Dr. LLEWELLA MERROW Correspondence II

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Dr, Llewella Merrow Correspondence II, 1926

ANNE RUTH MEDCALF Report to Miss Pettit 11 Feb 1922 ; LLEWELLA MERROW Correspondence II

“Line Fork community House, June 21,” 1923. Kathrine True Album, modified. [true_042_mod.jpg]


TAGS: Llewella Merrow Correspondence II, 1926, Dr. Llewella Merrow, Llewella Maria Merrow, physicians, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Ethel de Long Zande, Ginling College in China medical work, Line Fork Settlement, American Optical Company, Antioch College, horses, Katherine Pettit, intelligence tests, tonsil clinics, typhoid, cornea refractions, water supply, train travel, Dr. and Rev. Stapleton, Dr. Alfreda Withington, diphtheria


Dr. LLEWELLA MERROW Correspondence II, 1926

GALLERY: [Images 020-038]

TRANSCRIPTION: Llewella Merrow Correspondence II
[Images 020-038]

[Some of the handwritten words are indecipherable. These are indicated by question marks or periods: ….]

[merrow_llewella_corr_020.jpg] – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

July 22, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

I think it is wonderful what you have been able to do all by yourself over at Gilley and am so glad that you have Miss Maxwell to help you with things that must seriously burden you when you have the medical work.

Yes, it is perfectly true that as you go down Line Fork folks are a better class. We really made a mistake in not putting the Settlement four or five miles further down.

If you had a dog there you would really have to watch it very carefully or someone would poison it. I don’t know how to get one to lend you. Now that Miss Maxwell is there you can feel safe about leaving Dorothy, at any rate.

I will be delighted to say that your work is educational. It certainly is. Do you want it in a letter “to whom it may concern,” or to some special person?

I am glad Dr. Stucky has arranged with his friend of the American Optical Company to supply you with lenses and frames.

Don’t work too hard in this very hot weather. I haven’t yet had a chance to tell you that [I] saw and heard Mabel Milham Roys when I was East. We spoke at the same meeting.

Sincerely yours,
[Unsigned: Ethel Zande]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Line Fork Settlement
Gilley, Kentucky
EZ:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_021.jpg] – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

July 24, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

I will be very glad to write to Antioch and will keep the matter entirely confidential. You should not have to pay anything for sawdust, simply for loading and hauling it. It’s a drug on the market purely.

I think the idea of getting Orville Smith‘s bill paid in coin is very good.

Within a few days I can send Maud [horse] over for you to keep. Miss Kraus has for some time wanted to buy a horse and this will make it possible for us to lend Maud indefinitely to Line Fork. I will write Miss Krauss to go ahead and get her horse.

Sincerely yours,
[Unsigned: Ethel Zande]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Line Fork
Gilley, Kentucky
EZ:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_022.jpg] – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

July 26, 1926

Dear Dr. Morrow;

Horse flesh is evidently one of those subjects on which the world will never agree. I consider Maud a very good horse. I am always glad when I can ride her. She is not of course a rare creature like Queen.

It happens that your dislike of her works out well with the fact that the horse Miss Krauss had thought of buying has distemper and so she is not going to take it. We will just have to manage I guess with the Lewis’ horse.

Sincerely yours,
[Unsigned: Ethel Zande]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Line Fork Settlement
Gilley, Kentucky
EZ:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_023.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 1 of 3.

Aug 3 [1926]
[Header: LINE FORK SETTLEMENT, GILLEY, LETCHER CO., KENTUCKY]

Dear Mrs. Zande: I am only judge of a comfortable saddle-horse for me & Maud nearly killed me. She is big muscled and can only trot in a hard way hasn’t[?] even a running walk. It would be impossible for me to ride her to Hurricane Gap and then look after a confinement. … being sick for a week so I thought “discretion the better part of valor.” Mrs. Lewis has sent word again that she wants this pony very soon. So I don’t know what I will do. It may have been foolish for me to take this case 2 mi. beyond Helton’s store but they are good pay and–

[merrow_llewella_corr_023a.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 2 of 3.

–I wanted to get into this section[?]. Miss Maxwell is still here but I don’t know for how long. She is fine as a companion but of little real help in the house and not strong enough to enter into community work. This matter[?] is very hard for us all.

Many thanks for your kind letter to Pres. Morgan. They are slow in letting me know. I think they are stuck on the intelligence test which I have not yet taken. I wonder if I am intelligent according to Hoyle. We are having a demand for little romper suits and baby–

[merrow_llewella_corr_023b.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 3 of 3.

