Challenge and Change in Appalachia: The Story of Hindman Settlement School

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Challenge and Change in Appalachia

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CHALLENGE AND CHANGE IN APPALACHIA The Story of Hindman Settlement School

JESS STODDART

The University Press of Kentucky

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Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2002 by Jess Stoddart Published by The University Press of Kentucky. Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508–4008 02 03 04 05 06

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stoddart, Jess, 1937Challenge and change in Appalachia : the story of Hindman Settlement School / Jess Stoddart. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8131-2250-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Hindman Settlement School—History. 2. Education, Rural—Kentucky—Case studies. I. Title. LD7501.H68 S76 2002 370’.9769’125—dc21 2001007629 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

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For in the warp and woof of all her days Some thread from all our lives is caught And woven there in history’s bright patterned Memory . . . Prologue: Fiftieth Anniversary Pageant

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For Albert Stewart (1914–2001) and James Still (1906–2001) Sons of the mountains . . . and the Settlement

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. “Mixin’ Larns Both Parties”: The Beginnings

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2. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union School, 1902–1915 48 3. “Broadening Out”: Hindman Settlement School, 1915–1932 83 4. “The Best School in the Mountains” 111 5. The Challenges of a Changing World, 1932–1977

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6. A Wider Sphere of Influence: Hindman Settlement School Today 174 7. “Arousing the Neighborhood”: The Community Development Initiative 206 Appendix 1. Social Settlements and Settlement Workers: An Essay in Appalachian Historiography 225 Appendix 2. Faculty and Staff, 1925–1926

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Appendix 3. A Chronology of Hindman Settlement School 235 Notes

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Bibliography Index

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A BOOK ALWAYS seems to turn into something of a communal enterprise, especially when the book is a history that includes many members of the author’s family. I wish to thank my aunts, Marjorie Stewart Boatright and Maude Stewart Stacy, and my uncle, Albert Stewart, who were students at Hindman Settlement School between 1910 and 1932, for their assistance and enthusiasm for this project. Their recollections of the Settlement and life as they grew up in Knott County have added invaluably to this story. In the course of my research, I have come to know other former students whose recollections and stories enrich this work, especially Ruby Boleyn Allen, as well as Alma Pigmon and Gertrude Maggard, 1929 classmates of my mother, Marie Stewart. I am richer for their friendship as well as for the memories they shared. Herbert E. Smith offered very useful information about his father, Albert Smith, principal of Hindman Settlement School from 1907 to 1910, and on Francis Beauchamp, president of the Kentucky Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Almo Smith, a 1935 graduate, and Frankie (Mrs. Lionel) Duff, a 1934 graduate, provided valuable materials on the Settlement not available in the archives. James Still, poet, author, and the Settlement’s librarian in the 1930s, was a wonderful source of stories about the Settlement and its faculty. I wish to thank several people for their comments on and contributions to the manuscript during various stages of its development. These include James Still; Loyal Jones, president of the board of directors of Hindman Settlement School and former director of the Appalachian Center at Berea College; Dr. Ronald Eller, professor of history at the University of Kentucky and former director of its Appalachian Studies Center; and Dr. Gordon McKinney, director of the Appalachian Center, Berea College. Most of the research for this book was undertaken in the archives at Hindman Settlement School, and I received enthusiastic and unflagging assistance on numerous occasions from staff members Rebecca Ware, Doris Miller, Sam Linkous, and Jana Everage. Shirley Asher, director of the Adult Learning Center, and Ann Titsworth, head teacher at the James Still Learn-

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ing Center, provided information on their respective programs. Author Lee Smith shared with me typescript materials on her work with the Adult Learning Center as part of a Lila Wallace Readers’ Digest Fellowship program, while Lois Weinberg answered many questions about the dyslexia program and the hopes for its future. Mike Mullins, director of the Settlement, was in essence a whole separate archive of information and help. Words cannot express adequately my appreciation for the time and effort that he put into this history. I also wish to thank his daughter, Cassie Mullins, for her excellent work as lead interviewer in the Hindman Settlement School oral history project. Julia Stammer, director of the Berea College Appalachian Fund, and William Buice of the Steel-Reese Foundation were kind enough to provide me with interviews that clarified the relationship of their foundations to Hindman Settlement School. Poet Dana Wildsmith provided commentary on her experiences at the Appalachian Writers Workshop, and Dr. Ron Penn of the University of Kentucky provided a similar commentary on Family Folk Week; each added helpful perspectives on these cultural heritage programs of the Settlement. Gerald Roberts, head of the Special Collections Department of the Hutchens Library at Berea College, went out of his way to help locate materials within the Pine Mountain Settlement Papers that I could not find myself, and I thank him again for this. John E. White, reference assistant at the University of North Carolina’s Southern History Collection, helped me obtain crucial materials from the Campbell Papers. Sharon Hall of the Troublesome Creek Times assisted in retrieving the newspaper’s photographs regarding the Community Development Initiative. I also wish to acknowledge several people who helped me gain a better understanding of the importance of the Hindman/Knott County Community Development Initiative for the community and the Settlement, including Ewell Balltrip, director of the Appalachian Regional Commission, along with Jan Stumbo, Linda Gayheart, Ron Daley, and Bill Weinberg, all of whom were serving on the Steering Committee of the CDI during the preparation of this book. Finally, I wish to thank Dr. Philip Flemion for his wise advice on many matters of substance, his assistance with the electronic research for the book, his expertise in matters of format and editing, and above all, his patience and good humor through the several years while the project was in the making. He has been a true partner in this finished product, and I cannot convey fully my gratitude for his help.

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INTRODUCTION

“HAVING LITTLE EXPERIENCE and less money, we started a school.” With these self-effacing words, Katherine Pettit and May Stone explained how in the summer of 1902 they established Hindman Settlement School in Knott County in the heart of Appalachian Kentucky. The institution they founded became a unique experiment, combining a school whose curriculum offered the best of the new educational ideas of Progressivism together with settlement work, which was central to the social reform goals of the Progressive movement. Hindman Settlement School was the first rural settlement school in America as well as one of the earliest rural social settlements. Tradition gives the Log Cabin Settlement, founded by Susan Chester near Asheville, North Carolina, in 1894, the distinction of being the nation’s first rural settlement. Little is known about this attempt to transfer programs of the urban settlement houses into an agrarian environment. Chester’s Log Cabin Settlement survived less than fifteen years and had few activities beyond a program directed toward the revival of weaving and the provision of a library. It was not included in the official Bibliography of Settlements that was published every few years until 1905, nor is it found in The Handbook of Settlements of 1911, which was intended to update the growth of settlements. The Handbook does not include it in the list of settlements that had closed. Thus, it appears to have had a negligible impact on the movement. However, prior to the founding of their own institution, Stone and Pettit visited the Elizabeth Russell Settlement at Tuskeegee, Alabama, which had been established by Mrs. Booker T. Washington in 1897. Hindman Settlement School was founded with ambitious and revolutionary goals: to reform mountain education and to initiate a broad range of programs like those offered in the northern settlement houses. In a recent study of the introduction of scientific medicine in Appalachia, Sandra Barney observed, “[S]ettlement workers attempted to prepare their clients to receive the coming industrial order by teaching them work skills and promoting an attachment to scientific principles.” She added that Hindman Settlement School and Pine Mountain “offered the most significant appli-

2 Challenge and Change in Appalachia cation of these principles and ambitions in Appalachia and became the standard for rural settlement programs in the mountains.”1 Hindman Settlement School continues today as a remarkably influential institution in eastern Kentucky, maintaining a legacy of educational work and community leadership that has now stretched on for a century. The institution has survived and flourished for this long not only because of the remarkable gifts and determination of its founders, but also because it has long served the genuine needs of the citizens of eastern Kentucky. Hindman Settlement School thrived because May Stone and Katherine Pettit, like Jane Addams and Lillian Wald, leading practitioners in the social settlement movement, were practical idealists and engaged in an ongoing cultural exchange with their Settlement neighbors. Three summer camps, held in the years immediately prior to the founding of Hindman Settlement School, provided them with a firsthand understanding of the problems of mountain society and the kinds of assistance most desired by mountain residents. In response to a woman who asked her why they were in the mountains, Katherine Pettit stated the purpose that would underlie their efforts: “To learn all we can and teach all we can.”2 Both the school and the settlement work grew out of the great reform impulse called Progressivism, which swept America from the end of the nineteenth century through World War I. Pettit and Stone’s work reflected the special concerns of southern reform, the conservative cultural context in which southern women reformers operated, and the attitudes and beliefs common to the first generation of women who entered leadership roles in the public sphere. Many of Hindman’s programs were the same as those of the urban settlement houses, although Stone and Pettit never engaged in the political activism associated with Jane Addams and others. A case in point is the founding of a school as the nucleus of Hindman’s efforts. There were no northern settlement schools. The summer camps taught them that above all, people desired better educational opportunities for themselves and their children. Pettit and Stone viewed all of their subsequent efforts within the broad context of education, whether they concerned school programs or settlement activities. Settlement work in areas such as health or scientific farming were undertaken as part of a larger educational effort, and such programs influenced the work of other settlement agencies in Appalachia. Hindman Settlement School itself quickly became a model for scores of other schools and won the accolade of “the best school in the mountains.” Of the more than two hundred missionary and settlement schools founded in Appalachia in the years between 1875 and 1920, only a handful

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Left, Katherine Pettit, Hindman Settlement School co-founder, 1868–1936. Right, May Stone, Hindman Settlement School co-founder, 1867–1936.

4 Challenge and Change in Appalachia survive today. Hindman Settlement School has found new roles that are as relevant to the needs of the modern community it serves as were the early endeavors of Pettit and Stone. Throughout the great changes in Appalachia over the past century, the Settlement kept its educational and social service mission intact. And as its first century comes to a close, Hindman Settlement School today serves as a partner with the town of Hindman and with Knott County to create a sustainable local economy based on the community’s heritage and culture. A state and nationally funded project, the Community Development Initiative awarded to the town and county in 1997 has the potential for being as important for Knott County’s future as the founding of Hindman Settlement School was one hundred years earlier. Historians have long been interested in the work of May Stone and Katherine Pettit, two women not yet in their thirties when they began their mountain reform work. Who they were, what values they held, and where they derived their urge to take a leadership role in reform activities are questions that have been raised about them in order to explain why they left comfortable Bluegrass families for difficult lives of mountain social service. Recent scholarship in the field of women’s history makes clear that Pettit and Stone’s gender provided both opportunities and limitations in the pursuit of their goals. The opening chapter of this study explores how they worked within the cultural constraints that dictated appropriate roles for women while enlarging the sphere of “women’s work” in their own lives as leaders of mountain reform. Contradictory forces sometimes shaped their thinking, and Pettit and Stone did not always see eye to eye. On the whole, however, they worked well together, taking a pragmatic approach to the kinds of programs and services they initiated in the community. In a sense they followed John Dewey’s advice and learned by doing. They taught; they learned; they found themselves part of an exciting and satisfying cultural exchange with mountain people. Over time, they became important and influential leaders in the world of mountain reform, and Hindman Settlement School became equally influential in shaping many elements of that reform work. Under the sponsorship of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, known as the WCTU School during its first thirteen years, the Settlement rapidly succeeded beyond Stone and Pettit’s wildest expectations. It overcame obstacles such as its remote location and the fires that destroyed the campus twice in the first ten years. During these same years the Settlement extended its role beyond elementary education to become Knott County’s high school. At the same time, the Settlement began far-reaching pro-

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grams in health work that included a seminal role in the eradication of trachoma in Appalachia. Settlement and School-based programs designed to help their neighbors become more productive farmers reflected the Settlement’s response to the particular needs of its mountain community. Ironically, this very success brought new and different problems, some of which led Katherine Pettit to the decision to found a new settlement in an even more remote location. Others motivated May Stone to end the Settlement’s relationship with the WCTU and develop it as an independent institution. The reputation of its academic program and its settlement activities brought substantial renown and influence to the Settlement in the years between 1915 and 1932. Its founders became acknowledged leaders and helped to found the primary organization of mountain reform, the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers. Stone and Pettit served on the boards of other reform institutions, and both Hindman and Pine Mountain became showplaces for mountain settlement work, drawing many visitors from all over the country and abroad. This was a “golden age” for the Hindman Settlement. The educational attainments of its graduates were remarkable, and the School earned a grade “A” accreditation from the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges for the quality of its teachers and richness of its curriculum. However, these years revealed that the fragile financial structure upon which the institution was based posed a challenge to its work and even to its survival in later decades. During this period, the first transfer of responsibility for Settlement programs in the area of public health care to public agencies in the county began—a development that presaged the coming of a new era in the Settlement’s history. The Settlement’s rich archives and a special oral history project form a rich portrait of student and faculty life in the era between the two world wars. It includes detailed recollections of life at the School, especially the life of the boarding students within the Settlement, their teachers, and their feelings about the influence of Hindman Settlement School on their later lives. What might be called the middle period of the Settlement’s story, from the Great Depression through the late 1970s, was an era of rapid change in Appalachia that fundamentally altered not only the institution’s continued relevance but also challenged its continued existence. Most of its two hundred sister schools did not survive the long period of economic contraction in the thirties or the very different environment of the years after World War II. Out-migration from Appalachia accelerated, and the Progressive impulse that had sustained institutions like Hindman ebbed in

6 Challenge and Change in Appalachia the postwar period. Public agencies took over most of the educational and other public services that the settlements had provided. Hindman Settlement School underwent a fundamental change in its program when it relinquished final responsibility to the county for the elementary and the high school academic programs in the late 1940s. A long search began for new roles and for the funding to sustain new programs. There can be no question that it was a time of uncertainty for all three of the Settlement leaders during this era—Elizabeth Watts, Raymond McLain, and Lionel Duff—and that Hindman Settlement School might well have been forced to close its doors had it not been for the quality of its leadership, its situation as an independent institution, the size of its endowment built up over the first half-century, and bequests from its earliest and most faithful supporters. While it no longer had the influence of its early days, the Settlement offered important educational activities that the county could not fund, and its boarding program still played a central role in providing educational opportunity for a significant number of students who, because of the remote location of their homes, would have been unable to attend high school without it. The search for new programs accelerated during the fourteen-year directorship of Raymond McLain from 1956 to 1971, and he was also responsible for rebuilding the now fifty-year-old campus. This, and his initiation of a more modern governance structure for the Settlement, helped set the stage for a dramatic revival of the Settlement’s community leadership under Mike Mullins after 1977. The twenty-five years that Mullins has served as director forms the modern period of the Settlement’s story. Mullins has been able to develop “a wider sphere of influence” for the Settlement in the life of the community with new educational and cultural programs. Unquestionably, the most important new service undertaken by Hindman Settlement School is the education of children with the learning difference known as dyslexia. Working with community leader Lois Weinberg, the Settlement developed and now funds a threefold program of after-school tutoring, an intensive sixweek summer session, and a full-time school for dyslexic children. The full-time school is the only one in central Appalachia. At the same time the Settlement established assistance for dyslexic children, it also began a program for adult literacy in order to meet one of the most pressing needs of Knott County. These programs reflect the Settlement’s commitment to its original educational mission as well as its determination to offer programs that respond to the current needs of the community. The Settlement has also instituted a number of cultural heritage programs, two of which have become influential far beyond Knott County or eastern Kentucky—the

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Appalachian Writers Workshop and Appalachian Family Folk Week. Through tireless energy, skill at fund-raising, and important political connections, Mullins has once again given Hindman Settlement School an important voice in regional issues and development, although not always without making himself the subject of controversy. The Community Development Initiative (CDI), which began in 1997, is the most important development in Knott County since the founding of the Settlement itself. Along with other community leaders, Mullins, the Settlement’s staff, and its board of directors played a prominent role in helping Hindman and Knott County win this award, and they have dedicated themselves to a transformation of the economic base of Knott County. Funded with more than $30 million in state and federal monies, the project is designed to make the area into a regional center for education, arts and crafts, and cultural tourism. It seeks to provide a better life for the people of Knott County based on an educational, music, literary, and craft heritage that was fostered and sustained by Hindman Settlement School for a century. Undoubtedly, the unfolding of the CDI will present Hindman Settlement School with new challenges as it enters its second century. The contributions of May Stone and Katherine Pettit—as well as Hindman Settlement School’s contributions to Knott County, eastern Kentucky, and beyond—flow from a story that is, at heart, one of adherence to an original vision despite numerous challenges over a century of rapid change. Hindman Settlement School’s position as a role model for other institutions during its early years has made it especially prominent in scholarly discussions of educational and settlement institutions in Appalachia for some time. Recent studies of other institutions similar to Hindman and of women mountain reformers are challenging older assumptions about the motives and contributions of settlement workers and their institutions to the development of Appalachia.3 It is hoped that this history of Hindman Settlement School will add to this general body of knowledge, provide additional ways to assess settlement work in Appalachia, and offer a more complete and accurate picture of Hindman Settlement School and its founders.

