Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Series 19: STUDENTS
Joe Glen Bramlett, Student 1946-1949

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TAGS: Joe Glen Bramlett, Three Point Coal Camp KY, US Army, Burton Rogers, Class of 1949, Berea Foundation School, Hall High School

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JOE GLEN BRAMLETT, Student 1946-1949

Application to PMSS

Joe Glen Bramlett applied to attend Pine Mountain Settlement School as a student on May 7, 1946. He indicated in his application that he was the son of a coal miner, Elmer Bramlett, who lived at Three Point in Harlan County. At that time, Elmer and his wife Alma McVey Bramlett had six children ranging in age from 14 (Joe Glen) to the youngest, Janice Fay, 3 years of age.  Joe noted that he wanted to attend Pine Mountain and then go on to college where he hoped to become either a clerk or an engineer.

While Joe’s family lived in the Three Point coal camp, his father reports that the family owned one cow and 23 chickens. The new applicants to Pine Mountain were often asked to give directions to their home so the School counselor could make a home visit for a personal interview before accepting the new student. Usually, the directions were one or two lines on the application. Joe, however, wrote a full page on the back of his application as follows:

On entering Three Point Camp. you will pass a few houses then you’ll see a white church house on your left. On your right a school house if you will Stop at the Church house you can see my house, the last one on a small hill side on your left. You can either bring your car or walk from the church come across the rail road track there’s a trail leads up the Bank — or you can go the road. You can’t miss my house.–in my yard . it has a few tree’s, rose Bushe’s, around the fince. Also my house sit just a bove 2 large tree’s.

You also find sign Boards on the road pointing the way when you leave the main Highway cross a Bridge, come thro a underpass — on your wright, the only one after leaving Cawood. From the under pass I guess it 1 mile to the church house. This the Best I can do. 

JOE GLEN BRAMLETT Student at PMSS

By December 1946 Joe was accepted and his first report was sent home. One self-report from Joe and another from the School indicate that he made rapid progress. His gregarious and rapid acclimation to Pine Mountain soon convinced many at the School that the right decision had been made for all. The Principal in 1947, Arthur Dodd, reported on comments made by his instructors which included the fact that he ranked high in all of his classes, “…especially Math and English.” His housemother reported that “Joe is a splendid boy.”

JOE GLEN BRAMLETT After PMSS

By May 1949 Joe was a junior and was compelled to apply to Berea Foundation School, as the high school at Pine Mountain had offered its last class. The boarding school program was ending and the Community School had begun. He stayed one semester at Berea and then returned to Three Point to finish his last semester at Hall High School in Grays Knob in June of 1950.

Following his graduation, Joe continued his correspondence with Pine Mountain’s new principal, Burton Rogers, and made frequent trips to visit the School and staff who had worked with him.

Particularly enchanted with photography, Joe left two photograph albums with Pine Mountain. Many of the images are duplicates of well-known photographs of the School taken by Arthur Dodd, who was particularly supportive of Joe throughout his school years at Pine Mountain.

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See Also:
JOE GLEN BRAMLETT Photograph Album I
JOE GLEN BRAMLETT Photograph Album II
JOE BRAMLETT Correspondence

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Title	Joe Glen Bramlett
Alt. Title	Joe Bramlett
Identifier	https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=33550
Creator	Joe Bramlett
Alt. Creator	Arthur Dodd, Photographer
Alt. Creator	Ann Angel Eberhardt, Helen Hayes Wykle ;
Subject Keyword	Joe Bramlett, Joseph Bramlett, Pine Mountain Settlement School, boarding schools, traditions, Arthur Dodd, photographs, students, staff, Black Sol Day, Boy’s House, Girl’s Industrial (Plant Center), Draper Industrial Building, Office, Burkham Memorial School House II, Laurel House II, Girl’s Chorus, Christmas dances, Infirmary (Hill House), newborn babies, Grace Rood, Margaret Dodd, Warrior River, Ayrshire bulls, farm managers, William Hayes, Farmall tractors, Barn, farmyards, Hayes family, Farm House, Elizabeth Dodd, Christmas dinners, Christmas pageants, minuets, Nativity Play, Chapel, dancing, the Green, baseball games, weddings, community events, May Day, bread-making, tipples, Jack’s Gap, Harlan County, KY, Pine Mountain, KY ;
Subject LCSH	Bramlett, Joe. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Education — Kentucky — Harlan County. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern.
Date Digital	2016-06-02
Publisher	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY
Contributor	Allen Long
Type	Collections, text, images ;
Format	Text, photographs; collection
Source	Series 19: Students
Language	English
Relation	Is related to the Arthur Dodd Album, Is related to Arthur Dodd, Series: PHOTOGRAPHS, Series 19: Students & Community ;
Coverage Temporal	1946-1950
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	Joe Bramlett
Description	Records and correspondence related to Joe Glen Bramlett. Photographs taken by Arthur Dodd and others and collected by Joe Bramlett, a student at Pine Mountain Settlement School during 1944-1949. The 73 photographs contain a record of the activities at the School in the years that marked an end to the boarding school at Pine Mountain. They duplicate, in part, photographs found in the Arthur Dodd photograph album and other albums in the archives.
Acquisition	2000
Citation	“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. [date], Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Processed By	Helen Hayes Wykle, Ann Angel Eberhardt ;
Last Updated	2013-11-23 hw, 2014-02-10 aae, 2015-07-21, 2016-06-02 hhw, 2016-06-12 hhw, 2017-12-23 aae, 2023-07-12 aae ;
Bibliography	“Joe Glen Bramlett,” Series 09: BIOGRAPHY and Series 19: STUDENTS. Archives of the Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. Internet resource.

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