NOTES – 1949

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 17: PMSS PUBLICATIONS
NOTES 1949
February and November

NOTES - 1949

“Country Gentleman” cover, Nov. 1948. Chapel bell & distant view of campus and mountains. [nace_II_album_001.jpg]

NOTES – 1949

“Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School”
February and November


GALLERY: 1949 February

On the cover of the November [1948] Country Gentleman magazine was a picture of our registered Ayrshire herd framed by the chapel doorway and bell…the work of Arthur Dodd, Pine Mountain’s principal and accomplished amateur photographer….

TAGS: NOTES 1949 FEBRUARY, homemaking, family relations, Christmas, renovations, guests, dance, Miss Rood, Louise Fliermans, Richard Chase, folklorist, farm, hospital, graduates, Arthur Dodd, Country Dance Society, West Wind, Elsie Avril, William Creech, tax deductible donation, Miss Gaines‘ garden, one-room schools 

 TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 1949 February

P. 1

NOTES FROM THE
PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL

PINE MOUNTAIN * HARLAN COUNTY * KENTUCKY

Volume XXIII     FEBRUARY, 1949    Number I

[Small image of a linoleum print depicting a flower.]

THE homemaking department has been fairly bursting at the seams of its small building –so many activities has it sponsored this year. Louise Fliermans, the energetic young teacher, has planned a four year curriculum full of many useful skills for the homemaker. Freshmen began with basic skills, handsewing and the operation of a machine. The two halves of the group alternated this with a class in home-nursing and baby care taught by Miss [Grace M.] Rood, our nurse.

Sophomores and Juniors started with a food preservation unit, and their canning and jelly-making stocked department shelves with food for model meals. They worked at techniques for remodeling, lengthening, and repairing their clothes.

Along with Family Relationships, the Seniors have been studying furniture arrangement and home decoration. The emphasis has been on ingenious ways to make a room attractive without spending much money. As a class project they converted the fitting room into a ‘dressing room’ for social events held in the home economics building. Using a worn-out sewing machine for a dressing table, they bleached and dyed feed sacks from the barn to make drapes and a dressing table skirt. A senior boy made twin maple lamps in the shop. The only article purchased was a mirror.

The girls have been busy with extra projects, too. When the boys wanted to raise money for their athletic equipment fund each girl baked a pie — many in their free time. These pies were auctioned off to the highest bidder at the Halloween Party in regular old-fashioned ‘pie supper’ style and made a substantial fund for the desired equipment. Junior boys and girls have been making candy to raise money for the Junior-Senior Banquet.

In preparation for the Christmas bazaar which contributes to the school’s charity fund, the Seniors made many articles to sell. Candle ends were melted down and poured into jello molds to make pastel floral candles. Tin snips converted tin cans into dainty silvery trees with gumdrop ‘fruit’. The boys made candle holders. from small logs.

Of course before Christmas everyone wanted to make gifts and the quantity turned out included more…

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floral candles, baby bibs, aprons, pot holders, knit scarves, stuffed animals tea towels, children’s clothing, and felt purses made from old felt hats.

To gain experience in planning and preparation of a meal and entertainment of guests, senior girls have had small breakfast parties for staff members. At these pleasant affairs a few girls prepare the meal, others serve, and two act as hostesses. Sometimes a boy serves as host.

Even on Sunday evenings the building is not deserted for then the seniors. gather for their informal good times.

 * * * *

We have as guest this winter Richard Chase who, snail-wise, has brought his house along with him. The shiny aluminum house-trailer looks rather like a ‘blimp’ grounded in the hollow between Laurel House and the Schoolhouse. Mr. Chase collector of mountain songs, stories, and traditions, came early in December to direct the Mummers’ Play which the youngest boys give every year. Usually the boys have used an old English play. This year’s production was based on a play which Mr. Chase found in oral tradition in eastern Kentucky. It was similar in many respects to its English ancestor. The boys started with the play much as it is recorded in Mr. Chase’s recent book: Grandfather Tales (Houghton and Mifflin) but added a good many touches of their own as they worked. The result was lively, completely delightful entertainment.

Of course Mr. Chase’s talent for story-telling has not been forgotten and many an evening finds a large gathering or an informal house group charmed by the old, old tales familiar to all of us as Robin Hood or Cinderella or the Bremen Musicians, but told with all the changes made by generations of mountain story tellers.

Mr. Chase has visited us before and is remembered by all the ‘young- uns’ in the neighboring schools for his Punch and Judy shows as well as his tales. He feels a special kinship with Pine Mountain since it was here that he first became inspired to follow the devious paths of a folklorist. He has helped all of us to a new love of the rich traditions of our mountains.

