go home the responsibility of our community lies on us as well as on others.”

Year by year from the very beginning, the school has sought added opportunity to extend and intensify its community work, and by its interest and supervision, provides inspiration and leadership for the five district elementary schools where young teachers cope alone not only with forty or fifty children, but with poverty and underprivilege. In these schools, Pine Mountain’s older students…

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…help by giving instruction in handicraft and recreation; and from time to time the teachers meet at Pine Mountain for discussion and guidance. Special health service, otherwise unobtainable, is given by our doctor and nurse. Fathers and mothers also are touched by the two extension centers, and the several visits made each week as our girls call in the homes up and down the creeks nearby. There they help care for the sick as well as do other useful things. Through the Pine Mountain Health Association many families are provided with medical care and hospitalization at a cost within the reach of the poorest, to be paid by work or produce. Since the first of this year eighteen babies have been born in our Infirmary, a number greater than for the previous six years combined and a fine tribute to the efforts of our girls who brought the mothers in and cared for them while they were here. This means much to a mother who lives in a small cabin far off in some lonely hollow where the demands on her day are heavy and strenuous. Besides rearing the children and cooking the meals she must help in the garden, carry wood and water and possibly look after a small flock of chickens and a cow. Ordinarily her baby would be born in the home where she would never be free from the cares to which she is daily accustomed. It is difficult to fully imagine what a revelation it is to the mother to be able to come to our Infirmary, to be relieved of her cares and worry and to be able to rest in clean surroundings. We feel a sense of pride in this, and especially since so much of it has been made possible by our own girls. And this summer Pine Mountain has provided a camp experience for fifty under-privileged youngsters for a month. During this time they learned to play and work together and lived a life unknown to them before.

Uncle William said  — “I don’ want hit to be a benefit just for this neighborhood, but for the whole State and Nation and for folks across the sea, if they can get any benefit out of hit” and we wish he could have been with us as last year at Pine Mountain, were brought together National and State leaders to discuss methods of helping rural youth through more guidance and more practical preparation for life.

One result of this institute is that we are now supervising an experiment with an itinerant home-economics teacher, who works with the elementary schools in our area, and which we hope will set a significant pattern for isolated areas all over America. By its own pioneering, Pine Mountain is playing a vital part in stimulating thought about the the area round about. Having assumed leadership in keeping alive the purpose and method of education in culture and folk-lore of the mountains, Pine Mountain is often invited to teach and demonstrate in this area. Even in far away England this summer we saw a demonstration, by young English people, of a folk dance seen and recorded for the first time at Pine Mountain nearly twenty years ago.

[Image] CABIN ON BIG LAUREL — A LINOLEUM CUT BY JOHN A. SPELMAN III

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Ethel de Long Zande wrote in 1915, “As you sojourn in the hills, the belief grows on you that our country’s wealth here is only half guessed; that this is a field for large constructive service; that schools such as ours do no less for the mountains than for America”.

In seeking to lift up the spirits of the people of the mountains, Pine Mountain not only assumes a share in helping to save for the Nation the best of rural life, that in itself is so valuable, but it is also well in the vanguard with those schools that are truly American in spirit, blazing new trails in working with individuals and providing well grounded social service and community leadership. No area in our Country has greater need, and no area so much to give.

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[Image] THE CHAPEL — A LINOLEUM CUT BY JOHN A. SPELMAN III

WE NEED

SHEETS FOR SINGLE BEDS
BED SPREADS
BLANKETS
BATH TOWELS — regulation size
DISH TOWELS and TOWELING
————o————

33 cents will feed one student for a
day. $10.00 will feed one student for
a month.

GALLERY: NOTES – 1938 Silver Jubilee Edition

Even in far away England this summer we saw a demonstration, by young English people, of a folk dance seen and recorded for the first time at Pine Mountain nearly twenty years ago.

NOTES – 1938 SILVER JUBILEE EDITION: Silver Jubilee 1913-1938, Hindman Settlement, religion, recreation, swimming pool, Pine Mountain Health Association, camp, athletics, Ethel de Long Zande, Katherine Pettit, Uncle William, May Gadd, John A. Spelman III, linoleum cuts

 TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 1938 Silver Jubilee Edition

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NOTES FROM THE
PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL

PINE MOUNTAIN * HARLAN COUNTY * KENTUCKY
Copyright, 1938, by Pine Mountain Settlement School, Inc.

