May 2013 - Pine Mountain Settlement School

Notes From
THE PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL
PINE MOUNTAIN ~ HARLAN COUNTY ~ KENTUCKY
A tradition of education and service since 1913
Spring 2013
The “Remembering Pine Mountain” quilt, handcrafted by former PMSS Community School student Charlene Cornett, is on loan to
the School for display in honor of our 100th year. Charlene was born in the Infirmary, now known as Hill House, on the School campus.
The quilt is a tribute to Pine Mountain Settlement School and Mary Rogers, Charlene’s first art teacher.
For nine years, Charlene and some friends participated in a fall quilting retreat in Big Log House (upper left.) The stars in the upper
right border represent the nine members of the quilting group plus an extra star for the occasional guest that attended. Three of the group
members contributed a block to the quilt.
The birds and their support represent the four seasons: Chickadee in Holly - winter; Cardinal in Dogwood – spring; Goldfinch on
Thistle – summer; Red-winged Blackbird on Cattails – fall.
April 2013
Dear Friends,
At the end of June, I will be leaving the
position as executive director of Pine
Mountain Settlement School. What an
eleven years it has been!
During the last several weeks, I have been
thinking about how the School has changed
since I arrived. My goal was to leave Pine
Mountain in a better position than when I
arrived. Time will be the judge of that. I
know that I tried. I have written about some
of my reflections, and listed the things that I
consider to be important achievements.
In December 2001, the Pine Mountain
Board of Trustees approved my appointment
to serve as executive director. My most
vivid memory of that day is standing in front
of Laurel House as trustees drove away. As
Nancy Adams, Executive Director, on the porch at Far House.
the last car crossed the rickety wooden
bridge over Isaac’s Creek, I surveyed the
heart of the campus and began to realize the magnitude of the responsibility I had assumed. Many times during
my tenure, I would think back on that moment.
Earlier in that day, one long-serving trustee took me aside after I was hired and said: “I know you will make
changes. Go slowly.” When I arrived in mid-January of 2002, I decided I would observe the School’s operation
for a while. I recorded my observations and made notes about my ideas for making the operation more efficient
and strengthening and diversifying the programs.
This is my list of important achievements by the Settlement School staff during my tenure:
• We healed the breach with community members who were angry that the School had petitioned the state, and
won its argument, to declare lands unsuitable for mining around the School.
• We maintained a high return rate for our environmental education program even during times when school
boards across the country had to cut budgets. Our retention rate for schools is 90 percent. We have been able to
recruit new schools to participate in our environmental education program. We have been able to do this in part
by updating our program, and adding new material that is consistent with state core content requirements.
• We established the James E. Bickford State Nature Preserve on campus. The 348-acre preserve on the north
side of Pine Mountain is home to rare plants and to insects that are found nowhere else on the planet.
• We worked with the Kentucky Heritage Council to produce three preservation workshops every year for 10
years. These workshops, taught by skilled master craftspeople, drew close to 400 people to the campus. The
students learned particular preservation techniques, and, at the same time, they completed needed work on
Pine Mountain’s historic buildings. These workshops brought state and national recognition to the School. This
spring, an important document will be published that stemmed from a window repair summit at the Settlement
School in 2011. During the summit, historic window repair experts were able to prove that high quality wood
and steel windows could be made as energy efficient as new windows.
• We established many new administrative procedures that resulted in a more consistent and productive
operation.
• We worked with the board, and former Berea College president and Pine Mountain trustee Larry Shinn,
in particular, to identify weaknesses in our endowment management, and, after a search for a new
manager, found a firm that has served us well. During the economic downturns of the last 11 years, and most
particularly from 2007 to the present, Pine Mountain has been able to draw a steady income from endowment
that allowed the school to maintain programs and keep all staff employed. While much praise goes to
Larry Shinn and our current endowment managers, the staff shares equally in that praise for their hard work
during an especially lean financial period.
• Through our partners – Berea College, Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, Kentucky Heritage Council, Kentucky
State Nature Preserves Commission, Appalshop, Grow Appalachia, Kentucky Non-Profit Network, Sustainable
Mountain Agriculture Center, University of Kentucky/Harlan County Extension Service, Episcopal Diocese of
Lexington, Alpha Sigma Tau collegiate sororities and Alpha Sigma Tau National Foundation, Preservation
Kentucky, Preservation Trades Network, University of Kentucky School of Architecture, and hundreds of
individuals - we have gained many new friends for the School. Friends who support Pine Mountain through
contributions, volunteer work, and by being goodwill ambassadors.
Through incremental changes, we have begun to meld our environmental education classes with an awareness
of sustainability measures that can, with some planning, lead to a strong program that will be relevant to today’s
challenges. We have provided opportunities for staff development through off-campus conferences and classes,
on-campus training, and webinars.
Through the Grow Appalachia program, we have helped dozens of local families to realize their potential to
provide food for themselves and their families and neighbors. The School’s work with the community, and by
extension, community members working with each other, have created bonds of trust that strengthen our
extended community.
