PEARL FIGHTMASTER Staff

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
PEARL FIGHTMASTER Staff
Published 2021-10-14 hw/aae

PEARL FIGHTMASTER Staff

Teacher, Big Laurel County School, 1927 – 1929
Correspondence: June 27, 1927 – June 3, 1930

TAGS: Pearl Fightmaster, PMSS staff, Ethel de Long Zande, Katherine Pettit, Angela Melville, Big Laurel county school, Eastern Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College, teachers, county schools, A.C. Jones, Medical Settlement Big Laurel, questionnaires, letters of recommendation, Valley Carpenter, Myrtle Sharp 

 PEARL FIGHTMASTER Staff: Application and Teaching 

In June of 1927, student Pearl Fightmaster was called to the office Marie L. Roberts, Dean of Women at Eastern Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College, Richmond, KY, where she received news that was of great interest to her. The Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County, Kentucky, was looking for a teacher for the Big Laurel county school located nearby.

Pearl was completing her junior college work and expected to acquire her advanced certificate at the end of the summer term. She would then be in need of employment. Pearl soon sent a letter of application to Mrs. Ethel de Long Zande, Pine Mountain’s co-director. She described her teaching experience in the mountains at Elkhorn City in Pike County, Kentucky, for two years and as principal of a graded school in Hyden, Kentucky, in the past year.

Pearl’s education and experience was just what Mrs. Zande was looking for. All she needed in order to make an offer were the requisite recommendations from Pearl’s associates, which she received in due course. Lila Burgess of Hyden wrote that Pearl

“…has not been surpassed as a disciplinarian, or hard conscientious worker, by any teacher whom we have had. She is most willing to cooperate in all kinds of helpful community work. We take pleasure in commending her fine, strong character.” In a second letter, Miss Burgess wrote, “We never had a teacher who worked as hard and spared herself as little….”

Mr. R. Dean Squires, Director, Extension Department, Eastern Kentucky State Normal School stated that “[S]he is one of the finest young women that has been to this Institution.” 

Marie Roberts, the Dean of Women at Eastern Kentucky who introduced Pearl to the opportunity, wrote “Miss Fightmaster is another of our self-sustaining students. She has always worked her way at Eastern” such as working in the dining room as head waitress and the post office. “She is conscientious, faithful, and untiring in her service.…” 

Consequently, Mrs. Zande was convinced and sent Pearl a letter dated July 6, 1927, offering the Big Laurel teaching position to Pearl. In another letter (June 30), she described the one-room school:

“There are about seventy children in the school, hardly any of them over the sixth grade. But there are many big, overgrown, unruly children in the school, and as the neighborhood is one in which people are closely related, a good many situations arise that demand very careful handling by the teacher. Many times it would depend upon your tact and poise as to whether the school broke up or went on peacefully. On the other hand the people of the community are interesting and lovable, and you would find many helpful elements. …”

Pearl would live with PMSS’s Medical Settlement family – a doctor, nurse, housekeeper, and community worker and pay $25 a month into the family budget. Mrs. Zande informed her that “[l]iving conditions are pleasant and comfortable, though very primitive.” The community worker would assist with the younger grades for a few hours each day. The school was in session for seven months each year.

As a final step in the hiring process, Mrs. Zande notified Mr. A.C. Jones of Harlan, Kentucky, of the new hire. As County Superintendent of Schools, he did the official appointing of teachers, but gave Mrs. Zande the privilege of choosing each teacher, which she had been doing for the past seven or eight years.

Pearl arrived at Pine Mountain on July 16, 1927. She traveled to the School with Miss Valley Carpenter, another Richmond student who was hired to teach the Little Laurel school. 

Subsequent letters indicate Pearl’s adaptation to the culture and responsibilities of teaching at Big Laurel. In an undated letter, a box supper and a Christmas party for pupils and parents were mentioned. When she decided to return for a second year of teaching, Mrs. Zande welcomed her back, telling her that, during a visit to Big Laurel, “the mothers who came to me at various places…[saying] how glad they were that you were coming….”

