Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 05: Administration – Board of Trustees
Elizabeth Hench

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CONTENTS

January 1928 [hench_0003.jpg], page 1
January 1928 [hench_0004.jpg], page 2

animal report ; blooded heifers ; Joyce ; Jeremiah ; Joy ; calves ; telegrams ; Ayrshires ; Joy Stock Co., Ltd ; debts ; expenses ; Putney, KY ; fundraising ; funeralizing ; heifers ; Elizabeth C. Hench ;

October 17, 1928 [hench_0005.jpg]

Ethel de Long Zande ; cows ; Board of Trustees ; Miss Angela Melville ; Ayshire breed ; Robert Harrison ; County Agent ; Harlan County, KY ; Joy Stock Co., Ltd ; fundraising ; Elizabeth C. Hench ; Laurel, MS ;

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GALLERY

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TRANSCRIPTION – January 1928 [hench_0003.jpg], page 1

January, 1928

Dear Givers of cow-slips:
My animal report for 1927 is now due. 1927 was a memorable one in our corporate life. Four events transpired for the first time.

1. We bought a blooded heifer whom we named Joyce. I have already recounted her arrival at Pine Mountain. Her name is in keeping with our joyful outlook in life — and admits of numerous variations for her offsprings. We awaited her first calf with eagerness; finally I received the following telegram (by mail):

October 3, 1927.
Arrived Sunday night or early Monday morning, Jeremiah, son of Joyce. Mother doing splendidly.

I am expecting that Jeremiah will be Adam to the Ayrshires of the Pine Mountain Valley; the father of a mighty race; and the pedigree of his descendants will be longer than the begats of Genesis V, (Gideon Bible).

2. For this blooded heifer, the Joy Stock Company, Limited, went into D E B T. It is true I had been laying aside quarters and half-dollars from time to time until I had $109.30 surplus. So we plunged:

Price of Joyce…………………………………… $225.00
Expense of her transportation:
Express…………………………..$69.92
Two telegrams……………………1.56
Medicine…………………………….. .50
Feed and care at Putney……..2.50
Freight over Pine Mountain…4.72
………………………………………..$79.20…….$ 79.20
……………………………………………………….$304.20

We borrowed $196.85 and sent a check to cover the coat of Joyce, her feed from August 9th, and Joy’s feed through Thanksgiving Day.

3. As I hoped, so it turned out. We have received MORE MONEY THAN EVER BEFORE:
1927………………………………$ 363.90
Grand total since 1920….$2153.90

Joyce’s board will include the buttercups in May and we are mired in debt only $90! When you send more of your cow-slips, we’ll be more joyful than ever.

TRANSCRIPTION – January 1928 [hench_0004.jpg], page 2

4. B U T, there was funeralizing at Pine Mountain on September 22nd, for Joy and her newly-born calf died. When I sent a check for Joy’s board only through Thanksgiving Day, I had no thought of taking the life out of Joy nor Joy out of life. True to my promise to you, I felt we should support only one cow at a time. Now, in order to square ourselves with the dear departed, I am going to adopt temporarily Joy’s bossy calf, her namesake, now a heifer. In order to curb, during Leap Year, any inclination of Young Joy to jump over the Moon, we’ll send her feed for February 29th and the following month, and let her know through her four stomachs that she is needed at Pine Mountain.
Yours, as ever,
[signed] Elizabeth Hench

Permanent address:
Miss E. C. Hench
Box 67
Laurel, Mississippi

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TRANSCRIPTION – October 17, 1928 [hench_0005.jpg]

October 17, 1928
My dear Friend:
Only five day before her death, Ethel de Long Zande dictated a letter to me, thanking you for your gift of Young Joy’s feed. It is a gratification to know that our check for $18.15 amused and pleased her.

During the latter part of April the Board of Trustees met at the Pine Mountain Settlement School to elect Mrs. Zande’s successor. You all have received, I trust, direct communication from the School and know what was done. But do you know that Miss Angela Melville, the Associate Director, has been a joyite since 1926?

While I was at the School I saw the “coos” – ours and others. Friends took photographs of Joyce, Jeremiah, and Young Joy. My impulse to have them reproduced for you is checked by my Scotch thrift. “Not pictures but milk” says the Scotch strain. So you must just imagine two bonny cows and a calf.

The last letter scraped my bin of “copy” clean. In other words, my note-book was as hollow as a cow’s horn. I had used every witticism you had written me — and they were many and juicy. I was almost in the frame of mind of the Philippine pupil who wrote in a composition: “The cow is an animal that has four leg, one at each corner. She also gives milk — but give me liberty or give me death.”

Now I have foregathered a few facts and hope I am making this a right tasty letter.

On March 16th I breathed a sign of relief which sounded like a cow settling down for the night, for on that day the last of the debt on Joyce was paid. Later I was sorry not to undertake a new debt at the suggestion of Mr. Robert Harrison, County Agent for Harlan County, Kentucky. Mr. Harrison is a believer in the Ayrshire breed for the rocky mountains. He assured me the fact that the Joy Stock Co., Ltd., had just bought a blooded Ayrshire heifer for the Pine Mountain Settlement School was a big argument to induce people of that County to purchase the same breed. He almost persuaded me to commission him to get us an Ayrshire yearling heifer when he went to buy a carload. My abhorrence of debt made me decline reluctantly.

Joyce’s board is paid until November 19th, before which time, by your generosity, I know we shall have laid by a goodly supply of [fodder?] in the form of checks.

Yours for more Joy during the coming year,
[signed] Elizabeth Hench
P.S. My Book of the Cow grows more and more luscious.

Permanent Address
Miss E. C. Hench
Box 67
Laurel, Mississippi

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Back to ELIZABETH  C. HENCH  Guide Joy Stock Company Limited Letters  1927-33