Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: Biography
Lucy Nicholson Correspondence

LUCY NICHOLSON Correspondence, 1922-1924

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TAGS: Lucy Nicholson; Lucy Nicholson correspondence; weaver; Fireside Industries; weaving; dying; blue dye pot; indigo; housemother; crafts; Berea College; F.A. Matheny; Pi Beta Phi Settlement School, Gatlinburg; TN, Wilmer Viner Stone; Evelyn Bishop; Lexington, NC;

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CONTENTS: Lucy Nicholson Correspondence

1. 1922 June 9. Application for a position at Pine Mountain Settlement School as weaving teacher and housemother. 1 page 00001
2. 1922 June 5. Reference form from Pine Mountain Settlement (Katherine Pettit) to Evelyn Bishop requesting endorsement from Pi Beta Phi Settlement School, Gatlinburg, TN of Miss Nicholson’s qualifications for weaving teacher at PMSS. 2 pages 00002-00003
3. 1922 June 3. Katherine Pettit to Lucy Nicholson requesting her to complete an application. 1 page 00004
4. May 5, 1923. Lexington, N.C. Lucy Nicholson to Katherine Pettit. 7 pages 00005 – 00007
5. May 5, 1923. Mrs. F.E. Matheney [?] to Katherine Pettit. Forwarding letter from Pettit. 2 pages 00008-00009
6. May 14, 1923. Lucy Nicholson to Katherine Pettit. “Dear Miss Pettit, I have received a letter from Mrs. Matheny of Berea, Kentucky, asking me to apply to you for position as teacher of weaving…” 1 page 00010
7. May 17, 1923. Katherine Pettit to Mrs. F.A. Matheny, Berea, KY. “Thank you for the information about Miss Nicholson …” 1 page 00011
8. May 17, 1923. Katherine Pettit to Lucy Nicholson, Lexington, NC. “I am interested to hear from you again. We shall probably need a weaving teacher next year, as I am not sure the girl who has been with us this year is returning.
   I want you to understand that we are interested in very special problems at Pine Mountain. We want to revive and keep al9ive the old vegetable dyes, particularly the old indigo blue. We also want to make articles which are exactly like the old-fashioned mountain weavings, —the striped blankets and coverlets and towels and linsey, — not bag and table runners and small things which many schools manufacture, and which do not really belong to the mountains. …”
9. May 22, 1923. Lucy Nicholson, Lexington, N.C. to Katherine Pettit. “I have your letter of the 17th, I have worked with the vegetable dyes and believe I know what you want, I intend to go to Berea Summer School and if I have a position with you will study with Mrs. Matheny your particular needs. …” 1 page 00013
10. May 25, 1923. Katherine Pettit to Lucy Nicholson, Lexington, NC. “Thank you so much for your letter. I am just waiting for final word on your references, which I am sure will come in in a day or so…” 1 page 00014
11. June 7, 1923. Katherine Pettit to Lucy Nicholson, Lexington, NC. “School begins August 20th, and this is to tell you definitely that we want you to come. …” 1 page 00015
12. August 1, 1923. Lucy Nicholson, Lexington, NC to Katherine Pettit. “After working with the dying for five weeks under the supervision of Mrs. Matheny, I am glad to tell you I can do the indigo blue, madder root red, copperns also other vegetable dying. Grandma Combes who is eighty-two years old taught me to tie the beauti8ful lace which you spoke of. I am bringing one-half gallon of yeast with me to start our blue pot with. I am planning to leave here Aug. 18th…” 2 pages 00016-00017.
13. November 1, 1923. Pine Mountain Settlement bill for laundry to Lucy Nicholson for $2.00. 1 page 00018
14. December 1, 1923. Pine Mountain Settlement bill for laundry to Lucy Nicholson for $3.00. 1 page 00019
15. February 28, 1924. Wilmer Stone, Saluda, NC to Lucy Nicholson. “Miss Pettit writes to me she is having you send the little loom on to me here. Thank you very much. I am enclosing my check for the loom $25,00 and the amt of bill sent from Pine Mt. My address is Saluda, NC. Polk County. …” Address on back of letter, “1924 Mr. Ed. Nicholson, 810 Masters St., Corbin, Ky. or % Y.M.C.A.” 2 pages 00020-00021
16. May 1, 1924. Pine Mountain Settlement laundry bill. $2.00. 1 page 00022
17. June 12, 1924. Katherine Pettit to Lucy Nicholson, Pi Beta Phi School, Gatlinburg, TN. “I was glad to have your two letters and know all that you are doing. I am so interested in your ideas in Gatlinburg, and have written Mrs. Cornett of Hindman, but am afraid it is to [sic] hard and expensive a journey for her to take. Miss Sheppard, who was coming here, is staying at Berea this summer4, so she will get what she wants there perhaps. We have not gotten a weaving teacher for next year, and truth to tell, I am not working very hard to find one, because I don’t want to take another inexperienced person.
    I was wondering if you would like to reconsider, however, and come back, living at Old Log as housemother and adding to your salary in that way.
    
    Where do you go from Gatlinburg? You could write to Mrs. J.H. Cornett, Hindman, and tell her definitely about your course.
    
    I am anxious to know about the white striped goods you sold. I cannot find any order, and I hear you sold some to Miss Hynes. What is the “white counterpane” which Mrs. Stone lists as one of the things she left over? And what about the white counterpane I asked you to weave? Becky May says she thinks there is some of it on the loom.
    
    We are having a lovely busy June, shingling Laurel House and gardening. There is a nice small family at Big Log. The children often speak of how much they miss you. …” 1 page 00023
18. July 9. 1924. Katherine Pettit to Lucy Nicholson, Corbin, KY. ” I was glad to have your letter and know you would be interested to come and live at Old Log and housemother there, doing the fireside industries work also. We would be able to give you seventy-five a month for this and your living, which we reckon at thirty dollars a month so that we would really be paying you $105.00 a month.
    I shall be glad to hear from you definitely about this …” 1 page 00025.

GALLERY: Lucy Nicholson Correspondence