Through Reading Camp and the Intervention Program, we have helped local students receive remedial
instruction in the basics of reading. Through this extra help, students have had an opportunity to catch up with
their peers in academic studies. Some failing students have improved their reading skills to the degree that they
have achieved honor roll status in their schools.
We have maintained the spirit of Pine Mountain. Through challenges and uncertainties, this intangible, everpresent spirit sustains us and brings a sense of peace to many of our visitors.
I hope to see my Pine Mountain friends again, albeit beyond the boundaries of this lovely place. One of the
great rewards of working here has been meeting you.
In the spirit of Pine Mountain,
Nancy Adams
Executive Director
Environmental Education
Director Ben Begley and
environmental education teacher
Pat Begley to retire in 2014
Ben and Pat Begley, who have worked
and lived at Pine Mountain Settlement
School for 25 years, have announced that
they will be retiring from the School in
August 2014. Upon retirement, they will
be moving to Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The last times for the public to accompany these two extraordinary teachers
and naturalists on hikes in the forests
near the Settlement School will be the
2013 and 2014 wildflower weekends and
the In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun forest
study program in June and August 2013
and June 2014. We hope that those who
enjoy hiking and learning more about the
biologically diverse forests in southeast
Kentucky will take these opportunities to
learn more from Ben and Pat before they
leave.
New faces on campus
We are pleased to welcome Gretchen Fitzgerald-Tooill and Ruth Potter as environmental education interns for
the spring months. Gretchen is a familiar face to us all. She and her family attended wildflower and fall color
weekends for many years when she was growing up. Gretchen is from Louisville, where she lives with her husband Jamie and their beagle Beans. She is a 2010 graduate of Warren Wilson College where she majored in
English literature. She enjoys being outdoors and particularly likes whales.
Ruth Potter is from
the
Greenville-Hedra
area
in
central
Ohio. After completing
her internship, Ruth
will graduate from
Western State Colorado
University
with
a
double major in geology
and outdoor environmental education. She
enjoys hiking, riding
horses
and
loves
dinosaurs.
Gretchen Fitzgerald-Tooill
Ruth Potter
In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun forest study workshop
For those who enjoy exploring Kentucky’s natural areas, the “In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun” four-day forest
study program offers an opportunity to hike with experienced naturalists and botanists in three nature preserves
and two other special habitats in the state’s southeast region. Evening programs will feature a presentation on
the geology of the region, a multi-media presentation on “Rare Plants of
Eastern Kentucky” by Thomas Barnes, Ph.D., extension professor of
Dr. E. Lucy Braun
forestry and wildlife specialist at University of Kentucky, and a presentation
on “Protecting South America” by Greg Abernathy, assistant director of
Kentucky Natural Lands Trust.
The Settlement School is offering the program two times this summer: June
5 through 9 and August 14 through 18.
Dr. E. Lucy Braun
Dr. Braun was born in Cincinnati
and attended University of
Cincinnati, where she earned her
undergraduate degree, master’s
degree in geology, and Ph.D.
in botany. She taught geology,
botany, and ecology at the
university from 1910 to 1948.
Upon retirement from teaching in
1948, she spent the rest of
her life conducting research on
plants and working to save
natural areas. In the 1920s and
‘30s, she went on field trips
to gather information for her
study of the forests of Eastern
North America.
Her travels
brought her to the Southern
Appalachians, including areas
around the Settlement School.
On these field trips, Dr. Braun
and her sister Annette, a
zoologist, drove their Model T
Ford through the mountains to
collect plant specimens. Dr.
Braun’s
analysis
of
the
information accumulated on
these field trips was published in
1950 in her book “Deciduous
Forests
of
Eastern
North
America.” This book was the
definitive text on the subject
when it was published and it
remains so today.
Hikes in this biologically
diverse area will offer
experiences in the 3,124acre Blanton Forest State
Nature Preserve, the
state’s
largest
oldgrowth forest; the 2,639acre Bad Branch State
Nature Preserve; the 554acre
Lilley
Cornett
Woods, which includes a
252-acre old growth
This view of the Cumberland River valley can be
forest; the 609-acre Pine seen
from Knobby Rock in Blanton Forest.
Mountain Trail State
Park Nature Preserve;
and a trip to Black Mountain, the commonwealth’s highest peak and home
to plant and tree species usually found in northern hardwood forests.
Participants will see rare plants, pristine streams, aquatic life, and stunning
vistas.
We know that some people would like to participate but can’t come for the
full four days. For those people, we offer two and three-day rates.
For more information, call the School’s office at 606-558-3571 send e-mail
to [email protected] or check the School’s web
site: www.pinemountainsettlementschool.com. We will accept registration
by phone, mail, or
on-line. The School’s
mailing address is: 36
Highway 510, Pine
Mountain,
KY
40810-8289.
From left to right: Ferns, a lovely waterfall, and Red-spotted Newts are just a few of
the wonders at Bad Branch State Nature Preserve.
