EDUCATION Community and Children's Writing IIIE

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 13: EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
Series 19: STUDENTS

children_wrtg_047a

EDUCATION Community and Children’s Writing IIIE

Samples 41-58, Dated 1921-1950

TAGS: Education Community and Children’s Writing IIIE, children’s writing, education, humor, English language, community, family, Marguerite Butler, Fair Day, Margaret Motter, thank-you notes, Dorothy Nace, Burton Rogers

EDUCATION COMMUNITY AND CHILDREN’S WRITING IIIE is the third in a series of selected letters written by students, staff, and community. This page provides a representative excerpt from each of their writings and images of the full correspondence. For full translations of letters on this page, go to E D UCATION Community and Children’s Writing TRANSCRIPTIONS III.

EXCERPTS: EDUCATION Community and Children’s Writing IIIE

[Excerpts have been slightly edited, but most misspellings have been kept intact. All letters are handwritten and sent from Pine Mountain unless indicated otherwise. See images below for complete letters. The following list of excerpts are in order of the image numbers.]

41. Maudie Creech to Miss [Marguerite] Butler, May 23, 1921. “…Miss Butler, I have you to thank many times for getting me to go to Pine Mountain to school for I wouldn’t know half what I do if I hadn’t went. I love Pine Mountain. Don’t you?…” Mentions Grant, Mr. [Luigi] Zande, MIss Parkinson, Baby Jeanett (sic) and Miss [Ruth B.] Gaines.

42. Delia [Creech] to Miss Butler, Aug. 26, 1922. “The Victrola is at rest at present almost the first time since it arrived. I wish you could have been here when it arrived. I hardly think Oma [Creech] touched the floor twice the evening it came.” Also mentions Miss Gaines, Charles & Wilmer, Uncle Calvin, Miss Metcalf, Henry, Miss [Ethel] de Long, Mrs. [Ethel de Long] Zande, Hulda, Ethel, Nora, Aunt Sarah, and Miss Robbins.

43. Clara to Miss Butler, July 20, 1925, Chautaugua, New York. “Oh, Mr. [John] Philip Sousa and his band has just been here…. They are just back from a tour of Europe…. I have never in my life heard anything better.” Mentions Miss Gaines, Miss Menay, Miss Siler, Mr. [Darwin D.] Martin in Buffalo, Miss Jeannette and Miss McCullough.

44. Becky May [Huff] To Mrs. Zande, January 27, 1927, Berea College, Berea, Ky. “Our Pine Mountain group has increased this week. Everyone says that it seems as though Berea is made up of Pine Mountain. There are nearly forty of us here.” Mentions Thelma. For full transcription go to EDUCATION Children’s Writing (06, 44) Becky May Huff.

45. Ella J. Lewis to Mrs. Ethel Zande, Oct. 8. 1927, Laden, Ky. “Alice brought this flower from Martin Co. She brought you and me one apiece and they grow in water with a little dirt in the bottom of the pan.”

46a. Raymond Holbrook, first grade, Incline School, to Mrs. Morris, Jan. 18, 1932, Incline, Ky. “We wish to thank you for the nice Christmas presents you gave us. We enjoyed them very much.”

46b. Waldon Holbrook, Third Grade, Incline School, to Mrs. Morris, Jan. 18. 1932, Incline, Ky. “we wish to thank you for the nice Christmas presents you gave us.”

47a. Ernest Bailey, Seventh Grade, Incline School, Jan. 18. 1932, Incline, Ky. “We wish to express our thanks for the nice Christmas presents you gave us. We boys especially like the school bags.”

47b. Marie Nolen [?], Fourth Grade, Incline School, to Mrs. Morris, Jan. 18, 1932, Incline, Ky. “We wish to thank you for our presents…the sewing bags was very nice.”

48. [Notation at top of page: “Student writing Ulysses Shackleford, c. 1930 – ?”] [Typewritten] “FAIR DAY. … It was one of those clear autumnal days when the first fruits of harvest were ripening that the valley became astir with people. ‘Going to the Fair?’ — a day which we may trace back to our European ancestors as a celebration of the beginning of harvest….”

49. James Napier to Miss [Margaret] Motter. [Notation at top of page: “…1930s?”] “English II. “Two years ago I decided to quit school. I was in the first year high school…I decided to go up in Ohio to try to get a job, so the first day I got there I went to work so it made me believe I were a real man and didn’t need any education….[the foreman] put me a hold of a pick and shovel and told me to work hard. When he said that, my mind turned toward how I were going to live so I returned home and begin to school again and I never have had least idea at that kind of work any more.”