8 Challenge and Change in Appalachia

“Mixin’ Larns Both Parties”

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Chapter One

“MIXIN’ LARNS BOTH PARTIES” The Beginnings

HINDMAN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL was a product of a nationwide movement for political and social reform known as Progressivism that swept across America in the 1890s and lasted through World War I. It came as a response to enormous changes taking place in America as a result of the rapid acceleration of industrial capitalism after the Civil War. Nowhere was the impact felt more strongly than in America’s cities. Many citizens grew dismayed with the problems wrought by unbridled urbanization and the newly formed ghettoes filled with the poor immigrant families who had become the labor force of the new urban economy. A powerful reform movement within the middle class grew from a prevailing sense of unease at the prospect of new citizens living in conditions of poverty and squalor and its consequences for the American democratic ideal. Primarily an urban phenomenon, the Progressive movement attacked a multitude of problems—poor housing, a lack of civic services, unsanitary conditions, moral degradation, crime, and the dominance of corrupt political machines. A particular focus on women, children, and the family characterized the social settlement movement within the larger context of Progressivism. The influence of the major settlement houses, such as Jane Addams’s Hull House in Chicago and Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement in New York, became involved in all aspects of Progressive reform. The “settlement idea,” which Lillian Wald’s biographer described as a plan “for the social classes to know each other, to educate each other and to work together for the improvement of the neighborhood,” became Progressivism’s most important instrument for social reform. The movement was dominated by women, and it was through settlement institutions that a number of women became nationally powerful leaders who shaped the nature and course of reform. The American social settlement movement was deeply influenced by

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a similar experiment in London’s East End known as Toynbee Hall, established in 1884. Two of the earliest settlements—Hull House in Chicago and the College Settlement in New York, both founded in 1889—derived their inspiration from Toynbee Hall. Jane Addams began her settlement in Chicago shortly after spending two weeks in London during which she declared Toynbee Hall “perfectly ideal.”1 After 1889 the settlement idea spread rapidly. By 1893 there were 6 settlements, by 1900 there were 103, and by 1910 more than 400. Hindman Settlement School was one of these institutions recognized by the College Settlement Association, which was formed as an umbrella organization and information clearinghouse for the growing settlement house movement. Several factors explain why the settlement idea attracted followers so quickly. In 1893 Jane Addams gave two lectures, titled “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements” and “The Objective Value of Settlements.” She spoke of a generation of young adults who “hear constantly of the great social mal-adjustment, but no way is provided for them to change it, and their uselessness hangs about them heavily.” Addams focused particularly on the young women of good families who experienced higher education but who were “cultivated into unnourished, over-sensitive lives . . . in the first years after they leave school.” She declared that “[T]here is nothing after disease, indigence and guilt so fatal to life itself as the want of a proper outlet for active faculties.”2 From her personal experience, Addams clearly touched upon a socially acceptable outlet for these young women graduates that allowed them to use their talents and energy. They flocked to work in the new institutions being founded everywhere in the city slums. One observer called such women “walking social impulses in search of life’s work,” while another described the movement as “the revolt of the daughters . . . against a conventional existence.” Female workers outnumbered males by four to one, and two-thirds of settlements were headed by women. Ninety percent had college degrees, and nearly half had undertaken graduate work.3 In these institutions, under mostly female leadership, volunteer workers strove to be good neighbors by attempting to change the conditions of life for women and children. Rather than proceeding from the typical view within philanthropic work, which began with the alteration of individual character, they started from the proposition that the social environment of the slums must be altered. The settlement workers could help to accomplish this by engaging in positive interchange with the people among whom they resided. Addams constantly maintained that such exchanges “would

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benefit those who came to serve more than those served.” She certainly would have embraced the answer of a mountaineer when he was asked what he thought of all of the outsiders arriving in the mountains. He responded, “[M]ixin’ larns both parties.” As Allen Davis, the earliest historian of the social settlement movement, remarked, the social settlement was born from the large number of people who needed something to do and the many things that needed doing in American cities. Many of the city’s more comfortable citizens could not avoid direct contact with the new urban realities. Among the earliest municipal reforms were those centered on sanitation and disease control. Even if they could avoid direct contact with the “evils” in their midst, it was difficult to avoid direct knowledge. The explosion of print media—newspapers, investigative journalism, and the new popular magazines that arrived in the mail— made that unavoidable. Katherine Pettit is a good example of what was happening all over America. She became interested in the mountains largely because of newspaper articles that highlighted the feuds in the region. Her first trip there was undertaken shortly after the feuds ended. She wanted to see for herself if the conditions were like those described.4 Another major influence upon both Progressivism and the social settlement movement was what has come to be called Social Christianity, or the Social Gospel, within the mainline Protestant churches. Social Christianity differentiated from older traditions in the church by teaching that Christians best expressed the highest ideals of their faith through direct action in the world. A strong spirituality suffused the settlement house movement, and a large number of its male workers and leaders were clergy or had seminary training. The Social Gospel’s strong call to action influenced the nation’s young adults to question the existence of conditions that threatened the survival of the democratic ideal. The result was a reform movement that lasted more than three decades and transformed America in fundamental ways. As the study of social settlements has grown and focused on the first generation of women leaders (such as May Stone and Katherine Pettit), questions about how they were able to assume influence within Progressive reform and how their leadership affected the movement have taken center stage in recent years. Originally, scholarship explained the movement’s success by male participation, but current understanding attributes that success to the central leadership of women. Robert Woods, one of the movement’s male leaders, provided an underlying explanation that is now widely accepted: “[T]he reinforcement of the life of the home, the reconstruction of the neighborhood, the placing of people, particularly the young,

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in their normal moral setting . . . this is the particular part of the building up of the State which is women’s peculiar privilege.” Biographers of figures such as Jane Addams, Lillian Wald, Florence Kelly, and others have discarded the “saintliness” and “self-sacrifice” depictions common to early discussions. What is now emphasized are their qualities of charisma, energy, and competence, along with business acumen, organizational skills, the willingness to break out of prescribed roles, and the ability to get along with all kinds of people. Katherine Pettit and May Stone represent quintessential Progressive leaders, the kind of women who founded social settlement institutions and then successfully led them.5 Most research has placed settlement leaders in a context that looks forward in time, assessing their contributions, in part, on the basis of their influence on the later women’s movement. However, it is equally important to place these women in the context of what had gone before. Maureen Fasteneau’s doctoral dissertation, “Maternal Government: The Social Settlement Houses and the Politicization of Women’s Sphere, 1889–1920,” traces the expanding concept of a women’s sphere in the nineteenth century, beginning with a new conception of women’s responsibilities found in the idea of “Republican Motherhood.” This concept gave women the critical role of providing the social controls necessary for a disciplined and virtuous citizenry and brought about the acceptance of the idea that women needed more education to fulfill their place in the nation. Women’s benevolent societies and female participation in the abolition movement took them still further into the public sphere before the Civil War. The war and postwar era accelerated female activity in public life. Northern women established thousands of groups to assist the war effort and coordinated their efforts with the female-controlled Sanitary Commission. New and powerful national organizations were built in the postwar period as women engaged in many important public issues that touched them directly. Two of the most successful were the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (with 168,000 dues-paying members in seven thousand chapters at the turn of the century) and the National Federation of Women’s Clubs. With the founding of the elite women’s colleges of the northeast and the establishment of coeducational public universities after the war, thousands of women graduates came away with a strong need to have a greater scope to their lives than home and family.6 Out of this evolving process, Jane Addams and other leaders of the settlement house movement emerged. Fasteneau tied the past and the future together in the conclusion to her overview by saying:

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Beginning in the antebellum period, women sought the means to interject into and protect in the public sphere their interest, concerns, and values. In the process, by the late nineteenth century women had expanded their sphere to encompass roles in the public arena. Their philanthropic and charitable work provided needed services . . . while offering women an expanded sphere of activity without alienating them from the values of their domestic sphere. . . . It was upon this heritage of activism, social concern, and self-interest—all defined by the experiences and values of domesticity—that the settlement house founders would draw.7 In recent years, new scholarship has begun to investigate the social settlements and female reform leaders outside of northeast and midwest cities and in lesser-known institutions. There has been increased interest in their role in the South. In 1967 Allen Davis said, “The South had few [social settlements] and except for Kingsley House in New Orleans and Neighborhood House in Louisville, they were of very little importance.” It is true that only 10 percent of the settlements listed in the 1911 Handbook of Settlements were found in the southern states (42 out of 413), and only two of these were rural institutions. Yet there can be no doubt that many southern women were caught up within Progressivism and that Katherine Pettit and May Stone were particularly innovative in adapting the settlement idea to an agrarian context. While southern and northern Progressivism had many similar concerns, Dewey Grantham, a leading scholar of southern Progressivism, emphasized the importance that southern reformers placed on education as the instrument of material progress, social control, and social justice. Progressives in general saw the current system of schooling in America as a critical problem for modern society, and they offered alternatives that fundamentally changed education. In regard to the provision of high-quality and universal education, the South—especially the rural South—was behind the North. Rural education was characterized by an extremely short school year (often no more than three months), poorly trained and poorly paid teachers, poorly equipped schools, and the lack of any requirement for compulsory attendance. In Kentucky, at least in the mountains, the trustee system of governance placed greater value on kinship than on training in the selection of teachers. There was great concern about the decline of rural life per se, which many southern reformers directly linked to the irrelevance of current education to the needs of rural youth. Strong support for the

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reform of rural education predated Progressivism, going back to the era of the Grange and the Populist Party, and had expressed itself in ways similar to the remedies of Progressive educational reform. Progressives demanded more practical education for the masses of children who had to be prepared for the new economy and for their roles as citizens of America’s democracy. They rejected the one-size-fits-all academic education currently in place. For these and other reasons, Grantham described the focus on education and educational reform in the South as “the great educational awakening” and declared that no other Progressive reform touched the lives of more of the region’s inhabitants.8 The story of Hindman Settlement School encompasses rural educational reform during the great educational awakening of the South, as well as the social settlement movement outside of America’s urban centers, with its multifaceted character. Pettit and Stone were educational reformers in the broadest sense, seeing education as the key to improvement of mountain society. They adapted both their settlement work and their school to this view. The curriculum of Hindman Settlement School introduced many of the ideas of Progressive education. Jane Addams saw American education as deficient as a result of its exclusive stress on reading and writing and on a universal curriculum designed to prepare students for college. She described such education as based upon “an assumption [that] fails to give the child any clew [sic] to the life about him or any power to usefully or intelligently connect himself with it.”9 The progressive school would provide a relevant education, including skills needed for the new industrial society, and would inculcate values essential for sustaining America’s democratic institutions. Stone and Pettit embraced most of the ideas associated with Progressive educational theory, including rigorous academic training, along with manual and vocational training (including agricultural education) and domestic science. These were introduced into the curriculum of Hindman Settlement School for all students at the request of Hindman and Knott County residents. The programs were overwhelmingly popular and quickly imitated generally in the public school curriculum of Kentucky. Hindman Settlement School also produced graduates of such academic excellence that many went on for further education at some of the nation’s most elite colleges and universities.10 Pettit and Stone immediately introduced kindergarten, another central Progressive idea. Borrowed from Germany, the advocacy of kindergarten education arose from a growing body of social science studies that identified educational development in harmony with a natural development in childhood. Kindergarten enthusiasts believed that young children

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needed creative play in order to be socialized and readied for formal education. Stone and Pettit understood this importance, and trained kindergarten teachers accompanied them to each of their camps before the Settlement School was established. In the journals they kept of their three summer camps at Cedar Grove, Hindman, and Sassafras between 1899 and 1901, they often wrote of the mountain children’s need for creative play and observed that adults enjoyed the games, songs, and activities of the kindergarten program as much as children did and joined in enthusiastically.11 Of all the educators who influenced their work, none was more important than John Dewey, the “father” of progressive education. Pettit and Stone’s educational philosophy mirrored Dewey’s beliefs, which were formulated during the first decade of the century when he ran the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago. He saw schooling as the key to social progress in modern America, arguing that the school must reflect the life of the larger society and that its goal should be the improvement of that life. Dewey saw the school “as the lever of social change . . . the center of the struggle for a better life.”12 He believed that members of American society must be “educated to pursue initiative and adaptability [or] otherwise, they will be overwhelmed by the changes in which they are caught.” A very similar view was expressed by May Stone in an article in The Wellesley College News, when she explained the purpose of the Hindman Settlement School by saying, “[E]verywhere people were face to face with great changes and the problems that sudden development brings. People need to be trained to meet that coming order so as not to be swept away or destroyed by it.” She and Pettit regularly spoke of the goal of giving people choices and the skills needed to control their destiny.13 The Settlement’s attention to the specific needs of the community it served is evident in its efforts to help the region’s farmers improve their operations and in its programs to prepare the next generation for more productive and efficient methods of farming. The founders decided that the best means to accomplish these goals was through education. Hindman Settlement School’s programs included the operation of model farms and gardens and cooperation with the new State Agricultural Extension Service, which disseminated the latest information on farming. Kentucky and other southern states created agricultural experiment stations in the hopes of stemming the decline of agrarian life. The Settlement housed the local station on its campus and cooperated in experiments to test seeds, plants, and farming techniques and ran extension programs for farm wives. The Settlement also began the Knott County Fair to convey to farmers the most modern and scientific information on crops and garden produce. Many

16

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of the skills taught in the School’s agriculture and domestic science programs were taken, by way of the Settlement’s extension program, into the wider community and were designed to give farm families a better chance to remain on the land. No work of Hindman Settlement School was more significant to the improvement in the quality of life in the mountains than its health education efforts. Health work involved a large variety of programs such as a school nurse, rigorous annual examinations for students, and a district nurse who visited homes across the county. The School also initiated vaccination programs at the Settlement and in the rural schools, clubs to teach infant and maternal care, courses on the treatment of illness and disease at the Settlement as well as through extension work, a community hospital, and a valuable campaign to eradicate trachoma across Appalachia. Recent studies link Hindman Settlement School’s strong focus on training mothers in infant and child care and on general health education to the ideology of early women reformers, which as been described as “maternalism” or “Social Motherhood.” While the emphasis on women and children may well have stemmed from Stone and Pettit’s belief that these were the natural constituents of women’s reform efforts, their work also flowed directly from an understanding of acute needs gained during their work in the summer camps. In a region where infant and maternal mortality was much higher than in western Kentucky, their focus made practical sense. Since the region was one where family health was primarily the responsibility of wives and mothers rather than medical practitioners, health education aimed at women was the best and fastest way to improve the general health of the community.14 Other influences on Stone and Pettit were religious in nature, reflecting the power of the Social Gospel Movement and the Home Missionary Movement to Appalachia. Most Progressives, including Stone and Pettit, were members of mainline Protestant churches, which had become deeply imbued with an activist theology. To call themselves real Christians, they must actively work to eliminate the evils around them. Buoyed by this and by a belief that the new science and technology had provided the instruments to build a better world, Progressivism sought to overcome what many might have considered invincible problems. Loyal Jones, a leading scholar of Appalachian culture, has remarked, “Jane Addams was a forerunner of a small army of women bent on making the world a better place. . . . They operated from the three R’s: Research, Residence (among those to be served), and Reform. They were social reformers intent on changing people’s personal habits and also the practices of institutions that created problems.”15 Such certitude could breed complacency and intolerance—both traits as-

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sociated with Progressivism. Fortunately, Stone’s and Pettit’s experiences in the mountains provided a healthy reality check. One reason why Kentucky mountaineers seemed an appropriate focus for Stone’s and Pettit’s efforts was that an extensive Home Missionary Movement to Appalachia was under way at the same time the Settlement House Movement was emerging in northern cities. The Home Missionary Movement turned its attention to isolated areas, especially the mountain South, to spread its version of the Gospel. The Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, and Southern Baptist churches were all active in this effort, which usually combined a church mission with a school. Stone and Pettit shared many of the beliefs of the home missionaries about mountain religion as well as some of their emphasis on “uplift,” although they also found many methods employed by the denominational agencies incompatible with what they hoped to accomplish. The two women observed that the missionaries often made little attempt to overcome their cultural biases.16 Their primary emphasis was “saving” souls, while Pettit and Stone focused on improving life here and now. Moreover, in Katherine Pettit’s view, denominational struggles over souls often sabotaged other needed services. Stone and Petit thus decided to found Hindman as a Christian—but nondenominational—educational institution. While Pettit and Stone were not free of the views common to the missionary movement, living closely with the mountaineers offset some of their early inclinations to stereotype these people and to characterize them with exaggerated generalities. The evolution of their perceptions can be traced through their journals and in early newsletters. Harsh judgments in the earliest, brief report of the 1899 camp and in an essay Pettit wrote in the same year, “Kentucky Mountain Folk,” gave way to a more nuanced understanding of mountain society by the time of the last journal of the 1901 camp. Nevertheless, the area of mountain culture where they were least successful in overcoming bias was in regards to mountain religion. Pettit and Stone never saw their work as part of the mission movement. They placed themselves in the context of settlement house reform. Yet it is also true that the few documents available to assess their attitudes toward what they called “mountain religion” (meaning the Old Regular Baptists) aligned them squarely with the mainstream missionaries.17 Two prominent scholars, Loyal Jones and Deborah McCauley, have examined why the “lowlanders” had such a universally negative view of the religious practices they encountered. Jones attributed the total disconnect between mainline and mountain religion to the fact that mountain people practiced a theology that was fundamentally Calvinist, while “most Ameri-

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cans had little patience with religion that does not herald a movement toward improvement in the human condition.” Progressives such as Stone and Pettit were especially wedded to a belief in human progress. When the famous mountain preacher Uncle Ira Combs declared that religion changed only man’s spiritual and not his carnal nature, the stark difference between his religious beliefs and the Social Gospel of Stone and Pettit could not have been clearer.18 In Appalachian Mountain Religion, Deborah McCauley observed that mountain Christianity was oral and nonhierarchical, that it de-emphasized rationality and centered, instead, on the emotional experience of the individual. Mainstream religions stressed just the opposite and dismissed mountain religion “by acting as if it were virtually nonexistent or by claiming it deviant.” Stone’s description of it as “those travesties of worship” fits McCauley’s explanation, as does Pettit’s assertion in a 1908 essay that “they have no religion and no opportunity to get any from their preachers.”19 The missionary emphasis on “uplift” was part of Stone and Pettit’s approach to service but was greatly outweighed by their focus on issues such as a lack of health care, educational opportunity, the lack of community cooperation, and the increasing difficulty of making a living on the hill farms. They decided early on to stay out of religious politics. At times, the disparate impulses produced by the varied influences that affected their thinking created contradictions in their ideas and work. What they did and what they thought, however, should be assessed in terms of their own time and its cultural beliefs. An equally important influence upon them was the impact of the changing expectations of American women. Indeed, Stone and Pettit are exemplars of the changing position of women within American society in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Both founders had an excellent education, Stone especially so since between 1884 and 1887 she attended Wellesley College. Like Stone, other college women poured out of these schools and eagerly embraced progressive causes, providing the volunteers and teachers for Hindman and elsewhere. While leaders with the energy, skills, and dedication of Stone and Pettit were rare, they could not have succeeded without the support of hundreds of other women. Studies by Deborah Blackwell, Anne Firor Scott, Sandra Barney, and Karen Tice illustrate that there were a number of women mountain reformers such as Stone and Pettit who aspired to make a real difference within a culture that defined women’s roles almost exclusively in terms of wife and mother. Blackwell recognized the struggle that was required of them “to do much larger work,” and Scott pointed out that the greater

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conservatism of southern culture obliged women “to follow a more devious road to emancipation than those elsewhere.” Sandra Barney characterized Stone and Pettit as “vigorous reformers who rejected the restrictions of women’s traditional sphere.”20 Karen Tice’s investigation of settlement workers from a perspective of social class highlighted the tensions that sometimes arose when affluent and educated women such as Stone and Pettit sought to assist subsistence-level mountain women and their families. Yet, despite differences inherent in their backgrounds, Tice suggested that the close contact between mountain women and settlement workers softened these class differences. She concluded that the work of Hindman Settlement School succeeded because it was an exchange in which both sides taught and learned.21 In Kentucky, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs provided a voice for reform-minded women in the 1890s. Pettit and Stone belonged to chapters of the Federation of Women’s Clubs in their home cities, and it was at the annual state meeting in 1899 that they became acquainted and began their work together. Pettit was also active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and was a close friend of its dynamic president, Frances Beauchamp. Stone was a first-generation member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR), one of whose goals was the improvement of education. The two women developed large networks of family, friends, and fellow “club women” into a strong base of support—first for the summer camps and then for Hindman Settlement School. These organizations helped prepare Stone and Pettit for their later leadership roles. Lucy Furman, who worked at the Settlement for two decades, said that when the founders went on their 1901 fund-raising tour to raise money for Hindman Settlement School, they went almost exclusively to women’s clubs and other female audiences.22 The founders had some real advantages in the friendships and connections their family backgrounds provided. Both came from pioneer families of Kentucky, and both had ties to the state’s leading family of progressive women, including Madeline McDowell Breckinridge and her sisters-inlaw, Sophonisba and Curry. Sophonisba was the first woman admitted to the Kentucky Bar Association. As a professor of social work at the University of Chicago, she was a close friend of both John Dewey and Jane Addams; she lived at Hull House for extended periods of time and provided Pettit and Stone and her sisters with the latest information on developments at that center of Progressive reform. Curry Breckinridge had been trained in kindergarten work and was one of the six women who worked at the sec-