* * * *

Day in and day out there are cows to milk and meals to cook and floors to sweep. Sometimes we feel almost buried in the chores which must be repeated daily. But in spite of the time and effort spent on work which has only to be done over, certain permanent progress is being made, as a trip around the grounds will show. Big projects of the last two summers were major alterations on three buildings. In the workshop necessary roof repairs were combined with changes which will add  greatly to the usefulness of the building — laboratory space added to the science room and the extension of the weaving room so that more looms could be set up.

At West Wind, a girls’ dormitory, the upper terrace was enclosed to make room for seventeen more girls. In Far House partitions were changed to make the house more convenient for the housemother and boys.

There has been increased activity on the farm with the renting of a good piece of bottom land which will be used chiefly to help feed our stock. The boys have been busy [tilling] and improving the land and already it is proving its value to us. One of last year’s graduates has stayed on as assistant to the farmer.

Several pieces of new equipment are testimony to the ingenuity of supervisors and their student crews. Last summer a sturdy spray outfit was constructed which was a splendid example of what can be done with materials at hand. When the loss of one of our team of mules created a need for a small cart which could be drawn by a single mule, a little two- wheel cart with a distinctly old-world flavor was soon made. Under construction now is a shelter for the sawmill and a crew of boys has been working to put back into service the old deisel engine which once supplied our electric power. It has stood idle since the power line came across the mountain…

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in 1942. It will be used instead of the tractor to drive the sawmill.

The hospital has been carrying on in its usual efficient way although we have been short one nurse since October. (We would appreciate help from any of you in locating the right person for this work).We topped our record again this year with 75 new babies and have used the incubator given us by a friend to care for several of them. Every two weeks (if she can get away) the doctor drives the jeep eight miles down Greasy Creek to hold clinic. Roads are bad in that area and it is hard for people to get to the hospital. There, as in the hospital, she has learned to be prepared to take care of anything from routine preventive inoculations to axe cuts and copperhead bites.

The boys on the grounds crew — only two in number — have a full schedule, mowing lawns, pruning trees and bushes, gathering leaves for the compost pile and keeping paths and roads in condition. One special improvement has been enlarging the gate and widening the path to the hospital so that trucks and cars bearing stretcher patients may back up to the door. They have worked hard to clear the hillside near Laurel House — still known as ‘Miss [Ruth B.] Gaines‘ garden’ which has been overgrown with wild roses and honeysuckle. Already in January a large clump of snowdrops was blooming there.

 * * * *

Several recent graduates are teaching in this vicinity. Two girls from the class of ’48 and a boy from the class of ’47 have one-room county schools near their homes. Ray and Roy Banks, twins who graduated in 1947 and had one year of school at Warren Wilson Junior College are teaching Bear Branch and Coyle Branch Schools about six miles from Pine Mountain. Occasional visitors bring us reports of the neatness of the students and the good order prevailing in their classrooms and we hear frequent echoes of satisfied and appreciative parents. Several of our seniors are thinking about going on to school for teacher-training to do just this kind of badly needed work.

* * * *

Pine Mountain has received publicity in several unusual places this year. On the cover of the November Country Gentleman magazine was a picture of our registered Ayrshire herd framed by the chapel doorway and bell. Another picture of the herd appeared on the December issue of the Ayrshire Digest. Both Kodachromes were the work of Arthur Dodd, Pine Mountain’s principal and accomplished amateur photographer whose work appears so often in our bulletins, catalogs, and letters.

Friends in the vicinity of Cincinnati may have been listening to WLW on December 9th when the ‘Builders of Destiny’ series presented a drama based on the life of William Creech which stressed his founding of the Pine Mountain School. We regretted that we did not know the date long enough in advance to notify friends in the area for we feel sure they would have enjoyed the fine handling of the historical material. Judging by the letters and cards, the broadcast made some new friends for Pine Mountain.

 * * * *

Folk dancing and folk singing, always lively activities with us, received new stimulus from the visit of Elsie Avril of the English Folk Dance and Song Society and May Gadd, director of its American branch, the Country Dance Society. They lived by a rigorous schedule on their two-day visit. Four classes in dancing and singing games were held daily and both evenings the dining room floor was cleared and the whole school joined in a dancing party. Miss Avril, whose violin accompanied all the dancing. charmed everyone with her spirited fiddling.

 * * * *

The response to our appeal for help in furnishing the new rooms at West Wind dormitory was generous indeed. Gifts for all seven rooms have been received or promised and several substantial checks helped with the cost…

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of general construction. We are grateful for this assistance.

