ABBY WINCH CHRISTENSEN Correspondence 1934

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Abby Winch Christensen
Correspondence 1934

Ayers sisters and Lucille Christian with Abby Winch Christensen dancing on the May Day Dancing Green

TAGS: Abby Winch Christensen, Abbie Mandana Christensen, correspondence, 1934, education, dancing, English Country Dance, Beaufort SC, Glyn Morris, Dorothy Bolles, Nonsuch dance, Henry Creech, political strife, Medical Settlement,

ABBY WINCH CHRISTENSEN Correspondence 1934

CONTENTS

00092, 00093, March 15, 1934, Abby Winch Christensen to Glyn Morris, Director
Dear Mr. Morris –
A letter just came from Miss Bolles says she can’t go to Pine Mt. and hopes I can take the April dancing. My job has just run out, leaving me free for the moment, so I believe I could go for the month. I wish she would be there this year, for she is so much more skillful as a teacher than I; but if she says she can’t, it is because it is impossible. I know she wants to ever so much. And, of course, I will enjoy it enormously, as I did last year.
Miss Bolles [Dorothy Bolles] sent me your letter to her, and I’m glad to hear of the increased enthusiasm for dancing. I find plans for May Day already filling my mind, to the detriment of all other occupations!
I am not sure that I can get there on April 1st, but I’ll write a little later when I have planned how as well as when I can arrive. I wonder whether it would be practical and not too expensive to store my car in Harlan where the battery could be kept up; or whether I had better try to make it by train + bus (all connections seem to be at 2 a.m. or 4:15). In past years I have tried these different train routes between here + PM [Pine Mountain] and each was worse than the others
You might let us know when you write whether the Flamborough wooden swords are on hand. I remember they couldn’t be found [p.0093] last April but turned up in the autumn. If they are there, I won’t bring mine. And also let me know where I can live, since I suppose the Faulkners are still in Pole House.
I am so glad you want me back, for I look forward to it very eagerly. What do you suppose it is about P.M. that makes people who have worked there feel so keen to return? Something spiritual I imagine that Ethel Zande walked into the place in the course of her life, and which you have succeeded in preserving. AND the beauty of the flowering Spring!

Best Wishes to Mrs. Morris
Abby Winch Christensen

00095 March 20, 1934 Glyn Moris to Abby W. Christensen

Dear Miss Christiansen.
I was very happy to get your letter of March 15, in the first place, because I’m glad you are coming back to be with us this year, and in the second place, it gives me a chance to write to you. I have neglected to do so for so long that I was ashamed to begin. I think that you will find the interest in dancing this year a little better than last, so that perhaps your work will not be so difficult. I think that we could make arrangements to have your car kept at Harlan, or why not keep it at Chad Lewis’s place, where the charge would be very low? We could take it out every week as I take my car out, and drive it to Harlan to have the batteries taken care of and the tires looked after. In any case, you can take care of your car very easily, and it would be much easier for you to take the car to Laden than to take the train or bus. The swords are here. You will perhaps have to live at Big Log or Open House. I hope this will not be too much of a drawback, inasmuch as I know you like Pole House so much. I should appreciate it if you can try to come here as close to April 1st as possible, so that we can get in a whole month before May Day, and then have the last week clear for Commencement preparations. I shall be glad to take care of all preparations for your arrival, if you will write me what you wish done, and if you will let me know when you will arrive, we will be glad to meet you at Laden.
Again. May I say that we shall be very happy to have you come.
Sincerely yours, Glyn Morris, Director

00096 – 00098 March 24, 1934. Abby Winch Christensen to Glyn Morris
Dear Mr. Morris,
So glad to hear from you. And find that you. Encouragement in regard to the dreadful old practice. Is quite welcome, for I really would. Rather dry than take the train and.. Someone suggested if I disconnect the battery it will keep in good condition until I’m ready to leave it there. And I can connect it up again and be ready for business. In that car I should…[p. 97] like to house it in Chad Lewis’s garage along with your Buick as you suggest. If you see him before I arrive, will you tell him to expect me.
I plan to leave Thursday the 29th and should be at Laden’s around one or two O’clock on Saturday the 31st.. Mrs. Powell [Mrs. Winifred Powell] writes that a section of the road near Rebel Rock slid off. Perhaps it has been mended by this time. If not, I’ll be prepared to walk across, and if I find no one from the school to meet you, I will. [?call on…] at Dayton Lewis and his mule. So don’t feel obliged to have anyone meet me if it is not convenient.
So sorry I missed the Mikado [musical at PMSS], which must have been delicious. However, I am taking pains to be there in time to hear “Awake, awake the night is flying,” on Easter morning. And at the moment, I realize that the mail is flying and I must run with this?

