Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Students
Series 19: STUDENTS
John Sherman Stephens Jr. (born 1919)
Virgil Hayden Stephens (born 1922)
John Spelman III Drawings. [drawing] [spel_blocks_097]
JOHN and VIRGIL STEPHENS Students
John Stephens 1934-1935
Virgil Stephens 1935-1936
TAGS: John Stephens Jr., Virgil Stephens, PMSS students, coal mining companies, coal camps, Twila KY, Creech Coal Company, steam engineers, Glyn Morris, student applications, student autobiographies, memorial plaque by Abby Winch Christensen, H.M.S. Pinafore
During the 1930s and 1940s, many coal mining companies in Kentucky provided rudimentary housing for the miners and their families. They were grouped into coal camps or coal towns, where everything was owned and run by the company. The camps varied in what they provided but each usually had a company store, a community pump for water, and some had an elementary school.
It was from such a town that the brothers Virgil and John Stephens came to Pine Mountain Settlement School in the mid-1930s. Virgil’s application to be admitted to the School, dated May 1935, lists his birthplace and current home as a “camp” in Twila, Harlan County, Kentucky. This small community was a coal town of around 400 residents owned by the Creech Coal Company from 1916 to 1952. He lists his father’s occupation as a “steam engineer,” which was likely related to the machines built near a mining site and used to pump out pit water. Virgil’s father indicated his employer as the Creech Coal Company on his 1942 WWII Draft Registration Card.
Virgil Stephens
In his autobiography that was part of his PMSS application, Virgil told about his family and home life. He had two brothers and three sisters: Hazel (age 24), Allene (Aline? 21, at college in Richmond), John (16 at PMSS), Billie (11), and Mamie (Mayme? 7). The family had one car and three hogs and shared a six-room painted frame house. They had electricity and a stove for heating. Water was available from an outdoor pump. Virgil’s home duties included chopping wood for kindling, hauling coal and water, and feeding the hogs.
Although their living conditions were simple, the family owned 75 books and read three newspapers: The Knoxville News Sentinel, Courier Journal, The Pittsburgh Press. Their musical instruments were violin, guitar, mandolin, and ukulele.
Following in the footsteps of his sister Aline, he hoped to attend college in Richmond (Eastern Kentucky University) and eventually become an electrician or machinist (or engineer as his father desired). He appears to have the support of his father, who preferred that Virgil become an “engineer.” In one of his letters to PMSS Director Glyn Morris, he wrote “I hope you are not disappointed in [Virgil] and I don’t think you will be if you can create in him a desire to work and study willingly.”
However, Virgil’s hopes for college were problematic. As his father stated in the application, “That depends on finances.” Virgil and his parent’s correspondence with the School indicated that it wasn’t easy to keep up with his school fees. After a year, Virgil left the School, writing that his father’s work had been cut back. He also stated, “I am sorry I left, but I didn’t think I would like it without John.” Virgil’s offer to work at the school to pay his debts was declined by Glyn Morris, who explained that “we must give summer jobs to our own students….”
In June 1936, Virgil tried again to apply for a place at Pine Mountain. However, his School records show that he attended only from 1935 to 1936, when he was in the eighth grade.
John Stephens Jr.
Virgil’s brother, John Stephens Jr., attended PMSS from 1934 to 1935. While a student, he was a tenor in the School’s 1935 presentation of H.M.S. Pinafore.
John Stephens’ name is among those on a memorial to PMSS students or graduates who did not return from WWII during the war’s earlier years. The memorial consists of a plaque designed by Abby Winch Christensen, a PMSS teacher in the 1920s through 1940s. Her calligraphy, featuring six names and titled “In Memoriam,” was framed and hung in the main dining room of Laurel House II on the South wall and remained there until 2016. (See an image of the plaque here.)
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According to the Stephens family tree on familysearch.org, John Sherman Stephens Jr. was born on October 4, 1919. Virgil Hayden Stephens was born in April 1922, in Twila, Harlan County, Kentucky. Their parents were Katie (Arnett) Stephens, born in Bell County, Kentucky, (1893-1986) and John Sherman Stephens Sr. (born in 1890 in Tennessee).
Virgil and John Jr. had three sisters: Hazel (b. 1911), Aline (1914-2006), and Mayme [sic, Mamie?] Rachel (1927-1990), and one brother, Billie H. (1927-1990).
This family tree indicates that Virgil Stephens died on November 22, 1944, and that John Stephens Jr. died on March 14, 1967. However, John’s date of death does not correspond to the presence of his name on the “In Memoriam” plaque of those who died in WWII.
| Title | John Stephens Virgil Stephens Jr. |
| Alt. Title | John Shermen Stephens, Jr. ; John S. Stephens ; Virgil Hayden Stephens ; Virgil H. Stephens ; |
| Identifier | https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=98796 |
| Creator | Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. |
| Alt. Creator | Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ; |
| Subject Keyword | John Stephens Jr., Virgil Stephens, PMSS students, coal mining companies, coal camps, Twila KY, Creech Coal Company, steam engineers, Glyn Morris, student applications, student autobiographies, memorial plaque by Abby Winch Christensen, H.M.S. Pinafore ; John S. Stephens Sr. ; |
| Subject LCSH | Stephens, John,– 1919 – ? Stephens, Virgil, — 1920 – ? 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 | 2022-03-05 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 – Students Series 19: STUDENTS |
| Language | English |
| Relation | Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections,Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Students ; Series 19: STUDENTS. |
| Coverage Temporal | 1890 – 2006 |
| Coverage Spatial | Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; Twila, 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 John Stephens Jr. and Virgil Stephens ; clippings, photographs, books by or about John Stephens Jr. and Virgil Stephens ; |
| 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 | Familysearch.org Family Trees. Accessed 05-April-2022. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/L7XR-L2P
“Kentucky Coal Education.” Kentucky Coal Heritage. Coal Camps & Communities. http://www.coaleducation.org/coalhistory/coaltowns/coalcamps/harlan_county_ “United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKCH-SHCT : Accessed 05-April-2022), John Sherman Stephens [Sr.], 27 Apr 1942; Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). Internet resource. “Virgil Stephens” and “John Stephens.” Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Students and |
See Also:
VIRGIL STEPHENS Correspondence
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BIOGRAPHY – A-Z
