DARWIN D. MARTIN 1929 Correspondence Part 1

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 05: GOVERNANCE – Board of Trustees
DARWIN D. MARTIN
Correspondence 1929 Part 1

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DARWIN D. MARTIN 1929 Correspondence Part 1


TAGS: Darwin D. Martin 1929 Correspondence, PMSS Board of Trustees, Isaacs Creek,  Mr. Browning, creek straightening, Angela Melville, vocational training, curriculum, Reservoir, Henry Creech. Katherine Pettit, automobile travel, traveling in Eastern Kentucky, Mary Rockwell Hook, “Scrap House”, Open House, Angela Melville, 


DARWIN D. MARTIN 1929 CORRESPONDENCE provides images and contents of the correspondence of Darwin D. Martin, to and from Pine Mountain Settlement School. A member of the Board of Trustees at Pine Mountain Settlement School, 1920-1933, Martin was a generous contributor to and consultant for the School. He served for many years as the Board President. His knowledge and his wealth were fundamental to the success of the School in its earliest years of development. An executive of the Larkin Co. in Buffalo, New York, Martin was very generous with his gifts to the School.

Angela Melville, an Interim Director during Martin’s time on the Board, tried to find a balance in educational programming for Pine Mountain and when seeking advice from Martin she wrote the following tenuous desire for and about the School   “… as to what the School should grow into”  in the next two years …

“… if it will have the courage to keep its uniqueness, and not become a standardized high school. … ……. but that its guidance into real life for its young people goes hand in hand with its heritage of cultural opportunity and the joy of life….and a deep and true religion,…so that this school may truly build character….”

Angela Melville


CONTENTS: Darwin D. Martin 1929 Correspondence

[P1050683] Carbon copy of typewritten letter, July 12, 1929. Unsigned letter to Martin reports on advice received from Mr. Browning, State University farm engineer, about creek straightening. [See complete transcription below.]

[P1050724, P1050725, P1050726] 3-page handwritten letter to [unknown] from Mrs. Inghram D. (Mary Rockwell) Hook. [n.d. – first page is missing.] Building the “Scrap House” from leftover logs and bark-covered slabs from Big Log, with Uncle William’s supervision; praised two reports to the Trustees as valuable for the School & Board for reference; enjoyed descriptions of Xmas festivities; feared Catherine French didin’t get many pictures due to rain; cites advantages to reviving the tradition of singing folk songs after supper.

[P1050719] Carbon copy of the typewritten letter, March 15, 1929, to Martin in Buffalo, NY, from Angela Melville. Sent him  [Martin] a memo* she wrote “as to what this school should grow into”; would like to ask the Board to allow her “to start the school with five or six boys…It may be that none of the Board would agree with me, but every day convinces me more and more that the school has a great future, if it will have the courage to keep its uniqueness, and not become a standardized high school.” She writes about additional hopes for the School, including a “tutor-at-large” who could handle difficult cases.

[P1050720, P1050721] Carbon copy of the type-written memorandum, February 14, 1929.
*Angela Melville’s memorandum with her suggestions for the School’s next two years, including providing intensive training – both vocational and “book subjects” – to five or six 18-year-old boys. It would be a work-study vocational guidance course to prepare them, at age 20, to function “in the industrial civilization which they will enter.” Melville gives reasons for the need of such a school and entrance requirements. Also, she states that “the school should be developed for girls,” providing training  in nursing, home-making, and “general initiation into the field of activities open to women.” She ends by predicting a possible end to how PMSS’s High School would end and “the entire facilities of the school used for this vocational guidance school.” However, she warns that Pine Mountain should make sure that it does not become only a technical school, “but that its guidance into real life for its young people goes hand in hand with its heritage of cultural opportunity and the joy of life….and a deep and true religion,…so that this school may truly build character….”

[P1050722] Typewritten Chart Showing PMSS “Proposed Organization.” [Likely an addendum to Angela Melville’s memorandum of February 14, 1929.] The chart shows the curriculum for Boy’s Vocational School and Girl’s Vocational School. “Boys now here who would fit into the 1928-1929 school… – Brit Wilder, Morgan Cornett, Frank Bird, Wilson Cornett, Hankin Cornett, George Trosper.”

[P1050723] Handwritten Letter to Mr. [Glyn] Morris, December 27, [no year], from Mrs. Inghram D. (Mary Rockwell) Hook in Denver, Colorado. Hook is “delighted with the appreciation of Open House as shown by the writer of the article” she received. Hook wrote, “The house always seems to me a place of enchantment. I love every bit of it.” [unsigned – missing next page?]


GALLERY – Darwin D. Martin 1929 Correspondence from Angela Melville

 

TRANSCRIPTION: Darwin D. Martin 1929 Correspondence Pt. 1

[Image # P1050683]

July 12, 1929.

My dear Mr. Martin:-
Do you remember that the very last problem you took up with me before you left here in May was the straightening of the creek in front of the office, and you were so anxious to have it done that you asked me to send to the State University for a farm engineer to come and counsel us. And I promised you that I would do whatever he said.

He came yesterday, a very able and wise man, and he spent much time going over the whole situation, asking questions and thinking about it. He even went away down on Greasy to see what the situation was there and up the head of the creek.
He thinks that if we do just as you suggested — begin to straighten the creek nearby the swimming pool on to the place just in front of the office — that they will solve the problem of flooding our garden. He told Mr. Browning [Farm Manager] just how to do it, although he said what Mr. Browning had suggested was just what he would have done. And they think it will cost around $500.00. We are beginning it just as soon as we get more of our farm work done if you still want us to do it. I shall be glad to hear from you about it right away.

He advises as not to do anything about repairing the creek in the mill yard until we get this done — that this is the very first and most important thing to do.
Faithfully yours,
[unsigned copy]
Mr. Darwin D. Martin,
Marine Trust Bldg.,
Buffalo, New York.
EP/p


GALLERY: DARWIN D. MARTIN Correspondence 1929  Part 1


Next:

DARWIN D. MARTIN 1929 Correspondence pt. 2

DARWIN D. MARTIN 1930 Correspondence

See Also: DARWIN D. MARTIN – Biography

Back To: DARWIN D. MARTIN Correspondence Guide