POLLY TURNER Correspondence

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Students
Series 19: STUDENTS
Polly Turner, Student, 1923-1934
Polly Turner Correspondence, 1925-1936

“Alice and Polly Turner.” [kingman_072b.jpg]

TAGS: Polly Turner correspondence, boarding school students, settlement schools, Turner family, Ollie Turner, tonsillectomies, Ethel de Long Zande, Mrs. Susan (Suse) E. Turner, Evelyn K. Wells, Berea Academy, scholarships, Hubert Hadley, Tusculum College

POLLY TURNER Correspondence 1925-1936

Student 1923-1934

CONTENTS: POLLY TURNER Correspondence – At Pine Mountain

[Note: Letters from PMSS staff in the PMSS Collections are carbon copies, typewritten (unless specified otherwise), unsigned, and meant for the Office files. The original signed copies were sent to the correspondents. The initials at the bottom left of most PMSS letters indicate the writer (along with initials of the secretary). For example, “EZ” refers to Ethel de Long Zande, “EKW” to Evelyn K. Wells, “AM” to Angela Melville, “RC” to Ruth E. Campbell, “HH” to Hubert Hadley, and “GAM” to Glyn A. Morris. Letters from Polly Turner and Ollie Turner are handwritten and original. The following list of contents is in chronological order and not necessarily in the order of the image numbers.]

1925

[002], [002a] N.D. Two-page handwritten letter to Angela Melville from Dr. Alfreda Withington, Medical Settlement, Big Laurel, Harlan County, KY, reporting Polly’s need for corrective exercises for her posture under Miss (Marian) Purbrick’s supervision; and for proper shoes for the pain in her foot; offers to fit her with shoes when she comes to Big Laurel.

[003] April 28, 1925. To Mrs. Suse Turner, Big Laurel, from EZ (Ethel de Long Zande), informing her that “Polly needs to have her tonsils out. We have a doctor here at the school to take care of several cases at the close of school.” Requests that Mrs. Turner fills out the enclosed blank and returns it. Cost is about $3.00.

[004] June 8, 1925. To Polly from EZ (Zande), asking her to arrive at the school in time for summer school on June 29. “You will have six weeks to pass off your sixth grade work…. You will go to school two and a half or three hours a day. By putting in a fair amount of work the rest of the day you will be able to earn your board and pay your tuition so there will be no money charge for this schooling. Of course you will have free time like the other children.” This will prepare Polly for seventh grade in August.

[005] October 1, 1925. To Mrs. Turner from EZ (Zande), asking her to fill out the enclosed permission blank for Polly’s tonsillectomy in October or November and explains the problems with diseased tonsils.

1926

[006] March 26, 1926. To Mrs. Turner from EZ (Zande), asking her to fill out the enclosed permission blank for Polly’s tonsillectomy in May. “It is a more favorable time of year than November when we planned it before….”

[007] December 15, 1926. To Miss Ollie Turner, Berea College, Berea, KY, from EZ (Zande). “If Pollie (sic) really wants to come after Christmas Mrs. Browning will be glad to have her….” Mrs. Zande hopes to see Ollie at Christmas.

1927

[009] through [009b] N.D. Three-page letter to Zande from Ollie, who offers to pay Polly’s bill. Dean (W.J.) Baird and she “didn’t think it worthwhile to start in classes now, so I am working at the Fireside Industries.” Asks if PMSS could take Sevilla and Emily, offering to pay what she can for their entry.

[008] May 18, 1927. To Ollie from EKW (Evelyn K. Wells), explaining she is writing because Mrs. Zande is visiting Miss (Abbie) Christensen in South Carolina. Asks that Ollie help with Polly’s debts for tuition and entrance fee. There may not be a summer school this year, so will probably not take Sevilla and Emily yet. “I am sorry you are not going to school, but of course your work in the Fireside Industries will help you get ahead financially.”

[011] June 2, 1927. To Zande from Ollie, sending $2.00 for Polly’s debt.

