Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 04: PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL HISTORIES
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Series 10: BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Evelyn K. Wells Record 06
1913-1928

WELLS RECORD 06 PMSS Some Interesting Gifts 1913-1928

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TAGS: Wells Record 06, gifts to PMSS 1913-1928, Evelyn K. Wells, donors, volunteers, PMSS buildings, gifts of land, in-kind gifts, money gifts

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“WELLS RECORD 06 PMSS Some Interesting Gifts 1913-1928” is a record of selected gifts to the Pine Mountain Settlement School from 1913 until 1928. This narrative was written by Evelyn K. Wells, PMSS Secretary, 1916–1931, and Interim Director 1931.

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EARLIEST GIFTS

The first gift of money to Pine Mountain was from the Missionary Society in the Hindman School which, after a serious discussion of the claims of the child widows of India, the Lepers and one or two other interests, decided in favor of the new school for Mountain children which Miss [Katherine] Pettit and Miss [Ethel] de Long were about to start. The speech that swayed the vote to Pine Mountain was made by Stephen Gilbert, a Hindman boy who has since become a minister and made two or three visits here preaching in our church. The amount voted was the entire balance in their treasury, forty-five cents!

Uncle William Creech‘s gift of land is mentioned in the introduction, but there have been other gifts, notably from Columbus Creech and Henry Creech, who gave us the land back of the School running to the top of Pine Mountain.

Col.  J.C. Durrett of Midway, Kentucky, gave us a pair of mules with their harness in 1913 and many substantial contributions of money. We bought the Wilder Property at the head of Isaac’s Run with his money, also the Little Laurel Farm.

GIFTS FOR BUILDINGS

Money for buildings has been given as follows:

Laurel House I	$6,000	Through Mrs. Morton [Board member], in memory of her father Mr. Howard Gratz.
Far House I	1,000	From Mrs. William Pettit in memory of Mr. William Atchison.
Mary Sinclair Burkham Schoolhouse	6,000	In memory of Miss Burkham by her sister, Miss Caroline Burkham of New York. (Miss Mary Burkham was much interested in all work for needy children and met Miss de Long just before her final illness.)
Reservoir	3,000	From Mrs. Mary Emery of Cincinnati.
Medical Settlement [Big Laurel]	5,000	From Mrs. Mary Emery of Cincinnati.
Boy’s House	12,000	From J.S. Duncan of Chicago.
Infirmary	3,000	Multiple donors: S.L. Sewall, Minneapolis ; Mrs. David G Tyler, Philadelphia ; Miss Sarah Bremer, Boston ; Mrs Annie Swift, Chicago ; Mr. Seymour van Santvoord, Troy, NY ; Mrs. John S. Kennedy, New York ; Mrs A.F. Schauffler, New York ; Mrs. L.C. Fenno, Boston ; Mr. J.G. Seaman, California.
Country Cottage	1,000	From the New York Auxiliary of the Southern Industrial Educational Association.
Chapel	13,000	Given by Miss Jessie Munger of Plainfield, N.J. in memory of her aunt, Charlotte F. Hedges.
Little Log House [Dr.s Cabin]	200	For Little Log House, from Mr. Martin [Darwin D. Martin], Buffalo, NY.

GIFTS TO EQUIP AND MAINTAIN PMSS

We remember as typical of the generous gifts that have equipped the school and maintained it, the seed which came for years from  J.C  McCullough of Cincinnati, the farm implements always forthcoming at our request from the B.F. Avery Plow Co., through Mr. C.F. Huhlein of Louisville, the window glass that came for years during our construction period from Capt. Charles W. Brown of the Pittsburgh Plate & Glass Co., the bathtubs and other plumbing fixtures from the Ahrens and Ott Company, the furnishings of a thousand varieties from toasting forks to the Ford truck, that came every time Mr. Martin [Darwin D. Martin] turned us loose in the Larkin Catalog.

