Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff/Personnel
Series 14: MEDICAL
DR IDA STAPLETON and REV ROBERT STAPLETON Reports Guide
1231 “Stapletons and Sunday School on Line Fork.” [VI_39_1231_mod]
DR IDA STAPLETON and REV ROBERT STAPLETON Reports Guide
1926 – 1936
TAGS: Dr. Ida Stapleton, Rev. Robert Stapleton, Stapleton reports, Line Fork Medical Settlement, doctors, correspondence, Dorothy Swisshelm, community activities, architectural planning, holiday celebrations
THE LINE FORK STAPLETON REPORTS 1926 – 1936
The following individual quarterly and monthly reports of Dr. Ida Stapleton are linked as separate pages and titled by date and the first line of the report. Not all reports are accounted for in the years that the Stapletons were in residence at Line Fork and missing reports may not have been prepared, may not have followed a monthly schedule, or may be lost.
*** For earlier reports and correspondence regarding Line Fork, see GUIDE TO REPORTS & CORRESPONDENCE OF WORKERS AT LINE FORK SETTLEMENT, 1920-1941. [in process]
See Also Dr. IDA STAPLETON & Rev. ROBERT STAPLETON Biographies
1925-1946 Correspondence
Dr. Ida Stapleton & Rev. Robert Stapleton Correspondence 1925-1928 April, Part I
Dr. Ida Stapleton & Rev. Robert Stapleton Correspondence 1928-1946 Part II
Dr. IDA STAPLETON & Rev. ROBERT STAPLETON Guide to Reports 1926 – 1936
1926 Reports
1926 REPORT – August-November “Our First Four Months at Line Fork Settlement …” [3 pages]
1927 Reports
1927 REPORT – June “The Doctor was visiting …” [2 pages]
1927 REPORT by Dorothy Swisshelm – June 21 – July 30 “Work at Line Fork Settlement. … My first endeavors were to get the older girls interested in …” [1 1/4 pages]
1927 REPORT – September “Poor N____ got desperate again for the Dr. so she borrowed a mule …” [6 pages]
1927 REPORT – October “Various things have happened during the month … ” [4 pages]
1927 REPORT – November
1927 REPORT – December “Somehow my November letter did not get written …” [4 pages]
1928 Reports
1928 REPORT December 1927 – January 1928 “I wish it were possible to tell you in the words of Bert Smith what a quiet Christmas there was …” [4 pages]
1928 REPORT February “The greatest event of the month has been a new grand baby in the Lewis family …” [4 pages]
1928 REPORT April “The story of Line Fork has a new …” [4 pages]
1928 REPORT August “Our very happy two months of vacation are already three weeks in the past …” [3 pages]
1928 REPORT October & November “The greatest event of the month was the taking of Rosie’s boy Bethel to Louisville for the operation … [7 pages]
1928 REPORT December “Of course after Thanksgiving everybody began to say ‘It’s only four weeks or three or two until Christmas …'” [7 pages]
1929 Reports
1929 REPORT February “Early in the month the Federal officers came thru and made a clean sweep of our most determined moonshiners and …” [6 pages]
1929 REPORT April “We’ve had a vacation. Mine was the longer as I started March 18th with Susan Ratliff …” Cabin Fire [6 pages]
STAPLETON REPORT May 1930 “Here we are again after a delightful two months vacation. …” [4 pages]
CABIN BURNED — See correspondence “Line Fork Architectural Planning” for an account of the fire and the planning for the construction of the new cabin.
1929 REPORT June “Its such exquisite Summer time; come and take a week with us, for a night would only be an aggravation …” [8 pages]
1929 REPORT October – November “There is one more baby party I want to tell you about …” [3 pages]
1930 Reports & Correspondence
1930 REPORT – January “At Christmas …” [5 pages]
1930 REPORT – February “7 Days on Line Fork” [5 pages]
1930 REPORT – July [May ?] “Dear Friends, Here we are again after a delightful two month vacation….” ‘The Progress of Darby and Jane …” [4 pages]
1930 REPORT – August “Dear Friends, The summer has been unusually hot and dry — yet nothing like it has been in the Blue Grass region …” [7 pages]
1930 LETTER TO PETTIT FROM DARBY & JOAN – August “What a most attractive trip … ” [4 pages]
1930 REPORT – September “Dear Friends, The big thing this month was the Labor Day picnic at the Cabin. It is not generally a holiday here…” [6 pages]
1930 REPORT – October “One of our great events during the year is the Fair at Pine Mt. and quite a number of the Line Fork neighbors attended …” [4 pages]
1930 REPORT – November “Dear Friends: — This is the coming -home month of Finley who has been in “durance ville” these two years and Neelie has valiantly supported the family by odd jobs here and there ….” [6 pages]
1930 REPORT – [December] Thanksgiving and Christmas on Line Fork “Dear Friends: — You would have been interested in seeing the neighbors gathered at Bear Branch School for the Thanksgiving programs and dinner…” [6 pages]
1931 Reports
1931 REPORT – January “The other morning when Isabell brought the milk she requested shyly, “Could you mend the knee of my stocking? ….” [4 pages]
1931 REPORT – February “Dear Friends: – It has been rather a nice month! After the fine clear days in January many are busy grubbin’ in good earnest putting up new palings and fixing over their rail fences to tighten up their fields …” [5 pages]
1931 REPORT – March “Dear Friends: – Come with me up Coyle Branch this afternoon. Coyle Branch runs into Line Fork down by Gilley posts office….” [6 pages]
1931 REPORT – April and May “Dear Friends: — You would have gloried in our wonderful tulips in the border on the East side of the Cabin as our neighbors did who came to other’s Day celebration yesterday. …” [7 pages]