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ond summer camp in Hindman. Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, one of Pettit’s closest friends, was Kentucky’s most influential female Progressive. She and her husband, Desha, the editor of the Lexington Herald, showcased the camps and Settlement School to Bluegrass Kentuckians through their newspaper on many occasions. Frances Beauchamp, president of the Kentucky Women’s Christian Temperance Union, was another powerful reform figure in the State of Kentucky who accompanied Pettit into the mountains on a trip in 1896. They returned convinced that permanent settlement work was needed and tried to convince the WCTU to undertake it. The organization declined to do so at the time but did establish a traveling library program, with Pettit as the committee’s chair.23 Six years later, the WCTU provided the sponsorship that made Hindman Settlement School possible. Beauchamp became an active supporter of the School, spent time there during the summer months, and helped recruit workers. After the affiliation with the WCTU ended, Beauchamp joined the Hindman Settlement School’s new board of directors and remained on it until her death. Not a great deal is known about the public school system in Knott County between the time of the county’s creation in 1884 and the first visit by Pettit and Stone in 1900. By then there were at least forty-three schools. The school they purchased, Buckner Academy, was owned and operated by Professor George Clarke. It had three classrooms, an office, and an auditorium. Some 240 pupils attended elementary school there for five months of the year. The Academy also offered teacher training and commercial courses for older students. During the summer of 1901, Pettit and Stone visited an all too typical school in the mountains on Montgomery Creek. Pettit described it as a large, bare, log house. Its only furniture was a stove in the center of the room, four rough benches, and a long, high workbench. Twenty-five children were crowded onto the benches. A spelling class was called, and four little boys came forward and did quite well. The teacher then called for the “primary readers.” Each child spelled a word, but no one pronounced even one. Then came “advanced geography” and “two grown boys with moustaches rose.” The teacher said, “‘Bound North America.’ No response.” He read the answer. Next he asked, “‘What does it mean to bound a country?’ No answer.” The boys were dismissed. Then came “second geography class,” with five girls, none of whom could answer any of the questions asked. The last class was “advanced spelling,” with ten at the blackboard or writing on slates. When the teacher called out a word, each student looked to see what his neighbor had written. No one spelled the first word, “circus,” correctly. So it went through ten words. The teacher then told the students to grade

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themselves and took out his book. He wrote what each child claimed to be his grade and almost all called out “100.” According to Pettit, he never looked at their work on the board.24 With such deficiencies, recognized by many parents, it was not surprising that mountain people wanted better education and better schools for their children. Thus, when Hindman Settlement School opened, it became a resource for other county schools. During each of the three summer camps, Pettit and Stone placed special emphasis on working with local teachers. Since there were no normal schools available to mountain teachers, each county held an annual Teachers’ Institute shortly before the opening of the school year. Established in the 1870s, the annual, weeklong meeting provided instruction in everything from methodology and discipline to topics of more specific interest. Attendance was mandatory in order for county teachers to maintain their certification. Pettit and Stone attended all three Institutes that were held during the summer camps—the first in Perry County, where their camp Cedar Grove was located, and the other two in Hindman, the county seat of Knott County. Pettit’s comments suggest that many teachers were eager to learn new ideas and were very glad to receive the teaching resources the women provided in the form of pictures, maps, flags, magazines, and periodicals. The Institutes provided teachers with the opportunity to have serious discussions among themselves; yet Pettit noted critically that there were some teachers as young as sixteen, some who had less than two years of formal education, and some who spent the evenings of the Teachers’ Institute week gambling and drinking. Hindman Settlement School would train a great many better-prepared mountain teachers in the decades to come.25 It was not that the mountains had no decent schools. When the Home Mission movement took root in Appalachia, it founded many denominational schools. It is a sign of how remote Knott County was that nothing along these lines had yet reached it. Professor Clarke’s school building, which the WCTU purchased, was certainly superior to others in the county. Hindman Settlement School, however, would set a far more ambitious standard than Clarke could support with student fees and the meager public funds he received. By the 1890s, when Pettit and Stone began their work, views about mountaineers and their culture had moved from depicting them as merely “different” and “exotic” to seeing them as degenerate and the mountain lifestyle as a “problem.” One person who attempted to rectify this view was William Goodell Frost, president of Berea College, the leading educational institution of mountain Kentucky. Frost was also one of the foremost in-

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terpreters of mountain culture to the rest of America. When, in an 1899 article, he described the mountaineers as “our contemporary ancestors,” it became an image that has never been entirely superseded. He suggested that mountain society represented the values and lifestyles of America’s pioneers of two centuries earlier. His message contained the implicit assumption that in their remoteness, these people had been passed by and left with a culture reflective of an earlier America. Frost’s article was intended to dispel negative stereotypes, but instead, his message furthered the image of the mountains as a distinct region with a “backward” culture. The stereotype was so widespread in the early twentieth century that John C. Campbell—the foremost student of Appalachia, who headed the Southern Highlands Division of the Russell Sage Foundation—declared that Appalachia was “a land . . . about which, perhaps, more things are known that are not true than any part of our country.”26 Thus, disparate images of the mountaineers were at work. One depicted mountaineers as degenerate and depraved; the other viewed them as a noble racial stock, benighted by the isolation in which they lived for a century but capable of exhibiting all the characteristics of their pioneer forefathers. Katherine Pettit’s 1899 essay, “Kentucky Mountain Folk,” expressed both of these points of view. It is probable that Stone and Pettit shared the “racialism” of their day since that notion was widely held within the middle class. Its importance for Hindman Settlement School appears to be that it provided a basis to appeal to other white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants for the support of its work. References to neighbors as “pioneer stock” and to their Anglo-Saxon lineage were common in Hindman Settlement School fund-raising materials. Growing interest in mountain ballads strengthened the argument that mountain culture exhibited remnants of Elizabethan influence that should be preserved. At the very moment that this picture of a pioneer, Anglo-Saxon culture, unchanged for nearly two centuries, had become widely accepted as the literary image of Appalachia and as an explanation for the peculiarities of mountain culture and life, the region was undergoing economic revolution. Changes brought by the introduction of industrial capitalism deeply affected Stone and Pettit’s vision of their work in the mountains and led them to adopt the school/settlement house model as a way to help mountain people deal with the transformation they were experiencing. As the century opened, much of the change that came with the timber and coal industries was viewed positively by mountaineers, who relished the opportunity to enter more fully into a cash economy. The leaders of the New South movement saw industrialization as a tool to recover from

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the Civil War and join the nation’s progress and prosperity. They welcomed the interest of outsiders in the vast natural resources of the mountain region. The same was true of many mountaineers who owned land. Farmers often led hard lives on the margins of the commercial economy and were quick to see this development as an opportunity for some of the comfort and security available elsewhere in America. As historian Gordon McKinney pointed out in Southern Mountain Republicans, 1865–1900: Politics and the Appalachian Community, “[T]he period between 1885 and 1900 . . . [was] a time of hope for the mountain people, for the promise of industrialization hid many of its consequences.”27 Pettit and Stone probably shared the view that the change symbolized opportunity to some extent, but they did not enthusiastically embrace it. Very early they were aware of the destructive nature of these industries on the mountain environment, on agrarian life, and on what they considered the best elements of mountain culture. If Pettit had ever thought of the railroads entering eastern Kentucky as an engine of progress—which she seemed to do in “Kentucky Mountain Folk”—it is certain that she no longer did after Hindman Settlement School was founded. She left for Pine Mountain at the end of 1912, in part to remove herself from the threat to her ideal of mountain life posed by the approaching railroad. Ironically, this nemesis never reached Hindman but followed her onto the very grounds of Pine Mountain Settlement School. Well before the arrival of the two founders, the penetration of Appalachia by the railroads, speculators, land developers, and others had been launched and had already brought fundamental change in land use and ownership. Ronald Eller documented this process in Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers, Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880–1930. He explained what had taken place in terms of an isolated, subsistence, agrarian economy rapidly altered by powerful forces from the outside, and believed that this had already set the conditions for the modernization of mountain society by the time the new century opened. He characterized the transformation as the “selling of the mountains.”28 Recently challenges to one aspect of this thesis have been offered with geographer Gene Wilhelm Jr. asserting that “geographical isolation for the mountain folk is a myth.” Ronald Lewis and Dwight Billings argue that “much recent scholarship either refutes or greatly revises the standard perspective of pre-industrial Appalachia as an isolated frontier.” They are careful to note, however, that studies of eastern Kentucky suggest that this region led a more isolated existence than other areas of Appalachia.29 Thus, while there is agreement on the end result of the process—that most of the wealth unlocked in the mountains ended up in the hands of outsiders who

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gained control of the economy and most other aspects of Appalachian life— there is now considerable debate over how this took place. In an important new case study of Floyd County conducted by Robert Weise, it was noted that as the residents of Floyd County were already engaged in commercial production and had market links to the outside world, the introduction of coal mining depended not only on the coming of the railroads but also on the willingness of mountain farmers to sell mineral rights on their land. In his book Grasping at Independence: Debt, Male Authority, and Mineral Rights in Appalachian Kentucky, 1850–1910, Weise argued that the attitude toward such sales was decided by ideologies already present in the economic and political culture. He described a household-centered localism based on the goals of independence, security, and the maintenance of male authority within the household, and contended that it was these aspirations that determined most of the economic decisions of local landholders. Weise concluded that—faced with debt, uncertain legal title to property, and competition for scarce land as the population grew—farmers saw the sale of mineral rights as another commodity to be used to achieve independence and security and to buttress male authority. Moreover, as Gordon McKinney had suggested earlier, they entered into this change with considerable enthusiasm, creating strategies to use the new economic opportunity in such a way that “mining and farming worked in tandem, as a single, unified economic system until the end of World War II.”30 Weise’s interpretation gives mountaineers a more active role in the process of change and will set off new debate on how best to understand the coming of industrialism in Appalachia. Knott County was never as affected by coal mining as neighboring counties such as Perry or Harlan, but there have been criticisms voiced that Stone and Pettit and their institution should have actively worked to protest or stop the progress of industrialization in the mountains. Enthusiasm for the possibilities inherent in the new economy remained widespread among mountaineers at least until the mid-1920s, so it can be argued that both Pettit at Pine Mountain and Stone at Hindman were more dubious than most about the trade-offs inherent in what was happening. Because the Settlement’s founders admired qualities in mountain agrarian society that they saw endangered by the new economic arrangements and values, they spoke often of their fear that the central characteristics of mountain life would disappear along with the independence inherent in a self-sufficient agrarian way of life. And while coal mining generally became the primary destructive force in Appalachia, it was the timber industry that most threatened traditional life in Knott County. With the commercial

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exploitation of the mountain forests came severe erosion, along with the silting of creeks and environmental damage. It was timber, more than coal, that made it increasingly unlikely that a farm family in Knott County could maintain itself. Perhaps most important, as Stone and Pettit surveyed the nature of the change that was unfolding, they saw a broad variety of educational programs as the key assistance they could provide. The women who founded the Settlement are best characterized as opposites who combined to form a great team. Much more is known about Katherine Pettit, and as a result, May Stone remains something of an enigma. She wrote little, and none of her correspondence has survived in the Settlement’s archives. Her personality was such that those who described her used the same words and phrases repeatedly. In 1900 the mountaineers gave the six women workers at the Hindman camp nicknames that reflected their personalities. May Stone was dubbed “the ladyest” of the women. As the daughter of Henry Stone, a Confederate officer, and his wife, Patricia Bourne Stone, her background was more affluent than Pettit’s. May was born in Owingsville, Kentucky, in 1867, making her a year older than Katherine. She grew up in Mount Sterling and the family moved to Louisville in 1883, a year before she attended Wellesley College. Henry Stone served as Louisville’s city attorney for two years and then as a member of the state legislature for four terms. He ended his career as the chief counsel for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. On her mother’s side, May’s grandfather, Walker Bourne, had established a school in Montgomery, Kentucky, as early as 1810 and his father had fought in the American Revolution. These roots fostered in May Stone a lifelong interest in genealogy and patriotic organizations. She completed three years at Wellesley, majoring in German, but did not graduate. Little is known of the years between her return to Kentucky and the first summer camp in 1899 except that she became very active in the Louisville chapter and state programs of the Federation of Women’s Clubs. Over her lifetime, she belonged to the Daughters of the War of 1812, the Daughters of the Confederacy, the Transylvanians, the Historical Societies of both Virginia and Kentucky, the Filson Club of Louisville, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs. She and Pettit helped found the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers, and she was a founding member of the Southern Handicrafts Guild. Along with Pettit, she served on the board of the Frontier Nursing Service.31 The DAR was an especially important interest. During the years she headed Hindman Settlement School, May Stone served as chairwoman of

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the Kentucky DAR Committee on Patriotic Education and regularly attended the national meeting. The National Society (NSDAR) made Hindman Settlement School one of its approved schools in 1921, a sponsorship that continues today. Among the few items of Stone’s in the archives are several speeches she gave to local DAR chapters on subjects as various as the old methods of weaving and the Revolutionary War hero Lafayette. Among her few extant writings is a revealing essay about a trip she made back to the site of the third summer settlement at Sassafras twenty years later. Her reaction to the damage she saw from the coal mining along the creeks of the area was so strong that she could not continue the exploration of her old haunts after the first day because she felt so depressed at what had happened to this formerly beautiful and remote corner of the mountains.32 For most people who came in contact with May Stone, she was the ideal of southern gentility—gentle, serene, calm, and refined. She was exceptionally skilled at making people feel at ease. Lucy Furman and Elizabeth Watts both stressed her deep religious faith when describing her. In her youth, Stone was blond and blue-eyed, and a former student recalled that she always wore a beautiful locket. As she aged, she grew portly and her hair turned snow white. Elizabeth Watts, who served as her assistant for more than twenty years, said that Stone had an unusual gift for remembering names and faces. Just as Pettit would come to take a great interest in mountain music, Stone was fascinated by mountain crafts and became an avid collector of “coverlids” (coverlets) and other handmade products. When she spent the summers in Hindman, she was always on the lookout for new items to purchase and would try again and again to persuade women to part with objects to which she had taken a special fancy. Another attribute noted by many of her mountain friends was her expertise in genealogy. Local people swore that she could trace the kinship relationships of every one of them and delighted in telling them of family ties between them and herself.33 These gentle qualities were combined with a great deal of common sense and business acumen. Unlike Pettit, who was no executive and disliked administrative and indoor work, Stone filled an important role by contributing managerial and financial skills. She kept the books and undoubtedly made many of the important financial decisions, or at least was largely responsible for calculating the costs of new programs and activities. She was the more practical member of the team. Elizabeth Watts contrasted the two women by noting that Pettit was always full of enthusi-

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asms, while Stone was described as having her “feet on the ground.” Watts also remarked that Stone was always in control of the situation. When Watts became her assistant and worried over some decision, Stone would ask her if she had done everything she could. If Watts said yes, Stone told her not to worry about it anymore. John Campbell, who knew both of the women well, described them as a highly compatible and effective team, each bringing essential qualities to sustain their chosen educational and outreach work.34 In contrast to Stone, Katherine Pettit was described as a “living dynamo” of tireless energy. It is not surprising that the citizens of Hindman nicknamed her “the up-and-comingest.” She was outgoing—“a good mixer,” as one person put it—and she loved the outdoors and physical work. In the case of both Hindman and Pine Mountain, she chose a partner who had gifts that she was lacking. Elizabeth Watts considered Pettit the most unforgettable person she had ever met—frank, outspoken, and never afraid to say exactly what she thought. Pettit’s directness appealed to most of the mountain people, and a former student told her, “I liked the way you always hit straight from the shoulder.” That manner did not sit well with everyone, however, for one Pine Mountain worker called her “brutally frank.” Pettit admitted to being a perfectionist and also to being brusque. Despite an extroverted personality, she hated to speak in public and had a visceral dislike of publicity to such an extent that she refused to have her picture taken. As a result, very few images of her survive in the Hindman archives. Watts surreptitiously took a picture to send to her mother in Massachusetts prior to a visit Pettit was making to her parents. She begged her mother not to let Pettit know that she had done it. In the same letter, she expressed some anxiety about the visit, saying “I’m a little scared for fear you won’t like Miss Pettit because you have to sort of get used to her but you just must anyway.”35 There can be no doubt that Pettit was the visionary and the driving force behind Hindman Settlement School. She was the one who dreamed of founding a social settlement, and she pursued that goal for seven years before it was realized. Pettit came from a solid, middle-class Bluegrass family. Her grandfather had brought the first printing press to Kentucky, and she was raised on a stock farm just outside of Lexington. Born in 1868, her mother died when she was twelve, and she was raised by her grandmother and was very close to her father. She attributed her interest in the mountains to her father’s keen interest in the area and to the many newspaper articles about mountain feuds that appeared in Bluegrass newspapers.

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She attended the Sayre Institute in Lexington and became an active clubwoman as a young adult. Her first trip to Perry County, in 1895, was taken just after the end of a well-reported feud between the French and Eversole clans. The opportunity to go arose when Mary McCartney, a teacher at the Presbyterian Academy in Hazard, invited her to share a threeweek visit to explore the area around Hazard. Pettit and the others in the party stayed at a local hotel and traveled out to talk with people. While she was there, she was implored to start a school. She returned to Hazard the following year with Frances Beauchamp and was back again later with Madeline McDowell Breckinridge.36 It may have been at Pettit’s instigation that the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs first became interested in mountain work. By 1899 she was certainly considered to be their “mountain expert.” When the Federation decided to establish a program of traveling libraries in 1896, she headed the library committee. At the same time, she was chairwoman of a similar committee for the WCTU. A report issued two years later indicated that by 1898 the Federation had appropriated $25,000 for the project and had twenty-four boxes of books in circulation in sixteen different counties and twenty-two mountain towns. Libraries went into homes, churches, post offices, and some early mining camps.37 The Federation sponsored all three of the summer camps. The first was set in motion by a letter to the Federation from the Reverend T.J. Mitchell, who was responsible for the traveling library at Hazard. Read at the Federation’s annual meeting in the spring of 1899, the letter praised the library work but appealed to the organization to send someone who could teach the women and girls practical skills such as cooking and sewing. Pettit, who had recently returned from a trip to the mountains, was asked to comment. She readily supported the idea that settlement work would be useful. The group raised $180 on the spot, and Pettit agreed to take charge of the preparations for a summer camp later that year. The Federation secretary, May Stone, offered to take part once the camp had been set up, and remembered the day very well, for it was “the beginning of our work together.”38 The first of the three summer camps was named the Cedar Grove camp for its location on a hillside of cedars just outside of Hazard. It marked the end of mountain visiting and the beginning of mountain service for Pettit. Pettit’s experiences had already led her to a number of strong views, which she expounded in an essay titled “Kentucky Mountain Folk” in 1899. She saw much to admire in the mountaineers, whose pioneer forefathers had shown great willpower and common sense as they opened up the wil-