Grow Appalachia: A Healthy Solution
Even though winter stretched into early April this year, the families in the Grow Appalachia program were
planning their gardens and planting the earliest crops. They attended a workshop to learn how to install a rain
barrel to catch water for their gardens and picked up heirloom seeds at the annual seed swap in March.
This spring, the Settlement School received materials, labor, and instruction from Grow Appalachia staff to
construct a 12 x 40 foot high quality hoop house! This new hoop house will help the School extend its
gardening season so that we can provide quality produce for visiting school groups earlier in the spring and later
in the fall. The hoop house will also allow the School to demonstrate season extension strategies for our Grow
Appalachia families, and we believe that we now have enough knowledge to build hoop houses for two
interested Grow Appalachia families.
Last year, we worked with 35 families to produce more than 835 bushels of food, weighing in at over 38,300
pounds! To top it all off, those amazing families preserved over 2,120 quarts of food for the winter. This year’s
per family average was 24 bushels, weighing in at 1,095 pounds. This is the largest harvest for PMSS Grow
Appalachia to date. Our second largest harvest took place during 2011, when PMSS Grow Appalachia reaped a
total of 28,200 pounds, and averaged 19 bushels (972 pounds) per family.
One of the most inspirational stories from last year comes from
Tevis Turner, a first-time gardener. Tevis decided to grow her own
garden after tending the abandoned garden at a local elementary
school and enjoying the fresh produce. In addition to physical and
mental hardships, she battled diabetes. After joining Grow
Appalachia, she and her adult son cleared off the family’s brambleridden garden plot which had lain fallow for at least forty years.
Tevis tended her garden with care throughout the summer and
harvested beans, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, potatoes, eggplant,
peppers, and more. She learned to preserve her food and cook it in
new and healthy ways. As the season progressed, Tevis realized she
preferred her healthy produce to the processed foods she used to
buy. One day, Tevis called us with great news: her doctor was
reducing the amount of insulin she was taking. Her doctor attributed
her improved mental and physical health to her work in the garden
and her improved diet. Tevis’ son is now interested in working in his
own garden, and her daughter has changed her diet to exclude soft
drinks and include more vegetables. Using her experience, Tevis
urges her friends and family to create healthier lives for themselves.
Maybe we can’t give Grow Appalachia all the credit for the positive
changes in this one family, but we believe that we are changing lives
for the better.
Tevis Turner, of Bledsoe, and her son built a
chicken tractor during a Grow Appalachia
workshop in April 2012. This was her first
experience in raising chickens, and she called
us the day her chickens laid their first eggs.
Tevis is raising laying hens for egg
production and shares those eggs with her
next door neighbors, who are now planning
to raise chickens of their own.
Participants tell us that they not only appreciate Grow Appalachia
for the financial and physical assistance, but that they delight in
sharing ideas with other families, the educational components of the
program, and the encouragement from fellow gardeners. Families have told us that they find their garden to be
more convenient than going to the store, that they have learned to cook differently, and that they eat much better
due to having an abundance of fresh food. Grow Appalachia has shown us that gardening is not only about
producing high quality food, but it’s also about pride, cooperation, companionship, beauty, history, storytelling,
lifelong learning, and fun. When we work with participants down long garden rows, we nurture friendships too!
Grow Appalachia is an outreach education and service project of Berea College. John Paul Dejoria, co-founder
and CEO of John Paul Mitchell Systems, Inc., funds the project.
Dr. James S. Greene III, a Harlan native who has served on the
Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees for many years, wrote
about the Settlement School for his dissertation, which was completed in
1980. Dr. Greene presented a talk about the beginning of the Settlement
School at the Kentucky Historical Society’s Food for Thought event
in March at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in
Frankfort. This event was the first of several events planned for this year to
celebrate the Settlement School’s Centennial. The following article is
excerpted from this lecture. The full text is on the School’s web site:
www.pinemountainsettlementschool.com.
PINE MOUNTAIN BEGINNINGS
Pine Mountain Settlement School has had a rich tradition of service to the Appalachian region and to Kentucky.
In the beginning, it was a boarding school for children of all ages and also functioned as a social settlement to
the immediate community. In the 1930s, the school side focused on high school, which led to creation of an
innovative theme-based curriculum. In 1949, faced with increasing costs and reduced contributions, Pine
Mountain closed the boarding school and partnered with Harlan County Schools and Berea College to operate a
consolidated public elementary school on campus. At the same time, it reached into the community and
operated a small hospital/clinic for a number of years. In the 1970s, a new public school was built at a more
central location, and Pine Mountain embarked on a program of environmental education which continues today.
Along the way it has ventured into additional areas, more recently summer reading camps, sustainability
programs, preservation workshops, and the Grow Appalachia program. In 2003, the James E. Bickford State
Nature Preserve was created on the campus as an outcome of the school’s successful fight to prevent surface
mining in the valley.
Katherine Pettit, a Lexington native,
co-founded Pine Mountain Settlement
School in 1913 with William Creech,
Sr. and Ethel de Long. In 1903, Miss
Pettit co-founded Hindman Settlement
School with May Stone.