Cordially yours,
Abby. W Christianson..

A favorite dance enjoyed by many of the children at Pine Mountain.

“Gathering Peascods,” c. 1920s

00099 – 00100 n.d. List of Country Dances. (2 pages)

Brighton Camp
Galopede
Butterfly
We Won’t Go Home
The Flowers of Edinburgh
Nancy’s Fancy
Bonnets So Blue
Hasten to the Wedding
Jenny Pluck Pears
Mage on a Cree
The Fine Companion
Newcastle
Gathering Peascods
Oranges & Lemons
Rufty Tufty
Parson’s Funeral
Hey, Boys
Grimstock
The Black Nag

Goddesses
Black Jack
Jamaica
If All the World Were Paper
Winifred’s Knot
Lady in the Dark
Confess
The Old Mole
Broom the Banny, Banny Brom
The Merry Milkmaids
Phoenix
Sellinger’s Round
Hit and Miss
The Boatman
Picking Up Sticks
Scotch Cap
Christchurch Bells

~~Nancy’s Fancy~~
Mary and Dorothy
Sage Leaf
Epping Forest
The Maid in the Moon
The Slip
Mad Robin
My Lord Byron’s Maggot
The Queen’s Jug
The Indian Queen
The Queen’s Birthday
Jack’s Maggot
Hunt the Squirrel

00101 May 7, 1934. Glyn Morris to Miss Abbie W. Christensen, Beaufort, South Carolina
Dear Miss Christensen:
I want to tell you again how much we appreciate your coming here and devoting so much of your time and energy to teaching us how to dance. I sincerely hope that it will be possible for you to come back before very long.
I regret that I did not have more to say about the kind of weather we had, but if you were here now, you could ask for nothing better. Some of us went swimming yesterday, and you know what that means.
The trees are almost all green, and there is not a cloud in the sky today.
Our very best to you always.
Sincerely yours,
Glyn Morris, DIRECTOR

00102 September 15, 1934. Glyn Morris to Abbie W. Christensen
Dear Miss Christensen:
Perhaps you have heard by this time of the terrible stew in which Miss Frank has embroiled Henry Creech and me.
As you perhaps know, I informed Miss Frank very emphatically at the end of the first semester last year that she was not to return to Pine Mountain. She shocked all of us by walking in two days before the opening of school, and pretended that she was ignorant of her discharge. I was forced to have her removed from the campus. She took refuge with Henry Creech. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Mr Creech is entirely in sympathy with this friend and his ardently happening for cause, to the extent of trying to have me removed from Pine Mountain. Notwithstanding that the staff has very decidely made known to Mr. Creech the fact that it is entirely out of sympathy with Miss Frank in this manner, Mr. Creech has taken this occasion to show his disapproval of my three years’ work here. I think that the issue in Mr. Creech’s mind now is whether or not he has enough influence to have the Board remove me. The situation has become so desperate with him that he has resorted to violation of confidences which I have placed in him, and is now trying to arouse the community by branding me as a Red.* He will make his appeal to the Board, which convenes here on September 27th, on the grounds that the community is entirely antagonistic.
If you feel that you can do so, will you write a frank statement to Mr. Martin [Darwin D. Martin, Chairman of the PMSS BOT], giving your impression of my relations with the community, particularly with reference to our work at Big Laurel last fall? I should appreciate a response to this at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely yours,

P.S. Mr Smith and Miss Gadd [May Gadd from Berea] came Thursday evening. We had a grand party here Friday night. Some of the people down the creek came to run sets [Kentucky Running Set].
* The reference to “Red” was an attempt to link Morris with the Communist Party and to discourage his Progressive views and his alignment with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Progressives. September and November 1934 saw an upsurge in political division as elections were held in early November and the Republican Party was losing seats to the Progressive Party. Creech, a Republican, was focused on defeating influential Progressives such as Morris. Harlan County at the time, was a deep red corner of Kentucky. [See: 1934 United States House of Representatives elections – Wikipedia

00103 October 2, 1934. Glyn Morris to Abbie W. Christensen
Dear Miss Christensen:
In my presence, the Board read me your very gracious letter to Mr. Martin [Darwin D. Martin, PMSS Board Chair]. Thank you not only for helping me in this particular case, but for the inspiration which I have gained from your impression of our work at Big Laurel.
The Board heard all of Mr. Creech’s complaints, and I think we have solved the problem in the best possible manner. I hope that it will be possible for me to gain at least a nominal friendship with Mr. Creech again
Miss Bowles is here and will stay until Friday. Tonight, the men’s Morris [dance] team cuts its capers.
Faithfully yours.