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derness. She noted that the slow growth of population over the nineteenth century had meant that mountaineers had few facilities to help meet the new challenges they faced. Generations had grown up ignorant and isolated, she wrote. Poor diet, life in one-room cabins, and excessive tobacco and alcohol use had sapped the health of the “race.” She described the mountaineer as neither strong nor vigorous and declared the life of mountain women deplorable, saying that they led “truly wretched” lives.39 Pettit’s essay had little good to say about mountain males. She described them as lazy, “thinking their duty consists in hunting, fishing, sitting on the fence talking politics,” while women did the farm work, raised large families, and died worn-out at a young age. She penned a portrait of a society that had little contact with the outside world, and contrasted what she viewed as their current wretched conditions with their fine lineage.40 Pettit recognized that roads and railroads were now slowly penetrating the region and that some schools had been started by church groups. Yet education was still very poor, with schools open only a few months and the quality of teachers extremely low. She praised mountain boys and girls for their eagerness to better themselves, yet found them sadly lacking in both morality and basic skills, noting that when the camp workers at Cedar Grove visited the Teachers’ Institute, only one teacher knew the Lord’s Prayer and only a couple of others owned a Bible. Pettit’s portrait shows little empathy for the mountain society she sought to aid, and she described religious practices as amounting to essentially no religion at all. While Pettit never again penned such a completely negative portrait of mountain society, some of the views expressed here remained with her for many years.41 The essay was written in part because Pettit was trying to convince the WCTU or the Women’s Federation to consider establishing a “Christian Social Settlement.” The final section of the essay was devoted to describing the institution she wanted to create. It would include a kindergarten, a regular school with normal and industrial departments, and thirty to forty acres of land on which to plant a garden and trees so that neighbors could observe and learn from their agricultural methods and the children could be trained in more modern farming practices. She envisioned mothers’ classes in cooking, sewing, care of children, and housekeeping skills.42 All of these elements would be incorporated into Hindman Settlement School, but more than two years would pass, along with the three summer camps, before her dream became a reality. Taken by itself, the document seems to confirm the view of critics who see the reformers who came from outside as full of unshakable preju-

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dices that produced programs based on erroneous assumptions and stereotypes. To be sure, Stone and Pettit were not without prejudices. They sometimes failed to see how certain customs and ways of living were sensible adaptations to the environment. But such attitudes were most pronounced at the beginning and diminished over time. On the whole, their Settlement School programs were practical responses to real conditions far more than they were an elaboration of cultural stereotypes. The diary of the final summer camp at Sassafras presents a much more complex understanding of mountain life than do the reports from the preceding two summers. Decades of subsequent work in the mountains by these women can be said to have produced the outcome expected by the mountaineer who said “mixin’ larns both parties.”43 During the three summer camps, it was Pettit who kept the journals of their activities and experiences, except for the final weeks at Sassafras. Through these diaries it is possible to see their developing impressions of the people they worked with and the needs that would be translated into programs and activities at Hindman. The Cedar Grove journal, a sevenpage report, described a camp bright with flags, bunting, and Japanese lanterns, and with cots covered with white spreads and pillows. Pettit noted that the workers were pleased that when it came time for cooking dinner, the women present asked if they could help. This allowed the workers to teach and the women to learn without appearing to do so, Pettit wrote. The local women were invited to bring their supplies any day and the group would cook together. The report also described health and living conditions, noting that the overcrowded cabins they visited often housed ten or twelve. The cabins themselves were described as dirty and unattractive, without windows and with little furniture. The report noted a preference for cooking everything “in as much grease as they can get.” It lamented the widespread use of alcohol and tobacco, even by children. Not everything was negative, for Pettit noted that housing in Hazard was much better than the remote log cabins they visited, with some houses weatherboarded and even two stories. She had nothing but praise for the bright, attractive children. The settlement work in 1899 included visiting the stores in Hazard every morning at about ten o’clock and inviting women they met to come to the camp. That was how they met Mary Stacy, whose home would serve as headquarters for the final camp at Sassafras in 1901. It was she who Pettit recorded as calling them “quare women,” a term that, along with “fotched-on” women, would be widely used to describe the settlement workers.44 Pettit and Stone considered the first summer a success, and the next

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camp at Hindman was set for a longer period. The two women spent the better part of the year planning it, and they went more than well-equipped, bringing along supplies that filled three “jolt” wagons, while two covered “spring” wagons provided the transport for the six women for a camp of eight weeks. The 1900 journal is more detailed, telling how the first twohundred mile stretch of their journey to Hindman was covered by train, getting them to Jackson on the first day. The final forty-five miles took two additional days. They followed streambeds that “for roughness and deep holes . . . cannot be exceeded.” At their overnight stop, Pettit heard beautiful old English ballads and began her lifelong love of traditional mountain music. She collected lyrics all during that summer, preserved them in the journal, and later published them in an article in The Journal of American Folklore.45 Preservation of the music of the region became an important role of the Settlement as it encouraged the children to remember and sing this music and as ballad collectors were given welcome and assistance as they sought out the old songs. Their party of six arrived at Hindman on June 14, 1900, staying in a local hotel until the camp could be pitched on the hillside overlooking the town. It was far more elaborate than the one at Cedar Grove. Called “Camp Industrial,” a term that the WCTU used for some of its educational social work, it was arranged on five levels—the lowest housing the cellar; the next, the kitchen; the third, a dining area; the fourth, sleeping tents and a sitting area for Pettit, Stone, and the others; and at the top, the kindergarten. Everyone pitched in to get the elaborate camp up and operating. All of the cooking utensils were kept in the kitchen tent, where nearby was a table on which food was prepared. Also close by were chicken coops fashioned from boxes nailed to trees. The dining area had a roof of white oilcloth, while the bedroom tents were positively luxurious, with planked floors and rugs, bright spreads and pillows on the beds, and a ridgepole strung with Japanese lanterns. The tents also housed a traveling library and a bookcase filled with educational games. Over one tent hung a large welcome sign. Neighbors flocked there eagerly, “anxious to learn everything we could teach them,” according to Pettit. They held singing classes, using their traveling organ for accompaniment. Four of the workers taught Sunday school and found that in a class of twenty-one boys, none knew the Ten Commandments and only one knew the Lord’s Prayer. The girls were only marginally more informed.46 Along with the usual lessons and activities, the camp workers spent time visiting homes. They admired the beautiful weaving still done by some of the older women but observed that the young were not keeping

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Tent at Camp Industrial, Hindman, 1900.

up the tradition, and without a new interest to revive it, it was feared the craft would die out. The workers marveled over tablecloths and towels, coverlids and blankets that they described as “rarely beautiful and artistic.” Both Pettit and Stone quickly acquired a strong desire to learn to weave and got their opportunity to do so during the next summer. Later, when Hindman Settlement School was founded, a loom was purchased and instruction in weaving became part of the curriculum. The establishment of the Fireside Industries Department at the School also became an important means for the preservation of these crafts, providing an economic incentive for their survival.47 The Hindman journal records occasional clashes with mountain attitudes, such as occurred when a local lawyer loaned the camp a cow to use during the months in Hindman. They had already hired a boy, Monroe Maggard, to help with various things about the camp. But when they

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asked him to milk the cow, he adamantly refused and insisted that he could not milk, because men in the mountains did not milk. In a predictable response, Pettit noted, “[W]e did not intend to set any such example to the women, so we told Monroe that he must learn.” Curry Breckinridge went off to a neighbor, learned to milk, and then undertook to teach Monroe. Not exactly happy about the situation, Monroe did milk and mountaineers came to watch in amazement to see a male milking a cow.48 Pettit was fascinated by the dress of the older women—their sunbonnets, checkered aprons, and hand mittens—although she was well aware that more modern styles like the ones that settlement workers wore were already present in the mountains. When she described the clothing of a local teacher at the annual Teachers’ Institute, it is difficult to imagine that any Bluegrass lady could have been outfitted more fashionably. The teacher wore a “black woolen skirt, white cross-barred shirt waist with very large bishop sleeves with gathered ruffles four inches wide at the hand and six inches wide around the neck.” Her necktie was “ashes of roses ribbon.” Around her sleeves at the wrists were inch-wide pink gauze ribbons, with a double bow on top. The belt was black satin ribbon four inches wide. All of this finery was topped by gold earrings, black cotton finger gloves, a brown straw hat with ribbon, poppies, and leaves, topped with a “green bareage veil.”49 Thus the old and the new in dress already coexisted in Knott County. A very important part of the School’s founding is the story of the journey of Uncle Solomon Everidge, one of the patriarchs of the region, who walked twenty-two miles from Hindman to Hazard in 1899 to urge the women to found a school “for his grands and greats.” The report of the Cedar Grove camp provides no mention of the incident. However, they did hold the next camp at Hindman and Uncle Sol also appeared in the Sassafras diary. He lived about a mile out of town, and when they were in Hindman for the Teachers’ Institute, Stone and Pettit visited him. He was described as a “seventy-eight year old, [who] goes barefoot all the time and never wears a hat.” He had just finished a day hoeing corn when they arrived. He greeted them cordially but mentioned being “plumb tuckered out.” Pettit continued her description by saying, “[H]is costume consisted of clean white cotton under drawers and shirt, for which he made no apology at the time, but did one day at our dinner table.” Uncle Sol came to play an important role in the telling of the Hindman Settlement School’s story to the outside world in later years. Because of his original appeal to them to come and establish a school,

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Uncle Solomon Everidge, Hindman Settlement School’s “founding father.”

he became the School’s “founding father” in the eyes of Stone and Pettit. While no exact record of what he said exists, Pettit later described his appeal in a letter to a friend. He told them: When he was a lad, hoeing corn on the steep hillsides . . . oftentimes when he came to the end of the row, he used to look up the creek and down the creek and wonder if anybody would ever come and “larn” him anything. He said “Nobody ever came and nobody ever went out,” and he just grew up without knowing anything, but he wanted the “younguns” that were there now to have their chance.50 Before the camp was over in 1900, Hindman’s public school, Buckner Academy, opened for fall classes. Pettit described the owner, Professor George Clarke, and his assistant as “men of very good education and some progressive ideas and earnestly striving to do their best with the children under their charge.” She noted, however, how difficult it was for one teacher to instruct a hundred children of all ages and grades. Nevertheless, Pettit and Stone continued to be charmed by the potential of the children, de-

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scribing them as “wide awake, quick and ambitious. We believe that our work was a real help and benefit to them,” she wrote.51 Other highlights of the Hindman summer included a visit to Mary Stacy’s home on Montgomery Creek near Sassafras. Pettit described it as “a perfect delight,” neat, bright with flowers, with walls covered with pictures. The following summer they took advantage of Stacy’s invitation to use her home as headquarters for their last summer camp. Another excursion took them on horseback to Pine Mountain. After a steep climb to the top, the vista that lay before them was described by Pettit as one where “the moon shone over the Black Mountain, flooding the dark valley of the Cumberland with silvery light, while the sun was shining on the ridge in the Kentucky valley.” Pettit would return to the area to establish her second settlement school at the foot of this mountain in 1913.52 When Pettit assessed the work of this summer, she ended with the declaration that she hoped to see a well-established and permanent social settlement and industrial school located in one of these mountain towns. She wrote that its goal should be “to live among the people, in as near a model home as we can get, to show them by example the advantages of cleanliness, neatness, order and study.” She felt sure that “these should be our efforts, if we wish to elevate and uplift them and they stand ready, willing and waiting to do their part, if we do ours.”53 The journal of the final camp at Sassafras in 1901 records daily activities similar to those undertaken at Hindman, but it is fundamentally different in that it is a detailed diary describing the mountain people they met. People come alive in all their variety, and the record of daily events is much more balanced and less judgmental than the two earlier records. A day nursery was added, and the camp workers did more home visiting since they were not situated in a town. Sassafras consisted of nothing more than a one-room log schoolhouse and a similar structure that housed the post office. The schoolhouse was one of the sites used for Sunday school. Pettit described their base as “the most remote spot in all the Southern Mountains, miles from anything else but wilderness and thick forest.”54 It closely approximated the kind of locale that Pettit would come to prefer for settlement work, away from towns and modern life. One of its attractions as a settlement location was that it was about fifteen miles equidistant from three towns in three different counties—Perry, Letcher, and Knott. Stone and Pettit expected to reach people in all of these areas. The camp itself was smaller and less elaborate than the one at Hindman. Whereas home visiting and Sunday schools dominated the agenda of activities outside of camp, sewing, cooking, singing, kindergarten, and book

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lending were the typical activities at the campsite. It was usual for one or more of the four workers to leave the camp around 6:30 in the morning to go up a branch, visit a half-dozen families, and return about 3:30 in the afternoon. They helped in whatever way they could, depending on what they found. May Stone’s pedometer kept track of the mileage they walked each week to the four Sunday schools they established, and it registered ten to twelve miles per week each time. People also flocked to the camp, especially on Friday, because it was mill day and they passed the camp on the way to grind their corn. Mary and Simon Stacy, Stone and Pettit’s hosts for the summer, literally turned their home over to the women for the duration of their stay. They used one room for their bedroom and rearranged the kitchen into a pleasant dining room by moving the stove into the yard and making muslin curtains for the windows. The tents where the summer activities took place were set up a short distance away. Mary did everything she could to make her guests comfortable, and the diarists have nothing but praise for her and her fourteen-year-old helper, Rhoda. The two began the day’s work at 3:00 A.M., and the first morning produced what might be called a “cultural glitch.” The breakfast bell rang at 3:45, but the women kept the family waiting, not realizing, as Pettit wrote in the diary, that they were expected to do as their hosts did—get out of bed, wash their faces, and come right to the table. Instead, the ladies had to “bathe and dress.”55 There are a number of stories in the journal of men and women divorced or separated from their spouses, but it is clear that Simon and Mary were a happy couple, although they appear to have been childless. He helped with many tasks that other husbands avoided. Simon Stacy was a thoughtful husband, and when he took a trip to Jackson, he brought back not only tales of the telephone (which both Mary and Rhoda greeted skeptically) but also white muslin for dresses. Mountain clothing strongly leaned toward the dark-colored and durable, so the dresses made from the white fabric were the first of this kind they had ever had and were undoubtedly inspired by the clothes of the settlement workers. Mary and Rhoda could hardly wait to show off their finery at the next funeral meeting.56 A domestic scene described late in their stay underlined the idyllic aspects of mountain life at the Stacy home. It was hard to realize that we were not living in the time of our great grandmothers. By a bright firelight, Rhoda carding, Mrs. Stacy spinning at the large wheel, one of us spooling at the little wheel, while the other kept the winding blades straight. . . .

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Mary and Simon Stacy spooling cotton and quilling flax.

Mary sang an old ballad while Simon and Mr. Ritchie [a friend] cut out drinking gourds and talked about the “craps” and the primitive conditions under which they lived as we supposed our great grandparents would have talked.57 Mary’s helper, the titian-haired Rhoda, also claimed a great deal of attention in the diary. A singer of ballads, she had lived “here to yander” until eight months earlier, when she had asked the Stacys if she could live with them. Pettit’s description of Rhoda standing in the middle of the creek flowing by the farm, washing the wool that she and Mary had just sheared from their own sheep, her dress held up and her red linsey underskirt showing while her bare feet kneaded the fibers, provided a striking portrait of mountain life. “We could not do without Rhoda,” Pettit wrote in the journal. Indeed, Mary and Rhoda never seemed to stop work. When they were not doing household chores, they spun, carded, and wove. Stone lamented that both the settlement workers and Rhoda and Mary were too busy to really enjoy each other as much as they wished.58

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Next to Mary and Rhoda, the most important figure in Stone and Pettit’s work that summer was Jasper Mullins, a reliable, jack-of-all-trades helper, who celebrated his twentieth birthday with them. He was one of what Pettit called “the great shy mountain boys.” He had never seen a tent before he helped to erect theirs. He loved their little organ and carried it everywhere for them, especially to the Sunday schools they held at Sassafras and Montgomery each week. He often came at the end of the day and asked them to play. Despite being tired, they usually obliged. When another boy teased him about the organ, Jasper retorted that the boy “was not at home when have came around”—an interesting way of suggesting that he lacked something in either brains or common sense. Jasper lived with his grandparents, and Pettit drew a vivid portrait of his grandmother, Aunt Mary, with her “sun-browned face and white hair, smoking her pipe with a large Bible on her lap.” A spinning wheel behind her on the porch completed the scene. Jasper was one of the first members of May Stone’s sewing class, and his grandmother told Stone that “if he wouldn’t behave himself and larn to sew well, jist to get a hickory stick and make him.” But Jasper was no problem. He turned into an avid sewer, never missing a class, and he soon became Stone’s assistant in teaching others as the class filled up with eager students of both sexes. The influence of the visitors on Jasper was striking, according to Mary Stacy. For one thing, he stopped “cussing.” He also demonstrated a high level of sensitivity for the reputation of the ladies when he and another boy took Mary McCartney, the camp’s kindergarten teacher, back to Jackson in August so that she could return to her teaching post. They did not reach the town until past 11:00 P.M., but the boys decided not to tell anyone (except Pettit and Stone) they had arrived so late, because they “would give no body no reason to say nothing against her credit.”59 The Sassafras journal provides a record of encounters with neighbors who run the gamut from ne’er-do-wells to pillars of the community. The more distinguished citizens of the area included Dr. Roark, Judge Combs, and Squire Gent. Pettit and Stone were surprised and a little dismayed to find that Dr. Roark’s home was anything but a model of cleanliness for his patients. Roark seemed to be something of an eccentric in their eyes, for Stone later mentioned his riding by one day wearing two hats. On the other hand, their remarks about Judge Combs provide a portrait of a genuine mountain progressive. Both of his daughters had spent the previous year at a school in Hazard, and he was anxious for more education in the mountains, declaring that his own daughters would not “settle down at the head of the hollow with some man and go hoeing corn and building

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fences.” Squire Gent was the county magistrate, and Pettit described his home as “one of the cleanest we have seen.” After attending a trial over which he presided, Stone and Pettit described Gent as a “long-bearded magistrate, sitting at a table under the trees with a big law book open before him.”60 They also encountered widowers such as “D,” who told them now that his mother was getting too old to work, he was looking around for a wife. He complained that everyone close by was either very young or a “widder” woman with a family. So he told Pettit and Stone he had placed an advertisement in a matrimonial paper, aptly named “Cupid’s Columns,” and had found a woman in Missouri who was ready to marry him. Not long after this, he disappeared for a week and the neighborhood was abuzz with rumors that he had run off with a local woman. Actually, he had stopped by the camp in his best clothes and told Mary Stacy he was going to Jackson, but she did not believe him and had said nothing. Whatever the reason for his departure, when he returned he told them he had had a wonderful time and had visited Rowan and Montgomery Counties as well as Jackson. He wondered why they had not told his mother where he had gone, since she had become worried. “D’s” advertisement in “Cupid’s Column,” answered by a female as far away as Missouri, is a good reminder that even here, “in the most remote spot in the Southern Mountains,” people were not as isolated or without resources as many outsiders thought.61 One of the most interesting personalities Pettit and Stone encountered was Uncle Ira Combs, the best-known preacher of the area. They attended two of his funeral orations, taking notes on parts of them. Before describing the first one, Pettit noted the lack of churches, the uneducated preachers, and the fact that this was the first religious service held in a year. But she also recognized the power of Combs’s preaching, describing the “blind idolatry” of his listeners. He certainly preached a form of Christianity unlike that of the Social Gospel. He told his congregation that God was a spirit and that religion was a spiritual thing. It only changed the spiritual part of man, not the natural or carnal aspects of his nature. He also told them, indirectly, what he thought of the “Social Gospellers.” Turning toward the guests, he continued, “[I]f these strange preachers come around with their strange doctrines with a gold watch in their pocket and a white shirt so slick that a fly would slip up and bust his brains out, don’t have anything to do with ’em.” His preaching was both powerful and poetic. He told his congregation, “May God dig in our hearts with the maddock [mattock] of his love.”62

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Uncle Ira Combs, mountain preacher.