–dresses, thin ones, can you send a few. I enclose a check for $35.00 which as I remember will cover the bill for drugs & instruments. Making $85, sent you. Am I right?

There will be no large bill for feed again until Sept.

Do you know definitely when Miss [Katherine] Pettit is returning?

Sincerely
Llewella Merrow

[merrow_llewella_corr_024.jpg] – Typewritten letter.

[Header] ANTIOCH COLLEGE
YELLOW SPRINGS
OHIO

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

August 4, 1926.

Miss Ethel Zande,
Pine Mountain Settlement School,
Pine Mountain, Harlan County,
Kentucky.

My dear Miss Zande:

Thank you very much indeed for your letter about Dr. Merrow. We are planning to come to a conclusion on our medical situation very soon. It is a little slower on account of the absence of Dr. Earp who is in charge. There are some reasons why a man would be better inasmuch as three quarters of our students are men. We shall come to a conclusion just as soon as it is possible.

Sincerely,
[Signed] Arthur E. Morgan,
President
AEM:H

[Handwritten notation] Will you please tell me whether you think she would be an agreeable person and a college student? Is she “[?]” in any way? Will young people like her?

[merrow_llewella_corr_025.jpg] – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

August 6, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

What you write about intelligence tests and Antioch makes me think of a parody written by a high school girl which diverted me very much:

“It dwelt among the untrodden ways
Obscure, unknown to fame,
An I.Q. nobody could raise
But nobody could blame.
It dwelt apart, and few could know ‘
Twas low as low could be,
Until I took a test,–then, OH!
The difference to me!”

I am so glad nobody has proposed taking an intelligence test among the faculty at Pine Mountain. I find mine very low as I test it out on the questions that come out occasionally in magazines.

This thirty-five dollars is perfectly fine. August is a dreadful month for expenses with things beginning again and perfectly huge bills for groceries so as to be supplied ahead.

Miss Pettit is coming in on the fifteenth. I don’t know what to say about a horse. I have no idea where we could get one for you, but I will ask Miss [Ruth] Gaines if she has any more information. I don’t blame you for not liking Maud. I like her, but I have found other horses that were highly recommended very far from suitable to my needs.

We have already written the Optical Company people about this bill that keeps going to you. It looks as if nothing were being done, but don’t despair. We have even made payments on it, having collected with difficulty from people who didn’t want to pay!

I have no little rompers. If any come in I will send them over to you. Maybe there will be some baby dresses too.

Sincerely yours,
[Unsigned: Ethel Zande?]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Line Fork Settlement
Gilley, Kentucky
[Truncated]

[merrow_llewella_corr_026.jpg] – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

August 7, 1926

Dr. Arthur Morgan, President
Antioch College
Yellow Springs, Ohio

Dear President Morgan :

The only time I have been able to observe the reaction of young people to Dr. Merrow was when she helped us out after a huge tonsils clinic some years ago. She showed great resourcefulness in dealing with some very serious cases of bleeding after the doctor who had operated had gone. She saved the life of one boy, and the big boys she took care of liked her very much.

I have heard very enthusiastic reports about Dr. Merrow from young people who knew her casually when she was at another extension center. She has won a good practice for herself in a difficult community over at Line Fork, although she has been there only five months. She has made an impression of great sincerity and carefulness.

I have understood from people and friends who knew her in Ginling [Jinling] that her colleagues considered her “difficult.” However, I have been told that the political situation within that college was in itself difficult. My own impression of her is that she sometimes seems overcritical and untactful, but anybody who has been connected with institutional work is of course used to minor difficulties and disregards “pinpricks” if a fine, intelligent piece of work can be done. That is our policy at Pine Mountain, and I am sure it is yours too.

If you do not find a man, I believe that Dr. Merrow would do a fine piece of work for you, and that the students would like her.

Sincerely yours,
[Unsigned: Ethel Zande]
EZ:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_027.jpg] – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

August 11, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

Thank you for your note about the typhoid precautions. I have written to the Shoemaker children and will try to find out where their mother got it.

We are glad to know about the meeting for Sunday, and I think it is quite likely that a number of Pine Mountain people will be over for it.

Sincerely yours,
[Unsigned: Ethel Zande]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Line Fork Settlement
Gilley, Kentucky
EZ:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_028.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 1 of 3.

[Header: LINE FORK SETTLEMENT, GILLEY, LETCHER CO., KENTUCKY]

Aug. 11th [1926]

Dear Mrs. Zande: It never rains but it pours! Mary Lewis has come for the …. and I think this time it’s the last. In fact, I know it is.

