FLORENCE DANIELS Correspondence

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Florence Daniels – Weaving Teacher, 1926-1929
Florence Daniels Correspondence, 1925-1930

Florence Daniels weaving, closeup. [daniels_weaving_P1150074.jpg]

FLORENCE DANIELS Correspondence

1925

August 14. Application for employment.
August 18. Request for reference from Priscilla H. Fowles from Katherine Pettit, PMSS Director.
August 26. Reference from Priscilla H. Fowles, Dean of Women, Newton Theological Institution, Newton Center, Mass. (2pages)
August 18. Request for reference from Rev. William D. Goble.
August 24. Reference from Rev. William D. Goble, Hancock Park, Cambridge, Mass.
July 27. Letter of inquiry from Florence Daniels to Pine Mountain Settlement School, regarding programs and needs. She specifically asks about Fireside Industries programs and suggests she is interested in working with “mountain children…”. (2 pages)
August 3. Katherine Pettit letter to Florence Daniels regarding her interest in the School. Pettit suggests Daniels explore work with the School.
August 21. Letter of recommendation from Mary M. Atwater, Director of The Shuttle-Craft School of Handweaving in Cambridge Massachusetts, to Katherine Pettit regarding the employment of Florence Daniels and suggests that Daniels is “over conscientious and makes things difficult for herself in that way but work is carefull (sic) and also artistic.” Further, “She is a girl of high ideals, and a strong religious feeling I think — though I have never discussed the matter with her.” She ends recommendation with, “She is not rapid, nor brilliant nor original, nor self-assertive. She lacks in self-confidence and is too sensitive. I have an idea she will suit you very well, and too that the life at Pine Mountain will be a valuable experience for her.”
August 14. Letter from Florence Daniels to Katherine Pettit saying she is interested in working at Pine Mountain and asks many questions regarding the School, the looms, work, type of weavings, luggage, living accommodations, route of travel.
August 18. Katherine Pettit to Florence Daniels inviting her to work at Pine Mountain and answering some of her questions. (4 pages)
August 21. Florence Daniels to Katherine Pettit providing her travel arrangements to leave on September 3 for the School and asking for clarification on salary.
August 24. Florence Daniels to Katherine Pettit acknowledging the letter from Pettit that suggests that Miss Sands may come to PMSS and fill the position and that Daniels must wait until that is settled. Daniels says she will suspend her preparations but still wants a reply regarding salary. (2 pages)
August 25. Special Delivery letter of Katherine Pettit to Florence Daniels. Pettit tell Daniels to come on to Pine Mountain and advises her that the salary will be $75 a month — in addition to free board and $1 a month for laundry. She encloses travel directions. “Buy your ticket via Cincinnati. You will travel from Cincinnati on the Cincinnati-Middlesboro sleeper as far as Pineville, which you reach at six in the morning. The porter will then transfer you to the Louisville to Lynch sleeper, in which you travel until you get off at Laden. Bring some sandwiches with you to eat for breakfast.”
August 29. Katherine Pettit to Florence Daniels. “Hope you can start immediately. Salary figure you name is acceptable to us.”

1926

June 21. Florence Daniels to Ethel de Long Zande. Daniels describes driving with Miss Halliday and her father to Abingdon, VA where she caught a sleeper to NYC to visit her brother. She tells of good interest in Pine Mountain Settlement School and notes that the pictures from Miss Wulf were “…nice to show”. A Post Script notes a visit with Miss Van Bezey and Miss Hughes who told her of the upcoming trip of Zande to Smith for her reunion. (3 pages)