PEARL FIGHTMASTER: After Pine Mountain

Even after Pearl left Big Laurel teaching, she continued to express her concerns for various students in her letters to Katherine Pettit, PMSS Co-Director. She wrote, “I surely feel very much attached to the Big Laurel Community but yet I would worry myself distracted within a few years there.” She continued, 

“…I’ve never taught in any place that I’ve so much enjoyed as being under the supervision and coming in contact with your school. It will always stand in my mind as one with the highest of ideals, thorough training, and giving unlimited value to those children who will come in.” 

Pearl’s last letters in her Archives file indicated that she was applying for other teaching positions and asked Angela Melville for a letter of recommendation. Miss Melville responded by writing,

“… for the last two years, Miss Fightmaster has been in charge of this one-room school with an enrollment of fifty-four students. She has done excellent work under very difficult conditions as the group there is not a cooperative one and there are many problems to fight against and to handle. Miss Fightmaster did this to the satisfaction of the community and to this school, which was her direct supervisor. She has executive ability and is, besides, an excellent teacher. She really had more than one person could possibly handle at Big Laurel and yet she did constructive work both in building up the school property by additions and improvements through the cooperation of members of the community and in teaching a good school. …” 

As of the 1940 U.S. Census, Pearl was approximately 44 years old and living in Delaware, Ohio. She was employed as a representative of a book company.

PEARL FIGHTMASTER Staff: Her Family

Pearl E. Fightmaster was born on December 27, 1896. Her parents were Nancy (“Nannie”) B. (Smith) Fightmaster (1873-1943) and Robert Lee Fightmaster (1871-1948). Her father was at first a farmer and later a laborer on a steam railroad. She was the oldest of several siblings: Ada L., Otis D., Amos, Lucille, Jessie, Gordon, and Glenn.

**********

Pearl lived most of her life in Sadieville, Scott County, Kentucky, and that is where she died on May 19, 1984, at the age of 87.

CONTENTS: Pearl Fightmaster Correspondence

[Note: Letters from PMSS staff in the PMSS Collections are carbon copies, typewritten, 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” are the initials for Ethel de Long Zande, “KP” refers to Katherine Pettit, and “AM” to Angela Melville. Letters from Fightmaster are handwritten. The following list of contents is in chronological order and not necessarily in the order of the image numbers.]

1927

021-021a June 27, 1927. Two-page letter to Mrs. Zande from Fightmaster, who is applying for the Big Laurel teaching position about which she was informed by Mrs. Roberts. She tells of her teaching experience in the mountains at Elkhorn CIty in Pike County, KY, for two years and the past year as principal of a graded school in Hyden, KY. She is completing her junior college work at E.K.S.N. and T.C. (Eastern Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College) and will have her advanced certificate at the end of the summer term. Asks for details and encloses a statement from Miss Lila Burgess.
020 May 26, 1927. (Enclosure) “To whom concerned” from Lila Burgess, Hyden, Leslie County, KY. A recommendation for Pearl Fightmaster, stating that she “has not been surpassed as a disciplinarian, or hard conscientious worker, by any teacher whom we have had. She is most willing to cooperate in all kinds of helpful community work. We take pleasure in commending her fine, strong character.”

019-019a June 30, 1927. Two-page letter to Fightmaster, Sullivan Hall, Richmond, KY, from EZ (Zande) expressing interest in her application to teach as Big Laurel, a county school in session for seven months each year. For details of the position, Zande directs her to write to A.C. Jones of Harlan who does the actual appointing of the teacher. Zande describes the school situation. Fightmaster would live with PMSS’s Medical Settlement family – a doctor, nurse, housekeeper, and community worker and pay $25 a month into the family budget. “Living conditions are pleasant and comfortable, though very primitive.” Encloses a questionnaire and will send school literature.

018 July 1, 1927. Typewritten letter to Ethel Zande from Mr. R. Dean Squires, Director, Extension Department, Eastern Kentucky State Normal School, Richmond, KY, Miss Jasper does not appear to be interested, so Squires recommends Pearl Fightmaster, a student at his school. “[S]he is one of the finest young women that has been to this Institution. For the last year she taught at Hyden, Kentucky.” 