Can you help me out … for a time? The baby … of Hurricane Gap has not come yet and I have promised them so do not dare to be without a horse. I need one all the time for I have been trying to get with the schools to–

[merrow_llewella_corr_028a.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 2 of 3.

It is … the … making me sick … the work at home. I have had to do all of the planning and half the work for 3 people for a mo. and now Eula is … to do this work for she can carry water & ride the pony. She came at 9 o’clock this a.m. and has been able to wash the dinner dishes. Well, I will live through it! I do hope you can send …–

[merrow_llewella_corr_028b.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 3 of 3. – Handwritten letter, page 3 of 3.

–of some kind. Mr. Creech is unable to fix the ….

Sincerely
L.M. Merrow

[merrow_llewella_corr_029.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 1 of 5.

[n.d.]
[Header: LINE FORK SETTLEMENT, GILLEY, LETCHER CO., KENTUCKY]

Dear Mrs. Zande: Our water supply is very suddenly …. I do not believe the well is dry. We have been priming it. Mrs. Smith seems to know how to do it… no result and the iron that was fitted … of pipe was broken off in her endeavor to get it out. It was rusted tight.

I wonder if Mr. [Luigi] Zande could come down & advise? I may be able to get Bennett Hall to dig down but I very much doubt his intelligence. I have not … him … this money question but I–

[merrow_llewella_corr_029a.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 2 of 5.

–… not to throw away 2 or 3 days work and … him anyway if you could … & … with Mr. Zande. It’s foolish for this water question here not to be settled now and packing a … up the hill is a big question …

If you have a well why not have one suitable for a water supply — I believe there is a leak somewhere. I’m sending Eula as I do not feel able to go up myself. … the work is getting the best of me. I hired Mrs. Smith today–

[merrow_llewella_corr_029b.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 3 of 5.

–to do the washing as Eula knows nothing about it and cannot cook either, apparently.

I have been waiting … question … until Miss Pettit returns but would it be best to hire men now as we are still getting it piece meal?

… can I get a R.R. ticket for the Gilbert boy to go to Berea or Louisville to have .. eye …? He has promised to go now and is in great need. When I go out he … go …. Do you know the …  of a good–

[merrow_llewella_corr_029c.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 4 of 5.

–gynecologist I could write to about a case here for free or nearly free work? (Mrs. S. Sparkman)

I want to leave a few bills in the hands of a good collector. Can you name one? This is important. These charges should be paid.

When Miss Pettit comes I hope she can come down very soon. I don’t want to get sick & I’m very … if I shall pull out … get down.

If I only had someone to–

[merrow_llewella_corr_029d.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 5 of 5.

–relieve me of this cooking & … work it would make it easier but this little girl has had no experience. She burned up my broilers, unable to … bread or make biscuit, I have cleaned up the kitchen after her each time, etc. Don’t say anything to her of course. She simply does not know how. Miss Maxwell left yesterday.

Sincerely,
L.M. Merrow

[merrow_llewella_corr_030.jpg] – Handwritten letter, page 1 of 2.

[Header: LINE FORK SETTLEMENT, GILLEY, LETCHER CO., KENTUCKY]

Aug. 14th [1926]

Dear Mrs. Zande: I shall be all right not. My spell is over! I have processed several cornea refractions – etc – and am giving … injections to a paralytic lad who comes every week. So that while work is slow, it all counts and is what I have been advising these folks to have.

If I can I shall remain to finish up these cases. The heat goes to my head. I am growing into all–

[merrow_llewella_corr_030a.jpg]  – Handwritten letter, page 2 of 2.

–these … expressions — and depresses me so. But I can’t get  … so I’ll see it through. The Antioch Admissions Comm. are still … I’ve about given up hope. But their Dean … assured me of … job & … this I’ve not tried for anything else. Such is life! Fall at hand and no opening.

Thanks for Maud. Perhaps no long rides will be needed.

Sincerely
Llewella Merrow

[merrow_llewella_corr_031.jpg]  – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

August 17, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

I am glad you are better and that you can finish out your time.

I want to send little Bodie Anderson over to you. She says her glasses never have been right.

We will send somebody over on that well business at the earliest possible moment. It is very hard to get anybody. Mr. Zande is running the saw mill himself and can’t possibly go over.

I am sorry your letter inviting us to come to “next Sunday’s service” didn’t reach us the right week, but our young people enjoyed the trip and especially liked getting wet.

Thank you for the charts. We are expecting to use something of this kind in school this year, as a stimulation to better posture.

