ADMIN GENERAL 1925 B- Correspondence External

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 06: ADMINISTRATION
General Correspondence

ADMIN GENERAL Correspondence External 1925 B-

ADMIN General Correspondence External 1925 B-

016b P. Roettinger Album. “Aunt Sal,” seated with butter churner in her kitchen. [roe_017a.jpg]

Pettit notes “…we know Pine Mountain will never be the same without her, we rejoice that the days are over when she had nothing but her own gallantry to help her endure blindness and helplessness. She longed for release. …Spring is beautiful and my children are just lovely.”

Katherine Pettit to Alice C. Butler, 1925, 002

TAGS: administration, general correspondence, 1928, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Harlan County KY, donors;, visitors, philanthropy, Katherine Pettit, Ethel de Long Zande, Angela Melville, Evelyn K. Wells


ADMIN General Correspondence External 1925 B- :
CORRESPONDENCE LIST BY NAME 1925 b- (001-039)

001 Lilliath Robbins Bates (Mrs. M.Searl Bates) University of Nanking, Nanking, China from Katherine Pettit. January 1. Pieces of Chinese fabric sent. Pettit was to have children make a quilt from the pieces with help from Miss Stockin from Boston, the weaving teacher at PMSS. Describes Christmas at PMSS in 1924. Describes taking Christmas to “head of Isaac’s Run for children and families.” (2 pages)

002 Miss Alice C. Butler, 36 Beacon Street, Boston, MA. from Katherine Pettit. April 16.
She likes Alice’s handwriting. Thanks Alice for her letter even though there was no money in it. She notes the death of Aunt Sal on April 2. Pettit notes

“…we know Pine Mountain will never be the same without her, we rejoice that the days are over when she had nothing but her own gallantry to help her endure blindness and helplessness. She longed for release. …Spring is beautiful and my children are just lovely.” (1 page)

003 Lilliath Robbins Bates, (Mrs. M. Searl Bates) Hiram, Ohio, from Katherine Pettit.
May 13. She is happy that Lilliath will be coming to Pine Mountain by motor car. Pettit notes that

“there is constant travel now on the Dixie Highway from Cincinnati down through Pineville and Middlesboro, so you could come as far as Pineville easily. From there on to Harlan would be rather doubtful. I will write you all I can find out about that part. Otherwise, you could just come on by train from Pineville to Laden, which is the stop at the foot of the new road, and cross on foot or muleback.” (1 page)

004 Lilliath Robbins Bates, (Mrs. M. Searl Bates) Hiram, Ohio, from Katherine Pettit.
July 8. Pettit is sorry the original plan to come did not work out and hopes to see Lilliath soon. She describes the 4th of July: “We had a lovely Fourth, with a large crowd to enjoy the speeches and frolics. Forty-five gallons of ice cream disappeared in an hour and a half!” (1 page)

005 Miss Brewster and Miss Alice Butler. 36 Beacon Street, Boston, MA. From Ethel de Long Zande. July 21. Zande thanks both Brewster and Butler for their gifts that arrived on the same day. She goes on to describe the growth in Pine Mountain School. 

“This place grows in interest every year, although of course, it is a different sort from the Pine Mountain interests of the beginnings. We have a splendid new building for the girls’ cooking, sewing, weaving, and laundry rooms and our course of study for both boys and girls in industrial and home economic subjects is fine. All the young people appreciate this so much. Dillard Turner and Boone Callahan, who put in their fourth year in high school at Berea, got third and first prizes respectively for wood-working, to say nothing of being able to earn twice as much as most beginners get for their student labor. She brags on the PMSS flower garden … developed on the hillside by Laurel House, and of course you know of our chapel which adds far more to our school life than I would have believed possible. Our own place is all finished and so much prettier than it was when you were here. Now I wish you could have supper on the terrace with us some Sunday night and be entertained by the children, and collie dog and her pups.”