029 July 4, 1927. APPLICATION BLANK for Pearl Fightmaster, Sadieville, KY. Age: 28. Education: high school and 2 years of college. Interests: upper grade, community activities. Have you lived in the country? “All my life.” Became interested in PMSS “through Miss Roberts, Dean of Women at Eastern.” 

017 July 5, 1927. To Mr. R. Dean Squires from EZ (Zande) responding to his letter about Fightmaster. “She is practically settled upon in my mind as the person we want for Big Laurel” but still wants to hear about her work at Hyden.

031-032 July 5, 1927. Handwritten information about Fightmaster from Miss Lila Burgess, Hyden, KY. [031] Questionnaire. [032] Letter to Zande from Burgess on reverse side of questionnaire: “…She has made quite a great deal of herself and has been of great help to the dean of women at Richmond. We never had a teacher who worked as hard and spared herself as little….”

030 July 6, 1927. To Mr. R. Dean Squires Eastern Kentucky State Normal School, Richmond, KY, from EZ (Zande), telling him that she will offer the Big Laurel position to Miss Fightmaster.

022 July 6, 1927. Typewritten letter to Zande from Marie L. Roberts, Office of Dean of Women, Eastern Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College, Richmond, KY, in answer to Zande’s request for her opinion of Mary Katherine Jasper and Pearl Fightmaster. She describes the backgrounds of each. “Miss Fightmaster is another of our self-sustaining students. She has always worked her way at Eastern” such as working in the dining room as head waitress and the post office. “She is conscientious, faithful, and untiring in her service.…” 

027 July 6, 1927. To Fightmaster from EZ (Zande), offering her the Big Laurel School position. Zande will notify Mr. Jones, the county superintendent. “Miss Valley Carpenter, another Richmond student will be coming with you to teach the Little Laurel School.” 

028 July 6, 1927. To A.C. Jones, County Superintendent of Schools, Harlan, KY, from EZ (Zande) notifying him that Pearl Fightmaster was hired for the Big Laurel school.

016 July 12, 1927. To Zande from Fightmaster, accepting Zande’s offer to teach at Big Laurel school. Will arrive with Miss Carpenter on July 16.

015 December 9, 1927. To Fightmaster from (unsigned). Asking about her Christmas tree. Oranges will be coming to Miss (Anna) Brockschlager for the school children with extras going to the Medical Settlement family.

1928

014 N.D. To Zande from Fightmaster, telling her that she paid Mrs. Harris for her work. Invites Zande to a box supper.

013 January 9, 1928. To Fightmaster at Big Laurel from EZ (Zande) asking for a meeting with Fightmaster to discuss the possibility of coming to PMSS to “take over the school of little children for a while…. Miss Campbell is hurt and cannot be back for perhaps six weeks….”

012-012a January 19, 1928. Three-page letter to Zande from Fightmaster, [012] who “can’t bring myself to work with any enthusiasm on the school project at all. Not that I do not want to teach at Little Laurel for I dearly would like it those two months if some one else were going to do it or if I were able to give my time I could work with zeal.” Fightmaster is objecting to asking parents to pay for another two months. Asks if Alice Boggs could be “taken in”; mentions Oscar and Boyd. 

010 January 19, 1928. To Fightmaster at Big Laurel from EZ (Zande). In response to Fightmaster’s discouragement concerning the “Little Laurel experiment,” Zande would like to proceed unless the enlistment of children is less than a dozen.

011 June 29, 1928. To Fightmaster, Salyersville (sic), KY, from EZ (Zande), welcoming her back and telling her of a visit to Big Laurel where “the mothers who came to me at various places…[saying] how glad they were that you were coming….”

008 December 13, 1928. To Fightmaster at Medical Settlement, Big Laurel, from AM (Angela Melville), who tells her that PMSS can send presents to only one community party. 