Will you please tell me right away the full name of the Gilbert boy and whether you want to take him to Berea or Louisville, so I can apply for a pass for him from the L. and N. Have you arranged for someone to take care of him?

Sincerely yours,
[Unsigned: Ethel Zande]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Line Fork Settlement
Gilley, Kentucky
EZ:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_032.jpg]  – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

August 20, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

I am hoping so much you are coming over before I have to go back to Lexington.

Dr. and Mrs. Stapleton write that they will reach Cumberland Tuesday, August 31. I have just written them that you will send horses for them to meet the train and bring them over to Line Fork. I hope so much you will have no trouble doing that. Other workers there have usually found Bert Smith the best one to take horses to meet people, I wonder if you can plan with the storekeeper to have a wagon to meet the train to bring their trunks across the mountain that day. If not, just as soon as possible, for you realize how anxious new workers are to get their possessions.

As Dorothy Whitaker writes she is ill and can’t come back for a week or so we will let Maud Miniard, who stayed at Line Fork last summer, go back on Sunday when Eula Fee comes over. Let Eula ride the horse over on Sunday for Maud to ride back.

I hope so much I am going to see you in the next few days. It is impossible for me to get over there before our school begins Monday.

Very hastily,
[Unsigned: Katherine Pettit]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Gilley, Letcher County
Kentucky
KP:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_033.jpg]  – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

September 3, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

Miss Gaines has just handed me your letter to answer. Thank you for the explanation, which Miss Ratliff had already given me. I paid no attention to the report anyway. Miss Gaines said to tell you the reason we sent food was that she thought you were going away right away and Miss Ratliff might not know just how to get things and have them on hand when the Stapletons arrived.

I hope you are getting a good rest, and I shall be so glad to hear from you in Ohio when you get settled.

With cordial greetings to your sister,

Faithfully yours,
[Unsigned: Katherine Pettit]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Berea College
Berea, Kentucky
KP:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_034.jpg] Handwritten letter, page 1 of 3.

Sept 1st [1926]

My dear Miss Gaines [Ruth Gaines]: I am writing hurriedly to your this morning for I forgot to settle with you for service of girls — Eula & Maude — also for the … sent by Miss Ratliffe [sic].

Please send this account in for there is money enough left … I have managed to save. I spoke to … about this. I think $40 + to pay all bills. This is the only one I know of unpaid.

I am so sorry that you think we had nothing to eat at Line Fork for I know this was the report you got. Those girls I guess would have … elbow. I told … of them and Maude should have known. Milk, butter, eggs and vegetables — green corn, tomatoes, potatoes … Jerill Lewis — and they did not know enough to even do that. But shouted up & down the creek, “We have nothing to eat at the cabin.” I had dried beef — a fine grade and pointed out to them potted[?] meat & … in the cellar. But they had–

[merrow_llewella_corr_034a.jpg]  – Handwritten letter, page 2 of 3.

–not seen them and when I arrived this night at 6:30 & dark, a roaring fire, uneatable biscuit brown with soda — and some half-cooked string beans was all they had. Maude had invited several boys to a party and they were … there. She used almost a half can of cocoa for fudge unfinished on the stove and … — not a lamp chimney … while I may … — smoked chimneys — no oil in lamps — and inedible supper & 4 boys waiting on the porch. Such things seem so unnecessary to me!

I lost my temper — broke a lamp chimney & went to bed dinnerless! As I have been without breakfast & dinner — all but your nice lunch, you saved my life. You see, I told Miss Heeley [?] to tell you about Maude and you can decide on sending her back. Miss Ratliff has been … helpful. I apologize [for not] leaving the Cabin & barn in better order for them but I’ve had to leave it to Miss Ratliff and it’s been impossible to … The rains have leaked–

[merrow_llewella_corr_034b.jpg]  – Handwritten letter, page 3 of 3.

–through every possible place in … & barn. Sagging in some places have made it worse, but we have … enough so this we have but little to tote[?].

I want to thank you for your many kindnesses to me. I shall … here for a few days and then go on to Ohio for a little while.

Sincerely yours
Llewella Merrow

P.S. After so much being stolen from our cellar in canned … goods I did my …. A Yale lock in the door might save $5 or $10  … So fresh veg. and fruit easily gotten & much cheaper … living on during August!

[merrow_llewella_corr_035.jpg] Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

September 14, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

Will you please explain the enclosed bill from the American Optical Company. I must know whom the glasses were for so that I can collect the money for them. Be sure to tell me about each of the two items.

I hope you are quite rested, and shall be glad to hear where you are and what you are doing.