1927

July 18. Katherine Pettit to Florence Daniels regarding her next instructional year at Pine Mountain. Pettit says, “…we must keep up the housekeeping end of the fireside Industries Department to the Pine Mountain Standards.” Pettit cites the cleanliness and order of the Tuskegee Institute operation. She says, “When I asked Mrs. Booker Washigton how they managed it, she said when Tuskegee was started Dr. [Booker T. ]Washington said that they should have clean floors if nothing else was done, — that every bit of floor space should be scrubbed every week, and then if there was time, they would learn to read and write, figure, make dresses, harness, and all the rest of it. But every department had to be kept clean ad in order first.” She added that “This is the standard we set for Hindman and Pine Mountain. It has been hard because of the lack of unity of ideals of the workers. But from now on, we are surely going to keep our Fireside Industries Department up to that standard. That is, every drawer, corner, shelf, is to be kept and in order. There is to be a place for everything and everything in its place. No trash around. then if there is time, we will weave. If I have to get up before 5:30 to get ready for it, I am going in every day to inspect and if necessary have the weaving stop and clean the stove or whatever is necessary.” Then Pettit adds, “Are you willing — can you manage it? I think I can help you work out your housekeeping system, so it can be done without my having to be around to bother you so much. Then when you leave in the spring, I shall expect you to leave everything just as you found it when you return this year, just as Miss Wulf left hers.”
July 29. Evelyn K. Wells to Florence Daniels. “This is official notice that work at Pine Mountain begins August 29th. I suppose you will be a little ahead of that date.” Mentions photo of Daniels in Miss Wulf’s garden.
December 13. Employment contract for 1927 employment signed by Florence Daniels and Katherine Pettit.

1928

February 7. Ethel de Long Zande [?] to Florence Daniels alerting her and others of a February campaign to puck up subscribers to Pine Mountain’s declining donors. The letter describes a loss of 153 subscribers since the first recording of a list. The lost revenue amounts to $375.00 annually which the letter attributes to death and disaster. She alerts the reader that February will be devoted to a “whirlwind campaign to get new subscribers.” 5 subscribers cards were enclosed in the letter to Daniels to give to others.
June 27. Kathrine Pettit writes to Florence Daniels in Berea notifying her that her checkbook has been received. The letter discusses an unfinished project by Becky May Huff of a coverlet that was overdue to the buyer. Pettit explains that “Beck May finished the coverlet late Saturday night, got up at one o’clock Monday morning to sew and press it, and we sent it by Brit [Wilder] on Nell [horse] to Hyden. And, Nell slipped her bridle and got away, and has not yet reached Pie Mountain, though Brit got in late last night!” Pettit asks about next year’s wool needs.
August 11. Emily R. Shutz to Angela Melville. Emily welcomes Melville to Pine Mountain and ask to purchase a stool or “cricket” “large and high enough to use as a seat by the fireside…” from the Fireside Industries for September. (2 pages)
August 15. Angela Melville to Emily R. Shutz regarding the order from the Fireside Industries of the stool. She advises Mrs. Shutz that she will soon hear from Florence Daniels.
August 14. Katherine Pettit to Florence Daniels regarding a coverlet that is underway by Becky May Huff for a lady. Becky left the School to teach at Olive Hill.

1929

June 13. Letter from Florence Daniels to Miss Angela Melville, from her home in Holyoke, Mass. Correspondence regarding a returned check and an inventory. Daniels describes a trip to Berea with Miss Welty and a wedding in Boston. Daniels says she has been asked to speak at an event in Mt. Holyoke.
June 14. Angela Melville to Florence Daniels asking for Daniel’s inventory of supplies in the weaving department for the year (needed for audit).
August 28. Katherine Pettit to Florence Daniels. Pettit asks Daniels to take care of a billing issue.

1930

January 5. Angela Melville to Florence Daniels, who is at Berea, KY. Miss Melville says, “Well, the bus got me there [?where ], but I vowed never again. It was an hour late and crowded. I borrowed a wonderful horse in Blackey for the ride to and from Carcassone. She ran away with me for more than a mile on the way home. I discovered that she had racehorse blood in her.” Melville further describes the trip home: ” I had a marvelous trip home, being met in the dim dark by Morgan Cornett and getting from Cornettsville here in little over five hours. We fell terribly thrilled, Morgan and I, over the time we took. It is supposed to be about the best time one can make. We had two mules who went, though.”

GALLERY: Florence Daniels Correspondence

[NOTE: Images #037 through #040 apparently refer to a different “Florence Daniels” from the one who was the PMSS weaving teacher from 1926 to 1929. The pages were included with the earlier Florence Daniels records, however, no relationship can be found to the earlier staff member.]