PUBLICATIONS RELATED 1938 Bertha Shepard Little Journeys I PMSS

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Series 17: PUBLICATIONS PMSS
1938 BERTHA SHEPARD
“LITTLE JOURNEYS” I PMSS

PUBLICATIONS RELATED 1938 Bertha Shepherd Little Journeys I PMSS

Bertha Shepard, “Little Journeys” cover. [pmss_shepherd_journeys_001_mod]

TAGS: Bertha Shepard “Little Journeys” I PMSS 1938, Dorothy Whitehill, Labrida Hanby, Chester Hunt, drawings, automobile travel, Southern Appalachians travel, road trips, Burton Rogers, donations, cultural collision

“Little Journeys” illustration. Mountain cabin. [little_journeys_image002.jpg]

PUBLICATIONS RELATED 1938 Bertha Shepard Little Journeys I PMSS

Written in 1938, LITTLE JOURNEYS is a travel journal that details events of two early automobile trips 1930s. The first journey through the Southern Appalachians of Bertha Shepard, Dorothy Whitehill, and Labrida Hanby is the most important to Pine Mountain Settlement School, as it describes travel to the School.

The second travel account included in the same journal is titled: “Chien Chaud and Culture Seekers on the King’s Highway” and is a journey to Eastern Canada by two of the earlier travelers, Bertha Shepard and Labrida Handy.

The following “LITTLE JOURNEYS” is the first 1938 journey. Both accounts are the work of Bertha Shephard and the illustrations are by her nephew Chester Hunt who was not present on the trips but most likely took his images from the photographs or film that were made of the two journeys.

CORRESPONDENCE: 1938 Bertha Shepard Little Journeys I

Labrida Hanby to Burton Rogers, 1973

The following letter, sent to Burton Rogers, Director of Pine Mountain Settlement School, in 1973 by Labrida Hanby at the time the journal was donated to Pine Mountain, describes the women and their journey. Labrida Hanby wrote, “I am happy to give it [ the journal]. I feel sure no one in my family would be especially interested in it.”

The journal is, however, quite interesting for multiple reasons. It graphically captures the people and places that the trio met on their journey and also reflects the tensions between “outlanders” and natives and the lessons learned from their cultural collisions.

Page 1 – [pmss_shepherd_journeys_019_mod.jpg]
Page 2 – [pmss_shepherd_journeys_020_mod.jpg]

Franklin, PA
July 10, 1973

Dear Mr. Rogers,

I was delighted to receive your “Thank You” for my contribution to Pine Mountain with its added information and reminiscences.

I am sending you this Travelogue written by Miss Shepard. If you think it can be used in the school library, I am happy to give it. I feel sure no one in my family would be especially interested in it.

When she [Bertha Shepard] sent it to me, she said her nephew wondered “why Auntie couldn’t have used a little sense in writing a travelogue”; but the writing shows her sense of humor and her gay spirit.

Now for the facts:

[The 3 travelers]

Bertha Shepard — newspaper woman first in Elyria, Ohio [Lorain County, Northeast Ohio] and the proofreader for years for the Cleveland News*, Cleveland, Ohio. [*The Cleveland News was published from 1905 to 1960 when it was absorbed by the Cleveland Press.]

Dorothy Whitehill — school teacher for few years then at home to care for mother but with much interest in coaching plays in community, for 4H club in church school. (Knox, Pa)

Labrida Hanby — English teacher in Junior and Senior High School — also drama coach for school plays (Franklin, Ohio) [Labrida Hanby was born 10/11/1895 and died 04/00/1984.]

[Artist]

Chester “Chet” Hunt, Bertha’s nephew, did the sketches. In college studying advertising.

The car was mine; Dorothy assisted in driving. As you see, the year was 1938.

Coming back to the account of Pine Mountain, I am wondering if the young people of the area would take offense at the references to “Aunt Til” and “Aunt Sally.” I can’t account for a page [p. 32] missing in the narrative nor why it ends so abruptly.

Included in this “Little Journeys” is a trip Bertha and I took from Pennsylvania to Canada two years previous to the Pine Mountain one. I am including it also. Maybe someone will read it and enjoy it.

By way of explanation — you hear from Dorothy and me; Bertha was killed in a tragic accident many years ago. I do not have the date.

Ruth Moyer and I made a trip to Pine Mt. a good many years ago while the Starbucks were there (He was in charge of maintenance) and, I am sure, you were in charge at that time. My recollections of Pine Mountain are happy ones and it is interesting to look back upon those days.