In a second sermon on a later occasion, Uncle Ira took on the predestinarians, declaring that people should not believe they could go on with wicked ways and then go to heaven. This sermon provided another poetic image when he said, “May the spirit come a-leaping and skipping over the dead faculties of our souls.” Uncle Ira’s influence within the religious culture of the mountains was so striking that poet and author James Still wrote a short poem capturing his power. “Epitaph for Uncle Ira Combs, Mountain Preacher,” reads: So long on mountains he had looked, All earth was dull that did not tower up Into the sky. So long upon the hills Of faith his soul had calmly leaned, He was a bulwark firm within his God, A mountain rising high.63

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Girls and women figured prominently in the Sassafras diary, since most settlement work was directed at them. Dr. Roark’s daughter, Della, looked the typical mountain girl, with her hair in a tight knot on top of her head, a pink calico shirtwaist, and a long black skirt. She boasted to May Stone that she could “rein in a nag as well as beat the boys up the creek hoeing corn.” Other portraits of the typical mountain girl were more poignant. Ellie Summers, one of the brightest girls in the camp’s sewing class, was only eleven years old yet had responsibility for a family of nine because her mother was sick. Ellie did the cooking, washing, and milking, and helped in the fields as well. Stone described her “pale face and shrunken shoulders” that bespoke the life of this young girl and lamented, “Oh, these hard worked little girls, how one would like to give them a free, joyous child’s life.” Aislie, an eighteen-year-old, led a life much like Ellie’s, and now that the family’s crops were in, she had been hired out to work for another family. Older women, remembering their own hard lives, sometimes had little sympathy for these girls. “D’s” mother, Aunt Peggy, insisted that “wimmin air no-count now, they can’t stand nothin’ like they used to when I was young.”64 Home visits took them into a number of unusual situations. May Stone related a visit she made to the Cody family. There were three daughters, two of them—Elsie and Millie—were five and six years old and absolute hellions. While she was there, the girls engaged in incessant quarreling and “cussing,” first over a book that she had brought and then over a “puppet” (a doll). Their father yelled at them and then, hoping to placate Elsie, gave her two peaches. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cody locked up the doll to end the fighting. But this solution hardly satisfied Millie, who was the doll’s owner, and she threw herself on the floor, screaming in rage while both parents yelled at her and, as Stone observed, “Elsie munched the two peaches with a Satanic smile.” The mother again thought to end the dispute by taking Millie outside with the doll, but the scuffling just started over again in the yard. The exasperated parents left them to fight it out. Walking home, Stone sadly reflected on what she had witnessed at the Codys’ and wrote in the diary, “I had very solemn thoughts of the needs of these people and of my responsibility to give them the kind of school that will make wiser parents of the next generation.”65 The day-to-day activities at camp were very practical in nature. A day nursery was added that year so that young mothers could come and learn and also see how infants should be cared for. The kindergarten activities at each of the three camps were especially popular with people of all ages. Grown-ups as well as children enjoyed pasting pictures on bright-colored

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paper and taking them home. The diary described how the big boys liked to make pinwheels and join in the games. There was even a time when Judge Combs and Squire Gent joined in the singing games while on a visit to the camp. Mary McCartney, who taught the class, used local materials as well as what they had brought. She cut bull rushes so that visitors could plait picture frames into which the Lord’s Prayer was placed. She took her charges down to the creek and used the sand to build up mountains and teach them geography. At least one local teacher, Mattie Combs, the judge’s daughter, came regularly in order to better prepare herself to teach the younger children in her own school. Apart from kindergarten, the most popular activities were singing and listening to the organ, borrowing books from the lending library, and learning to make beaten biscuits and light bread (bread made with yeast). The latter was an alternative to cornbread, and many considered it more healthful for an invalid.66 One theme that stands out in the diary of the Sassafras summer is that there was a strong demand among many of the young women and men for access to better education. The diary includes many comments about how people liked to read and how careful they were with the books. When the books were given away at the end of the camp, Stone remarked that every one of them was still in good condition despite much usage. Pettit and Stone were regularly involved in assisting particular children to receive a better education. They were invited to choose a girl for a scholarship at the Harlan Academy and selected Diana Combs, one of the brightest girls in the area. Judging from a conversation that Stone overheard, not everyone approved of Diana’s opportunity. One neighbor asserted that Diana’s father was crazy to let her go, saying, “Them women sent her off and they are trying to get all the girls off. They say they’s a school off there, but who knows.”67 When it came time for the ladies to leave Sassafras at the beginning of October, Fernando Combs and his brother, Harlan, came to them and said they wanted to go with them to “Berea School.” They, along with Jasper Mullins, provided the manpower to take the women down the river to Jackson. On their way to the boat, Stone noted that a “young moonshiner” she had mentioned several times in the diary came up and whispered that if they would let him know what it cost to go to Berea, he would sell his horse and go. Whether it was about learning to make light bread, buttonholes, or how to get the opportunity to go to school, the thirst for learning was present everywhere they turned. A mountain resident who declared that “a school is the most invited, wanted thing in Eastern Kentucky” was speaking for many young people and their parents.68

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Harlan and Fernando were not the only ones Pettit and Stone took down the river with them. They also took a blind girl and a boy severely crippled with rheumatism out with them for medical treatment. This group traveling out of the mountains provides a reminder of another constant Stone and Pettit encountered that deeply influenced their work at Hindman. The frequency of illness and death they witnessed was shocking to them. One of the most widespread illnesses, and a common cause of death among infants and children, was flux (dysentery). It struck the small group of black families living up one branch, as well as their white neighbors. Stone described a funeral cortege for a black infant—the coffin covered with brown calico and bows, the funeral party, walking three miles to the burial grounds, dressed in finery and carrying a tin can of bright marigolds.69 The dead infant’s mother was with them, and she was so sick she could hardly walk. The diary is full of observations of illnesses, including granulated eyes (trachoma), rheumatism, lameness, stomach problems, wounds that had not healed properly, snake bite, and every kind of infant problem imaginable. The latter were often made worse by the fear of many mountain women to apply soap and water to their babies. Stone and Pettit criticized the custom of taking ill children into social groups even when their sickness was contagious, and they were especially concerned with the common practice of large numbers of kin and friends visiting the sick when they had contagious diseases. Undoubtedly the event that touched them most deeply during that summer was the death of Corrie Combs from flux. When Pettit and Stone offered to help with the funeral preparations, Mary Stacy explained to them that they would be expected to make the burial clothes for the girl as well as line the coffin and wash and dress her. They set off for the Combs’s home and met Corrie’s aunt on the road, who had tried unsuccessfully to find fabric for a burial dress. Stone turned back to camp to get some white muslin, while Pettit went on. She arrived to find the dead child lay where she had died and the family in the midst of wild grieving. Pettit read the Bible to them, and when Stone arrived, the mother explained what kind of dress she wanted. The outer dress should reach the child’s shoe tops, and the petticoat should come down farther and show a bit of lace. While they made the garments and a cap edged with lace, the men brought the newly constructed coffin and the women lined it, put cotton lace at its edges, and fashioned six pretty bows for the top. Although she was not always so understanding, Pettit realized that “all this shows that our mountain friends are just as careful about the conventionalities of life as we are.” She went on, “I never in my life shrank so much from doing anything,” referring to

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the final step of washing the child and preparing her for the coffin. When it was all finally over, they returned home. It had clearly been an emotional ordeal. Pettit described it as “a trying day and we were both unnerved and more tired than we have ever been.”70 Experiences such as these were what made health work the most important settlement activity undertaken when Hindman Settlement School opened. If mountain people had been abstractions to Katherine Pettit and May Stone when they answered the call of the Reverend Mitchell two years earlier, they were no longer so. By witnessing life and death and much of what went in between, they had become friends and neighbors of the mountain people, among whom they would work for forty years. In the description of their days at Sassafras, Stone and Pettit’s own courage, sense of purpose, and willingness to endure hardship was demonstrated repeatedly. Although they certainly had “gentle upbringings,” they were more than prepared to deal with the rigors of mountain life.71 The Sassafras summer was a wet one, and Pettit and Stone slogged through mud on many occasions, often being unable to get to their destination because of the high water in the creeks. On the day of their first Sunday school, they were caught on the way home by a storm, and Pettit wrote afterward, “It was a picture . . . to see us climbing great boulders or over fallen trees with thunder and lightning overhead and rain coming down in torrents.” They encountered snakes, a situation that throughly unnerved Mary McCartney. Fleas, however, turned out to be the real nemesis. The travelers complained about them as soon as they arrived. The weak carbolic solution they used had no effect, and when they asked how to get rid of them, the advice they received was to try to keep from swearing. There was no getting rid of the fleas. It became an “all absorbing subject,” and Rae McNab, the fourth settlement worker, became desperate enough to try using the carbolic full strength one night, with the result that she badly burned her chest and neck. Pettit and Stone were not spared serious physical injury, either. Pettit sprained her wrist in a fall on August 8, and ten days later she and Stone had a second and more serious accident. Their mule, John, “whirled around very suddenly and flung us off backward down the bank into the branch.” May Stone “fell flat on a big rock, Katherine right on my chest . . . and we were both badly shaken up and bruised and felt faint for an instant. We were both under John’s feet but he kindly moved out of the way and stood waiting for us.” Their moment of faintness did not last long. They quickly sprang into action when they saw their hairpins and combs floating down the creek, for as Stone wrote, “[W]e remembered that they cannot be pur-

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chased ‘in the country.’” By the time they got home, the two women were so stiff they went right to bed. The accident left both with cracked ribs, a very painful injury. Uncle Jim Stacy, Mary’s brother-in-law, told them he thought they had cracked ribs but said it would be eight days until they could be sure. Although it was two weeks before they felt better, they carried on their work. Stone could not get up the day after the accident because her chest hurt so much, but despite rain that they knew would reduce the numbers at Sunday school, Pettit went off to the Sassafras school anyway. She arrived, found it locked, and when she went to the post office for the key, found it closed as well. No one had come, so she headed for home. With the creek’s water rising by the minute, she was afraid she could not get home at all and probably would not have except that Mr. Stacy brought John and carried her across. Three days after the accident, Pettit was so ill that Stone feared she had come down with pneumonia. Still Pettit carried on, going twelve miles up Carr Creek because she had promised these neighbors weeks earlier that she would come. Neither woman was fully recovered when they left for home. It is not possible to read the Sassafras diary without reaching the conclusion that these ladies had a great deal of iron underneath their Victorian gentility.72 The final days spent on their journey back to “civilization” reveal equal parts of adventurousness, patience, and good humor. They arrived at their departure point to find no boat, although it had been hired weeks earlier. When the boys finally located it, the boat turned out to be a very dirty, leaking specimen of transport. Undaunted, they procured rags from a nearby cabin, stanched the leaks (doing plenty of bailing along the way), and created a canopy made of boxes to shield them from the sun. This done, they “set sail.” Stone described the party whimsically: A unique boat load it was, starting one hundred miles down the North fork of the Kentucky River, a blind girl, a lame boy, “the worst boy in all the mountains, who would be in a penitentiary in a few months if you’uns do not take him off and do something with him” (as his father said to us in his presence this morning), all in the charge of two girls with broken ribs and a sprained wrist.73 It took four days to get to Jackson. As the group neared their destination, the timber-filled river made it impossible to travel any farther by water. They unloaded in dim starlight, stepping from floating log to floating log until they reached land, then climbed up a steep bank “with the lame

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The boat that took them to Jackson.

boy, blind girl, and all the luggage through the mud” and walked the last mile to Jackson. Stone finished the tale of their summer by describing the impact of their arrival at the hotel: “Here we had as great a sensation when we saw the newly fitted-up hotel, with the dressed up ladies and gentlemen walking around on brussels carpets, as they must have had when this muddy, wet, forlorn looking crowd from one hundred miles up the river appeared in the hall and asked for rooms.”74 For Stone and Pettit this was not an end but a beginning. Two months earlier, the two had made a decision to return and establish a permanent school and settlement at Hindman. This decision determined the course of the rest of their lives. In July they had visited Hindman to attend the Teachers’ Institute, and as soon as they arrived, “Professor Clarke and some of the lawyers asked if we would not have a public meeting in the interest of a better school at Hindman. They are very anxious for us to establish a good school here.” The women did not commit themselves at the meeting but did so soon after. Why they chose Hindman over other sites cannot be known with certainty, although the offer of money, materials, labor, and

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civic support surely played a part. Hindman was also the county seat and provided a concentrated population of nearly 250 students for their school.75 Pettit and Stone’s decision was a leap of faith, and the last entry of the diary expresses the idealism that lay behind it: We look back on the sad and lonely lives of those with whom and for whom we have lived the past months, and feel that the most important question for us, is how to bring the strong, wealthy and learned Kentuckians into healthful touch with the poorest, most ignorant and humblest mountaineer and at the same time make the one appreciate the vitalizing, strengthening influence of the other—How can we make the people of the Bluegrass feel and see the need of the people in the lowliest cabin on the mountainsides.76 May Stone’s laconic remark, “having little experience and less money, we started a school” is important as a context for understanding the founding of Hindman Settlement School. Idealism certainly played a strong role in their decision, for as she said, they had “little experience and less money.” That they chose to start a school reflected their belief that education was the most practical help they could provide for people whose needs they had seen with their own eyes and experienced firsthand. May Stone and Katherine Pettit founded Hindman Settlement School out of hope and faith, but with their feet planted firmly on the ground.

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Chapter Two

THE WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION SCHOOL, 1902–1915 MANY OF THE challenges facing Katherine Pettit and May Stone were related to the need to establish an educational institution in a region so isolated that it had no substantial roads. Another challenge was to obtain private donations to support the institution. In addition, the founders added an important new curriculum to what was already taught in the public elementary schools in Kentucky. The two most important aspects of this curriculum were industrial education and kindergarten, both previously unknown in the area. The addition of kindergarten resulted from Pettit and Stone’s view that the mountain children lacked what they called “a play life.” This view clearly reflected an urban, middle-class perspective on play, for there is ample evidence that mountain children were quite skilled in using the outdoors as their playground and were also adept at obtaining whatever was needed for their recreation. Lucy Furman, housemother to the little boys in the early years, noted the fierce games of marbles that her charges engaged in, and observed that they fashioned their own marbles. What Stone and Pettit were probably reacting to was the agrarian idea that even young children had responsibilities and work.1 Industrial education, the second innovation introduced at Hindman Settlement School, was well known but not practiced in Knott County schools. Parents strongly desired to add this to their children’s education, and Hindman had already tried to entice an industrial school to the town only the year before Pettit and Stone agreed to found Hindman Settlement School. Instead of a separate institution, however, their approach was to add manual arts, home economics, and farming to the regular academic curriculum. There is some evidence that in the earliest years, the manual arts training—largely woodworking—was open to adults as well as to the school children, making it both a School and Settlement program. Its counterpart, home economics, concentrated on instruction in sewing, cooking, nutrition and diet, and on health education and nursing. These skills were

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not limited to the School, but were quickly taken into the community through extension work. In addition to this expanded curriculum, the Settlement began a boarding program to give young people outside of the Hindman area the same enriched educational opportunities. The boarding program—which continued until 1980—provided one of the most unique aspects of Hindman Settlement School. “Settlement students,” as those who boarded were called, came from a wide variety of backgrounds, and the program served an acute need and had hundreds on the waiting list during the early decades. Some were as young as five and a few were already in their twenties. The work of providing a physical plant for an institution with such ambitious goals meant overcoming a number of severe obstacles. Creating a campus capable of housing its students and programs was no small feat. Pettit and Stone started in 1902 with a schoolhouse, rented cottage, and three and one-half acres of land. When WCTU sponsorship ended thirteen years later, Hindman Settlement School was a complex of ten buildings on nearly seventy acres of land, not including an outlying farm. The difficulty of constructing large buildings in such a remote locality was a singular challenge, and much time and energy was focused there. A considerable portion of the donations the Settlement received in the first decade came in response to appeals for the funding of building projects. In only a dozen years, Hindman Settlement School became the model for educational and settlement work in the region, while Stone and Pettit became well-recognized leaders of mountain reform. During the interval between the first camp in 1899 and the founding of the Settlement in 1902, Stone and Pettit worked to acquire the skills needed to make them effective settlement workers. Pettit spent several months in residence at Kentucky’s only settlement, Neighborhood House, in Louisville, where May Stone taught sewing. Pettit also studied nutrition at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, and several early workers at Hindman came from there. Meanwhile, together or separately, the two visited a number of other institutions to see what they might be able to learn from them. These included Berea College, Hampton Institute, and the Elizabeth Russell Settlement at Tuskeegee, Alabama. After making the decision to establish a settlement at Hindman, Pettit and Stone combined a fund-raising tour with visits to some of the best known and most successful settlements in the nation, including Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement in New York, known for its public health work, and Hull House in Chicago. They spent several days with Jane Addams observing everything at Hull House and asking her advice on

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programs. Stone and Pettit’s work in the mountains had already benefited from major publicity in an article about the summer camps written by Madeline McDowell Breckinridge for the Lexington Herald in April of 1900. Additional articles about the planned institution appeared in academic journals at about the same time Pettit and Stone began their fundraising tour, which raised at least $2,600 of their $3,000 goal. In June of 1902, the WCTU purchased Hindman’s Buckner Academy from Professor George Clarke, along with one and one-half acres. The townspeople provided an additional two acres and various other things that were needed for them to open. The WCTU Settlement School (also called for a time “The Log Cabin School” on its stationery) opened its doors on August 5, 1902. The “campus” consisted of the schoolhouse and a rented six-room cottage. Pettit and Stone, along with principal Jean Gordon and three other teachers, moved into the cottage with one male and three female boarding students. Other workers could not be accommodated in these cramped quarters and lived with nearby families. Besides the common school curriculum, cooking, sewing, housekeeping, health care, and music were introduced immediately. The publicly funded school year lasted six months, and soon the Settlement also offered three months of subscription school for its intermediate and advanced departments. The charge was $1.50 per month for intermediate and $2.50 for advanced pupils. A Fireside Industry Department, to sell crafts made by local people, was established.2 When the WCTU School opened, Knott County was not yet twenty years old. It had been carved from four other counties in 1884 and named for the sitting governor, J. Proctor Knott. Hindman, its county seat, bore the name of Kentucky’s lieutenant governor, James Hindman. The area, a remote part of the Cumberland Plateau, lies near the state’s border with Virginia. An area of hills, hollows, and narrow creek beds, it was covered by dense forest in 1902. Its rocky and infertile soil was not a very hospitable place for the subsistence farms that dotted the hills on which most county residents supported themselves. Aside from timber, Knott also had abundant coal deposits, although these were mined later than in surrounding counties due to a lack of roads and the late arrival of the railroad.3 Settlement in the area began shortly after the Revolutionary War and was led by veterans of the conflict. According to the census report of 1900, the area had grown slowly. The Civil War had shaped the area significantly since most residents of what became Knott County had been Confederate sympathizers, although the area was under Union control for most of the