1931 REPORT – August “Dear Friends: – Now we are all trying to save the apples that are such a bountiful crop. Nancy Ann says she has already eight bushels of dried apples and all her jars full of apple butter. …” [5 pages]
1931 REPORT – September “(‘Leaves from September’) Dear Friends: – Everybody is stringing beans until I almost think I should be also at it but we are not so dependent on beans as most households. If there isn’t a “kittle of beans” and a corn pone baking or left over, there is nothing to eat….” [5 pages]
1931 REPORT – October “(‘October Leaves’) Early in the month we were busy day and night for a few days bringing cane for molasses. Every little farm is sure to have a small patch of cane for “sweetening.” The Halls up Bear Branch had their patch high up o the mountain-side so they built their arh [?] for the boiling vat near the field with a small roof of hand-split shingles to protect it from a chance rain…” [5 pages]
1931 REPORT – November “November Notes. Dear Friends:- On the way to Pine Mt. Settlement School is Puncheon Camp, the first branch that runs into Line Fork from its source. A hunter built a shack up here forty years or so ago and ever since it has gone by that name….” [ 6 pages]
1931 REPORT – December “‘December Doings’ Dear Friends:- I have had in mind telling you about my last baby party on Jakes Creek. Once before I wrote about Orrie when Sam her husband was in prison and Mary, her mother-in-law,…spent the night moving the children from one bed to the other because they would not stay without their mother…” [ 6 pages]
1932 Reports
1932 REPORT – February 16 “A Journey in January” Dear Friends:– I had such an interesting adventure the first week in January and here is how it came about. Miss Prubrick, who had been the nurse at the Pine Mt. Settlement School Infirmary for four years was invited to take charge of a new hospital for the community at Oneida, Clay County of this State….” [6 pages]
1932 REPORT – February 10th “‘Seven Days on Line Fork’ Monday means an especially favorite day for a visit at the Cabin. First came Mary. One — Nancy — had visited her other. She is a busy-body you know and tried to make Mama say something about you. Then she said nothing but good thing[s] Nancy went away saying ….” [7 pages] [special report published in the PMSS NOTES February 1932, [5 pages]
1932 REPORT – February and March “Dear Friends: – Some of you know how delightful it is to go a half mile upon Line Fork, cross Bear Branch and turning to the right climb the steep road that runs along the edge of the mountain, thru the laurel groves with Bear Branch roaring over the rocks, a hundred feet or more below. ..” [5 pages]
1932 REPORT – March “‘February Facts & Fancies’ Dear Friends: – Came Old Jim Couch, a veritable scarecrow. His coat looked as tho it had served as such. There were traces of crude mending but hopeless for any more repairs…” [6 pages]
**1932 REPORT – March and April “Notes for March and April. Dear Friends: — Early in March we were so far advanced in growing weather that we were a little previous in planting potatoes and some were already up when a withering frost leveled everything.” [6 pages]
1932 REPORT – September [July – September] “Dear Friends: – I am sure you begin to wonder if we are yet on the map. Perhaps you have been glad to have a vacation from OUR MOUNTAIN NEIGHBORS like we were. Miss Pettit was glad enough to come and take charge for the Summer so on July 1st. Mr. S. and I started for Michigan…” [6 pages]
1932 REPORT – November “Dear Friends: – It is such a nice day let us make some visits on Coyle Branch which empties into Lie Fork down by Gilley post office. Seldom do horses or mules go up the stream bed but a year ago when I was expected to attend little Martha at the Eagle’s Nest, John her husband, did considerable work to make the Branch more passable for Swallow…” [6 pages]
1933 Reports
1932 – 1933 REPORT – December 1932 and January 1933 “Dear Friends: — All you helpers of Santa Claus — East and West, North and South — are included. Verily boxes came from Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida & Kentucky…” [8 pages]
1933 REPORT – May 6th “Springtime on Line Fork. Dear Friends:- We are all so happy with this awakening season and growing things. Neely came to the Cabin grounds to pick salat greens. …” [8 pages]
1933 REPORT – July and August “Dear Friends: — Once again the “farewells to Summer” are beginning to suggest the approach of Autumn. the queen of the Meadow and Vervain tower above the Golden Rod that makes beautiful the road-sides and the corn. I always marvel how it can grow so tall from the rocky soil …” [6 pages]
1933 REPORT – December “Dear Friends: — At the peak of the Year — and we are having our first snow storm which did not last but half an hour. the Fall has been about as perfect as we could wish. Just cold enough so that a moderate fire is sufficient…” [[6 pages]
1934 Reports
1934 REPORT – September “Dear Friends:- It’s good to be back again among the hills of Kentucky to take up the task of neighboring with our acquaintances near and far. The Labor Day picnic was delayed till the 17th. The school Children especially looked forward to their yearly visit to the Cabin …” [8 pages]
1936 Report & Correspondence
STAPLETON REPORT 1936 June – Letter of Appreciation to Miss Lewis [5 pages]
1936 LETTER – July Letter from Dr. Ida S. Stapleton to Katherine Pettit. “Sorry the ‘antique’ has a spot. I didn’t notice it …” [4 pages]
1936 REPORT- August
STAPLETON LETTER 1936 – September “My Dear Miss Lewis…Thank the lady…” [3 pages]