1913 — SILVER JUBILEE EDITION — 1938

This Silver Jubilee program has been planned by friends of Pine Mountain to commemorate twenty-five years of service in the Kentucky Mountains. The proceeds will help make possible a new building to serve as a hospitality center for the school.

PINE MOUNTAIN Settlement School was founded twenty-five years ago by Miss Katherine Pettit and Mrs. Ethel DeLong Zande, at the urgent request of a group of citizens living at the headwaters of Greasy Creek on the north side of Pine Mountain in Harlan County. Chief among those who had urged them to come was Uncle William Creech, who made a generous gift of one hundred thirty-five acres of his land “to be used for school purposes as long as the Constitution of the United States stands.” Coming from Hindman Settlement School, in Knott County, Miss Pettit and Mrs. Zande, accompanied by two other women, journeyed on horseback across Pine Mountain and down into the valley to fulfill a promise made by Miss Pettit fourteen years previously, that she would return some day to build a school there.

While the ground was being cleared for the first building, school was held in the upper story of the local store and post office. Land had to be drained and supplies hauled over eighteen miles of rough mountain road.

Money had to be raised and there were numerous difficulties; but with the cooperation of neighbors, who did the work, and friends on the outside, who made gifts of money, the first building was completed. There was never enough room for those who wanted to come, so other buildings were added, all being constructed from material at hand by local and student labor.

Today Pine Mountain serves as a boarding school for over one hundred students of high school age, and through its community work touches the lives of hundreds of people in an intensely rural area. Its two extension centers serve in numerous neighborly ways; the Infirmary, with its staff of doctor and nurse, provides health service otherwise unobtainable; its corps of students, visiting homes and working in the elementary schools of the area, provides an invaluable help as they themselves are trained in ways of rendering service.

This program within the school itself emphasizes learning by doing and offers many opportunities for practical experience. Students pay an entrance fee of ten dollars and monthly tuition of seven dollars and fifty cents. Under supervision, they prepare the food, work the farm, do repairs and other chores, in return for room and board. Under a well organized guidance plan, each student follows an individualized program. No marks or credits are given. Students…

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…send their own reports to parents in the form of a letter [supplemented] by the school’s evaluation. The academic program has kept well in mind the needs and opportunities of the area, and in the classroom much time is given over to the study of local problems and possible solutions. Every opportunity is utilized for the practice of assuming responsibility in a democracy, and an evolving citizenship committee of students and staff members, which touches every vital part of the school’s life, provides experience and promotes cooperation.

From the beginning, Pine Mountain has given much attention to the folk lore of the Highlands and has consistently fostered, whenever possible both in and out of the school, the appreciation of this cultural heritage. Songs and folk dances are a natural and delightful part of the daily life; at the school the country dances and the running set are the popular recreation.

FOLK DANCES – ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
BY MAY GADD
National Director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society of America

The dances and folk songs of America and England have a common origin, although there are certain differences in development. The longways Country dance for any number of couples is found on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the square dance of the Quadrille type. England, in the seventeenth century, developed from a still earlier type, an enormous number of dances for groups of two, three, four, or more couples, with certain figures allied to certain tunes. These dances were popular with all classes of people until the middle of the nineteenth century, when the polka was introduced into the ballroom. America evolved variations of these figures for groups of not less than four couples in square or circular formation, and used a series of tunes for each set, or series of figures, varying them according to the will of the musician. Present day folk musicians in England also, are less rigid about connecting a particular tune with one dance only, than seems to have been the case in earlier times.

All folk dances have their origin in rituals designed to ensure the continuance of Life. When this belief was no longer held in England they continued to be danced for the pleasure they afforded the dancer. While the Country dance developed as a social dance to be performed by men and women together on any occasion for [gaiety], the Morris and Sword dances retained certain ceremonial characteristics, and, until quite recently, were seasonal dances for men only. The figure made by the woven swords, which is a part of every Sword dance is the symbol of death and resurrection. Although it does not seem that this more ceremonial type of the dance was brought to this country by the early settlers, many of the figures have been incorporated into the Square dances, and adaptations of the tunes are played by American folk musicians.