Pine Mountain Settlement School
grew from the vision of William
Creech, Sr., a Harlan County native
who had no formal education, yet
who possessed exceptional wisdom.
Ethel de Long, a New Jersey native,
came to Kentucky and became
principal at Hindman Settlement
School. She left Hindman in 1913 to
help
establish
Pine
Mountain
Settlement School.
Pine Mountain grew out of the vision of three people: Katherine Pettit who started the process, William Creech
who had been dreaming of a school for many years, and Ethel de Long who was co-opted by Pettit to assist her
and whose eloquence gave voice to the vision. The idea for Pine Mountain first came to Katherine Pettit in May
1899 when she came to Harlan County to hike for several weeks on the north side of Pine Mountain at the
invitation of a Presbyterian missionary, Mary McCartney, who was then teaching at Harlan Presbyterian
Academy. At thirty, this was not Pettit’s first trip to the mountains. Growing up she had listened to visitors to
her father’s horse farm on the outskirts of Lexington tell about the mountains and the issues confronting the
people there. In1895 after reading a story about the last of the French-Eversole feudists, she and several friends
made a trip to Hazard where they camped out for several weeks. One morning while they were fixing breakfast,
a local woman visited them and started asking questions about how they made biscuits. The cook sloughed her
off. Exasperated, she said, “Well, I allowed as you‘uns as knowed how, had come to show us as don’t, the better
way. But hit appears that you hain’t.” After a pause, she added,
“I always knew there was a better way, but I never knowed
what it was.” This incident touched Pettit to the core, and she
stayed to talk with the woman. This was her epiphany; she
began coming regularly to the mountains to meet people,
bringing flower seeds and temperance literature with her. She
helped organize traveling libraries in different communities.
Her motivating belief, which remained constant throughout her
career, was that the people of eastern Kentucky were of the
same stock as the people of the Bluegrass, but had had fewer
opportunities, and that it was the responsibility of those in the
Bluegrass to share their knowledge with them. Indeed, she
challenged the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union to
support traveling libraries with these words: “Abilities and
opportunities measure responsibility. Let us each measure up
to our responsibility.” In 1899, she came to Harlan County.
One day on Straight Creek, some men from Big Laurel at the
head of Greasy Creek caught up with her. They had come to
see if she would consider starting a school in their
neighborhood. She was interested, but at the time, her family
responsibilities would not allow her to do so; however she
made a promise that one day she would come and see what she
Katherine Pettit
could do.
When she got back to Lexington, she went to the convention of the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs,
where a plea from a Hazard minister was being discussed. He wanted the Federation to send a woman to help
teach the girls of the community better ways of living. Pettit, being considered the Federation’s mountain
expert, was drawn into the creation of the first of a series of summer tent settlements in Perry and Knott
Counties that led in 1901 to the creation of Hindman Settlement School. Hindman partnered with Knott County
in teaching the local public school, introduced kindergarten and manual training into the region, provided a
nurse and held clinics. With the assistance of Pettit’s Lexington friend, Linda Neville, they began a program for
sending people with eye diseases to the Bluegrass for treatment. It was both school and social settlement and
was one of the first major settlements outside urban areas. It had a positive impact on the town and the
surrounding countryside. The location however, had drawbacks to creating the kind of education Pettit had in
mind. After a time, she began to think about her promise to the north side of Pine Mountain. The deciding
moment came in 1910 when a disastrous fire called the future of Hindman into question. The people of Knott
County rallied to promise support, and it was agreed that Hindman would continue, but Pettit decided it was
time for her to leave and go to Harlan County, though not until an endowment had been established for
Hindman. In the spring of 1911, she wrote to Lewis Lyttle, a minister she knew, who was working in the Pine
Mountain area, requesting his help in locating a site for the new school. That May, she and the Hindman nurse,
Harriet Butler, made a trip to Big Laurel. Although the people there warmly received her, she was not
convinced that it was the right location. Going up the road a few miles, she met William and Sally Creech and
knew right away that she had met kindred spirits.
William Creech was born on Poor Fork on the south side of Pine Mountain in October 1845. He joined the
Union army in 1864, and at the end of the war, he came home to marry Sally Dixon, daughter of a prominent
Poor Fork family. Land being in short supply, the couple moved to
the north side of the mountain to Greasy Creek where there was plenty
of “wild land.” Building a one-room cabin that is now on the school
grounds, they raised nine children. In her later years living in a much
bigger house, Sally Creech was asked if it wouldn’t have been easier
to raise her children in such a home. “Lord God, but they wouldn’t
have amounted to anything!” she replied. “You could fling a dog
through the cracks of that old log house and the younguns was in and
out the whole time, and the floor was wet all the time from their
tracks, but I believe hit agrees with children.” Theirs was a selfsufficient life, but Creech was a man who wanted more, not just for
himself but for his community. He became a blacksmith and an “herb”
doctor (he ordered and read books on medicine). He opened a store
which housed a post office. Wanting to improve his land, he
subscribed to a farm journal and experimented with crop rotation. He
tried unsuccessfully to interest the neighbors in these efforts. He
proposed building a church which could be used by traveling
preachers of all denominations, but couldn’t get others to go along. Sally Dixon Creech, known as Aunt Sal,
was born in Cumberland Kentucky in
Nonetheless he did not abandon his zeal for making things better. 1846. She married William Creech in
Over the years he accumulated enough land for a legacy for each of 1866.