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war. Political animosities generated by this circumstance lingered a long time and were a partial cause of the famous feuds of the region.4 By 1900, the county had a population of 8,704, but Hindman, the county seat, had only a few hundred inhabitants. It undoubtedly housed most of the lawyers, the physicians, and the dentist, as well as local and county officials. It had two churches, two hotels, and four stores of various types. In the years just prior to the turn of the century, the county seat was the site of much violence. The creation of the new county increased tensions between rival groups who coveted the new elective offices. George Clarke, who built the schoolhouse that Pettit and Stone later purchased, arrived in Hindman in 1887 and described it as an armed camp. After a pitched battle in town, he and some other citizens went to Frankfort to ask Governor Buckner to provide them with arms to restore law and order. Although Clarke’s first schoolhouse was burned down during this violence, in the late 1890s the situation generally improved. In appreciation for the governor’s aid, Clarke named his rebuilt school Buckner Academy.5 Public school records for the county are sketchy before 1903, but two reports shed light on education in the county prior to Hindman Settlement School. An 1888 report to the Fiscal Court of Knott County by the Superintendent of Public Instruction indicated that there were forty-three schools in the county as well as some “colored schools.” The total payment for teachers’ salaries in all district schools was $3,756 for the year. The report shows that Clarke received $148 for the year of public instruction at the “District One” school.6 Clarke received additional income from his subscription courses, but these figures make clear that public school funding was low and that teachers hardly flourished on the salaries they received. An 1893 report stated that no school contained basic classroom equipment or materials. Not a single school had suitable desks or blackboards. None had maps or globes, and none reported any repairs during the year. In 1910, Hindman Settlement School received approximately $5 per pupil, less than $1,000 total. There is no definitive explanation as to why George Clarke agreed to sell his school to Pettit and Stone. Possibly he and others recognized that the two women had access to greater resources to expand education. Certainly they had come to the summer camp at Hindman in 1900 loaded down with books, games, and a wide variety of educational materials. Moreover, the town leaders were anxious to have industrial education taught. Pettit’s and Stone’s enthusiasm for this educational reform, along with the kinds of activities that formed their summer settlement work, may well have convinced parents that the two women would provide their children

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with a more expansive education than currently offered. The townspeople may also have recognized the likelihood that Stone and Pettit would be able to attract teachers of higher quality than Clarke could hope to hire on the meager salaries paid by the county. In any case, Clarke did not leave Hindman; instead, he opened a new subscription school focused on advanced pupils.7 The Settlement’s first eight years are characterized by successes that strained the resources available to Pettit and Stone. Rapid expansion in both the school and community activities forced the founders to spend considerable time raising money away from the Settlement. In three short years it grew from a single building and a rented house to a campus of five buildings—one of them a twenty-eight-room Settlement House—and a powerhouse that supplied electricity to the town as well as to the Settlement. From its beginning with four teachers and four boarding students, by 1910 the Settlement had grown to more than seventy boarding students and a faculty and staff of twelve, not including additional volunteers who came and went throughout the year. Major community work had begun in health education, and a significant number of clubs and civic groups had been formed in the community. The earliest information about life at the Settlement in its first years can be found in letters written during the fall of the opening year by primary teacher May Elkin and by principal Jean Gordon to Katherine Pettit, who was away fund-raising. In addition, there is the first report of the Settlement’s work that appeared in the WCTU’s monthly newspaper, The Kentucky White Ribbon, in January 1903. Elkin wrote in early October that they were getting set up but that texts were in short supply and teachers were passing around materials to make do. Among the mundane issues of settling in, she wrote of difficulty deciding how to place a stove in one of the rooms so that it would not be a fire hazard. She also told Pettit about the annual election for school trustees for District One (Hindman) that had taken place the week before. There had been opposing candidates, and it appears that the Settlement School was an issue in the election. James Perkins, the father of the Settlement’s most illustrious graduate, Carl Perkins, won. Gordon wrote to Pettit the following month with a different “stove” problem. She believed that the district trustees had promised the Settlement an additional stove for one of the classrooms. One of the trustees— John Baker, a good friend and former superintendent of schools in the county—was willing to personally contribute five dollars for the stove, but neither he nor Perkins would agree to levy a tax on the citizens to buy one.8 In her letters, Jean Gordon gave a very positive description of the first

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months of Settlement life and work, noting how the boys came to the cottage almost every evening instead of hanging out on the streets of town. Among the things they liked to do was play Ping-Pong, although she told Pettit that they could no longer play, for lack of balls. On Friday and Saturday nights as many as twenty-five girls and boys came in for a social evening and had to be forced to leave at the curfew time of 10:00 P.M. Gordon related, in considerable detail, the School’s celebration of Arbor Day, complete with students singing songs, giving recitations, and planting trees on the campus. This was the first of many school/community events that Hindman Settlement School held over the years, and it was attended by many of the town’s leading citizens. A town chapter of the WCTU was also off to a good start, she said, with forty members.9 Elkin’s second letter to Pettit covered some of the same ground as Gordon’s. In addition, she asked Pettit to send maps, a globe, and history books and requested that Pettit be on the lookout for someone who would donate apparatus to conduct experiments in natural science. As a sign of how quickly the new institution adapted to the needs of local students, Elkin mentioned that she was starting a class in Latin for the advanced students who were hoping to prepare for college.10 In January, a report by Ruth Batchelor, the intermediate teacher from Brown University, appeared in the WCTU’s Kentucky White Ribbon. It highlighted how the children enjoyed reading and how they considered it a reward to be allowed to stay after school to read. The younger children were already taking responsibility for keeping their classroom neat, she wrote, and the older students were excited about more advanced work and going to college. The report said they had sent away for catalogues. Gordon’s letter had also mentioned this, saying that a catalogue from Phillips Academy had not yet arrived but that she would let Josiah know it was on its way. “Josiah” was undoubtedly Josiah Combs, Hindman’s first graduate and one of its most notable alumni. He not only went on to college but earned a doctorate at the Sorbonne for the first scholarly study of the folklore of the southern mountains. Batchelor also boasted that attendance had been almost perfect until bad weather and chicken pox struck. She concluded by noting that a donation of workbenches had arrived and now more of the boys could begin training. The practical uses for the skills taught by manual training made the classes very popular, and for several years, even after the manual training cabin was built in 1904 (the first structure to be built on the campus), there was a waiting list to get into the program. This suggests that the school was off to a good start, with plenty of community support, although there were settling-in problems. Teachers

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Manual training class.

found many students a comfort because of their eagerness to learn, although others provided the proverbial pain in the flesh because of their invincible indifference. The teachers learned that it was not easy to turn mountain boys into good workers, that is, students who could be counted on to get up every day at three or four in the morning to light the fires. During this initial period, while Gordon found it necessary to negotiate regularly with the school trustees over comparatively inconsequential matters, at least two of the three, Perkins and Baker, were very supportive of the Settlement’s work.11 The most important source of information for the early years are the annual newsletters to supporters. They were carefully written and very effective appeals that provided a combination of information about activities, wonderful vignettes of School life, and the plans and needs for the future. For many years, this newsletter was the main fund-raising technique, composed in the form of a master letter and then copied many times on the typewriter. This way, each copy retained the intimacy of a personal letter and solicitation. The newsletters always ended with the admonition “do not let any of this get into print.” Karen Tice, who has investigated the

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writings of workers at both Hindman and at Pettit’s later settlement at Pine Mountain, stressed the way that their depictions of mountain people and life were far more sympathetic than the earlier local color literature had been. She felt this was due to both the intimate contact settlement workers had with the people and also to the need to avoid offense. Pettit and Stone had learned in the summer camps that their neighbors did not like to be described as peculiar people, and the founders were careful about the image they projected of the School and the people it served.12 The newsletters described many poor conditions in housing, education, and health, and there was always a temptation to highlight the most emotional stories of need. But the newsletters invariably conveyed the message that mountain people were eager to improve their lives and appreciated any assistance that helped them achieve this. A striking example of the ability of these newsletters to portray a vivid picture of Settlement life can be found in the 1910 issue, written by Lucy Furman: It is pleasant to go up into the library at six o’clock, after supper is over, sit down before the great fire, with its blazing backlog and see what happens. The first person to enter, usually, is Miss Pettit (nothing is permitted to prevent her spending this evening hour with the children). She is followed fast by six little girls, whom we call her “poppets,” Isabel, Servie, Grace, Arminta and Goldie, usually with their “poppy-dolls” in their arms. They gather their little chairs about the fire, and either Miss Pettit reads some pretty story to them, or they set a little table with real dishes, “cap” some corn over the fire, and have a tea-party for themselves and their children, being very polite and kind to you, the chance visitor. Then when the tea-party is over, Miss Pettit suggests that “song ballads” are in order, and they lift their voices in “Barbary Allen,” “Turkish Lady,” “The Brown Girl” or some other old song that has been forgotten by the rest of the world for two or three hundred years. As they sing, the older children drop by in twos and threes, the girls from the dishwashing, the boys from the shop, and all lend their voices to swell the singing. Fitzhugh takes down the banjo and picks an accompaniment, Enoch lines out the words if necessary, the teachers gather in too, and the hour is all too short for everybody, and the bell for study-hour and prayers rings before one knows it.13

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While idealized, the portrait indicates that the School wanted to stress its family-like environment and the happiness of the children. Before the end of the decade, printed pamphlets and other forms of solicitation supplemented fund-raising through the newsletter. By the second year of operation, the number of boarders had doubled and the total number of pupils in the School was well over two hundred. Day students always greatly outnumbered boarders, even during the height of the boarding program in the 1920s, when its capacity was 105 children. In these early years the WCTU provided considerable financial assistance. In 1903 the county paid for two teachers, the WCTU and its supporters for two more. Individual patrons in the northeast supported a nurse, a cooking teacher, and the School’s first manual training teacher and only male staff member. The regular staff was supplemented by volunteers, who often came to help for a few months and then left, which makes it difficult to know the precise number of workers at Hindman at any given time. From the outset, all students who boarded were required to work. Whether any tuition was paid at the beginning except for the subscription fee is unclear. Fees always remained nominal—ten dollars a semester from the 1920s on—and the sum could be worked off. To keep such an institution going demanded a great deal of labor, but the work requirement also stemmed from the School’s educational philosophy of work as a means of both practical and character training. Nevertheless, the Settlement needed cash and quickly instituted a scholarship program to fund its boarding service. Scholarships for boarders were initially set at $50 per year, then raised a couple of years later to $100. In the 1920s the sum reached $150, where it remained until the boarding program ended in 1980. In 1904 the wide variety of scholarship support included a church and a society in Lexington, a school in Cincinnati and another in New York, a readers’ club in Yonkers, three individual patrons from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and the Women’s Club of Concord, Massachusetts.14 The fact that seven of the nine scholarships were provided by donors from outside of Kentucky reflected the Settlement’s heavy reliance on out-of-state financial support as well as assistance for teachers and volunteers. One of the School’s primary objectives was “to educate the children back to their homes instead of away from them.” One annual newsletter noted that many thought the solution to the “mountain problem” was to move the mountaineers to a place where there was more opportunity. Stone and Pettit said they did not know whether or not this was the right answer. But, they said, whether their students stayed or went, they would need skills to deal with modern society. Thus, Hindman Settlement School’s

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curriculum, with its extra training in gardening, sewing, cooking, basketry, and carpentry, was intended to provide this. Even the youngest children received practical experience in housekeeping and learned how to cultivate vegetables and flowers and grow the peanuts and popcorn used for their birthday parties. After 1910, when the Settlement became the county’s high school, advanced students became a more important component of the student population. Even then, only about 25 percent of the students were in high school, and many of them did not complete all four years. A remarkably large percentage of graduates went on for higher education, but they were the end result of a winnowing process that began in the lower grades.15 The months of public education ended in February, and three months of additional schooling followed, ending in mid-May. School resumed again in the middle of August. During the summer recess, the Settlement offered a variety of community programs for both students and adults and used volunteers who, as at Hull House, paid for their own board.16 Community settlement work had begun in earnest by this time. Country people came in every day for the pictures, books, and magazines that were always available at the Settlement library. By 1904 the townsfolk held two social gatherings a week on the campus, one of them a current events club on Friday evenings. The teachers kept busy with additional activities such as Sunday school at the Methodist and Baptist churches in town. The Settlement held a WCTU meeting every Sunday afternoon and a vesper service in the evening. The WCTU influence was deemed such a success that the newsletter featured a story on the great improvement among the boys regarding their frequent drunkenness.17 While this 1904 newsletter documented many improvements in less than two years, it stated that the School’s operations would run more smoothly if they had better living conditions for the teachers, workers, and boarding students. It described their current quarters as very uncomfortable, since the house was cold and too small for eighteen people. The principal, Antoinette Bigelow, lived across Troublesome Creek and had to cross it every evening by means of an unsteady foot log only ten feet above the stream. One windy night her lantern blew out, and she was forced to lie down on her face and hug the log for some time before it was safe to cross to the other side. The founders appealed for funds to build a larger facility and told supporters that they had already laid a stone foundation. This first surviving newsletter illustrated the effective fund-raising techniques employed. Not only did it convey information about the work, but through the personal stories of students and their families, it height-

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ened the emotional appeal of the work at Hindman. In 1904, for example, there was the story of a man who had sold his farm and moved his family to Hindman in 1902 so that his two daughters could get the education he had never had. The younger one, eleven years old, tried to teach her mother and father at night what she had learned during the day at school. During the summer after that first school year, the family was struck by typhoid fever. Despite the best nursing efforts of Settlement workers, the mother died and the family had to be divided. The story concluded by saying that even though living conditions in the rented house were terribly crowded, with fourteen boarders between the ages of four and nineteen, Pettit and Stone had taken the eleven-year-old into the Settlement family. The story underlined the need for better accommodations. It also underlined a common reason why children sometimes became Settlement students. With the importance it placed on health work, the Settlement acquired a full-time nurse in the fall of 1904. Its best known nurse, Harriet Butler, arrived a year later and remained for the next decade. She instituted a wide-ranging program that included both health education and home nursing. She also supervised the building of a small hospital and began annual health exams for all students. Butler was struck by the extent of skin disease and “sore eyes” present among the mountain population, while treating those in the community as well as at the School. Health work was so extensive that another nurse was soon employed to do rural health nursing, and health education was extended far beyond the campus to the most remote county farms.18 The Settlement also introduced the community to celebrating Christmas on December 25, with festivities including a tree, gifts, and Santa Claus. During the summer camps, Pettit and Stone had learned that mountaineers celebrated two Christmases. December 25, or “New Christmas,” was generally a time for shooting and drunken revels. In contrast, January 6 was celebrated in a more reverent manner and known as “Old Christmas.” While the type of Christmas celebrations known to Pettit and Stone occurred already in some homes in the county, it was the Settlement School that spread these new practices widely through the region. Even before the Settlement opened, Pettit and Stone had encouraged one attempt at celebrating “New Christmas” in the mountains. When they were at Mary Stacy’s home near Sassafras, they told Mary and the Stacys’ handyman, Jasper Mullins, about their Christmas festivities and convinced them to have a tree the following December. They promised to send gifts for all of the children who were in the Sunday schools they had taught. However, the plan did not turn out quite the way everyone expected.

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Mary wrote in early January 1902 to tell Stone and Pettit what had happened. The box of gifts arrived, and she and Jasper put the tree up in the garden as the only place large enough to accommodate all the people expected for the gift giving. On Christmas Day, practically everyone for miles around came, “big, little, old and young.” Mary’s husband, Simon, estimated that there were “clost to three hundred people.” However, there were only enough presents for the children who had attended the Sunday schools. As Mary began to distribute the gifts, the ones for children who were not present were put to one side. She went on to tell what happened next: “You now ther was a great many children hear that ther was nothing for that never went to the Sunday school. All the telling I could do I could not convince them that ther was nothing for none but the ones that attended Sunday school and not all of them. It seamed that they thought I was to blame.” Some of the adults took things into their own hands. “Lo, some boddy opened the gate . . . and they was all around the pile of things we had layed aside . . . just grabbing, wading, stiring and hunting for ther things,” Mary wrote. She and Jasper rushed to save what they could and took the gifts into the house. But, she went on, “they made light of me and called me big boss.” She finished her letter to Pettit by saying that people had promised to help pay Jasper for hauling the box from Jackson, but after all the presents were handed out they would not pay one cent. It is not surprising that Mary stated adamantly, “I never will try to boss another Christmas tree.”19 There are numerous accounts of the Settlement’s Christmas celebrations in newsletters. Before the decade was out, it had become an enormous undertaking. Many groups supported the Christmas activities by sending money and, literally, gifts by the barrel. The town of Hindman eagerly adopted the festivities, and in 1910, five hundred members of the community came to the town’s Christmas celebration at the Settlement. There was a giant tree and all the buildings were decorated. Townsfolk brought their gifts and put them under the tree, and it took two hours for Santa Claus to distribute them. A short Christmas program—complete with a processional, the Christmas story, and carols—preceded the gift distribution. In the processional, students carried great pine boughs tied with red streamers and were followed by three boys, “dressed up in the most gorgeous costumes the attic afforded, gold paper crowns, velvet and silk mantles (made from curtains and couch covers),” who arrived to the singing of the carol “We Three Kings.” The Christmas story from the book of Luke was recited in front of a crèche, where students portrayed Mary and Joseph, the baby Jesus, the angels, and shepherds. The community Christ-

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mas celebration illuminates the central role that the School had come to play in the civic life of the town. Settlement students had their own special Christmas. They hung stockings in the big living room on Christmas Eve, and the scene was described in detail in one newsletter: “We had all hung our stocking on Christmas Eve—all of us, from Miss Stone and Miss Pettit to little Goldie, who still believed in Santa Claus in spite of the arrival of various strange boxes and barrels . . . hauled in from Jackson. Eighty-four stockings were hung, in a long, thin, dangly row around the fireplace, up into the corner and way across the other side of the room.” After the children went to bed, the teachers filled the stockings with a doll and a book for everyone. The children had written to Santa much earlier, and other gifts were tailored to each child’s desire. There were knives, puzzles, handkerchiefs, candy, and fruit—all from the boxes and barrels sent by friends. The first regulation basketball arrived in Hindman in one of these early barrels. As dawn broke on Christmas morning, the boys caroled from house to house, led by Lucy Furman. Breakfast cleanup and chores were done with an unusual alacrity. After all the children were gathered before the living room doors, the doors were flung open and the children streamed in to receive their stockings and gifts. A sumptuous Christmas dinner came next, with the dining room full of pine boughs and red streamers and each table decorated for the holiday. After dinner, the children who lived farthest away were allowed to go home for two weeks. Most of them had not been home during the semester. The remaining children took turns going home; half visited their families for a week and then returned to the campus so that the fires could be kept lit and the animals looked after. The other half then visited their families. After the students departed, preparations began for the delivery of Christmas trees to outlying districts. Groups of teachers and students went out on the following day. In its first year, the Settlement provided four “country” Christmas trees. At the height of the program in the 1920s, the Settlement provided two dozen trees to rural areas and gifts for more than two thousand children. These celebrations were normally held at district schools. Antoinette Bigelow, a Wellesley graduate and the new principal in 1904, described her experience of taking Christmas to the schoolhouse at Holly Bush that year. She and several older students stuffed candy, nuts, oranges, and gifts in sacks across their saddles. The local people had put up a tree in the schoolhouse and had been waiting for several hours when Bigelow and the students arrived. The townsfolk remained outside while the visitors quickly decorated the tree. Next came a reading of the Christmas story and carols, and the gifts were distributed. Bigelow described how

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Christmas stockings on the Log House fireplace with “poppet” dolls.

mature the young girls looked in long dresses, with hair piled up on top of their heads. The traditional present for girls all through these years, whatever their age, was a doll, a present so universally popular that Bigelow believed the big boys would have liked to receive them also. The oranges they brought were somewhat more problematic until it was explained that they had to be peeled before being eaten.20 Over the years, student clubs also took responsibility for providing many of the rural Christmas celebrations. Annie Southworth was the School’s cooking teacher and sponsor of the Bible Club in 1912 when she wrote to her uncle about how her group had strung beads to form chains for two trees and made tops, scrapbooks, and dolls. One thing is certain about these Christmas celebrations: the Settlement made Christmas a time