 * * * *

1949 Calendars are still on hand and may be ordered for 50 [cents] each.

 * * * *

Although we are still far from the well-beaten paths of civilization, we are constantly reminded that things are not as they were when Pine Mountain was founded 36 years ago. Even in a few years we have seen changes in the economy of our local community. The construction of roads is linking what were once remote spots. Even the new telephone in the school office is a symbol of this change. No one who sees the situation can feel the need for the school has passed.  We are still almost twenty miles from the nearest county high school and a large percentage of our boarding students cannot easily reach schools from their homes. We have always tried to plan the program to fit the situation and are at present particularly concerned that we may be ministering to the changing needs about us. To this end we are thinking and discussing in the hope that we may develop more significant channels of service — especially in the life of the communities around us.

 * * * * * * * *

In making up your income tax remember that a contribution to Pine Mountain is deductable from gross income. A gift of $100.00 would actually cost you much less than that sum. For example:

For a taxable income of  a gift of $100.00 costs
   2,000 83.40
   6,000 72.12
 10,000 70.80
  22,000 50.72
  80,000 28.72
100,000 23.44

 

Pine Mountain is a settlement high school, Christian but non-sectarian, for the boys and girls of the mountain counties of southeastern Kentucky. It is supported by private contributions.

J. S. Crutchfield, Chairman of the Board
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Edward S. Dabney, Treasurer
Lexington, Kentucky

H.R.S.Benjamin, Resident Director


GALLERY: 1949 November

[The boarding school is closed.] For the first time since its founding thirty-six years ago, Pine Mountain Settlement School is operating without boarding students.

TAGS: NOTES 1949 NOVEMBER, boarding school ends, consolidated elementary school, reorganization, Dr. William Jesse Baird, Dr. L.E. Meece, Dr. Howard Beers, Berea College, Harlan County Board of Education, Francis Hutchins, Burton B. Rogers, Atha Stahl, Dorothy Nace, Gladys Hill, Ronald Henderson, Golda [Pensol] Baker, 4-H Club, West Wind, Dr. Elizabeth Henderson, Grace Rood, June Allen, Loretta Peterson, farm program, Bill Hayes, Fair, budget, Berea College Board, Richard Bentley, Barry Bingham, Thomas Cooper, E.S. Dabney, Elmer Gabbard, Louis Karnosh, Carl Michel, Charles Ward Seabury

TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 1949 November

P. 1

NOTES FROM THE
PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL

PINE MOUNTAIN * HARLAN COUNTY * KENTUCKY

Volume XXIV     NOVEMBER, 1949    Number 1

For the first time since its founding thirty-six years ago, Pine Mountain Settlement School is operating without boarding students. They are missed in many ways; the quiet of the campus after the last school bus leaves; absence of student chapel services on Sunday; the passing of a student labor program which did so much to make our community life run smoothly. But Pine Mountain has not lost its vitality. One has only to step into the Schoolhouse on any school day to realize that!

The considerations leading to the change from a boarding high school to a consolidated elementary school were various. Trustees have been alarmed at the necessity for using capital funds to maintain a boarding school at present-day high costs. They felt too, that Pine Mountain had a definite responsibility toward the younger children of the immediate community. Several one-room county schools had three or four emergency teachers a year with long breaks between. Such teaching failed to prepare pupils for high school at Pine Mountain and few of the children close to us had enough interest in more schooling to come.

The Board asked three well-qualified men to survey our situation and give their recommendations. This committee was composed of Dr. William Jesse Baird, president of Morehead State College; Dr. L. E. Meece of the Department of Education of the University of Kentucky; and Dr. Howard Beers of the Department of Rural Sociology of the University of Kentucky. After studying their report the Board took action last April with the following results. Berea College was asked to sponsor our administration, leaving Pine Mountain to operate under its original articles of incorporation. Pine Mountain’s new Board of Trustees is composed of nine members of the Berea College Board. Berea does not assume any of the financial load. The budget must still be raised by Pine Mountain School. Five one-room county schools have been consolidated at Pine Mountain. The Har- lan County Board of Education pays the five teachers and the bus drivers and furnishes buses to bring in the children. President [Francis S.] Hutchins and members of the Berea staff have been of the greatest help during these days of reorganization, not only with suggestions and advice in their specialized fields, but in the locating of needed personnel. This is a year of pioneering but the zeal of the staff, the enthusiastic help of our Berea colleagues, and the heartening cooperation of the County school board and our neighbors give us great hope for the future of our work.

