Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff 
Eve Newman, Secretary, c. 1913-1916
Eve Louise Newman Gilmour 1888-1980)

 

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TAGS: Eve Newman, Mrs. Eve Gilmour, Alan Gilmour, Rep. Campbell Bascom Slemp, Hindman (KY) Settlement School, Katherine Pettit, endowments, Marguerite Butler, friendships, The Newman Aunts

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EVE NEWMAN Staff

Office & Field Secretary, c. 1913-1916 

Not many young women in the early 1900s had the audacity to “blow into” the office of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, DC, looking for a supporter of her cause. In this case, the “young lady” was Eve Newman, the office was that of Rep. Campbell Bascom Slemp, the person she was looking for was Mr. Mayo (Rep. Slemp’s friend and business partner) and the cause was Hindman (KY) Settlement School’s endowment.

C.B. Slemp, a Republican congressman from Virginia, described this serendipitous meeting with Eve Newman in an undated letter to Katherine Petitt, who was then director of Hindman Settlement School, followed by an account that proved Miss Newman’s boldness paid off for Hindman and later for Pine Mountain Settlement School. Rep. Slemp was already planning to meet with Mr. Mayo in New York and invited Miss Newman to travel with him to meet Mayo. There, she not only met and presented her proposal to Mr. and Mrs. Mayo with successful results, but Slemp also acquired letters of introduction for Eve and himself to Andrew Carnegie and Russell Sage. Slemp advised Katherine Pettit — still at Hindman, that “You are sure of an endowment I think of $33,000 and probably $38,000. That would be about 1/3 of the total amount you desire.” This must have been exciting news to Pettit. “The Newman Aunts” website stated that before Pettit left Hindman, she wanted to secure the School’s future by raising an endowment of $100,000. Eve Newman had played a large part in this effort.

Rep. Slemp listed several reasons he was interested in Hindman: First, his admiration of the School’s character, second, his desire to assist in any of Mr. Mayo’s undertakings and third, Miss Eve Newman herself. He wrote that he was impressed by…

...the very pleasing and charming personality of your representative. Her devotion to the interest of the Hindman school, her naturally unaffected disposition as well as her personal attractions appealed to all of us very strongly and I really think that this was one of the contributory causes of the enthusiasm all of us had while in New York.

EVE NEWMAN: Pine Mountain Settlement School

Slemp’s descriptions of Miss Newman indicated that she was a perfect fit for a fundraising position and Miss Pettit and Miss Ethel de Long were fortunate that, in 1913, she followed them from Hindman to assist in the establishment the new Pine Mountain Settlement School as fundraiser and office and field secretary. She lived in Old Log with Miss de Long and five little boys, whom they cared for.

That the likable Miss Newman easily formed friendships with the other staff is indicated throughout the letters that Marguerite Butler wrote home to her family. In August 1914, Miss Butler, a PMSS teacher, extension work supervisor and fundraiser from 1914 to 1922, provides an additional explanation for their closeness:

Miss [Margaret] Watts, Miss Newman and I spent the whole afternoon up at Miss Newman’s. You see, we three are about the same age which makes it very, very nice.

In the fall of 1914, Miss Butler wrote the following, indicating the pleasure of each other’s company even during, and maybe partly due to, the trials of a basic life in the wilderness:

(September 1914) We have been staying over at the tent with Miss Rockwell [Mary Rockwell Hook, the School’s architect] all week. This morning we made omelet – yes with real eggs!!! She is so nice and we have been having the nicest evenings together. Last night Miss Newman stayed with us too, so she and I spent the night in one single bed which was on the very edge of the tent floor over quite a little precipice. Once she nearly went out of bed and you ought to have heard the scream.

Miss Butler describes another get-together that fall, combining pleasure with business:

(Fall 1914) After the little boys went to bed Miss [Ethel] De Long, Miss Newman, Peg, Ethel [McCullough] the two new workers and I sat around talking and feasting on cider, just made that day, nuts, raisins and cakes. We talked about plans for the school, what we would do next year and all until it got very exciting.

Eve Newman and others on a two-mile walk down Greasy Creek for dinner at Aunt Judy’s following church. [mccullough_II_086.jpg]

And, as Miss Butler tells it, there were times when the women combined their social occasions with exercise:

(Early Fall 1914) About ten o’clock Sunday morning Miss Newman, Peggy and I started out on a muleback trip over the mountains. It was…a glorious country through which we went. Honestly, our trail beat the Grand Canyon one in places in roughness…

(October 21, 1914) This morning [Miss Ethel McCullough], Miss Pettit and Miss Newman started on a twenty mile walking trip down “Greasy” expecting to be gone until the end of the week. They were pictures in their khaki skirts and middies, with their clothes slung over their back in some fetching pack.