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of enchantment for young and old. Ethel de Long, who later became Hindman Settlement School’s principal and then cofounder of Pine Mountain, recollected her visit to the Settlement at Christmastime in 1906. After a cold and difficult two-day journey on horseback from the railroad, her party arrived and she wrote, “[T]he pictures can never make you see the Settlement House as I saw it that night at the end of the street, every window lighted and hung with a Christmas wreath. Could anything so solid and comfortable and lovely really be so far away in the hills?”21 Reports of the third year of operations indicated there were now so many younger children at the School that the kindergarten and the primary grades were split and had separate teachers. Forty kindergartners were described as sitting on tiny, homemade, split-bottomed chairs before a great open fireplace, learning songs and play-games like “The Farmer in the Dell.” The Fireside Industries Department, which opened in 1902, was already a success. More than $1,600 worth of local crafts had been sold through the Settlement, providing local families with their only cash. The annual newsletter wrote of the many uses to which Fireside Industries earnings had been put. Among other things, the craftswomen bought eyeglasses, false teeth, a cow, a cooking stove, and shoes for children. The crafts were featured in newsletters, and the department was definitely viewed as a service and as a means to preserve skills that were quickly dying out in the region. In time, pamphlets were printed that offered a wide variety of baskets, linsey and linen by the yard, and ten different quilt patterns, as well as blankets, chairs, and rugs. The Settlement filled many individual orders in addition to what was offered in the brochures. Settlement workers sometimes scoured the county to find someone who could fill a particular order, and the department rarely made a profit. One of the crafters, basketmaker Cordelia Hughes Ritchie, known as “Aunt Cord,” was pictured in several of the Fireside Industries brochures in later years as well as in the newsletters. She was also a subject of letters written home by Elizabeth Watts and Edith Stout, a secretary at the Settlement. However, it was less Aunt Cord’s skill at basketry than her matrimonial adventures that made her a topic of the letters. Her nine husbands included Uncle Solomon Everidge, who was the Settlement’s “founding father.”22 By 1905 appeals for funds for a larger facility had been answered, and at the end of the school year, an enormous construction project began on a twenty-eight-room “Loghouse.” Frances Beauchamp, president of the WCTU, persuaded an engineer friend of hers, Albert Smith, to build it. He used eleven students and some local workmen for the largest undertak-

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ing ever seen in the county, requiring 12,000 feet of flooring. The dressed lumber was donated by a company in the Bluegrass, but the School had to transport it across the mountains. Hauling lumber, doors, windows, cement, and lime proved equally difficult. Each wagon load that arrived was estimated at 1,400 pounds, and it took a wagon five days to travel from the railhead at Jackson to Hindman. Procuring the locally manufactured materials was not easy either. The building required 36,000 handmade shingles and more than 500 logs. John Baker, a district trustee, provided much of the timber, but it took days of “walking up and down ravines and across the mountains to select and measure the trees, have them cut down and hauled out and cut into the right lengths.” When completed in September, the project had provided a considerable boost to the local economy for the materials and wages of the local workers. Several of the boys paid their tuition for the following year with their work, while others used their earnings to attend Berea.23 Sadly, the new building did not survive long. On November 10—less than two months after its completion—it burned to the ground at three o’clock in the morning. As described in the newsletter the following January, a teacher awoke to find herself almost suffocated from smoke. She ran to an open window and saw the room below on fire and immediately proceeded door-to-door to awaken the others. In less than twenty minutes the building and its contents were gone. The survivors stood there on the frozen ground in bare feet, grateful that the thirty-four residents were safe. When day broke, they walked down to the store to get underwear, shoes, and stockings. The men of the town raised one hundred dollars to purchase clothing for them, and their wives started sewing. By noon almost everyone had a dress. Not only were all of the personal possessions of the teachers gone but the library of over two thousand books had been destroyed as well.24 There has always been speculation that the fire was the result of arson, and suspicion centered on a “moonshiner” whose business had been hurt as the boys at the Settlement and others fell under the influence of the campaign against alcohol. The preceding year he had paid two boys to try to drive the women out by breaking windows at the School. Instead, the teachers drove the troublemakers away, and the townspeople were so incensed at the vandalism that they wanted the boys sent to the state penitentiary. The Settlement chose not to press charges, and the culprits were released and immediately came to apologize. Whether it was arson or something else, the cause of the fire was never determined. Fire would visit the campus again in 1906, when the schoolhouse burned, and in 1910, when all but one building on the campus was destroyed.

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Undaunted by the setback, Pettit and Stone rented a six-room house across the creek and, with the original cottage that had not been damaged, carried on. Twelve of the fourteen boarding students were allowed to return, but the conditions under which they completed the year were awful. Teachers and workers taught classes in a local church and other town facilities. The woodworking program and the kindergarten had to be abandoned. Many teachers became ill from exposure and from the uncomfortable, crowded living conditions. Getting to their classrooms in the winter often meant walking along the edge of the creek and then clinging to the fence in order to reach town. Sometimes it required them to cross the mountain to reach the unheated church.25 Given the strong emotions that arose from the ordeal of the fire, it is little wonder that Stone and Pettit ended their January 1906 letter by telling supporters: “It is at supreme moments in the life of an individual or of a community that there comes an uplift, a stride forward . . . so that henceforth life is lived upon a little higher plane. Such a moment, came to Hindman, I think, at the time of the fire. . . . Then every man worked shoulder to shoulder for a common cause, then everybody gave of his best. Because of this moment . . . I believe no one of us can be quite the person he was before.”26 A newcomer had arrived on the campus only days before the 1905 fire. Ann Cobb was drawn to Hindman by a plea from her friend Antoinette Bigelow for someone to come and help teach the advanced subjects. Cobb said that she had decided to remain at Hindman after she saw the courage of Stone and Pettit and the other workers in the face of the Settlement’s complete destruction. She taught for more than thirty years and lived most of the rest of her life at the Settlement. In her poems and short stories, Cobb became an accomplished interpreter of life at the School and in the mountains. The following summer in 1906, Katherine Pettit’s sister, Minnie, came to help with the rebuilding. She supervised the timber cutting for four new structures, including another twenty-eight-room main building. Albert Smith returned to supervise construction, and his brother and a Chicago builder came to assist. Once again the Settlement boys helped, along with several former students who had received advanced manual arts training at Berea College. Over fifty men from the neighborhood worked on the project, and to everyone’s amazement, the four buildings were completed within ten weeks. The feat was accomplished only after days that began at three in the morning and often did not end until nine at night. In addition to the main facility, the campus now had a four-room schoolhouse with an as-

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sembly room and two large halls, a combined laundry and loom building, a new workshop, and a powerhouse. The powerhouse provided electricity for both the town and the campus as well as steam heat for the campus buildings. A water tank with a capacity of eight thousand gallons was erected in hopes of averting another disaster. When Smith left for his final year at Union Seminary in Chicago, he had already agreed to return to become principal of the Settlement School the following year, and he remained in that position for three years. Shortly after the buildings were up, the Settlement boys began making all of the furnishings, including chests of drawers, washstands, tables, desks, and bookshelves. Only the iron bedsteads came from the outside. One event during the summer of rebuilding had long-term consequences for Minnie Pettit. After attending a Fourth of July party ten miles from the Settlement, Minnie’s horse threw her violently and she broke her leg in four places. Pettit and Stone wrote that getting her off the mountain and back to Hindman was one of the most difficult tasks they had ever attempted. It took a surgeon four days to reach Hindman, and upon examining the leg, he insisted that Minnie be moved immediately to a hospital in Lexington. This presented an even greater transportation challenge. Albert Smith devised a means by which she could be carried by wagon out to the railhead. A frame was made for the wagon so that it could hold a stretcher. Four boys went along, whose job was to hold one end of the cot in order to let it swing with the motion of the wagon. They changed off every hour. The improvised ambulance took two days to get to the railway in Jackson. Minnie’s leg healed completely, and she and the surgeon who came to attend her, Dr. Walter Bullock, fell in love and were married the following year.27 A second prominent member of the early Settlement family, Lucy Furman, arrived in 1907. Furman’s popular novels about the Settlement spread the Hindman Settlement School story widely across the United States, greatly increasing interest in the School and bringing substantial new support. Furman had been a friend of Katherine Pettit from their days together at Sayre Institute in Lexington. The mountains appealed to Furman as a strange and romantic environment, but originally she came for her health and intended only a short stay. Once at Hindman, however, she found that she could not leave. She began teaching music and offered to help with the outdoor work. Furman especially enjoyed working with the little boys at the Settlement and became their housemother, occupying the old house that had initially been the first home of the workers. How these boys changed her life was the subject of her first book about the Settle-

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Lucy Furman and some of her “little boys.”

ment, Mothering on Perilous, published in 1913. Furman’s importance in helping to create a nationwide support network for the Settlement cannot be overestimated. The mailing lists kept in the 1920s (after she had published two more novels about the Settlement) include many names with the notation that they had been brought in as donors through Atlantic Monthly, one of the magazines in which Furman’s books were serialized. Mothering on Perilous also inspired a New York millionaire, Henry Evans, to give to Hindman Settlement School the largest single bequest in its history—the Henry Evans Trust.28 The Settlement began an important educational outreach program the year of Furman’s arrival. It sent out two female students, Mary and Rachel Everidge, who had been trained both as teachers and settlement workers, to teach in what were called “country schools.” The equipment and supplies needed for their work—globes, maps, flags, magazines, and other educational materials—were provided by the Kentucky Colonial Dames and the Benevolent Society of Waltham, Massachusetts. Within a couple of years two more young women were trained and sent out. They represent the first of a long line of teachers from the Settlement who filled the mountain schools in the next decades. Many would go on to college before taking teaching posts, and some came back to teach at the Settlement.29 Five years after its doors opened, Hindman Settlement School was a

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phenomenal success. It had more than three hundred pupils, sixty-three of them boarding students, and its waiting list for the boarding program was larger than the total enrollment of the School. There were twenty advanced pupils, some in college preparatory classes and others in teacher training. The Settlement also had dramatic effects on the community. Older students organized an “improvement club” and raised funds to build a sidewalk from the Settlement property to town. Adults raised funds for a town clock, sidewalks, and better roads, and a bank was organized. A visitor wrote that the town was very proud of the electric lights furnished by the School’s powerhouse and remarked, “[I]t is hard to find a town where more public spirit is shown than Hindman.” Much of this surge of civic pride could be attributed to the presence of the Settlement.30 The 1908 newsletter, however, revealed for the first time that the rapid expansion of programs had begun to outstrip the Settlement’s support. Despite contributions totaling $12,888, bills had gone unpaid.31 Stone and Pettit spent an increasing amount of time away from the Settlement and outside Kentucky in order to raise money. Fund-raising letters grew longer and focused on topics thought to be of the greatest interest to donors. Personal stories of students overcoming obstacles and making notable progress took up more space since they brought the greatest response. As appeals of various sorts increased, the School acquired a full-time secretary, and many of the volunteers helped with this work. They kept records of all donations and wrote personalized thank-you letters, no matter how small the gift. One reason for the financial strain was the inadequate level of public funding for the School. The county paid about $1,000 for the instruction of more than three hundred pupils, but the salaries of the teachers cost $5,000. During the 1908–1909 school year, the Settlement produced its first printed fund-raising pamphlet, which outlined the academic departments and the “settlement work.” There were five School departments: primary, intermediate, high school, normal, and industrial. The industrial program included machine work, woodwork, sewing, cooking, basketry, weaving, gardening, and nursing. Settlement work included programs such as the library, social groups, adult industrial classes, the drama club, the temperance society, music, and the Fireside Industries. The brochure also included a faculty list of ten teachers and workers in addition to Pettit and Stone. The Settlement’s executive board, consisting primarily of WCTU officers, along with Pettit and Stone, was listed together with the advisory board, which included May Stone’s father, Colonel Henry Stone; his good friend Charles Huhlein; and Kelly Day, the Superintendent of Public In-

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struction for Knott County. Printed fund-raising brochures of this kind were sent out annually until the Depression.32 For several years the Settlement leaders had recognized that the School needed a farm to supplement its gardens if it was to expand its program in scientific farming. It took some time to acquire one, however, since recovery from the fires had higher priority. In 1908 a special appeal was made for assistance in purchasing a farm. The following year the Settlement temporarily rented one, which allowed it to begin additional agricultural programs. That same year, 1909, the School received a number of cows donated by a farmer in Versailles, Kentucky, and started a dairy. Meanwhile, Pettit persuaded the University of Kentucky to set up an agricultural experiment station on the campus to test forage plots and to determine which crops were best adapted to the soil. Varieties of corn seed were distributed as part of the earliest program to improve yields. The first county fair was also organized by the Settlement in 1911 as a way to increase interest in new farming information. Prizes were awarded for every kind of produce and crops, poultry and farm animals, handicrafts, jams, jellies, and pies. Over the years the fair became an important community event. The educational work it performed, by simple example, was considerable.33 When the School acquired its own farm in 1910, it was used as a model for all types of experiments in scientific farming for the community. Another event of considerable long-range importance was the arrival of Elizabeth Watts in 1909. Watts came to Hindman as a result of a family contact—a very common way for workers to become involved. Her mother was a friend of Olive Dame Campbell, the wife of the famous mountain reformer John C. Campbell. Through this friendship, the nineteen-yearold Watts, who had just finished her schooling, learned of the opportunity to spend time at Hindman Settlement School and decided to go for the adventure and to see Kentucky. She planned to stay only a year but remained for forty-seven years of active service. After retirement, she continued for another thirty-seven years as a member of the board of directors—eighty-four years of service in all. Watts provided a vivid description of her journey to the Settlement in the summer of 1909, which began at the railroad depot in Allen (then Beaver Creek), thirty-five miles from Hindman. She was met by a Settlement boy named Shade, along with a horse—a mode of transportation she had not utilized before that day. To make things worse, she had to ride sidesaddle in the unsuitable attire of a dark-blue silk dress with her umbrella across her knees. Just as this was Watts’s first experience with a horse, it was Shade’s first experience with a train. He had never been to Allen, and

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Watts marveled at his ability to get her to Hindman. She was accustomed to crossing streams on a bridge, she said, but when they reached the first creek, she plunged into the water after Shade, thinking that she had been “green enough” for one day. As so often happened in the case of first encounters between new teachers and their mountain students, neither was able to understand the other, due to their different accents and terminology, so they spent most of the day repeating everything they said to one another. After an overnight stop and a second long day navigating sheer drops, which always seemed to be on Watts’s side of the mountain, they reached Hindman.34 By then, Hindman Settlement School had become a substantial institution, with a campus of five buildings and the foundation laid for another. Seventy students boarded and the waiting list had ballooned to seven hundred. Since boarding usually represented the only opportunity for an education for children from outlying areas, rejecting potential students was the most difficult part of their work. Pettit and Stone tried to select students who seemed to offer the best prospect of becoming future leaders in their own communities. The actual selection process is not clear, and much was carried out through correspondence that no longer exists. People also arrived regularly with children in tow, hoping that the School would take them. The primary means by which new students were selected was by interviews with prospective students and their parents, but many aspiring students lived in places too remote for this procedure. Often a student who did well paved the way for younger sisters and brothers. Sometimes children already at the Settlement were asked about applicants who lived near them. Sometimes a sudden family crisis led to the admission of a child. It was not a foolproof method, but there can be little doubt that those admitted knew that a very special opportunity had come their way. Few were willing to jeopardize their good luck by failing to follow the Settlement’s strict rules. Another disastrous fire struck the campus in late January 1910. This time the cause was faulty electrical wiring. While Principal Smith, the boys, and neighbors were quick to respond and did everything possible, the water ran out and all but one building was lost. The loss came to $25,000, but insurance covered only $14,000. Both Stone and Pettit were away at the time, and Hindman’s citizens worried that the women might not be willing to rebuild again. The townspeople organized a mass meeting the day after the fire and pledged $2,200 in cash along with 950 days of labor to help rebuild the School.35 The importance of Hindman Settlement School to the community could not have been demonstrated more vividly.

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Stone and Pettit were apparently divided about rebuilding. Katherine Pettit had increasingly come to view the work she wanted to do as impossible in a town setting where a majority of the students came under her influence only a few hours each day. Visitors often commented on the difference between the Settlement and town students, with the former exhibiting better manners and more seriousness of purpose. Pettit also hated the changes that the railroad brought in its wake. As it crept closer to Hindman, she became more and more anxious to leave. Pettit and Stone set a very high price for rebuilding at Hindman, including the purchase of a large amount of land, and gave the community leaders only a few weeks to raise the money. If they succeeded, they told the town’s leaders, the School would stay. If not, Pettit and Stone would move to Pine Mountain. Perhaps Pettit hoped the terms were too high to be met and it would give them a graceful way out. However, Knott County’s citizens raised $6,000 to buy sixty-five additional acres in order to spread out the campus and make it less vulnerable to fire. The final funds were pledged only hours before the deadline. Hilliard Smith, one of Stone and Pettit’s oldest friends, was away serving in the legislature. When he received the news that Hindman Settlement School would be rebuilt, he wrote to them, “I was so pleased that I could not keep my seat in the Senate, but got out and ran around the town.” The reconstruction of the campus began, although Pettit’s heart was not in it.36 Even before the fire brought new problems, the founders had realized that the Settlement had grown too large to operate on year-to-year donations. It needed the stability of an endowment. Fund-raising had just begun for an endowment when the fire struck. When the decision to rebuild at Hindman took place, an agreement was worked out between Stone and Pettit that Pettit would be free to leave after $100,000 had been raised for the endowment of Hindman Settlement School. The endowment campaign did not go well, however, undoubtedly due in part to the heavy expense of rebuilding the campus. At the time of Pettit’s departure at Christmas of 1912, a little more than 40 percent of the goal had been reached. Although the two founders put the best face on the split, some acrimony attended Pettit’s departure. Her decision to leave before the endowment sum was raised was one source of friction. Her decision to depart also tested the loyalties of those working at Hindman. Pettit was, after all, the charismatic founder. The principal of the high school, Ethel de Long, left with Pettit, but an agreement was reached that with the exception of de Long, Pine Mountain would not draw away workers from Hindman. Within a couple of years, however, this arrangement threatened to break down. John C. Campbell wrote to the head of the Russell Sage Foundation about the

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Washing clothes on Saturday.

situation and told him that he had used his influence to keep Pettit’s move to Pine Mountain from being viewed as a rupture between the two mountain leaders.37 Getting through the winter and spring after the January 1910 fire was very difficult for everyone. Furman and her boys moved out of their little house and up to the rented farm a mile away to give their facility to the little girls. Most of the older girls had to be sent home. The small cabin hospital became home to most of the remaining teachers and children. Harriet Butler showed herself undaunted by the disaster and greeted her new companions on their first morning with a washcloth, towel, soap, and toothbrush for each. The hospital beds were high enough that trundle beds could be stored underneath, doubling the sleeping capacity in the building. Food was a serious problem, and they mostly ate what friends and neighbors gave them—potatoes. Indeed, their diet was dreadfully monotonous, consisting of fried potatoes and cornbread at breakfast, boiled potatoes and cornbread for dinner, and stewed potatoes and cornbread for supper. The children weathered this diet better than the teachers. Younger children took classes at the Masonic Lodge and in one of