50. Winfield Cornett to Miss Motter, Sept. 5, 1928. “I were borned on Line Fork about three miles from P.M.S.S. I have worked on a farm pretty [much] all of my life. I’ve worked in the mines and the log woods for to [make] money for schooling.”

51. [Anonymous poem, n.d.] “Spring. …Wake up in the morning/Look out the green grass/and hear the milk boys whistlin’ as they pass….”

52. Alice Minyard. [notation: “1932?”] “The Home I Would Like To Have.” “I want a five room log bungalow in the country. In the inside of my home I want home made furniture.”

53. Bennie Lorner, English 9th, March 1, 1932. “My home I would like to own. “A beautiful home will win any beautiful ladie for a wife.” Mentions Miss Foot.

54. Gerna Bird [?], Bible 10, Nov. 15, 1932. “My Idea of Religion.” “All religions are not the same but they may all be right. Religion is the principals or ideals and standards of any individual conducting themselves on earth….”

55a – c. [Anonymous], Oct. 27, 1937. [Notation: “I think these pages were for Miss [Edith] Cold’s English class. How he loved her. He writes about the cabin which I understand is not there any more. Mrs. C.W. Pennington. Raymond’s mother sent these to me. L.B.(?)“] “I am drawing the plan for our log cabin that is going to be put up on the hill, back of the school house….” 55b. [Anonymous, continued]. “Cordell Hull is our Secretary of State. Hull Warns Japan and China on U.S. Ships and Nationals; Britain Preparing Demands.” 55c. [Anonymous, continued]. Nov. 29, 1937. “Friday, Clarence, John, Claude, and I went to haul the logs to our cabin that we had cut. It was sprinkling rain and we had a hard time working the mule….I think that there will be about five boys out of our class that will have to have their tonsils taken out so we want to get a lot done today.”

56a. “EARLY GRADE SCHOOL, CHILDREN’S & PARENTS’ LETTERS”

56b. Jonnie Pauline Shoupe to Miss [Dorothy] Nace, [n.d.]. [Notation at top of page: “Lesson – writing invitation”] “I would love for you to come down at my house and stay with me for a day….”

56c. Pauline to Miss Nace, [n.d.] “Will you come and visit me….”

56d. Clark to Miss Nace, [n.d.]. [Notation at top of page: “Lesson – writing invitation”] “Will you come in to visit me?….”

56e. Ella Lee Cornett to Miss Nace, [truncated date]. “Just a few lines to let you know why I haven’t been coming to school. My mother is sick and I mind the children and I have a cold….I sure do miss school….”

56f. Thelma Wilder to Miss Nace, [n.d.] “Will you be here next year.”

56g. Thelma Jean Huff to Miss Nace, October 29, [truncated year]. “…My teacher is Miss Roberts…. Everyone of us had the measles….” Mentions Harold.

56h. Grace to Miss Nace, [n.d.]. “Will you please move Yvonne out of the seat with Mary Ruth. I don’t want her to set with her….”

56i. Geneva Lee to Miss Nace, March 2, 1950. “…I wish I could come and listen at those stories but I am too sick.”

56j. Mrs. Huff to Miss Nace, [n.d.]. “I thank you very much for the picture of Thelma Jean….”

56k. Joanna to Dartha (sic) Nace, [n.d.]. You ear the prettyst techer…”

56l. Mrs. Elbert Harrit to Miss Nace, [n.d.]. “I am sending you the money for 14 mels [meals?] by Mary Ruth….” Mentions Elmer.

56m. Priscilla Harrit to Miss Nace, [n.d.]. “…keep down Mary Ruth meals and send to me when Elbert gets a pay day….”

56n. Mrs. Boggs to Miss Nace, [n.d.]. “Sue Ellen got head lice from some one and I worked affel hard getting them off. Would like for you to not let her sit to clost to the other children if I am not asking to much….”

56o. Eva Lee Cornett, [n.d.]. “My teacher’s name is Miss Nace….I like Mr. Rogers, he is a good man….” Mentions Tommy and Bill Huff.

OTHER LETTERS

57. Burton [Rogers] to Dorothy [Nace], Dec. 15, [no year]. [Notation at top of page: “Would Peter like?”] “…We are so happy that you had the service which so fittingly prepared for the baptism of John Peter…. “

58. Douglas Reynolds, Kodak, Ky. [Notation at bottom of page: “Circa 1947”.] [typewritten]. See CHILDREN’S WRITING (58) Douglas Reynolds for full transcription.