One of the first gifts to the school and one of elemental importance was Miss Helen Kimball’s money which bought the Sawmill. All the lumber for the Big Log House was given and sawed by the Creech brothers. Most of the money for the building of the Swimming Pool was raised by the Pine Mountain children who ate dinners of rice and cocoa every Friday for a year, saving the money of their regular dinner.

Most of the firms, who early in our history gave us actual equipment, changed their policy after the War [WWI], preferring then to give us a money gift.

MISCELLANEOUS GIFTS

The Memorial Tablet to Uncle William, set in the fountain [William Creech Memorial Fountain] on the Playground, was the gift of Philip Roettinger of Cincinnati. Another interesting gift prompted by admiration for Uncle William was that of $100 every Christmas for four years, from Mrs. George H. Bruen, to be used for a book for every child in the school, “in memory of their friend, William Creech.”

The Log Cabin [Aunt Sal’s Cabin] which was the pioneer home of Uncle William and Aunt Sal was given us by the Creech heirs, and will be furnished by their gift of the “household gear” belonging in the first days of their marriage to that couple.

We have spoken elsewhere of the generosity of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in giving passes for all medical and surgical cases.

In 1926 a bequest from the estate of Mrs. Crane of Montclair made possible an expensive piece of land reclamation, putting almost another acre into garden land to the west of the road from the Pioneer Cabin [Aunt Sal’s Cabin] to the Toolhouse [Toolhouse I], which had formerly been a wide ditch.

Miss Elizabeth Hench formed the Joy Stock Company from a group of her friends in 1921, and her sprightly letters to her growing membership have resulted in the support of the Cow Joy and her daughters at the School ever since.

Mary Rockwell Hook has always put her talents and training at our disposal drawing plans for our buildings and making the trip from Kansas City to Pine Mountain for consultation.

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See Also: 

EVELYN K. WELLS Biography

 DARWIN D. MARTIN Biography

ELIZABETH HENCH GUIDE TO THE COW LETTERS

GUIDE TO ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS AT PINE MOUNTAIN

See Also: 

EVELYN K. WELLS GUIDE TO ADMINISTRATIVE CORRESPONDENCE

EVELYN K. WELLS, GUIDE to EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS HOME 1915-1923

EVELYN K. WELLS 1915 EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS HOME 

EVELYN K. WELLS 1915 EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS HOME – Horseback to Hindman

EVELYN K. WELLS 1916 EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS HOME

EVELYN K. WELLS 1917 EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS HOME

EVELYN K. WELLS 1918 EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS HOME 

EVELYN K. WELLS 1919 EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS HOME

RECORD OF PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL 1913-1928 [INDEX] (Early in-depth history of Pine Mountain Settlement School)

Foreword

2.        Introductory

3.          Year by Year [Construction, Workers, Gifts, Children, Events, etc.]

4.          Physical Growth

5.          Support and Budget

6.          Some Interesting Gifts

7.          Industrial and Vocational

8.          Farm – Dairy – Poultry

9.          The Country Cottage

10.        Academic

11.        Health

12.        Extension Work

13.        The Fireside Industries

14.        Folk Songs and Dance

15.        Athletics

16.        Dramatics

17.        Some Contributions to the Outside World

18.        Religious Life

19.        The Road

20.        Various Happenings

21.        Policies – General

22.        List of Workers

[22 sections of Pine Mountain Settlement School History gathered by Evelyn K. Wells from 1913 to 1928]

EVELYN K. WELLS PUBLICATIONS

Wells, Evelyn K. The Ballad Tree: A Study of British and American Ballads, Their Folklore, Verse and Music, Together with Sixty Traditional Ballads and Their Tunes. New York: Ronald Press, 1950. Print.

EVELYN K. WELLS “A Little True Blue American,”  Over Sea and Land: Our Southern Mountains, November 1920, p. 140.

EVELYN K. WELLS TALKS

EVELYN K. WELLS PMSS Harvard University talk, on Folk Music. July 21, 1955

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