Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Series 22 : ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION (EE)
ELIHU AFTON GARRISON, EE Teacher
(May 6, 1914 – April 4, 2004)

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TAGS: Elihu Afton Garrison, Environmental Education staff, Eunice Sizemore Garrison, Leslie County Kentucky, environmental education, Pine Mountain Settlement School environmental education program

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ELIHU AFTON GARRISON

Elihu Afton Garrison (1914-2004), a native of eastern Kentucky, was born in Leslie County, Kentucky, adjacent to the Pine Mountain Settlement School located in Harlan County. His father, John S. Maynard Garrison, and his mother, Martha B. Roberts, were natives to Eastern Kentucky and Afton grew up familiar with the flora and fauna of the region. Afton married Eunice Sizemore (1922-2016), and they had one son,  Neville Garrison (1939-2015). At the end of their careers, they connected with Mary and Burton Rogers, who were working at Pine Mountain Settlement. Afton found he had much in common with Mary’s enthusiasm for sharing the rich outdoor classroom with others. Afton was a natural educator and was soon recruited for help in developing what was one of the first outdoor education programs in Kentucky.

Elihu Afton Garrison is not necessarily a unique name for eastern Kentucky, nor an unusual name for the region. There were many Garrisons in eastern Kentucky by the end of the nineteenth century, and in relation to large families with last names such as Baker, Cornett, Hoskins, and others. John Ballenger Garrison II was one of the earliest Garrisons in eastern Kentucky and is recorded as born in 1812 in Hawkins County, Tennessee, and dying on Black Mountain in Harlan County, Kentucky, of a “Gunshot in barnyard of home on Big Black Mountain on Virginia-Kentucky line near Keokee VA.” [ GENI 2025-11-24] in 1862, perhaps a victim of the Civil War. However, the cause is not given.

While “Elihu” seems a rather unusual name for the local community, Elihu was an important personage in the Book of Job in the Bible and the name shows up among other unique Biblical names in Appalachia. The Garrison families had roots that appear to be among some of the first immigrants to the American Colonies. They were likely of Flemish or Dutch origin, and the name is possibly a derivative of the Jewish name “Gerson” or perhaps the Dutch “Gerritsen.” “Afton” was Elihu Afton’s preferred name, though both names seem unique to the region. Remarkable to some, it was not unusual to find Flemish and Dutch families as early settlers of Appalachia, as they were among the first wave of immigrants who left the Low Countries and migrated to England as part of the textile workers in the 15th and 16th centuries. They were possibly part of the Dutch Church of England located in London, the center of the Lowland exile movement in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of these displaced textile workers from the Lowlands then followed the growing numbers of families that immigrated to America from England when the trade in textiles began to collapse, and as religious persecution put pressure on many of the worker families to wrestle with the regional religious wars. The skills of weaving flax and woolen cloth came with many of these first immigrants, and the skills remained with many of the early wave of settlers who came to the Americas in the 17th century.

Textile workers were numerous among the early immigrants to America, and many of them settled in the Appalachians. The tenacity and the skills of this migrant group were likely a factor in Katherine Pettit‘s interest in the region and its people. Her first work was the founding of Hindman Settlement School, which was heavily subsidized by the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization that was keen on recognizing  American Revolution families. Flax gardens, sheep raising, loom building, dyeing, were all skills passed along by many of the early Appalachian highlanders and found throughout the Appalachian highlands. When lands beyond the Blue Ridge Mountain opened, many families headed West. Those who settled in the Pine Mountain valley and in the surrounding valleys, as land opened up for the settlers, can trace their origins to European textile and religious enclaves in England, the Borderlands, and Ireland. (See Dancing in the Cabbage Patch “Beyond the Pale” for a discussion of early immigration and fence-building in Appalachia.)

Afton may have had textile workers in his family, but he was centered on the flora and fauna of the Appalachian region, not fences. He grew up in the mountains and had worked the land, knew the plants, the animals, the insects, and the streams. His knowledge and reverence for the land and the deep and rich culture that surrounded the school were gifts to the Environmental Education program and an inspiration to all who were seeking to learn more about the cultural environment of Eastern Kentucky and the rich lessons to be learned from the people and the land.

Mary Rogers, seen below, was the daughter of a Vicar in England and one imagines that they had much to share regarding their uniquely joined heritages.

Mary and Afton became primary innovators and anchors in the early years (1970s) of the developing Environmental Education program. The two served as sources of profound inspiration for those who followed in the emerging environmental programs over the coming years at the School and who found many of the same values in caring for heritage and land as important to the growth of the soul. — HW

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See:
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION Guide
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION Overview

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION 1983 EE Operations

DAVID SIEGENTHALER Staff – EE Coordinator
MARY ROGERS Staff
SCOTT MATTHIES EE Narrative

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Title	Elihu Afton Garrison
Alt. Title	Afton Garrison ;
Identifier	https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=126602
Creator	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Alt. Creator	Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;
Subject Keyword	Elihu Afton Garrison, Environmental Education staff, Eunice Sizemore Garrison, Leslie County Kentucky, environmental education, Pine Mountain Settlement School environmental education program
Subject LCSH	Garrison, Elihu Afton, – 1914 – 2004. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Education — Kentucky — Harlan County. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern. Environmental protection Kentucky Conservation of natural resources Kentucky
Date	2025-11-24 hw
Publisher	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Contributor	n/a
Type	Collections ; text ; image ;
Format	Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet.
Source	Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Language	English
Relation	Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff.
Coverage Temporal	1914 – 2004
Coverage Spatial	Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor	n/a
Description	Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of Elihu Afton Garrison ; clippings, photographs, books by or about Elihu Afton Garrison ;
Acquisition	n/d
Citation	“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Processed By	Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;
Last Updated	2025-12-12 aae
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