his children. In 1909, his eldest son, who was disabled, passed away
and Creech was left with the acreage he had intended for his upkeep. He had an idea about what he’d like to do
with it. In 1883 an outsider had visited the Creeches and, impressed by the valley at the head of Greasy,
prophesied that one day there would be a town and a “fine college” located there. Over the years, Creech had
imagined what that would be like; he believed that education was the key to a sound community. When he met
Katherine Pettit and heard her dream that seemed to align with his, he volunteered to back the school with his
land.
Pettit returned to Hindman full of ideas and plans. One thing she knew was that she would need someone to
help her, especially with the academic side. She was more interested in the manual training and outdoor work.
She also needed help with the fund raising as she, though charming and gregarious in small company, disliked
public speaking. That person was to be found at Hindman, serving as the principal. Ethel de Long (later Zande)
was a native of Montclair, New Jersey, and nine years younger than Pettit. For several years de Long had been
the main support of her family. Her father was no longer able to work and her mother and sister were both semiinvalids at times. Ethel was determined to go to college and, in 1898, she packed the family up and moved them
to Northampton, Massachusetts where she enrolled in Smith College, teaching part time in a local high school
to earn her way, and graduating with a degree in English in 1901. She got a job teaching in Springfield,
Massachusetts, but in 1905 moved to Indianapolis, “the west” as she called it, as the opportunities and salary
were greater. She became friends with the superintendent Calvin N. Kendall, later New Jersey Commissioner
of Education, and his wife. The summer of the year she moved, she went to Hindman to visit her friend
Antoinette Bigelow, who had become principal there. She fell in love both with the mountains and the school,
and began doing “commissions” to help out, such as purchasing supplies or working on fundraising. Pettit and
Stone had an eye for talent, and they began to work on her to come to Hindman to teach. In 1910, Bigelow
moved to Colorado, and they persuaded de Long that she would come out ahead financially at Hindman as there
was nothing to spend money on there. One of her first jobs was to organize Knott County’s first public high
school under Kentucky’s 1908 reform act. As Pettit began dreaming about Pine Mountain, she bounced ideas
off de Long who soon told her mother that she was going to serve as a consultant and board member for the new
school. In November 1911, she made her first trip to Pine Mountain, and after that it was clear she was going,
not to consult, but to serve as co-director.
During 1911 and 1912, letters crossed back and forth over the mountains: letters to the neighbors at Pine
Mountain, letters between Pettit and experts on rural problems, notable among them, John C. Campbell of the
Russell Sage Foundation; letters to potential contributors. At the beginning of 1912, Pine Mountain received
what the women liked to call its first contribution: the young people’s Bible study group at Hindman
contributed the last 45¢ in their treasury (they later were able to increase the amount to $18). In the fall, de
Long began writing letters to prospective Pine Mountain donors, sending a request to one eastern woman for
$10,000. (“Ethel de Long never made the mistake of asking for too little,” observed a friend.) The donor
responded with half that amount. After Christmas she made her first fund-raising trip, speaking in St Louis and
stopping in Lexington the first week of January for the organizing meeting of the PMSS Board of Trustees and
the signing of the Articles of Incorporation. Also present at that meeting were Pettit; Lexington banker and
school treasurer, C.N. Manning; Indianapolis teacher Elizabeth Hench; and Lexington clubwoman, Mary Gratz
Morton.
The land that William Creech owned was not the tract the women wanted for the school; they preferred acreage
on Isaac’s Run. Creech and Pettit entered into negotiations with Kentweva Coal and Lumber Company of West
Virginia for a land swap. Creech was willing to donate all but a small section which he wanted the school to buy
as a nest egg for Sally. Pettit persuaded the directors of Kentweva to give most of the money for that part. There
was a hang-up as Kentweva wanted a temporary easement across the land to retrieve coal and timber from
property on the other side. By this they meant a railroad, which was not what Pettit and Creech had originally
agreed to. Although this disagreement was worked out, it led to hard feelings on the part of Kentweva’s local
agent, who tossed the actual deed out a second story window in Harlan rather than hand it to Creech face to
face.
On April 10, 1913, Pettit arrived on site to begin the work. Clara Davis, a nurse, soon followed. When the
school year closed in May, de Long arrived. She was accompanied by a woman architect they had recruited.
Mary Rockwell (later Hook) was a resident of Kansas City, a Wellesley graduate, who had studied architecture
at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in
Paris. She agreed to design the buildings provided she could lay
out the campus. Later she would recall: “The founders of Pine
Mountain knew that the physical characteristics of the land and
the buildings expressed the spiritual ideals of the school.
