Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: Biography – Staff/Personnel
EMILY STORER, Community Worker, Medical Settlement 1919-1921
TAGS: Emily Storer, teachers, Medical Settlement, Big Laurel, community workers, Playhouse, Community House, Edith Storer
“She’s a busy one! I think she’s perfectly splendid, in the way she goes ahead.” This brief praise about Emily Storer, a worker at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in the early 1900s, was in an unsigned letter to Katherine Pettit, dated February 14, 1920.
During her two years at Pine Mountain, 1919 through 1921, Miss Storer worked at the Medical Settlement at Big Laurel, one of the School’s extensions. According to Evelyn Wells’ record of extension work, the Playhouse at Big Laurel was built in 1920 with funds raised largely by Miss Emily Storer, the community worker at the time. It served as “a community center, gathering in the young people of the neighborhood for all sorts of good times and classes and Sunday School work.” It burned down in 1925 and was replaced by the larger and more efficient Community House.
After her time at Pine Mountain, Miss Storer often sent donations to the School and kept in touch with Ethel de Long Zande, the School’s co-director who had hired her. EMILY STORER CORRESPONDENCE provides not only images of Storer’s letters concerning her application for a position at the School in 1919, but also images of her later correspondence dated 1925 through 1927. In a letter dated April 29, 1926 (image #019a), Miss Storer writes of her appreciation and nostalgia for her PMSS experience:
I had almost forgotten how much I loved it all and the people. Everything is so genuine and true and the loyalty and devotion and ruggest strength of those people just makes one’s heart glad. It certainly is thrilling to see the changes for better in their lives and homes (apart from the horrible railroad side of it). It makes everything about Pine Mt. seem so wonderfully worthwhile and real.
Emily Storer to Ethel de Long Zande in a letter dated April 29, 1926
Miss Storer came to PMSS from Waltham, Massachusetts, the town where she was born on September 4, 1886. Her father was John Humphreys Storer Sr., a lawyer and real estate broker, and her mother, Edith Lyman (Paine) Storer. As of the 1900 U.S. Census, she had 5 siblings* and the household included six servants.
Emily Lyman Storer died in 1975 in Cambridge, MA, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.
*NOTE: In 1916-1917, a few years before Emily Storer’s Pine Mountain stay, Florence Edith Storer (1893-1962), also known as Mrs. Winfred C. Rhoades, was a teacher at Pine Mountain Settlement School. She is listed among Emily Lyman Storer’s siblings on findagrave.com. Her records at Pine Mountain were most likely destroyed in the Burkham I Schoolhouse fire. Florence Edith Storer became an important illustrator of children’s books.
The two sisters were associated with the estate of Robert Treat Paine, called Stonehurst at Waltham, MA. Robert Treat Paine is often described as the “Capitalist With a Conscience”, was a descendent of Robert Treat Paine, the signer of the Declaration of Independence. The landscaping at Stonehurst is the work of the noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The two sisters knew the estate well.
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EMILY STORER Correspondence
| Title | Emily Storer |
| Alt. Title | Emily L. Storer, Emily Lyman Storer |
| Identifier | pinemountainsettlement.ne/?page_id=67405 |
| Creator | Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY |
| Alt. Creator | Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt |
| Subject Keyword | Emily Storer, Emily L. Storer, Emily Lyman Storer, teachers, Medical Settlement, Big Laurel, community workers, Playhouse, Community House, Edith Storer |
| Subject LCSH | Emily Storer, — 1886-1975. Pine Mountain (Ky.) Settlement School — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Education — Kentucky — Harlan County. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Schools — Appalachian |
| Date | 2019-06-06 aae |
| Publisher | Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY |
| Contributor | n/a |
| Type | Collections ; text ; image ; |
| Format | Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in |
| Source | Series 09 Biography – Staff/Personnel |
| Language | English |
| Relation | Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09 Biography – Staff/Personnel |
| Coverage Temporal | 1886-1975 |
| Coverage Spatial | Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; |
| Rights | Any display, publication or public use must Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the by United States copyright law. |
| Donor | n/a |
| Description | Core documents, correspondence, writings and administrative papers created by or addressed to Emily Storer; clippings, photographs, publications, illustrations by or about Emily Storer. |
| Acquisition | n/d |
| Citation | “[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. |
| Processed By | Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ; |
| Last Updated | 2019-06-06 aae ; 2019-08-19 aae ; 2020-09-07 hhw |
| Bibliography | |
| Sources | “Emily Storer.” KATHERINE PETTIT CORRESPONDENCE 1920, image 050 ; WELLS RECORD 12 PMSS Extension Work 1913-1928 ; GUIDE TO PMSS WORKERS 1913-2000s. Series 09: Biography – Staff/Personnel. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. Internet resource. “Find A Grave Index,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVLH-RZ9R : accessed 21 August 2019), Emily Lyman Storer; Burial, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, Mount Auburn Cemetery; citing record ID 89466940, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. Internet resource. “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY- 6Q39-PKY?cc=1325221&wc=9B7B-HZJ%3A1030549901 %2C1031862601%2C1034169501 : accessed 21 August 2019), (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.) Internet resource. “United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99X7- H77W?cc=2185145&wc=3XZ8-DPF%3A1056306501%2 C1056628501 : accessed 21 August 2019), (M1490) Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.) Internet resource. |