Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 17: PUBLICATIONS PMSS
NOTES 1987
Spring (April) and Fall

NOTES – 1987

“Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School”
1987 Spring (April) and Fall

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GALLERY: NOTES – 1987 April

Pine Mountain Settlement School is now meeting the challenge to reduce the high [county school] dropout rate in this region.

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TAGS: NOTES – 1987 April, Kentucky education, Appalachian Regional Commission, New York Times Company Foundation, intervention, Saturday School, computer classes, heritage classes,John A.Spelman, poem, linoleum print, Paul Hayes

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TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 1987 April

P. 1

PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL
PINE MOUNTAIN     HARLAN COUNTY    KENTUCKY 40810
Telephone: 606 / 558-3571   -3542

APRIL             PAUL HAYES, DIRECTOR            1987

[Featured image: Photograph of sun rays shining through mist and pine trees.]

P. 2

SPRING LETTER
1987

“Come Labor On, Who Dares Stand Idle?”

This line of an old hymn has been the theme for Pine Mountain Settlement School through its 74 years of existence. We continue to believe in the dignity of work and we dare not stand idle. There is much yet to be done.

Education in the Fifth District of Kentucky must be our priority. Our mission is to help, along with the community, the special needs of this area in promoting the necessity of quality education for teachers and pupils, to overcome the high percentage of dropouts.

Miss Pettit and Mrs. Zande set Pine Mountain Settlement School on a course of exceptional education. The Boarding School established the values and traditions which continued in the Community Day School, in conjunction with the Harlan County School System and the Little School, which was a model for the nation in establishing Headstart. Now there is Environmental Education for total child development, not just the academic side of it.

Pine Mountain Settlement School is now meeting the challenge to reduce the high dropout rate in this region. Appalachian Regional Commission and New York Times Company Foundation have come forward to help us in our programs. We are sending two teachers directly into the schools to give a child that extra boost, to motivate, inspire, counsel and listen. It’s called Intervention.

Part of the program is an introduction to “Saturday School“, when children and parents come to the campus for computer and heritage classes.

The goals and dreams for Pine Mountain Settlement School haven’t changed. The times have brought economic changes and the world has become different, values have been shaken, adjustments have been made and the school has risen each time to meet the challenge, despite setbacks.

The Lord comes to us all through friends, in times of crisis, in times of tragedy and in time of celebration. Pine Mountain Settlement School’s many dedicated friends have come forward to help the school through a difficult time. We are approaching our 75th birthday of continuous operation, thanks to your support and faithfulness, for helping to see that Pine Mountain Settlement School keeps going. You, like those before you have made Pine Mountain alive and well. Although there is much yet to be done we celebrate your stewardship, yet we dare not stand idle.

Your gifts are welcome and so are you. Come visit us this summer!

In the spirit of Pine Mountain,
[Signed]
Paul Hayes, DIRECTOR
Pine Mountain Settlement School

P. 3

[Featured image: Linoleum print of a house and outbuildings in a mountainous setting.]

These are my hills….I bought and paid for them with work…not of the plow and pick…but by painstaking observation…the work of the pencil and the brush…I was not born among them…yet they are mine…for what I have seen I have made anew, part of myself…part as preservation of what shall pass… (from an untitled free verse poem by John A. Spelman)

JOHN A. SPELMAN III
Artist in Residence 1937-1941

P. 4

[Image: Print of two dogwood blossoms.]