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* * * * *

There was tense expectancy at the Schoolhouse when, on August 29th, the Harlan County school buses rolled up with the first pupils for the consolidated school. By the end of the morning one hundred and eighty-six children, somewhat awed by the strangeness of their surroundings, had enrolled and the new consolidated elementary program was actually begun. Enrollment was far beyond expectations. There were nearly fifty more than last year attended the five schools which were consolidated. Divided among four teachers the classes numbered from forty to fifty-five. Over-crowding of our small classrooms became our most insistent problem.

During the first sunny summer days, teachers and classes ate their lunches in pleasant fellowship on the lawns near the Schoolhouse. Lunches with their many wrappings brought up one of the first civic problems — the appearance of the school grounds. Each class was made responsible for one section of the grounds and children who threw things down without a second thought began to look about for trash cans. Indoors there were classrooms and hallways to sweep and the desire to keep ‘our school’ clean and attractive grew as students took turns at these tasks.

A hot lunch program financed by the parents and government subsidy was soon organized. Teachers stress in their classroom teaching the importance of a balanced diet in an effort to attack poor eating habits. Weekly educational movies take the students to far places. Most children have not been farther than Harlan town, eighteen miles away. Younger ones were unsure of the name of their county — and even their state and nation. One wrote, “My state is Big Laurel, Kentucky.” There was considerable confusion in the third grade whether Kentucky was in Harlan County or the reverse.

Through the sunny days of September and October enrollment increased and attendance held up well in spite of pulling fodder, grinding cane, and digging ‘taters — fall tasks which keep the big boys out of school. Even on rainy November days attendance has surprised us. Buses pick up many children right at their gates but getting to school is not so easy for all of them. Already a few have failed to appear after a heavy rain because they couldn’t get across the creek. Pupils living up Big Laurel and Little Laurel Creeks walk three or four miles to get to the bus. With winter weather and high water this may be impossible for all but the sturdiest.

The staff working together on the new school program are people with experience at Pine Mountain. Burton Rogers, formerly teacher of social science, acts as principal. He is a person who has always sought ways in which the school could serve this community more effectively and he sees our present program as a big step forward. Miss Atha Stahl has first and second grades. She has taught the county school at Little Laurel with conspicuous success for several years. Miss Dorothy Nace, who teaches second and third grades, has been secretary at Pine Mountain for five years. Miss Gladys Hill, who teaches fifth and sixth grades, has taught at Pine Mountain for twenty years. It was she who organized the course in the study of cooperatives which received attention all over the country. Ronald Henderson has the junior high grades-seventh, eighth, and ninth. He has taught science at Pine Mountain for the past four years. The only teacher new to the community is Mrs. Golda Baker, who came at the end of the second month to relieve the overcrowding. She comes from Rockcastle County where she has had experience in building up neglected rural schools. With crowded classrooms a serious national problem, we are fortunate that Harlan County was able to send us Mrs. Baker.

The challenge of our new program is two-fold. Taking children from…

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schools which suffered from poorly trained, inexperienced teachers, we find them behind their grade level in reading and other basic skills. Many are lacking too, in the group feeling which is essential to a successful school, but in both these areas progress is already evident. We still believe in the importance of training the hand as well as the mind. The first step in this direction has been the organization of a 4-H Club for older students. Under the supervision of the county agent, volunteer leaders will offer training in sewing, canning, agriculture, forestry, and woodwork.

It is unthinkable that a school so rich in traditions should fail to continue some of its seasonal celebrations. The third and fourth graders prepared a simple program in memory of William and Sally Creech at the time of Uncle William’s birthday. In preparation the children read the history of the Creeches and the early history of Pine Mountain school, visited the tiny log house which is now the school museum, and invited Henry Creech, one of Uncle William’s sons, to tell them from his own memory of the earlier days in this valley.

Even those pupils who have not had an older brother or sister at Pine Mountain have heard of the Nativity Play. “Will you fellers have that ‘ere Christmas Play in the church-house?” one asked. His teacher pointed out that it would be up to the students if they wanted to do it. Several standing near expressed their readiness to take part. A Nativity Play in the chapel will be an important part of the Christmas celebration. Our children’s eagerness to enjoy what former Pine Mountain students have had indicates a fertile soil for the planting of rich traditions adapted from old customs and created out of new needs.

School Needs

Crayons, drawing paper, colored paper, paints and paint brushes; classroom maps in usable condition; children’s magazines; children’s phonograph records; children’s books — pre-primer to junior high level — colorful, up-to-date, and in fair condition.

