KATHERINE PETTIT Correspondence 1919

Pine Mountian Settlement School
Series 07: Directors
Katherine Pettit

KATHERINE PETTIT CORRESPONDENCE 1919
March – December


TAGS: Katherine Pettit correspondence 1919 ; Ethel de Long Zande ; Pine Mountain Settlement School ; Pine Mountain, KY ; Grace Hatch ; Black Mountain ; hiking ; Alafair Huff Boyd ; Miss V. W. Buffum ; William Creech, [Jr.?] ; Suzanne Brigsby ; Uncle Lewis Creech ; Mrs. David Mullins ; Evelyn K. Wells ; convict labor ; Board of Control ; Capt. Winfry ; Chad Lewis ; Mr. Boggs ; road engineers ; ambulance hospitals ; Rebecca Middleton ; The Citizen ; Mr. Johnson ; electric lights ; illnesses ; Mrs. Dorsay ; L&N Railroad ; Christmas play ;

Not all dated material is included in the GALLERY below.  Letters added since the gallery was created are marked by an asterisk beside the date.


KATHERINE PETTIT CORRESPONDENCE 1919: GALLERY


KATHERINE PETTIT CORRESPONDENCE 1919: CONTENTS

* March 4, 1919. Katherine Pettit to Miss Buffum. Notes that she is glad Buffum will pay a visit to Pine Mountain and to let PMSS know dates. Also notes, “Aside from coing to us for May and June (at least), can you come up in April for the wild-flower expedition [origin of Black Mountain Wild Flower Weekend] on Black Mountain? Miss Wells and I want to go to Benham the last of the month, over some week-end, climb to the top of Black and walk along the mountain to Partridge, the highest point in Kentucky, stay there at the foot of the mountain over night, and the next day walk along the Poor Fork back to the train. | I think we may be able to arrange a date to suit you, if you can tell me right away just when you could best come. It will take you three days from Harrogate, but of course we hope you will come back to the Pine Mountain for a night at least with us, as you did last time. | Mr. Deschamps is coming either this week or next week. He is probably in Louisville now with the Zandes. I hope you will be here to control Mr. Deschamps’ perfect acre work! |I wonder if you are going to Knoxville. Miss Stone, Miss Butler and Miss Robbins are planning to go from here, and Miss Robbins wants to see Lincoln Memorial University …

January 7, 1919 Katherine Pettit, Jarrent[?], KY, to Evelyn K. Wells, secretary, PMSS [6 handwritten half-pages]. Asks Evelyn to put request for convict labor in writing; KP will deliver it to Mrs. Riker of the Board of Control at a meeting that Pettit has been asked to attend; talked with Mr. Hensley about working all winter; mentions Mr. Proffitt, Rinda, Mrs. Pankhurst. [013-018]

*March 6, 1919. KP to Miss Ethel Irwin, Quincy, Illinois. [no image]  Discussion of needs at the Medical Settlement and the expected vacation of Marguerite Butler. KP asks if Miss Irwin can fill in, but discourages her interest in the “Practice House”. Instead, KP describes the need at the Big Laurel Medical Settlement that is just beginning. Pettit says

“…Meanwhile, our Medical Settlement is beginning, and this may mean your best chance. On May first, Miss Harriet Butler, who was for nine years the nurse at Hindman, and her friend Dr. Grace Huse, are coming to live at the Mouth of Big Laurel, four miles from the school. They had expected to have another worker with them, who has just given out, and might be glad to include you in their plans for a while. They will be in a little settlement of families much in need of what you can give them, — a strategic position for any community work. Their own living arrangements for the summer are still uncertain; they may be living in a tent, while their own house is being built, and I think it would be better for you to go to them later on, after a summer of getting acquainted here.

Our “Model Home” is to be built on the School Grounds, in the fall, probably, and I think it would be more interesting to you to do your work a little farther away from the Settlement, and I also think it would be a wiser plan for enlarging our circle of influence. The “Model Home” will be so much like what you want to do that we should be doubling here. It is to be a two-room frame house, put up mountain fashion, and furnished with the bare necessities for wholesome and frugal living, and two girls at a time are going to take turns living in it,  — keeping their own cow, hens and pig, running their own accounts, making their own garden, — all in strictly mountain fashion, with only the addition of what they have learned to be necessary. One worker will live with them. The idea is to take these girls who may up and marry any time, and give them experience in running their own houses, with the strictest regard for economy and hygiene.

I do hope that we may hear from you soon, and that you will be able to hold yourself open for work here. I feel sure that you will be most useful, and that there is work here which will demand all your ability and loyalty.

Faithfully yours,

Katherine Pettit

* March 12, 1919 ... ?

March 13, 1919. KP to Grace Hatch, Hindman, KY [1 page, unsigned]. Invites Grace and Miss Grigsby to hike Black Mt. in April, with Misses Pettit, Gaines, Wells, Buffum ; outlines plans for the four-day “tramp.” [001]

March 13, 1919. KP to Alafair Huff Boyd, Harlan, KY [1 half-page, unsigned]. Thanks Alafair for crocheted mat delivered by Becky May. [002]

March 13, 1919. KP to Miss V. W. Buffum, Lincoln Memorial University [1 half-page, unsigned]. Glad that Miss Buffum will join excursion; provides itinerary. [003]

March 13, 1919. KP to William Creech [Jr.?], Poor Fork, KY [1 page, unsigned]. Invites Mr. Creech to join Black Mt. hike from Benham to Partridge or provide guide; Mentions Uncle Lewis, Delia and baby, Aunt Sal. [004]

March 13, 1919. KP to Suzanne Brigsby, Hindman, KY [1 page, unsigned]. Invites Suzanne and Miss Hatch to join Black Mt. hike; provides itinerary. [005]