Special Open Weekends
1987

April 24 – 26
     Pine Mountain Wildflower Weekend

May 08 – 10
     Black Mountain Weekend

August
     Medicinal Plant Weekend, July 31 – August 1 & 2
     Homecoming Alumni & Friends, 08 – 09

October 16 – 18
     Fall Color Weekend

November
     Elderhostel

December 13
     Nativity Play

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GALLERY: NOTES – 1987 Fall

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TAGS: NOTES – 1987 Fall, An Old Man’s Hope, Katherine Pettit, Ethel de Long Zande, William Creech, Intervention, Aunt Sal’s Song, Paul Hayes

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 TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 1987 Fall

P. 1

NOTES FROM THE
PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL

PINE MOUNTAIN * HARLAN COUNTY * KENTUCKY 40810
Telephone: 606 / 558-4361

Fall             Paul Hayes, Director               1987

An Old Man’s Hopes
for the Children of the Kentucky Mountains
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I DON’T look after wealth for them. I look after the prosperity of our nation. I want all young-uns taught to serve the livin God. Of course, they wont all do that, but they can have good and evil laid before them and they can choose which they will. I have heart and cravin that our people may grow better. I have deeded my land to the Pine Mountain Settlement School to be used for school purposes as long as the Constitution of the United States stands. Hopin it may make a bright and intelligent people after I’m dead and gone.

From a letter by
William Creech, Sr., 1915
PINE MOUNTAIN, KENTUCKY

[Image: The text for “An Old Man’s Hope” is framed by a drawing of a scroll.]

P. 2

In the Spirit of Pine Mountain

Next year marks Pine Mountain’s Diamond Jubilee, 75 years of service to the children and grown-ups in our niche of the Kentucky mountains. It marks too, the time to take a backward look as we go to future service.

Time has given bolder relief to the story of how Miss Katherine Pettit and Mrs. Ethel de Long Zande answered Uncle William Creech’s urgent plea to found a school where “younguns” might have “Good and evil laid before them.” All friends of Pine Mountain cherish the memory of these two brave ladies who rode on horseback from Hindman to begin a school on the 136 acres which Uncle William had given, with a startling gift of 45¢ provided by a Bible Class of mountain girls and boys. We cherish too, the memory of their courage as they struggled in a wilderness against disease and fire and many other hardships of the frontier to reclaim a people who knew so little of the world and with little formal education. We cherish also, Uncle William’s expression of his hopes for the children of Pine Mountain. We pause and wonder at his vision and knowledge. Pine Mountain Settlement School has forever put its trust in his dream, never having doubt or indecision of the excellence of his wisdom and hopes.

Now after seventy-five years, if Uncle William could walk out on his log cabin porch some early morning, what would he see and hear.

He would most likely see an early morning fog wafting and rising over the mountains, giving promise that the sun will break through soon. He would see well kept grounds across the hayfield to the office, around Draper and the Plant Center. He would inspect the garden adjacent to his cabin, now in autumn corn shocks but with bright patches of lettuce and greens. As the sun bursts over the ridges he would hear children’s voices from Laurel House, singing praises to God for bountiful food. Later he would see them emerge in groups to study in nature’s great classroom forest and farmland. They would visit his log cabin to learn how he came to these parts to make his home and raise his family. He is a vital and personal link for students to the early settlers of this region.

With his appreciation of the land and water, he would like what he sees as boys and girls study the streams, the geology of Pine Mountain, birds, flowers, plants, and learn how to be good stewards.

If it was a Saturday, he would see a steady file of young people entering Draper Building to receive loving help with building basic skills and learning more about their heritage and of all things, learning about computers! On another evening he would see grown-ups coming back to Pine Mountain, getting their second chance to earn a high school diploma, or participate in a Literacy Training Workshop, to help youngsters to read.

These are some of the things Uncle William would behold and we think he would rejoice that his legacy for the future generations is continuing in the spirit of the founders. With this same trust Pine Mountain Settlement School will continue the commitment to fulfill his craving for the children and all the people of Pine Mountain.

As we enter our second 75 years, we are developing programs to help solve the problems of dropping out of school. Our Intervention Program helps children to CATCH UP BEFORE THE SAD DAY HE OR SHE drops out of school and out of life because they do not fit or have the will or encouragement to believe in themselves.

Just as the support of friends like you has made the past 75 years possible, the future strength of our Intervention Programs and the continuation of our traditional Environmental Education Programs depend upon your support in the year ahead.