May Day, Sword Dance, 1930s. William Hayes (far right), Paul Hayes (third from right, face covered), Glyn Morris (2nd from right). [burkh_004.jpg]

00104-105 October 8, 1934. (2 pages) Abby Winch Christensen to Glyn Morris
Dear Mr. Morris
I had no account of the board meeting, but Miss Bolles writes that she “hopes things are straightened out,” and I think I gather from your letter that it is satisfactory. I hope so anyway.
Yes, I’m sure you will recover friendship with Henry Creech someday, if not at once. He’s a fine man and not one to harbor rancor. But I realize it must be quite uncomfortable at the moment.
Wish I could have been there for the dancing, it sounded most [p.2] festive, as reported by Dorothy Bolles. ” So glad you learned “Lads a Bunchum“. Please practice it now and then. So that the P. M. [Pine Mountain] Morris side can do it for me when next I appear there; and I hope that won’t be too far off.
Best wishes to Mrs. Morris, please.
Sincerely yours,
Abby W. Christensen
Oct. 8, 1934

00106 October 24, 1934. Glyn Morris to Abby W. Christensen
Dear Miss Christensen:
As either Miss Bolles or Miss Wells has no doubt told you, dancing still goes very strong at Pine Mountain. At the present time, we are working with the seniors and juniors and teaching them a few special dances at their own request. But “Nonsuch“, as it is given in Mr. Sharp’s book, has us baffled. Will you kindly write out for me in detail the version you used last Spring? Ever since I saw it, I have been aching to try to teach it or do it myself. We have another class Monday night and I would like very much to have it to use then.
Yesterday we had Mountain Day and the whole school journeyed to Jack’s Gap. No need to tell you how the mountains look now.
We would like very much to have you come to visit us if you can. Mrs. Baird is staying at Medical Settlement and is very lonely. Can’t you plan to come for a few weeks? Then you could teach “Nonsuch” — and other such.
Sincerely yours,

00107 November 28, 1934. (1 page) Glyn Morris to Abby W. Christensen
Dear Miss Christensen:
Could you possibly arrange, and would you be willing to come down and spend the winter at Medical Settlement with Mrs. Baird? There is one chance in a thousand that someone may be secured, but it is only one. Mrs Baird is very lonely and is having a hard sledding with the community. She really needs someone there with her. Someone like you who knows the people. I shall be very grateful if you will be willing to come. As you know, it will be only until June. Will you write me as soon as possible about this question?
With kindest regards, I am.
Sincerely yours

00108-00111 December 2, 1934. Abby W. Christensen to Glyn Morris
Dear Mr. Morris,
I do feel for Mrs. Baird [LEXINE BAIRD Staff] alone at the Medical Settlement without the all-efficient Grace [Dr. Grace Huse ?] to rely on and minimize the discomforts. She does need a companion but I’m afraid I can’t be it. I am engaged upon work that I could not drop if I would, which will keep me busy until Christmas, and I have plans for later in the winter which I don’t wish to abandon.
I have been thinking of her at the [page 2] Med. Set. [Medical Settlement] with decided satisfaction, for I thought her friendly way and extraordinary unselfishness, and her energy, would make her an ideal worker in that wilderness. But I had forgotten how extra social she is and how much she would depend upon companionship. I wish I knew the right person to send there, but I don’t, — or at any rate not the right and available person. I’m sorry to disappoint you and her. If I can see a way to make it later, I will let you know, but I know that now is the time she needs help. [p. 3] The enticement you offer — the need of a dancing teacher — would bring me if anything could. The fun of substituting “Nonsuch” for “The Beckoning Dance” as the P.M. [Pine Mountain] favorite would go far to offset the moral + physical ugliness of Big Laurel.
I do hope Mrs. Baird will be able to stick it. She is a courageous little person, but there is much that is pretty hard to endure in that degenerate neighborhood. But she must surely be aware [p.4] how much her ministrations help, and that will compensate for a good deal.
I hope you had a pleasant Thanksgiving. My best to Mrs. Morris, please.
Sincerely yours,
Abby Winch Christensen
Dec. 2, 1934

00115 December 7, 1934. (1 page) Glyn Morris to Abby W. Christensen
Dear Miss Christensen:
It is rather hard for me to say thank you for a letter in which you tell me that you cannot accept our invitation to take the winter with us. If you do change your mind at any time, please let me know.
Nonesuch needs lots of polishing and has not as yet simmered down enough to displace the popular favorite of the general multitude.
Our best to you.
Sincerely yours,