009 N.D. To Melville from Fightmaster. Asks if Melville will give her approval to fund a box supper at Big Laurel, a drinking fountain, and a Christmas party for pupils and parents.

1929

024 May 29, 1929. To Fightmaster from (unsigned, evidently Pettit), describing how Goldie considers Fightmaster her “dearest one” and has paid her PMSS debt. Ella Jane and Denvir are married. Asks Fightmaster to send Goldie encouraging letters to continue her schooling.

023-023d June 4, 1929. Five-page letter to Pettit from Flghtmaster. [023] Expresses surprise that Goldie’s father has agreed to pay for Goldie’s tuition for next year. [023a] She is also surprised that Ella Jane is married; Ella Jane had promised Fightmaster to stay at Medical Settlement in order to educate her children. [023b] “I surely feel very much attached to the Big Laurel Community but yet I would worry myself distracted within a few years there.” She is joining an employment agency with Miss Carpenter in a search for jobs, preferably in the Colorado mountains. [023c] “…I’ve never taught in any place that I’ve so much enjoyed as being under the supervision and coming in contact with your school. It will always stand in my mind as one with the highest of ideals, thorough training, and giving unlimited [023d] value to those children who will come in.” 

026-026a June 13, 1929. Two-page letter to Melville from Fightmaster, Sadieville, KY, requesting that a letter of recommendation be sent to Miss Katherine L. Craig, Supt. of Public Instruction, Denver, CO. It is needed so that Fightmaster can qualify for a certificate in Colorado. “I think of you folks so often and wish…I could take a trip to the top of one of those mountains.”

025 June 18, 1929. To Fightmaster from AM (Melville), who will write to Miss Craig about Fightmaster’s work at Big Laurel. “Miss Myrtle Sharp is to be the teacher at Big Laurel next year and we hope she can carry on the fine work you did there.”

005 June 18, 1929. To Miss Katherine L. Craig, Sept. of Public Instruction, Denver, CO, from AM (Melvillle), who sends a letter of recommendation “about her work at Big Laurel School in (Harlan) County. With the cooperation of the County Superintendent and the district school, this school employs the teacher for that school and, for the last two years, Miss Fightmaster has been in charge of this one-room school with an enrollment of fifty-four students. She has done excellent work under very difficult conditions as the group there is not a cooperative one and there are many problems to fight against and to handle. Miss Fightmaster did this to the satisfaction of the community and to this school, which was her direct supervisor. She has executive ability and is, besides, an excellent teacher. She really had more than one person could possibly handle at Big Laurel and yet she did constructive work both in building up the school property by additions and improvements through the cooperation of members of the community and in teaching a good school. …”

006-006c October 3, 1929. Four-page letter to Pettit from Fightmaster, [006] writing that she has not yet been placed in a teaching position and is at home unemployed. Mentions family members: Glenn, the youngest, is in training at Good Samaritan Hospital [006a] in Lexington and hopes that Pettit will meet her. Fightmaster states how happy she is whenever oneof the Big Laurel pupils enter school at Pine Mountain. “for the contact alone is worth so much to them.” Mentions her disappointment that “Goldie” had married and is not returning to school. “Big Alice” tried to help. [006b] She heard that Gov. Sampson visited PMSS. She states “that money should go to good roads and consolidated schools to improve our educational standards.” Miss Carpenter is in charge of the Practice Teachers of Lees College (truncated). [006c] “How we did enjoy your stories! Everything you wanted to tell us was as interesting as we could wish.”

1930

007-007a January 8, 1930. Two-page letter to Pettit from Fightmaster, Sadieville, KY. [007] “I was finally prevailed upon to stay at home this winter to take a rest from my work and to give mama a rest from hers. But I haven’t been happy. I somehow feel so worthless not out working with the youngsters.” The employment agency she joined is asking for recommendations [007a] and she asks Pettit to send one.

004 May 10, 1930. To Melville from Fightmaster, who has joined two agencies to look for a teaching position in the coming year. She asks Melville for a written recommendation of her work at Big Laurel.