Therefore they wanted to keep the native character of the
landscape setting, and took through the course of years,
unimaginable pains to preserve each detail that contributed to
the picture of a characteristic mountain valley. it is its
fittingness that makes the landscape pattern of Pine Mountain
appeal immediately to every stranger that has any sensitiveness
to beauty.” William Creech, however, did not fully share the
women’s fondness for using native plants around the buildings:
he found it incomprehensible that anyone would deliberately
plant laurel and rhododendron; to him they were pesky plants
he had fought all his life o keep in check.
The school that first year operated in a five- room frame house
rented from a neighbor, a two-story store building shared with
Mary Rockwell Hook, a native of Kansas City,
was one of the first female architects in the the local Masonic lodge, and three tents, all located off campus.
country. She designed the layout of the campus School consisted of working with some 20 children, only five
and many of the School’s buildings.
of whom were boarders. The settlement side included health
work in the community by the nurse and visits to the local oneroom schools. It also meant a visit to Harlan County Fiscal Court to seek help opening a road. The first year
would be one of building a physical plant and starting their farm - “ditching” was the word of the day - and
figuring out how to set up the sawmill they had imported from Cincinnati. But things progressed largely as
anticipated, and by 1914 they would occupy Old Log, Big Log, and House in the Woods and begin to accept
boarding students. Within two years the enrollment would rise to 50, and Pine Mountain would be on its way.
Old Log (1914, remodeled in 1987) Reconstructed in 1914
with logs from the Adrian Metcalf House (circa 1850)
on Big Laurel and another neighboring log house.
Big Log (1913-14) First building constructed at PMSS;
featuring 42’ poplar logs. Designed by Mary Rockwell Hook.
Was the residence of Katherine Pettit, PMSS co-founder, and
boarding school students.
So what was Pine Mountain? What did these dreamers want it to be and why?
Let’s start with William Creech whose handful of writings reveal him to have been as much a Progressive
reformer as any of his more formally educated urban contemporaries. In explaining why Pine Mountain
mattered, Creech stressed the lack of moral behavior among many in the community. “I heard two
of my neighbors say that there was neither Heaven nor Hell. One of them said that when a man was dead
that he was just the same as a dumb beast. I heard another one say who had a large family that he was
afraid that he could not raise his children as mean as he wanted them to be, and it looked to me as if our country
was going back into Heathenism, which worried me a great deal.” Whisky, political corruption, and sexual
immorality were also concerns. “I want all younguns taught to serve the living God,” he wrote in 1915.
“Of course, they won’t all do that, but they can have good and evil laid before them and they can choose
which they will.”
Then there was the absence of formal education. Many could not read and write; some did not even know the
country, state, or county in which they were born. “We need a whole lot of teaching how to work on the farm
and how to make their farms pay, also teaching them how to take care of their timber and stuff they are wasting
in the way they farm and doing no good it is hardening them and they are turning to public works, too many of
them.” By this he meant that they were going out to become wage-earners; Creech’s conception
was Jeffersonian in that he valued the sturdy, independent, self-sufficient yeoman farmer. “Hit’s lack of
knowledge of science that’s caused the trouble, and with good teaching seems like they would be greatly
bettered.”
Creech’s vision also included a strong sense of civic responsibility and the common good. In several instances,
he speaks of the duty to the “yet unborn children of this country.” In support of building a road over the
mountain to open up the community, he wrote: “This country has been lost to knowledge through lack of roads,
and hundreds of bright and intelligent people for the lack of education and foreknowledge is doin’ no good to
themselves or their country.... If we can get a road across this wall of a mountain, thousands would be benefitted
and helped mightily and made a more intelligent and enlightened people - better Americans for America.” Of
the children, he said, ““I don’t look for wealth after them. I look after the prosperity of our nation.” He longed
for them “to learn.... to live up as good American citizens.”
Katherine Pettit and Ethel de Long’s vision had developed in the context of a United States in transition. The
years at the end of the 19th century and the onset of the 20th century were characterized by rapid industrial
development and expansion, paralleled by increasing urbanization fueled by migration from rural areas and
immigration, especially from southern and Eastern Europe. Urbanization put stress on cities and their
institutions to keep ahead of growing social and economic problems: slums, poverty, health, secularization,
political corruption. A growing imbalance in the distribution of wealth and in conspicuous consumption
widened the gap between haves and have nots. These conditions gave rise to a series of reform movements,
most notably the Progressive Movement. This drive for reforms influenced both Pettit and de Long.
As the women started Pine Mountain, they brought with them a conception of community needs formed largely
from their direct experience at Hindman and from their visits to the Pine Mountain region. Schooling for
children was, of course, a major concern. Outside of the towns, children were served by one room schools
taught by teachers whose own education rarely extended beyond the eighth grade.
Pettit favored industrial schools where students received both academic and vocational instruction. “The
average school teaches the child to answer such questions as, ‘“What do you know?’ but we think that the
question that life itself puts to him, ‘What can you do?,’ is of equal importance. They should be taught to be
industriously efficient and responsible.”