She reports on the work at Big Laurel and on Clara Callahan’s advancement. She also reports that Patty [Ritchie]

“…has grown into the prettiest, most piquant looking youngster, and Truman [Ritchie] is a great big boy, our star basketball player. You know our team walked thirty miles to play a matched team at Red Bird School last winter.”

Ethel de Long Zande tells of Green Bailey Gross who

“… has been back with us a good deal this last year, but he is now in a hospital at Louisville having his foot cared for. He had infantile paralysis some years ago and has been crippled since then. William is also back with us, without his curly hair, but with the same gay and irresponsible spirit that he had as a little youngster.”

She says of the Deschamps [Leon Deschamps and wife May Ritchie] that they have departed PMSS

“…for professional advancement. He is studying at Peabody this summer. Well, I could go on for a long time with news, but must stop with the record of our double wedding in the church this May. Aline Nolan married Dillard Metcalf, and Hazel, Pearl Shell all in the same instant. Pearl has a fine job at Loyal and Dillard is driving the team for the school. Uncle John and Aunt Louise are very frail and tottering, but he is just as full of compliments as ever. I think I must have written you of dear Aunt Sal’s death in April. We miss her dreadfully!”

Always opposed to the resale of old clothing at PMSS, Ethel de Long says,

“Thank you for the clothes you sent. I am giving them to friends who are suffering very much from poverty. We have given up the sale of second-hand clothes, there are so many evils connected with them, but I shall be able to make good uses of these boxes you have just sent.”

ADMIN General Correspondence External 1925 B-

Angela Melville Album, II. Part Il. “Green Bailey [Gross] and William Gross…Cam…Nobie”
[melv_II_album_071.jpg]

Ethel de Long Zande tells of Green Bailey Gross who “… has been back with us a good deal this last year, but he is now in a hospital at Louisville having his foot cared for. He had infantile paralysis some years ago and has been crippled since then…”

Ethel de Long Zande to Miss Alice Butler, 1925, 005

006 Helen Belknap (Mrs. William Belknap), Land O’ Goshen, Goshen, KY, from Katherine Pettit. August 7. Responds to Belknap’s interest in forestry work in Kentucky. She complains of storms in the Blue Grass that take down trees. Discusses Leon Deschamp’s work on the “perfect acre.” Pettit noted that when the budget did not allow more forestry work the school hired Deschamp as a teacher

“and he proved to be a most successful teacher. We’ve never had one that the boys and girls were more enthusiastic about. I don’t think I ever sat down at a table while he was here that some child didn’t tell me something new that he had learned from him that day. Now that he is acquiring a family, two children, he has felt he must go somewhere where he can earn more money. We tried awfully hard to get him to Berea, but it seems hard to get anywhere else because he does not have a degree. So this summer he went to Peabody College in Nashville and May and the children are at her home and he is studying so that he can get his degree and trying awfully hard to get a position because he just has to have some money to live on. …”

Acknowledges receipt of picture of Jonathan Trumble, whom Pettit knows. She gives news of Aunt Sal’s death, of Ruth Gaines, Emily Hill, and Becky May Huff. Tells of Becky May’s travel to the State University where she gave a highly successful demonstration of weaving. Pettit describes the success of Oma Creech at Berea and her personal “bereavement” that Miss Secor has left Kentucky.

007 Searl Bates, Hiram, Ohio, from Ethel de Long Zande, September II. Thanks him for his gift and for the visit to PMSS with his wife Lilliath.

008 Helen Belknap (Mrs. William Belknap) from Ethel de Long Zande, November 18, to Ethel de Long Zande. November 4. Zande apologizes for not managing to spend time with the Belknap family when they visited Pine Mountain and thanks them for making the journey. Pine Mountain sent the family some PMSS brooms and noted that small chairs could be made by Boone Hall.


See Also:
SERIES 06: ADMINISTRATION – General
SERIES 08: GENERAL ADMINISTRATION Correspondence Guide