Sincerely yours,
Labrida Hanby

GALLERY: PUBLICATIONS RELATED 1938 Bertha Shepard Little Journeys I

CONTENTS: Bertha Shepard “Little Journeys” PMSS 1938

[Note: All pages are typewritten. Illustrations are sketched in pen and ink.]

  1. [little_journeys_001.jpg] OHIO – [Illustration: playing cards, watermelon] Arrival in Cleveland from Pennsylvania, July 13, 1948; visited memorial to President McKinley Canton, OH, and an old German settlement at Zoar with its museum of commerce, industry and culture.
  1. [little_journeys_002.jpg] Describes the items on display at the museum.
  1. [little_journeys_003.jpg] Continues describing museum displays and history of the Zoarites; visited the Communal Garden and its Tree of Life; arrived in New Philadelphia; toured the site of the Moravian Mission at Schoenbrun.
  1. [little_journeys_003.jpg] Traveled beside the old Ohio Canal bed; arrived in Marietta, OH, and visited a museum of pioneer life.
  1. [little_journeys_005.jpg] Visited a Mound Builders’ mound; stayed overnight in Belpre, OH.
  1. [little_journeys_006.jpg] Attended a sermon at M.E. Church, Little Hocking, OH; had dinner in Gallipolis; crossed the Ohio River into Huntington, WVA, and drove on Route 52 toward Williamson, WVA.
  1. [little_journeys_007.jpg] Describes the effects of the mining industry; saw vacant company houses at Mingo Junction.
  1. [little_journeys_008.jpg] [Illustration: county jail] Describes hotel and the nearby county jail activities; road-building near Pikeville, KY, Route 19.
  1. [little_journeys_009.jpg] Road-building caused treacherous driving; spent overnight at Cumberland, KY; watched preparations for a tent show.
  1. [little_journeys_010.jpg] First taste of “Southern” food; learned about okra at a vegetable market.
  1. [little_journeys_011.jpg] Describes acts and orchestra at a tent show.
  1. [little_journeys_012.jpg] Government project (truck trail) over Pine Mt.; distinctive dress of the mountaineer; Ketenia Forest; Skyway Drive; food at roadhouse at summit of Pine Mt.
  1. [little_journeys_013.jpg] More about the roadhouse; observation tower; water from a well; approach to Pine Mountain Settlement School; enormous rock on the trail; movie camera.
  1. [little_journeys_014.jpg] PINE MT. SETTLEMENT [Illustration: log cabin]; relates location and history of the School; Greasy Creek; Uncle William Creech’s land donation; his cabin; founders, Miss Kate Pettit and Mrs. Ethel de Long Zande; Uncle William’s quote.
  1. [little_journeys_015.jpg] “Calling at the school office, the visitors were graciously received, meeting the Rev. Glyn Morris (native of Wilkes-Barre, PA), head of the school, and two charming student assistants, Fern Hall and Joan Ayres. Mr. Morris devoted the rest of the day to conducting the strangers about the campus, explaining the work and the aim of the school, where with a limited yet adequate equipment a valuable work is being done in rehabilitating these underprivileged Americans, with stress upon industrial training of the modern age, rather than the handcraft of their forebears.

      “The exquisitely lovely Memorial Chapel [held] the simple but impressive service….. 

      “The swimming pool is a feature of the equipment to which is attached consid-

  1. [little_journeys_016.jpg] “…erable sentiment. In order to build it the students restricted themselves to a rice diet one day each week until a sufficient sum was raised. A sympathetic visitor gave the school money to construct the concrete basin after the first one met with disaster.

“At lunch in the dining hall and recreation room the outlanders were assigned to tables arranged for ten, at which members of the faculty, Mr. and Mrs. Morris, Dr. and Mrs. [Wilmer S.] Lehman and Miss [Maude] Holbrook, were hosts, with a number of students completing the groups. These young persons were staying through the summer to “work off” their debt to the school at various tasks necessary to its maintenance. The community meals afforded the guests an opportunity to become acquainted with these mountain girls and boys and their interests that were seized upon with pleasure.

“A large number of children from poverty-stricken homes of nearby Harlan, Ky., were using the school’s facilities as a summer camp, under the auspices of the Kiwanis Club. These happy youngsters and their college student counselors filled the large dining hall at mealtime and were themselves a study in sociology.”