002 May 15, 1930. To Fightmaster from AM (Melville), enclosing a recommendation. Mentions May Day, Miss (Dorothy) Bolles, and the Pageant.
003 May 15, 1930. (Enclosure) To Whom It May Concern from (unsigned, apparently Melville), stating that “Miss Pearl taught the Big Laurel school for the year 1928-29 under my supervision and she had done the year previous under the supervision of Mrs. Zande. Miss Fightmaster did a very good piece of work in a very difficult school and gained the confidence of the parents. She is a good disciplinarian and can work under difficult conditions in a rural school, successfully. Miss Fightmaster showed a good deal of executive ability in her administration of the school.”

001 June 3, 1930. To Miss Fightmaster from KP (Pettit), thanking her for her letter. Pettit and Miss Melville will be gone, but “Mr. (Hubert) Hadley, our new director, is already here. We are so fortunate to have a young man who is ready and eager for just such a job.” Mentions Boyd Baker and his mother, Aunt Barbara, from Hindman who are known to both Fightmaster and Pettit.

GALLERY: Pearl Fightmaster Staff

Title

Pearl Fightmaster

Alt. Title

 

Identifier

PEARL FIGHTMASTER Staff

Creator

Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.

Alt. Creator

Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;

Subject Keyword

Pearl Fightmaster ; Ethel de Long Zande ; Katherine Pettit ; Angela Melville ; Big Laurel county school ; Eastern Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College ; teachers ; county schools ; A.C. Jones ; Medical Settlement Big Laurel ; questionnaires ; letters of recommendation ; Valley Carpenter ; Myrtle Sharp ;

Subject LCSH

Fightmaster, Pearl, — 1896 – 1984.
Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History.
Harlan County (Ky.) — History.
Education — Kentucky — Harlan County.
Rural schools — Kentucky — History.
Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern.

Date

2021-10-14 hw/aae

Publisher

Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.

Contributor

n/a

Type

Collections ; text ; image ;

Format

Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet.

Source

Series 09: Biography – Staff

Language

English

Relation

Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09: Biography – Staff.

Coverage Temporal

1896- 1984

Coverage Spatial

Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; Elkhorn City, KY ; Pike County, KY ; Hyden, KY : Richmond, KY ; Sadieville, KY ; Hyden, KY ; Leslie County, KY ; Miami, FL ; Big Laurel, KY ; Hindman, KY ; 

Rights

Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Donor

n/a

Description

Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of Pearl Fightmaster ; clippings, photographs, books by or about Pearl Fightmaster ;

Acquisition

n/d

Citation

“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.

Processed By

Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;

Last Updated

 

 

Sources

“PEARL FIGHTMASTER Staff.” Series 09: Biography – Staff. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. Internet resource.

“Find A Grave Index,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVKD-C9GN : accessed 13 October 2021), Pearl Fightmaster, ; Burial, Sadieville, Scott, Kentucky, United States of America, Sadieville Cemetery. Internet resource.

“Kentucky, Vital Record Indexes, 1911-1999,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKH1-VBPD : accessed 13 October 2021), Pearl E Fightmaster, 19 May 1984; citing Death, Scott, Kentucky, United States, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort. Internet resource.

“United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9HB-J4Z : accessed 13 October 2021), Pearl Fightmaster in household of Robert Fightmaster, Magisterial District 3, Sadieville Voting Precinct Sadieville village, Scott, Kentucky, United States. (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.) Internet resource.

“United States Census, 1910,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M26L-68J : accessed 13 October 2021), Pearl Fightmaster in household of Robert L Fightmaster, Turkey Foot, Scott, Kentucky, United States. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982). Internet resource.

“United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9R4V-Y9?cc=1810731&wc=QZFS-QXF%3A648805301%2C649178501%2C648984403%2C1589282378 : accessed 13 October 2021. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002). Internet resource.

“United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KWXQ-Y3D : accessed 13 October 2021), Pearl Fightmaster in household of Christie B Schauck, Delaware Township, Delaware, Ohio, United States; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. Internet resource.

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