Pine Mountain Calendar

Because of the many changes it has been impossible to prepare the usual Pine Mountain Calendar. Copies of the enclosed greeting card may be had by writing the school office.

* * * * *

Early in September the hospital staff picked up their equipment and moved into West Wind, the newest and largest of the vacated dormitories. The move provided room for sixteen beds instead of the previous eleven. An out-patient waiting room, examining rooms, and the doctor’s office occupy the ground floor. On the floor above are the ward, semi-private rooms, nursery, nurses’ office, delivery rooms, and kitchen. Three registered nurses and one nurse aide live on the top floor. Dr. Elizabeth Henderson, who has completed four years of service here, is physician-in-charge. Miss Grace Rood, R. N., who has served eleven years, is superintendent. Both, by their unaffected friendliness and willingness to serve have earned the gratitude and affection of people all over the wide area which our hospital [services]. Two recent graduates of the Berea School of Nursing, June Allen and Loretta Peterson, came in September. The move to West Wind enables the staff to work in much more favorable conditions than were possible in the old, badly crowded infirmary. The medical staff is to be congratulated that it has converted a dormitory into a very efficient small hospital without any expensive alterations. By planning carefully only a little additional plumbing was needed.

* * * * *

Hospital Needs

The change to a larger hospital finds us short of hospital beds and the necessary equipment for each; bedside table, bed pan, basins, pillows and mattress…

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linen, rubber sheeting. We need seven units to furnish the hospital completely. A basic unit would consist of bed, mattress, and bedside table and would cost $109.00; a full unit, including all the smaller items, about $150.00. A child’s crib with mattress is needed too. There are smaller needs, including baby scales for well-baby clinic, layettes, electric iron and toaster, cotton maternity dresses, (new or used), bed linen, wash cloths, dish towels, folded gauze sponges. We cannot detail the many items the hospital staff could use but suggest that if you are interested in other needs you write us.

* * * * *

The farm program has undergone changes too, since feeding the boarding students was its main purpose. Now its aim is to become self-supporting and to pioneer in ways which other mountain farms can follow to find the most suitable and profitable use of their land. Some milk from the registered Ayrshire herd is used for the school lunches and the rest is sold to the Chappell Dairy in Harlan. The farm work, formerly done by a crew of boys, is now done by three men — all Pine Mountain graduates. Bill Hayes, farm manager since his graduation in 1938, continues his enthusiastic leadership.

* * * * *

This year the Pine Mountain Fair was truly a community venture. In the past leadership has been assigned to staff members assisted by students. This year we asked our neighbors to help and found them more than ready to shoulder the load of preparation — planning and serving sandwiches, coffee, cake and ice cream for a crowd of three or four hundred. Older pupils offered eagerly to help at the sales stands and afterward all the children staged a grand cleanup which swept the grounds bare of any sign of Fair Day litter. One of the neighbors is chairman of next year’s Fair. This is the first time a staff member will not have this position.

Pine Mountain’s Budget

Although the County assumes responsibility for certain expenses of the academic program including teachers’ salaries, buses and bus drivers, Pine Mountain’s budget of more than $40,000 must still be met from the gifts of our friends. Besides the maintenance of buildings and equipment there are the following salaries:

Administration: Director, secretary
Hospital: Doctor, 3 nurses
Kitchen: Dietitian, assistant
Farm: Farm manager, assistant
General Maintenance: 3 men.

In addition to basic needs there are many things we feel we should do to enrich the school program which are not possible at present.

* * * * *

Pine Mountain, though [affiliated] with Berea College, retains its corporate identity and has its own Board of Trustees. This board of nine men is chosen from members of the Berea College Board:

Francis Hutchins, President of Berea College
Richard Bentley – 
Chicago
Barry Bingham – Louisville, Kentucky
Thomas Cooper – Lexington, Kentucky
E. S. Dabney – Lexington, Kentucky
Elmer Gabbard – Buckhorn, Kentucky
Louis Karnosh – Cleveland, Ohio
Carl Michel –  Cincinnati, Ohio
Charles Ward Seabury – Chicago

________________________________

Pine Mountain Settlement School is a private institution [affiliated] with Berea College. It operates a community hospital; an experimental farm program; and, in cooperation with Harlan County, a consolidated elementary school. For maintaining these services it is dependent chiefly on individual contributors.


Previous:
NOTES – 1948
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NOTES – 1950

See Also:
EDUCATION Community Cooperative School
EVENTS
EVENTS Guide to Ongoing Annual Events
FARM and FARMING Guide
FARM Community Fair Day Guide

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NOTES Index