A second major issue was health. Recalled Pettit in 1924, “The first thing that struck me when I came to the
mountains was the need for clean living and bathing, and the sore eyes.” Poor sanitation and lack of knowledge
of how disease spread caused trachoma, typhoid, tuberculosis, and hookworm to be prevalent in the
countryside. Lack of knowledge of nutrition and food preparation resulted in an unhealthy diet overlade with
grease. Infant mortality rates were high, partly due to birthing practices based on superstition rather than
science.
Like William Creech, the women were aware that many rural people did not understand agricultural science and
as a result, much damage was done to land and forests, and much effort was wasted.
Miss Pettit sometimes invited the women of the neighborhood to
a “working” at Big Log. They spent the day sociably, hackling
flax, spinning, carding, and weaving.
On the other hand, the women found many
positive things in traditional mountain society.
They valued the “gentle manners and speech,”
“generous hospitality,” “fine loyalty to kin” and
the artistic traditions as expressed in song, dance,
and crafts, notably weaving. They recognized that
though the people might not be educated in books,
they were not dull-witted. “We’uns that cain’t
read or write, “said Sally Creech, “have a heap of
time to think, and that’s the reason we know more
than you all.” They believed that in a time when
traditional American values seemed under attack,
the people in the mountains with a society not
founded on materialism had much to share with
the rest of the country.
Pettit and de Long, however, were keenly aware
that this older society was about to be swept
away. On her 1911 trip, Pettit heard, with a pang of disbelief, the whistle of a locomotive of the newly arrived
Black Mountain and Wasioto Railroad, chugging its way through the Poor Fork valley. By the time the school
opened, Harlan County’s coal boom was underway. This created new problems. In traditional mountain
society, folks had been largely self-sufficient, and the economy to a large extent had operated on barter. Now
the mines were offering thirty dollars a month to women to wash dishes in a coal camp lunchroom or $3.50 a
day to men to work underground. People inexperienced with cash saw themselves as rich, but what Pettit and
de Long saw was the undermining of the traditional values that had sustained them as a people. Wrote de Long
after visiting one of the new coal camps: “I visited there two or three years ago, when it was beautiful beyond
my power to tell you, and where if people’s homes weren’t clean, they had at least privacy and beauty about
them and a dignified independence, and no vulgar surroundings. As I re-visited my friends...I felt that all the
worth-while things had all been taken away; they cannot raise their food, they have no smoke house, no privacy,
the houses being set so close together with no yards; the toilets were
indecent, much worse than the old mountain method of no closets at all...
the girls had pretty silk dresses and chewed gum... It is merely the veneer of
modern life that they have taken on. I confess that the future of the
mountain people looks very dark to me, unless the condition of mining
camps can be elevated someway. They are going to lose their own
distinguishing qualities and be vulgarized. How can they help it?” So Pine
Mountain’s mission quickly took on an urgency as they tried to give
children core values and knowledge that would let them be in charge of their
lives.
Pine Mountain’s name reflected a deliberate choice: it would be both
Children carrying firewood
school and settlement. In a speech to the National Conference on Charities
for the kitchen cook stove
and Corrections in 1916, de Long articulated their vision: “[T]he country
school will attain its largest success if it has as its ideal the supplying of those elements of life that are difficult
to attain under rural conditions. It can be the interpreter between the life of towns and cities and that of the
country, and can serve as a true light-house for those sitting in darkness because of the poverty of
communication.” This would work, she believed, because the settlement was based on the idea of casting
one’s lot with the community. “The magic word for all this is neighborliness.”
On the school side, Pine Mountain was deliberately located in a rural area.
While similar in conception to Hindman, it was intended to be free of the
negative influences of town life. Though there is no evidence of a direct
connection between Pettit and de Long and John Dewey, their design for
Pine Mountain is strikingly similar to his idea of school as a “simplified
environment.” Pine Mountain would be a boarding school where every
aspect was part of the curriculum. Pettit wrote: “The mountain child does
actually do these things which he is expected to perform in a larger way in
adult life. He should be taught to do them in such as manner as to acquire
The first indoor classroom
these elements of character, which we look for in the honest, industrious,
was at the nearby Masonic Hall
self-reliant man or woman. We want to have such an environment for our
mountain boys and girls that they will furnish a whole set of ideals and standards of living which they will strive
to realize later on in their own home.”
While William Creech’s vision for Pine Mountain Settlement
School was centered on the Pine Mountain community; his
vision was not confined to the mountains. “I don’t want hit to be
a benefit just for this neighborhood, but for the whole state and
the nation, and for folks acrost the sea, if they can get any benefit
out of hit.”
We on the Pine Mountain Board today believe that the last one
hundred years show that the school has lived up to this vision,
and that in the second hundred it will continue finding ways that
those who come will indeed get a “benefit out of it.”
Dancing in the cabbage patch
Historical marker installed
In November, an official Kentucky Historical Marker for Pine Mountain Settlement School was installed on
campus. The marker bears a general description of the School’s beginnings and its history.
The Pine Mountain Association of Alumni and Friends provided the funds for the marker.