  1. [little_journeys_017.jpg] As they traveled the road to the Infirmary, they meet Abner Boggs who tells them several stories, including snake-handling at Holiness church.
  1. [little_journeys_018.jpg] [Illustration: man riding mule on road] Abner sang an English ballad; movie camera; met Mabel Weaver, a student nurse and settlement visitor. Arrived at the Infirmary.
  1. [little_journeys_019.jpg] Met “Aunt Til” Harris; movie camera; still operator. Describes Infirmary, supervised by Mrs. [Anna Wulf] Pishzak; met Mrs. Middleton who was temporarily in charge; Miss Turner, student social worker; two girls weaving at looms, “making a business of the native handcraft….”
  1. [little_journeys_020.jpg] Morris told about “Aunt Sally,” sister of Aunt Til; visited Guest House.
  1. [little_journeys_021.jpg] Describes staying at Guest House; arranged to visit mountain homes on mules; candles used for lighting.
  1. [little_journeys_022.jpg] Delivery of riding breeches to Guest House by two schoolgirls.
  1. [little_journeys_023.jpg] Experiences while traveling with the settlement doctor on his round of calls at cabins and schools at Big Laurel and The Divide; “Squire” Browning; “Aunt Becky” Browning; Mrs. Wilder.
  1. [little_journeys_024.jpg] “$50 a year was a high average income for these mountaineers unless someone was employed by the coal mines”; doctor is paid by braided corn husk mats; schoolhouse at The Incline; Mabel Weaver & Stella Taylor, student nurses; Nan Milan, packhorse librarian; teaching woodworking.
  1. [little_journeys_025.jpg] Doctor’s examinations; Mr. Knuchols, teacher; Mrs. O’Neill at the mail carrier’s home; Divide School; singing “rounds”; folk dances of the Kentucky Highlands performed by students; Kentucky Running Set.
  1. [little_journeys_026.jpg] Mr. Morris dancing; At the doctor’s cottage, his wife, Mrs. Lehman, told stories about her years as a missionary in Africa. The visitors resumed their travels, heading for Norris Dam.
  1. [little_journeys_027.jpg] Menus showing food served in the community dining room: for July 19 lunch and dinner; July 20 breakfast.
  1. [little_journeys_028.jpg] NORRIS DAM – [Illustration: street with cars and a buggy] Observations of the “handsome courthouse, scene of so much drama among coal miners, mountain feudists and snake charmers.” Recorded the typical men’s clothing with a movie camera. Current court case involved coal miners and the CIO.
  1. [little_journeys_029.jpg] Passed through Middleboro, Cumberland Gap, Tazewell and “backwaters of Clinch River.” Saw prisoners in black and white striped clothing doing road work; Andersonville road sign. Enters the ante-room of Norris Dam with continuous movies about the project.
  1. [little_journeys_030.jpg] Took a speedboat ride over the backwaters of the dam; thoughts on the dam water covering burial mounds of prehistoric man.
  1. [little_journeys_031.jpg] Arrived in Knoxville; saw magnolia and linden trees; toured historical Blount House saved by Knoxville Chapter DAR; learned history of owner, William Blount.
  1. [little_journeys_032.jpg] MISSING
  2. [little_journeys_033.jpg] O&M Tearoom; theater; purchase of weaving and wood-carving souvenirs.
  1. [little_journeys_034.jpg] Sunday at the Baptist Church; traveling to Clingman’s Dome in the Big Smokies.
  1. [little_journeys_035.jpg] In Gatlinburg, attended musical group and Oakley’s storytelling at Wylie Oakley’s shop.
  1. [little_journeys_036.jpg] Transcription of folk tale told by Wylie Oakley.
  1. [little_journeys_037.jpg] Oakley posed for the movie camera; visited a store at the Cherokee Indian Reservation; photographing a group of American Indians; lunch in Nantahala Forest; arrival at Bryson City, NC.
  1. [little_journeys_038.jpg] Used a darkroom to change camera film; passed fields of tobacco, red clay hills, a small industrial settlement.
  1. [little_journeys_039.jpg] Spent the night at Cleveland, TN; arrived at Chattanooga and Lookout Mt.
  1. [little_journeys_040.jpg] Rode a cable car at Lookout Mt.; breakfast at YMCA; saw memorial to Sam Davis; visited 3 universities in Nashville: Nashville, Vanderbilt and Peabody.
  1. [little_journeys_041.jpg] Visited the Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson and slavery cabins.\
  1. [little_journeys_042.jpg] Passed by stock farms & tobacco fields; trekked through Mammoth Cave, rode boat on Echo River.
  1. [little_journeys_043.jpg] Spent night in cabin at Mammoth Cave.

See Also:

BERTHA SHEPARD Visitor Biography

BERTHA SHEPARD LITTLE JOURNEYS II: Chien Chaud and Culture Seekers on the King’s Highway (Part II)