[010] June 7, 1927. To Ollie from EZ (Zande), expressing appreciation for the payment of Polly’s debt and asks for one final payment. Zande gives her okay for Polly to visit her sister in Tennessee. Offers to try to get “your little sisters in at Blackey this year.” Tells about Fair Annie’s sister Sallie from Blackey, now at Pine Mountain.

[012] June 15, 1927. To Polly at Big Laurel, KY, from EZ (Zande), telling her that Ollie has paid her debt in full.

[013] June 15, 1927. To Ollie from EZ (Zande), who is pleased she could pay all of Polly’s debt. “I am always glad when a child can be relieved from the feeling of hopelessness it has when it takes too many weeks to work off a debt.” Zande is writing to Blackey about Sevilla and Emily.

[014] June 25, 1927. To Polly from EZ (Zande), offering “a bundle of some things” for her little sisters, which she can pick up if she’s coming to PMSS on July 4.

[015] July 14, 1927. To Polly from EZ (Zande), welcoming her back to PMSS and enclosing school information.

[016] August 8, 1927. To Polly from EZ (Zande), asking for the day she is coming back to PMSS and hopes it will be Sunday to help Miss Key, replacing Alice Thomas.

1928

[017] July 21, 1928. To Mrs. Suse Turner from EKW (Wells), reporting that she has secured places at Blackey for Sevilla and Emily again. She thinks she knows a lady who will pay their monthly bills. Asks what kind of winter clothing the girls will need and whether her son-in-law at Kingsport, TN, could help with expenses. Wells hopes Mrs. Turner will visit PMSS before Wells leaves PMSS on August 3.

1930

[018] March 31, 1930. To Miss Melville from Ollie, asking her advice on whether Polly is ready to attend Berea College next year. “If I teach again this fall I can help her, but my teachers would like for me to stay here all year next year and graduate. However, I am afraid I can’t be here all next year. I would rather have Polly come as to stay myself.”

[019] April 3, 1930. To Ollie from AM (Melville). Both she and Miss (Katherine) Pettit “agree that Polly should go to Berea next year. She has been here a long time — some seven or eight years — and we believe she would get more out of a new place.” Offers to help get Polly a scholarship at Berea; suggests that Ollie speak to Dean Baird. “It is too bad you cannot stay yourself and graduate.”

[020] April 3, 1930. To Dean Baird, Berea College, from AM (Melville), asking him to get a scholarship for Polly Turner, who is a sister of Ollie Turner, a Berea student. “She has been at Pine Mountain since January 1923…. She is quite poetic and sensitive and is in many ways an interesting child if she could be awakened. …” If Polly has a scholarship, then Ollie can stay at Berea and graduate this year.

[021] May 28, 1930. To Mr. H.E. Taylor, Berea College, from (? truncated, apparently Melville), asking him to get Polly Turner a scholarship and explaining her circumstances. “Polly has been here for three and a half years (sic) … a good student and we feel that she should …be in larger classes and …will have a chance to complete her high school work and then go on to college…. [S]he is ready for the third year high school.”

[022] May 31 1930. To Melville from Howard E. Taylor, Business Manager, on Berea College letterhead, who declines PMSS’s request for Polly Turner’s scholarship, explaining that Berea’s Academy and the college are already overcrowded. Suggest the Normal School, “which has practically the same course as the High School” except it provides “teacher training work.” Also, he has no resources for scholarships in the coming year. Regrets missing a meeting with Melville when he and his wife visited PMSS last summer.

[023 – 026] NO IMAGES

[027] August 8, 1930. To Mr. C.N. Shutt, Berea College, from RC (Campbell), thanking him for his August 5th letter and asking him to send a Berea College application blank to Polly. Explained that Mr. Taylor’s letter indicated that the Academy was full and therefore Polly probably “had done nothing further about her admission there…. When she left Pine Mountain more than a month ago she told me she would try to apply….through her sister, Olly (sic), who is a student at Berea now.” Campbell will write and ask Polly to apply to Berea immediately for fall entry.