Centennial memorabilia available in the PMSS gift shop
Pine Mountain Settlement School offers a variety of Centennial items for sale in our gift shop including shortand long-sleeved t-shirts, sweatshirts, ball caps, water bottles, note cards, calendars and tote bags. PMSS is
fortunate to have Garry Redmon, retired graphic artist for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, design our
Centennial logo. He continues to offer his design skills to many non-profit organizations. Garry and his wife
Fran live in Frankfort Kentucky.
For more information about Centennial items or to make a purchase, e-mail the School’s office at
[email protected] or call (606)558-3571 Monday through Friday between 8 - 4 p.m.
The 2014 calendar has stunning
photographs of local wildlife, flora and
fauna. It also contains historical facts
and photographs from the early years
of Pine Mountain Settlement School.
This note card features four PMSS
buildings. (Clockwise from top left)
Big Log, the original Laurel House,
Draper Industrial Building and
Burkham Schoolhouse.
Package
contains 4 cards and envelopes.
Shirts are available in burnt
orange, kiwi green and chocolate.
All shirts come in adult sizes
S, M, L, and XL. Larger sizes can
be ordered for an additional fee.
How You Can Help
Income to operate Pine Mountain’s programs and maintain the physical plant comes from three sources: interest
income from the School’s endowment fund, earned income, and contributions. From time to time, we seek grant
funding to help with particular projects, equipment and building repairs.
We appreciate all contributions and are prudent in our use of financial resources. Your financial contribution
makes it possible for Pine Mountain to carry out its mission and to continue to be a strong institution in an
underserved area.
Pine Mountain Settlement School exists to serve people in the local
community and beyond. To accomplish this, we strive to:
 Teach others about the natural environment and promote protection of
ecosystems
 Incorporate into our operation energy conservation, renewable energy
sources, local materials and healthy food, and share this knowledge
with others
 Provide supplemental educational experiences for local students which
strengthen, enrich, and extend their academic education
 Protect and maintain the natural lands and historic structures at the
Settlement School
 Celebrate, interpret, and promote the cultural heritage of central and
southern Appalachia
 Serve as a center for recreation, fellowship, and lifelong learning,
welcoming all who come
Pine Mountain is a private, 501(c) (3), non-profit corporation.
Contributions to Pine Mountain are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
Pine Mountain accepts online contributions through Network for Good.
Please see our Web site for more details.
NEEDS LIST
Those interested in helping with
these items may contribute part or
all of the cost.
Large tent $600
Washer $600
Dryer $600
Vacuum cleaner $350
Color laser printer $500
Hand Truck $180
Weedeater $400
Portable Torch $300
Fencing materials $750
Donations toward a farm truck
Twin sheet sets (white) $20 each
Towel/washcloth sets $10 each
Storage containers $10 each
Wireless adapter for smart
board $250
Proscope for smart board $250
Pine Mountain Settlement School archives collection to be available on-line
This winter, Pine Mountain Settlement School began a partnership with University of Kentucky Digital
Library Services to work toward providing public access to the Settlement School’s archival collection.
Public access will be provided through the Kentucky Digital Public Library and the National Digital Public
Library.
The work to complete this project will take months, but when it is completed, Pine Mountain’s more than
250 linear feet of photographs, letters, and other documents, some of which have never been published, will
be available to be seen by all.
For more than ten years, Helen Wykle and Ann Angel Eberhardt, both of whom serve on the Settlement
School’s board of trustees, have volunteered to organize and digitize the School’s historical collection. They
have spent thousands of hours working on the project, and we are thrilled that it will be possible in the near
future to share the rich history of the Settlement School with the public.
When the collection is scheduled to go on-line, we will post announcements in local newspapers, on our web
site and Facebook page, and through selected list serves.
2013 EVENTS CALENDAR
2013 EVENTS CALENDAR
Centennial Event – Dinner and Organ Concert – at PMSS
April 27
Black Mountain Wildflower Weekend
May 3-5
Centennial Event – PMSS Centennial Garden Dedication & Luncheon
TBA
In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun
June 5-9
June 17-21
Community Youth Day Camp (K-6th grades)
th
Community Youth Day Camp (7-12 grades)
June 24-28
Reading Camp
July 14-20
“Unplugged Family Weekend”
August 2-4
Community School Reunion & Alumni Homecoming
August 10-11
Creech Family Reunion
August 11
In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun
August 14-18
Centennial Event – PMSS 100th Birthday Celebration
August 31
Fair Day
September 7
Centennial Event – Folkdance and Cookbook Release – at PMSS
September 7
Centennial Event – SECC Higher Ground Play – at PMSS
September 28 & 29
Fall Arts Weekend (Dry Stone Walls, Nature Photography, Quilting, Chair Bottoming)
October 11-13
Fall Color Weekend
October 18-20
Community Fall Party & Hayride
October 26
Nativity Play
December 15
Visit our website at www.pinemountainsettlementschool.com for more information about PMSS events.
36 Highway 510
Bledsoe KY 40810