Sincerely yours,
[Unsigned: Katherine Pettit]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Berea, Kentucky
KP:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_036.jpg]  – Carbon copy of typewritten letter.

November 19, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow,

I have just had three days over at Line Fork with the Stapletons and enjoyed it ever so much. Many of the neighbors came in and asked about you. They said you were the pluckiest woman they had ever heard of.

Mrs. Manon Cornett privately asked me for your address. She said Mrs. Stapleton is doctoring her on the outside but that you know about her “innards,” and that she wanted to write you for some medicine and didn’t want Mrs. Stapleton to know, for she was afraid she wouldn’t give her the same kind as you had. I thought I ought to tell you so that you would know she is also a patient of Dr. Stapleton’s. Since she has never told Dr. Stapleton about her trouble — I believe she said you thought she had cancer of the womb — it might help if you would write Mrs. Stapleton and tell her just what you had done for it.

I hope so much that you are well and your work is going along finely.

Faithfully yours,
[Unsigned: Katherine Pettit]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Antioch College
Yellow Springs, Ohio
KP:H

[merrow_llewella_corr_037.jpg] – Carbon copy of typewritten letter, page 1 of 2.

December 2, 1926

Dear Dr. Merrow:

I am so glad to have such a nice letter from you and to think you are wanting to jump on a nag and take a ride over the hills, Dr. Stapleton seems to be enjoying it. She has been here a good deal the last week or so looking after Dr. [Alfreda] Withington. Did you know about her being thrown from her horse several weeks ago and breaking her nose? She was going back to Big Laurel, after being up at the Nolans’ looking after a boy who had been kicked in the stomach by a mule which he was driving across the mountain, and her horse stumbled and fell. When she came to she found herself lying in a pool of blood and realized that her nose was broken. This is the third time it has been broken. And so right there under the horse’s heels she set her nose, got on again and rode on to Big Laurel, and the next day went to Louisville to see a specialist. The one she saw–the finest in Louisville– said he couldn’t have set the nose any better himself. Isn’t she a lucky person? Well, then, when she came back she was so eager to get back to her cases, and had to walk about in rain and slush, and now she is lying up at the infirmary with diphtheria. She has been very sick indeed and has had several bad heart attacks, but we think the worst is over now. Her nephew came on from New York to be with her. Of course it will be many weeks before she can do anything now. Indeed we know she will not be able to go back to work again this winter and I think she is planning to go out as soon as she is able. We shall certainly feel lost without her.

I am sorry to have to pester you, again about the glasses, but when the bill for $3.16 came from the American Optical Company for Rosa May Lewis’s glasses I wrote to Mrs. Garrett Lewis and asked her if she wouldn’t pay, it now and she wrote back “I don’t owe for them glasses, I paid Dr. Merrow for them, which was $2.50. You can look for her for your money.” Now will you tell me about it? Of course the Optical Company is bound to have its money and we would like to get the matter straightened out and closed.

Thank you for the clipping. I was so interested, but I wish you could have brought about a different vote.

 – And now about the holly. I have been writing all my mountain friends not to bring as any this year, for they just ruin the bushes when they break off the holly for us, and last year they cut down whole trees to bring the holly to us. What I am doing this year is asking then to bring us holly berries so that we may plant them and start a [truncated]–

[merrow_llewella_corr_037a.jpg]  Carbon copy of typewritten letter, page 2 of 2.

–they won’t do the same about their homes. The Garden Clubs are urging people every year to do this, for if we don’t soon we won’t know what holly looks like here at the rate it’s going. There is plenty of mistletoe on yon side of the mountain and I think it would be a good idea for you to write directly to Mrs. Crit Lewis at Dillon and ask her to get some for you and send it, and then you could send her as much money as you thought it was worth. I think that would be better than to ask her to send you five dollars’ worth.

No, I have not written Lilliath Robbins [Bates] about you. I had a letter from her just as she was getting into Canton, and she was writing with baby Morton in her lap.

Dorothy has never returned. She went to the Baptist School in Hazard because they offered to take her without any cost to her. She wants to come back next summer and continue to work off her debt. Nobody has married Charles Lewis yet.

I am so glad you are going to walk over to Pine Mountain sometime. I hope you will and bring that sister of yours with you when she can stay for a long time.

Always faithfully yours,
[u
nsigned: Katherine Pettit]

Dr. Llewella Merrow
Antioch College
Yellow Springs, Ohio
KP:H


See Also:
LEWELLA MERROW CORRESPONDENCE I  
for images 001-019 (1926)
LLEWELLA MERROW Staff
Biography