GOVERNANCE BOT 1936 Correspondence

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 03: GOVERNANCE CORRESPONDENCE
PMSS Board of Trustees
1936 Correspondence

Chapel interior view with Holtkamp organ pipes. [ii_chapel_0367.jpgi]

TAGS: BOT 1936 correspondence, Board of Trustees correspondence, Pine Mountain Settlement School governance, Fanny Gratz, Evelyn K. Wells, Katherine Pettit, C.N. Manning, Jessie Munger, Glyn Morris, gifts to PMSS, PMSS’s gift policy

GOVERANCE BOT 1936 Correspondence

[Note: Letters from PMSS staff in the PMSS Collections are carbon copies, typewritten, unsigned, and meant for the Office files. The original signed documents were sent to the correspondents. Letters from others are typewritten originals unless specified otherwise. The following list of contents is in chronological order and not necessarily in the order of the image numbers.

[Note: The following may not be a complete listing of letters for the year. This page will be updated with additional letters as they are found and processed.]

004 May 26, 1936. To Mrs. [Fanny] Gratz, in Wellesley, MA, from [unsigned, apparently Evelyn K. Wells], expressing appreciation of her “kindness to me” and asking how Miss Pettit is. Responding to Gratz’s question about a possible gift, the writer describes a need for a recreation building with bedrooms for guests. The writer gives examples of crowded events in various PMSS houses. “Mrs. Hook has been urging a guest house for sometime.”

003 May 28, 1936. To Wells from Gratz, who will wait until she’s better informed about the School’s work, and has determined the right thing. She mentions the School’s negotiations with the Draper Foundation. Gratz then describes how Katherine Pettit is “gradually losing ground” but still alert. “She has just given her beautiful collection of coverlets to the John Bradford Historical Society…. What a superb work she has done for the Kentucky mountains – unselfish, understanding and courageous.”

002 June 1, 1936. To Gratz from [unsigned, apparently Wells], thanking Gratz for her letter about Miss Pettit. The writer welcomes anything Gratz wants to do for PMSS, then provides updates on a recreation building. “…[T]hey have a full building program for some time, with the Industrial Building occupying them.”

001 July 8, 1936. “To the Members of the Board of Trustees of the Pine Mountain Settlement School,” from C.N. Manning, treasurer, announcing a gift by Miss Jessie Munger, Plainfield NJ, of $4,000.00 for the purpose of building an organ for the chapel at Pine Mountain,” according to a letter to the Board from Glyn Morris. Morris also writes that “the organ is already being built and that arrangements have been made for placing it in the chapel.”

Manning questions “whether the policy of the School with reference to such gifts has been determined by the trustees or whether the decision has been delegated to Mr. Morris.” He feels that:

“…[T]rustees ought to decide, or to delegate the decision to some person or committee, whether the gift shall be accepted on the terms and conditions imposed and then….they should have some voice in the manner of fulfilling the conditions.” He presumes that “Mrs. [Mary Rockwell] Hook would be consulted about the installation….”