The Butler letters of 1915 and 1916 continue to tell of the women’s activities, such as visiting with members of the community and having a “grand supper cooking the steak before the living room fire.”

Little information about Eve Newman has been found so far in the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections besides references to her in the Butler letters. One of those letters, dated February 24, 1915, reports that ”Miss Newman was elected at the meeting a member of the board of the school.” In an early Fall 1915 letter, Butler writes, “Miss Newman, the regular secretary, is leaving for a year’s study at Columbia.”

In the header for a letter from William Creech Sr, to “Friends,” dated November 20, 1915, Miss Eve Newman of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, is listed a member of the PMSS General Advisory Board. The Guide to PMSS Workers lists her alternate name as Mrs. Eve Gilmore (sic). It is not certain when Miss Newman left PMSS. The last appearance of her name in the Butler letters was written in Spring 1916: “Miss deLong (sic) is to be away for a month and Miss Newman until the end of April….”

EVE NEWMAN: “The Newman Aunts”

More substantial information about Miss Newman can be found at “The Newman Aunts” website about six Newman sisters, Babbie, Mary, Meg, Eve, Kate, and Agnes, who grew up in the Progressive Era. This site, written by the sisters’ great-greatniece, tracks Eve’s life and career before, during and after Pine Mountain, including the following:

While in Kentucky, she met and married Alan [P.] Gilmour, and they moved to California. After Alan’s death in 1925, Eve moved to New York City and attended the New York School of Social Work. She worked in various positions in welfare and social work at different places around the United States, including New Mexico, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Illinois. During World War II, she served with the American Red Cross Recreation Department in North Africa, then retired to Waynesboro.

According to “The Newman Aunts” her marriage to Alan Gilmour on February 12, 1916, was a good match, as both shared a “fearlessness and singlemindedness of purpose.” Read more about their courtship and marriage here.

“The Newman Aunts” site also details much about the life of Alan Gilmour (1870-1925). Alan Pegram Gilmour was born in Henderson, Kentucky, the son of a wealthy, Scottish, tobacco merchant. Gilmour worked in Lexington as an attorney, among other careers. He died an early death, leaving Miss Newman a widow at age 37 after eight years of marriage.

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Eve Louise Newman Gilmour was born on April 16, 1888, in Milton, Pennsylvania. Her mother was Emma Stouffer Frantz. Her father was Jacob Newman (1841-1920), who was the justice of the peace in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and had signed Eve and Alan’s marriage license application. Eve Newman Gilmour died in May 1980 in Waynesboro.

Title	Eve Newman
Alt. Title	Eve Louise Newman ; Mrs. Eve Gilmour ; Eve Newman Gilmour ;
Identifier	n/a
Creator	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY
Alt. Creator	Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt
Subject Keyword	Eve Newman ; Mrs. Eve Gilmour ; Alan Gilmour ; Rep. Campbell Bascom Slemp ; Hindman (KY) Settlement School, Katherine Pettit, endowments, Marguerite Butler, friendships, The Newman Aunts
Subject LCSH	Newman Gilmour, Eve, — 1888 – 1980. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Education — Kentucky — Harlan County. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern.
Date	2019-05-23 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 filing cabinet.
Source	Series 09: Biography – Staff
Language	English
Relation	Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09: Biography – Staff
Coverage Temporal	1888 – 1980
Coverage Spatial	Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; Hindman, KY ; New York, NY ; Waynesboro, PA ;
Rights	Any display, publication or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor	n/a
Description	Core documents, correspondence, writings and administrative papers created by or addressed to Eve Newman Gilmour. Clippings, photographs, publications, illustrations by or about Eve Newman Gilmour.
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 aae; 2020-12-02 hhw; 2024-02-25 aae ;
Bibliography
Source(s)	“The Newman Aunts” website. http://newman-aunts.com /2016/09/06/eve-and-the-pine-mountain-family/ Accessed 3/30/2019. Internet resource. “Eve Newman.” GUIDE TO PMSS WORKERS, GUIDE TO MARGUERITE BUTLER LETTERS, CREECH LETTERS 1915– , KATHERINE PETTIT CORRESPONDENCE 1911, MARGUERITE BUTLER BIDSTRUP ORAL HISTORY, GUIDE TO DE LONG-ZANDE COLLECTION. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. Internet resource.

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