In the Pine Mountain region a particularly old and interesting form of the square dance has been developed and preserved. It has become known as the Running Set from the fact that the dancers say that they are going to run a set.

Pine Mountain School, and the English Folk Dance and Song Society of America, are both interested in preserving their common heritage of dance and song, and in making it known to the present generation. Just as Pine Mountain provides its students with opportunities for dancing and singing the English as well as the native variants, so the Society has introduced many people to the mountain songs, and the fun of dancing the Running Set.

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HONORARY COMMITTEE

REV. DONALD B. ALDRICH
MR. AND MRS HOWARD BROCKWAY
MRS. WALLER O. BULLOCK
ADMIRAL CHARLES S. BUTLER
MR. AND MRS. CHALMERS CLIFTON
DR. AND MRS. SLOANE COFFIN
MRS. J. P. CROMER
REV. AND MRS. HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK
MISS HELEN DE LONG
MR. ROBERT DUFFUS
MR. ALLEN H. EATON
MISS LUCY FURMAN
JOHN M. GLENN
MISS FJERIL HESS
DR. O. LATHAM HATCHER
DR. WILLIAM J. HUTCHINS
MR. AND MRS. G. ELLSWORTH HUGGINS
MISS MARY KELSEY
DR. A. N. LITTLE
MR. MORRIS MITCHELL
PROF. DOUGLAS MOORE
MR. AND MR. JOHN POWELL
MISS LILLIE PECK
MR. AND MRS. BRUCE SIMONDS
MR. DONALD STEPHENS
MISS EVELYN WELLS
MR. AND MRS. AUGUSTUS ZANZIG

PATRONS AND PATRONESSES

MR. AND MRS. HARRY A. GARFIELD, WASHINGTON, D. C.
MR. AND MRS. PHILETUS HOLT, SUMMIT, N. J.
MR. AND MRS. RAYMOND B. HAYNES
MR. AND MRS. GEORGE L. HUNT, WELLESLEY, MASS.
MISS MARGARET MCCUTCHEN, PLAINFIELD, N. J.
MISS ETHELYN MCKINNEY, GREENWICH, CONN.
MR. AND MRS. WALTER BECK, MILLBROOK, N. Y.
MR. AND MRS. JOHN BALCH, MILTON, MASS.
MRS. EDGERTON PARSONS
MR. AND MRS. EVERETT E. RISLEY
MRS. ERNEST STILLMAN
MRS. JAMES J. STORROW, LINCOLN, MASS.
PROF. AND MRS. ARTHUR L. SWIFT, JR.
MRS. CHARLES M. THAYER, WORCHESTER, MASS.
MRS. ERICA THROP DE BERRY, ST. PAUL, MINN.
PROF. AND MRS. EDMUND B. WILSON

BOX HOLDERS

MR. AND MRS. FRANK BABBOTT, BROOKLYN, N. Y.
MRS. ARTHUR O. CHOATE
MR. AND MRS. RALPH CONNOR
DR. AND MRS. LEONARD ELSMITH
MR. AND MRS. ROBERT C. CORY, ENGLEWOOD, N. J.
MRS. INGHRAM HOOK, KANSAS CITY, Mo.
MRS. HARRY GUGGENHEIM
MRS. ELSMITH RHEINDORF
MRS. ALFRED WENZ
MR. AND MRS. FRANK C. WRIGHT, TARRYTOWN, N. Y.

COMMITTEE IN CHARGE

MRS. LEONARD ELSMITH, CHAIRMAN
MISS RUTH CAMPBELL
MRS. ARTHUR O. CHOATE
MISS ALICE COBB
LEONARD ELSMITH
MISS MAY GADD
MRS. RAYMOND B. HAYNES
MR. MEREDITH LANGSTAFF
MISS ANGELA MELVILLE
MR. GLYN A. MORRIS
PROF. ARTHUR L. SWIFT, JR.
MISS KATHARINE O. WRIGHT

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[Image Caption] AUNT SAL”S CABIN — A LINOLEUM CUT — BY JOHN A. SPELMAN III

Previous:
NOTES – 1937 (No issues found)
NOTES – 1936

Next:
NOTES – 1939

See Also:
EVENTS Guide to Past Events
EVENTS Silver Jubilee 1938
PINE CONE 1938 December
PINE CONE 1938 November
RELIGION

Return To:
NOTES Index