March 24, 1919. KP to Uncle Lewis Creech, Poor Fork, KY [1 page, unsigned].
William Creech has moved back to Missouri; asks Lewis to find a guide; mentions Uncle John Dixon. [006]

March 24, 1919. KP to Mrs. David Mullins, Partridge, KY [1 half-page, unsigned]. Asks Mrs. Mullins if the group of Black Mt. hikers plus guide can stay overnight. [007]

March 25, 1919. KP to “Ethel” (Mrs. Luigi Zande), Saint Mary and Elizabeth’s Hospital, Louisville, KY [1 half-page, unsigned]. Asks if Miss Whitmore can use Ethel’s sewing machine. [008]

April 17, 1919. KP to Mr. C. G. Smith, Partridge, KY [1 half-page, unsigned]. Thanks Mr. Smith for arranging Mr. Jenkins to guide the hiking group. [009]

April 17, 1919. KP to Mrs. David Mullins, Partridge, KY [1 half-page, unsigned]. Glad that the hiking group can stay overnight at Mrs. Mullins and the Smiths. [010]

April 17, 1919. KP to “Gentlemen”, Lynch (KY) Hotel [1 half-page, unsigned]. Requested room reservations for four on April 26. [011]

Handwritten note: “Written in the late fall of 1919 — See Zande’s replies.” [012]

n.d., [probably late Fall] 1919 (Wednesday). Katherine Pettit, Pineville Station, to “Ethel” [Zande?] [18 handwritten pages]. Talked briefly with Capt. Winfry on the train about being hired as road foreman; suggests names of those she could approach for help concerning the road, but will need more information to do so; Ethel should talk with Chad Lewis about money being wasted; suggests building a community center. [019-037]

Late Fall 1919. KP, Lexington, KY, en route from Frankfort, to “Ethel” [de Long Zande] [13 half-pages]. Road engineer Mr. Boggs’ advice about convict labor working in winter; leaves the issue for Ethel to negotiate with Boggs and Mr. Holton; provides name of person to whom Ethel should write her complaint about a road worker; Mentions Capt. Winfry, Mr. Watkins, Capt. Williams, Chad Lewis, Sol Day, Mr. Johnson. [038-051]

n.d. Cover page for “Ambulance Hospitals on the Battle Line” by B. Sherwood Dunn, M.D., Paris France. Reprinted from The American Journal of Clinical Medicine, March, 1917. [052]

August 21, 1919. KP to Miss Rebecca Middleton, Rosspoint, KY [1 half-page, unsigned]. Thanks her for sending peaches and welcomes any fruit. [053]

October 9, 1919[?]. KP to Mr. Earle Moody, Berea, KY [1 page, unsigned]. Sends payment for year’s subscription to The Citizen. [054]

       *October 16, 1919. Katherine Pettit to Min [Mrs. Waller Bullock] Here is a letter from Mary Stacy. I wonder if you, through your Garden Club, can get her some of the seed she wants. I cannot remember just what the vine was — some sort of flowering bean vine. It was all of twenty years ago that I gave her those.|  Do you know that you can go right to Mary Stacy’s now on the train? Why don’t you go up to see her? You know how comfortable you can be there.

November 21, 1919. EZ (Ethel de Long Zande) to “Kate” (Katherine Pettit), Lexington, KY [1 page, unsigned]. Advises waiting for Mr. Johnson’s response; names Mr. Phillips as the surveyor; the State pays half of the road-building and P.M. pays other half; has sent letter to Road Commissioner. [055]

November 24, 1919. EZ (Ethel de Long Zande) to “Kate” (Katherine Pettit), Lexington, KY [1 half-page, unsigned]. Encloses copy of letter to Mr. Martin about electric lights; advises getting at least Laurel House lighted before Christmas. [056]

November 25, 1919. [?] to Katherine Pettit. [1 page, incomplete]. Wrote to Hugh Irvin; Asks about the “Cole bill”; Miss Butler’s address and injury; updates about other workers: Miss [Emily] Storer, Miss Rouse, Miss Lee, Mrs. Dorsay, Miss Sandstrom. “Mrs. Zande comes to dinner today for the first time…” [057]

December 2, 1919. [Secretary, Evelyn Wells?] to Miss Pettit [1 page, unsigned]. Provides addresses for Rev. Lewis Lyttle, Mrs. Charles Peabody, W.F. Cushing (American Fountain Penn Co.), and A.W. Hathaway; arrival of books; lists several illnesses, including Mrs. de Long’s. [058]

December 2, 1919. Ethel de Long Zande to “Kate” (Katherine Pettit) [1 page, unsigned]. Regarding Mrs. Dorsay’s salary for working with chickens and as housemother; convicts working all winter; L & N donated switch; and mother’s illness; Christmas play plans with Kitty as Virgin Mary and Berto [Zande] as Baby Jesus. [059]

December 12, 1919. Ethel de Long to “Kate” (Katherine Pettit), Lexington, KY. [1 page, unsigned]. Chad Lewis’s statements about Capt. Winfry and Mr. Williams; asks Pettit to get info from Mr. Johnson before sending complaint to State Dept. [060]


See Also:

KATHERINE REBECCA PETTIT Biography

KATHERINE PETTIT Correspondence Guide 1911-1936

        KATHERINE PETTIT 1940 A Memory and Appreciation by Mary Beech 

KATHERINE PETTIT Commonplace Book

KATHERINE PETTIT Book Collection

KATHERINE PETTIT Photograph Album

KATHERINE PETTIT Dye Book

KATHERINE PETTIT  Weaving at PMSS Beginnings