[028] August 5, 1930. To Campbell from C.N. Shutt, Dean of The Academy, Berea College. Explains possible miscommunication; will try to make a place for Polly even though the Academy is full for September and has a long waiting list. “The Academy has no scholarships that can be used before a student has been registered for a year.”

[029] August 8, 1930. To Polly from HH (Hadley), telling her of Shutt’s request that she let him know if she desires to attend Berea Academy and ask for an application form.

1931

[030] July 11, 1931. To Miss K.C. Griggs, Secretary, Berea College from GAM (Glyn A. Morris), enclosing a transcript of Polly Turner’s High School record.

[031] September 15, 1931. To “Gentlemen” at University of Nashville from IA (unsigned), Secretary, enclosing Polly Turner’s School Record (1st and 2nd years of high school) at her request.

[032] NO IMAGE

1933

[001] May 4, 1933. STUDENT APPLICATION BLANK for Polly Turner at Big Laurel, Ky.
Born in Leslie County on January 24, [no year – 1914]
Last attended Pine Mountain 1933
Grade ready to enter: 12th
Parent: Susan E. Turner (widow)

POLLY TURNER Correspondence – After Pine Mountain

1934

[033] June 20, 1934. To Morris from S.C. Hyder, Kingsport, TN, enclosing $15 for Polly Turner’s account and asked for the balance which he will also pay.

[034] July 13, 1934. To Hyder from Barbara Faulkner, Bookkeeper, who provides the balance of Polly’s account: $40.60.

[035] August 29, 1934. To Morris from Polly, Kingsport, TN, sending $25 to apply to her bill; asked about an $8 note that Faulkner said she took out.

[036] September 10, 1934. To Polly from (? truncated, apparently Faulkner), explaining the $8 note, which the auditors said was an entrance fee and a month’s tuition. Since the note cannot be found and Polly doesn’t recall it, Polly will not have to pay.

[037] December 11, 1934. To Polly from Glyn Morris, Director. “Dr. Frank C. Foster, (Dean) of Tusculum College, has told me that you are applying for admission to Tusculum….[and of the] possibility of your securing a scholarship by helping with Country Dancing.” Morris encourages Polly to assure Foster that she “had lots of experience, (dances) well, and should be able to teach many of the simple dances.” Morris offers to send literature about English Country Dancing and to meet with her and discuss the matter more fully.

[038], [038a] December 17, 1934. To Morris from Polly, enclosing $15.60 to pay off the rest of her debt. Tells about visiting Tusculum College, talking with Dean Foster, and his offer of a scholarship if she could teach Country Dancing. Asks if she can use Morris as a reference. She likes Tusculum College, and even more so if “Bessie” also goes.

”I miss P.M. more at Christmas time than any other time, because here, one doesn’t hear the beautiful Christmas carols, nor see handmade wreaths.”

[039] December 22, 1934. To Polly from [unsigned, apparently Morris], thanking her for her December 17 letter; encloses a receipt; agrees to act as her reference.

1935

[040] January 9, 1935. To Morris from Polly, reporting that she sent her application to Tusculum College and hopes to begin there in September 1935; will enjoy teaching Country Dancing and asks for the material on the subject; has sent a check for $15.60 to cover the rest of her debt.

[041] March 27, 1935. To Morris from Polly, asking him to send her high school transcripts to Tusculum College.

[042] April 26, 1935. To Polly from Morris, asked if her plans to attend Tusculum next year are definite.

[043] DUPLICATE OF [042]

1936

[044] December 3, 1936. “To Whom it May Concern” from (unsigned, likely Morris). “I have known Polly Turner for five years, and knew her as a student at Pine Mountain School for two years. During that time her character so far as I know has been above question. On examinations her honesty was apparent, and she was considered one of our most trustworthy students.”