With Love,
[Signed]
Paul Hayes

P. 3

[Image: Photograph of Uncle William Creech and Aunt Sal Creech dressed in their original wedding clothes to celebrate their 50th year of marriage.]

GOLDEN WEDDING, 1866-1916

When Aunt Sal and Uncle William had been married fifty years, she pulled her wedding dress out of her chest, a soft flowered organdie set with dainty stitches, and dressed up in it, with a “flower pot” gathered by Pine Mountain children, to have her picture made with Uncle William, in front of the old home. Her father had brought the dress all the way from Lexington, Kentucky, a nine days’ trip on horseback in those days, and here, while a family grew up in one room about it, it stayed safe in the old chest, ready for the golden anniversary.

[Image: Photograph of the Creech Cabin.]

P. 4

Aunt Sal’s Song
[Handwritten musical staff and notes.]

A gentleman came to our house, he would not tell his name.
I knew he came a-courting, although he were ashamed.
           O, although he were ashamed.

He moved his chair up to my side, his fancy pleased me well,
I thought the spirit moved him some handsome tale to tell.
           O, some handsome tale to tell.

O, there he sat the livelong night, and never a word did say.
With many a sigh and bitter groan he ofttimes wished for day.
          O, he ofttimes wished for day.

The chickens they begun to crow, and daylight did appear,
How d’ye do, good morning, Sir, I’m glad to see you here,
          O, I’m glad to see you here.

He was weary of the livelong night, he was weary of his life,
If this is what you call courting, boys, I’ll never take a wife,
O, I’ll never take a wife..

And when he goes in company, the girls all laugh for sport,
Saying, Yonder goes that ding-dang fool, that don’t know how to court,
          O, that don’t know how to court.

[Image: Two pine trees in a mountainous setting.]

Calendar of Events

Nativity Play.………………………………………December 13, 1987
Elderhostel…………………………………………March 13-19, 1988
Pine Mountain Wildflower Weekend…..April 22-24, 1988
Black Mountain Wildflower Weekend…May 13-15, 1988
Elderhostel………………………………………….June 5-11, 1988

Elderhostel………………………………………….June 12-18, 1988
Medical Botany Weekend…………………..August 5-7, 1988
Homecoming……………………………………..August 11-14, 1988
Fall Color Weekend…………………………….October 14-16, 1988

Need List

1 ton truck cost approximately $15,000. Pine Mountain has constant need for a truck this size to haul lumber to and from the mill, haul supplies, hay for cattle, etc.

1 van to carry 15 people cost approximately $18,000, to transport children to off- campus sites.

1 Walk-in Freezer, cost approximately $8,000, which would eliminate 8 chest type freezers and reduce electrical bills.

1 Comfort Station, cost approximately $6,000. We have no outside facilities for community people when they come in for recreational activities.

1 Large Commercial Cooler Refrigerator, cost approximately $2,500. Two of ours “died” this past summer.

1 Studio Piano, cost approximately $2,000.

1 Copier, cost approximately $3,500. Repairs on the old one are frequent and expensive.

1 Heavy duty Washer & Dryer, cost approximately $1,500. We send our sheets to the laundry but do towels, wash clothes, bed spreads, etc. The old equipment won’t last much longer.

1 Electric or Gas Range, cost approximately $600.

1 Portable 4 speed Record Player with mike input for Country Dancing. Cost approximately $700.

Thank you for your concern and care.
*
Your contribution is tax deductible.

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Previous:
NOTES – 1986
Next:
NOTES – 1988

See Also:
EDUCATION
EDUCATION Guide

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION 1988-89 A Legacy for Future Generations

HISTORY PMSS Summary 1986-1987
HISTORY PMSS Summary 1987-1988

PAUL HAYES’ Remarks on 75th Anniversary of PMSS 1988 and Programs

Return To:
NOTES Index

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