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Left to right, the new schoolhouse, water tower, and second Log House, 1906.

the churches. The newsletter described one of these classroom scenes, with the children’s legs “dangling over the edges of the pews.” Older students had classes in the manual training shop, the one building that had escaped the fire. A teacher taught at the cottage as well, and as soon as class was dismissed, the space became the Settlement laundry. Somehow they managed and the campus began to be rebuilt.38 When they moved back to their new campus the next fall, not all programs could be reinstated immediately. Kindergarten was a casualty, and it would be two years before the program opened again on a full-time basis. When all of the buildings were completed, the new campus was far different from the old. A large new schoolhouse had been rebuilt on the old grounds of the Settlement. There was a new central dining room, a kitchen, laundry, girls’ dormitory (called Orchard House for the apple trees that soon grew up around it), and a twelve-room “cottage” for the teachers (named Hillside for its location). A smokehouse, large barn, and silo were among the new structures, along with a new two-story manual training building. Meanwhile, work had begun on a Little Girls’ House. A reservoir

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on the mountain and a swing bridge to cross the creek connected the old grounds with the newly acquired land on which most of the buildings now stood.39 The barn and silo were essential for the farm that the Settlement now owned. It provided much-needed produce, meat, and milk for the growing Settlement table and also served as an educational tool for students and local farmers. When purchased in 1910, the farm was little more than wornout hillside. The Settlement turned it into a showplace of scientific farming, with one of its most important lessons being the value of intensive farming. At that time mountain farmers did not plant more than one crop on a field in a season. By planting cow peas, soybeans, rye, and clover on its new property, the Settlement restored the farm’s infertile soil and demonstrated the usefulness of cover crops. The state agricultural experiment station provided seed, and the Settlement conducted various tests to find which produced the biggest yields or was most resistant to drought and pests. Students planted hundreds of fruit trees and berry bushes along with new gardens on the enlarged campus. Much of the work in the gardens was the responsibility of the younger children, and the lessons they learned meant that even the youngest child knew how to calculate the proper depth and distance for each kind of seed. The Settlement introduced the systematic use of fertilizer to improve the soil and also taught local farmers how to turn fodder into silage to feed animals over the winter. The 1912 newsletter contained a wonderful image of foddering at the Settlement, describing the boys bringing fodder down from the hills looking like “a corn shock moving rapidly down a steep slope” on legs. The Settlement’s farm and gardens brought on a battle with the town hogs, which by custom were allowed to forage anywhere. The Settlement’s wonderful gardens were a tempting food source. Despite its location on a steep hillside, the farm had to be fenced as an essential precaution, because as soon as the bottomland was fenced, the hogs climbed the ridge and swooped in triumphantly from above. In 1912 Lucy Furman boasted, “Settlement ingenuity, and plenty of wire, had finally matched our foes.” The only way the hogs could now enter was through the gate with the children. She admitted that a hog named “Judge” (for the local magistrate who owned him), who had been their chief nemesis earlier, was still smart enough to get in with students seeking “larnin’.”40 The farm made it possible to extend what was taught in cooking classes. Menus made optimal use of the cycle of farm produce. The older girls were taught how to prepare foods nutritiously and, equally important, how to estimate the cost of the meals they prepared. The classes tried out their

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Boys preparing silage for winter under supervision of manual training teacher Parke Fisher, 1914.

skills on a number of occasions, including teachers’ luncheons. The girls formed a cooking club and raised money to buy supplies by making candy and jellies and selling them in town. They later established a canning club, which became an important part of the cooking instruction. Teaching farm wives how to can and properly store summer produce to improve local diets in the winter was a central element of the Settlement’s extension work. In 1911 the Settlement graduated its first high school class since becoming the county’s designated high school. There were five members, including one of Hindman’s most distinguished graduates, Lula Hale, the class valedictorian. Hale went on to college, taught for several years at the Settlement, and then became a prominent mountain settlement worker, founding “Home Place” not far from Hazard, Kentucky. The commencement program of 1911 indicates that the ceremony was a mix of student orations, music, a class song, and a guest speaker. Every one of the five members of the 1911 class attended college. After ten years of effort, the Settlement could boast not only of these graduates, but of seven other former

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students in advanced training, another who worked for the state experimental station, and two more who taught in missionary schools.41 It was in 1911 that the Settlement became involved in one of its most lasting contributions to the health of mountain people. Nursing and general health education had always been major elements of the Settlement’s work. The magnitude of eye disease Stone and Pettit had seen was appalling, and from the beginning, they sent the most severe cases to doctors in Lexington and Louisville who treated them free of charge. This practice continued after the Settlement was established, and these efforts came to the attention of another reformer, Linda Neville, who met one of the patients. She became interested in the problem of widespread eye disease in the mountains and paid a visit to the Settlement in 1908. Neville would later establish the Mountain Fund for Needy Eye Sufferers and found the Kentucky Society for the Prevention of Blindness. By 1911 Dr. Joseph Stucky, one of the doctors who had treated these mountain patients, was also aware that several eye diseases were found only in patients from the mountains. Partly because of Neville’s urging and at the invitation of the Settlement, he decided to hold a clinic at Hindman in the fall of 1911. The disease he came to treat—variously called “sore eyes,” “granulated eyes,” or “cat tracks” by the mountaineers—was trachoma. It started with inflamed eyelids but progressed to a puslike discharge that caused the lids to stick together. Although it was easy to treat in its early stages, lack of treatment led to blindness. Stucky wrote an account of his visit to Hindman, stating he could not believe the number of patients waiting at the small cabin hospital. The Settlement children were examined, and although the primary purpose of the clinic was eye work, all were given a general examination. About threequarters of them were found to have bad tonsils or enlarged adenoids. There were also cases of trachoma. However, because nurse Harriet Butler had worked with the children over the years, their health was considerably better than the general population. Stucky noted, “[T]he worst were the country people who flocked from miles to be treated” and “[T]he pitiable eye conditions of many living in the valley, beggers description.” The effects of trachoma were everywhere. Women came in wearing sunbonnets with black veils over them. Men sat with handkerchiefs over their eyes and hats pulled down, while babies buried their faces in their mothers’ shoulders. At the end of Stucky’s first day, almost fifty people had not yet been seen. He devoted the second morning to twenty-seven operations on students (tonsils and adenoids mostly) and would have performed more if he had not run out of anesthesia. He treated more adult patients in the after-

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Dr. James Stucky and his nurses at the trachoma clinic.

noon. Stucky and his nurse planned to leave early on the third morning but stayed on until noon to treat more patients. A few were so seriously ill that he took them back to Lexington for operations and recuperation. In all, he examined and treated 96 cases of tonsils and adenoids and 102 with eye disease. Stucky’s report on the clinic praised the Settlement’s health programs.42 Appalled at the widespread prevalence of trachoma, after a second clinic the next spring, Stucky reported his findings at a meeting of the Kentucky Medical Association and appealed to the State Department of Health for action. The state, in turn, sought help from the national government. A third clinic was held in the fall of 1912, and the federal government sent John McMullen, the assistant surgeon general, to aid Stucky at Hindman. They held a clinic and also performed a thorough investigation of trachoma in the county. Their findings indicated that about 20 percent of those examined had the disease in some form. From this they estimated that 8 to 10 percent of the entire county’s population suffered from the disease. They diagnosed trachoma in twenty-one of the Settlement students, and their exams also turned up hookworm in seventeen.43 Elizabeth

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Watts described the sad case of an eight-year-old boy who was brought in to the clinic “bent double and hardly able to stand.” A black cloth had been tied over his entire face to keep out the light, and lifting it brought terrible pain. She described him as white as a ghost and terribly thin. Although most of those who came in were treated and sent away the same day, the boy’s was an advanced case and he remained under treatment for almost a week.44 Hindman Settlement School’s efforts toward treating trachoma were invaluable to the eventual eradication of the eye disease. The federal government established the first trachoma hospital in Hindman in 1913. Others followed and tens of thousands of mountain people were treated and cured all over Appalachia. A large part of the campaign against trachoma stressed health education, particularly pointing out that unsanitary conditions (especially the sharing of a single towel by a family) were the most important cause of the spread of the disease. In 1914 the State of Kentucky passed legislation requiring the county medical societies to hold an annual course of instruction about trachoma. All physicians, midwives, and nurses were required to attend to learn about both the diagnosis and the methods of curing the disease.45 Public health in the county improved substantially through these efforts. The Settlement now supported two nurses, one exclusively for community nursing and health education. It also erected a new twenty-bed hospital, the community’s primary facility for several decades, to facilitate the additional health care work shouldered by the Settlement. All of its students were vaccinated, and the Settlement supported a vaccination program in the rural schools.46 Harriet Butler gave lectures on topics such as the care of invalids and how to deal with contagious disease. Butler and Dr. John Wesley Duke, the School’s physician and county medical officer, gave public health lectures whenever the county court was in session and also at the Teachers’ Institutes. Nothing was left undone in the attempt to assure a more healthy community. Katherine Pettit left the Hindman Settlement School at Christmas 1912 to start the Pine Mountain Settlement. The January 1913 newsletter, written by Pettit, is unusual in that it focused on the broad changes taking place in the region rather than events at the Settlement. Because of the arrival of the railroad and all it brought, she believed that for the next twentyfive years the region would have “emergency” work to do. As the old order changed in the mountains, what was needed was: “An education . . . that shall develop as sterling traits of character as did the old civilization now almost gone. . . . There is a grave danger that the new type of civilization may lack something of the solid values for humanity of the old. . . . Soberly,

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with full realization of our responsibility, the school is trying to build up a form of education that shall mean growth, and not retrogression, as the type of mountain civilization changes with the incoming railroads.”47 Pettit’s model at Pine Mountain replicated what was successful at Hindman in many ways, but her new settlement also differed. Hindman’s programs continued to be strongly shaped by its location in the county seat and by May Stone’s pragmatic approach to sustaining the Settlement’s mission. In contrast, Pettit hoped to introduce what James Greene called “an idealized environment” with “a curriculum [that] would include all facets of the child’s development.” She aimed for one that sustained the solid, middle-class farm families in their traditional lifestyle, and she saw her new endeavor not as a school or an institution but as “a way of life.” Her school was private so that she could select her students. With the exception of one or two who lived close enough to Pine Mountain to be day students, all of the pupils boarded and Pettit could exert maximum influence over their learning environment. But her dream to serve the “better sort” of mountain farm children was short-lived. Ironically, although Pettit tried to protect her institution from the modern influences exerted by the railroad and town life, Pine Mountain was more deeply affected by the new industrialization—especially by the coal industry—than “urban” Hindman ever was. As early as the second year of operation, Pine Mountain took children from the coal camps. Many of the features Pettit disliked in Hindman were present in far worse form in these camps. She had always understood the importance of getting children young enough and keeping them long enough to shape their lives permanently, and when it opened, Pine Mountain had children as young as four and offered all grades. But within a decade, no one under fourteen was admitted, and within two decades the Pine Mountain School had become a two-year, senior high school program. Despite a desire to stress industrial education, especially agricultural education, over academics, Pettit and her partner, Ethel de Long Zande, found they had to offer a fairly standard curriculum since most students did not intend to farm and many wanted to go on to college. Pine Mountain’s curriculum of the mid-twenties was quite similar to what would be found on the other side of the mountain in the Harlan public schools, according to James Greene, who studied the early years of the institution, and Pettit was unable to offer an education free from “fixed and old-fashioned academic notions” as she had hoped. Even so, only 30 percent of Pine Mountain’s high school graduates went on to higher education during the 1920s, while more than 75 percent of Hindman’s graduates continued their education.48

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The 1913 newsletter announcing the change in leadership at the Settlement put the best possible face on the situation. But some nervousness was apparent, for the appeal reminded readers that in order to guarantee “this new school may mean a real growth and not a crippling of the work here, we want to ask every friend of Hindman to be loyal to it.”49 When Stone and her new colleague, Ruth Huntington, an 1894 Smith College graduate and the School’s principal, issued their first newsletter in January 1914, it provided a very optimistic picture of the work that had occurred since Pettit’s departure. The newsletter opened with the admission that when Pettit drove away, “it seemed as if, however fast we run, we could never keep up with the pace she had set.” But, it continued, “as we stop to catch our breath after a year, we take some satisfaction in feeling that we have not only kept up, but made progress in some directions.” Stone and Huntington revealed new and expensive plans for improvements at the Settlement, including a building to house the social activities of the School and community. They told how the campus hummed with student and community groups, especially on weekends. On Friday nights there was a community glee club, a debating club, and Camp Fire Girls. Country dancing and music became a regular feature of Friday and Saturday evenings. They appealed for funds to make this new center a reality and reminded supporters of how important it was to complete the endowment drive. The Settlement had received one large $25,000 gift of stock from Elkhorn Coal Company, but no other sizable donations. Stone continued her extensive touring to raise funds and carried a more substantial share of running the Settlement. Stone and Huntington tried a new fund-raising technique by attaching a return pledge form at the end of the newsletter, which provided space to pledge toward immediate needs and toward the endowment.50 This newsletter had an optimistic outlook, but the Settlement was about to experience a disaster. A typhoid epidemic struck the Settlement in the fall of 1914 and quickly became a combined health and public relations disaster. Its inception occurred during the last week of October, but the first case was not diagnosed until November 6. Before the last case was identified on December 20, fifty-three students and teachers had contracted typhoid and one had died. Despite the emphasis on cleanliness, the sanitary conditions on the campus, particularly sewage disposal and a clean water supply, were little better than in the community at large—in fact, they were worse at this moment. As early as June of 1912 the institution had been warned by the State Board of Health that it must upgrade the sewage system or face the risk of the type of outbreak that arose two years later. May Stone had

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written back on several occasions to say that the needed improvements were not yet possible due to a lack of funds. The cost of rebuilding the campus from scratch was undoubtedly a factor in the delay. The sanitation problem lay with the shallow wells and open-backed outhouses that drained into the creek, an arrangement that allowed excrement to accumulate at times of low flow. When a long dry period was followed by rain, the danger of pollution rose dramatically in the wells from which Settlement water was drawn. And indeed there had been a long dry spell during the summer and early fall. Then, beginning on October 19, it rained for three days. Within one week the epidemic had begun. When it was observed that the epidemic involved only Settlement children and staff, it became evident that the problem was one of the Settlement rather than a general problem. Not a single case of typhoid occurred among the town students or residents. Stone acted quickly once the first case was identified, but being highly contagious, the disease had already spread. Trained nurses were brought in, and thirty-six cases were treated at the hospital and three (all teachers) at Hillside. The only death involved one of the children taken home by his family. Infection struck down a third of the adults living on the campus and nearly half of the boarding students. Four days after the first case was diagnosed, an order to boil all water was given and faithfully followed. Other precautions included soaking bed linens and towels in formaldehyde and washing them separately from other laundry. Ten days after the outbreak, a systematic vaccination program began. The epidemic ended on December 20, after which there were no new cases. While state health authorities looked into the possibility that the source of contamination could have been milk or a recent arrival, both theories were rejected because the epidemic was so evenly spread throughout the population living on campus. The final report from the state sanitation engineer pinpointed the Settlement’s water supply, and not surprisingly, he found the presence of E. coli bacteria in all of the campus wells. While lack of funds had delayed taking steps earlier, as soon as Stone received the recommendations from the state sanitary engineer, construction began on a number of state-recommended sanitary privies and six were constructed around the campus and at the school building.51 Nonetheless, the outbreak was most certainly a disaster. The epidemic dried up donations at the very time when the Settlement was saddled with new and unbudgeted costs. Soon, even ongoing basic expenses could not be met. The Settlement’s income dropped 36 percent from 1914 to 1915. As if this were not enough, at almost the same time as the typhoid outbreak, the Little Girls’ House burned down, bur-

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dening the Settlement with a new five-thousand-dollar expense. Other circumstances probably added to the severe financial crisis that suddenly descended. The large sums donated in the preceding two years to help rebuild the campus may have reduced operating support, and fund-raising had also begun in earnest at Pine Mountain. Elizabeth Watts believed that the launch of World War I in Europe also affected Settlement revenue, as appeals to help the war refugees competed with the Settlement for donations. WCTU support had declined greatly as a percentage of the total budget, and a sudden decline in total revenue quickly made the situation critical, threatening the Settlement’s survival. Two appeals made this clear. The first came in the annual newsletter in 1915 and explained that the salary of the farmer, the manual training teacher, the winter kindergarten teacher, the music teacher, and the little girls’ housemother had not been subscribed that year. One after another these workers and others had been let go. Rather than appeal for new projects, Stone and Huntington entreated their supporters to meet current expenses such as the salaries of the teachers, food, a pure water supply, sanitary toilets, and scholarships. The second appeal is undated, but stated that “for the past few months it has been a struggle for us to meet the necessary expenses of the school.” It went on to say that “unless help comes to us soon, we may be forced to close the school for the year.”52 The financial situation by early 1915 is evident in the account Stone drew up at the time of the Settlement’s incorporation. It shows the substantial decline in income in 1914 and 1915 after years of steady increase, and provides a clear picture of the Settlement’s operating revenues in this era. Yearly Receipts, WCTU School, Hindman, Kentucky53 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908

4,377.53 3,701.69 5,193.95 8,277.10 12,298.60 9,298.60 10,281.54

1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915

18,152.62 38,192.59 21,715.50 20,665.67 46,283.11 29,664.00 19,343.00

The sudden and unexpected financial crisis served as a catalyst for May Stone’s decision to sever affiliation with the WCTU and incorporate the Settlement as an independent institution. The institution’s growth had

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taken it far beyond what the WCTU could support, and there was also a downside to sponsorship by the organization. Prohibition had become a heated political issue in the state’s 1915 Kentucky gubernatorial primary election. The contest was bitter, and Frances Beauchamp, the powerful head of the WCTU, was subjected to mudslinging by the “wets,” as the local option supporters were called. The Settlement’s fund-raising may well have been caught in the fallout from this political fight. When Mrs. John Mayo, the widow of Kentucky’s wealthiest coal baron and an ardent prohibitionist, wrote Beauchamp a letter accusing the WCTU of not doing enough to support the prohibitionist candidate, Beauchamp sent a letter in reply. It can be assumed that Mayo’s letter threatened support for the Settlement School, since Beauchamp wrote back, “[I]f our relationship with the school is going in any way to hinder the support and friendship of yourself or any other philanthropic person, then we will immediately withdraw.”54 Many circumstances brought May Stone to the decision that Hindman Settlement School would have a better chance to survive and flourish if it had a wider base of support. Announcing the change to past donors, Stone said the fact that many believed the WCTU paid most of the costs of the institution discouraged other donations. Among Settlement supporters there was fairly widespread agreement that the tie to the WCTU was no longer a benefit, she said. Stone now opened a new chapter in Hindman Settlement School’s history.

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Chapter Three

“BROADENING OUT” Hindman Settlement School, 1915–1932 EVEN DURING WHAT might be called the “golden age” of Hindman Settlement School—the years between its incorporation and the Depression— Settlement leaders faced serious challenges produced in part by the Settlement’s phenomenal success. It was now a large institution, with significant overhead in buildings, teaching staff, and other costs. Financial uncertainty was a constant worry in the 1920s as Stone sought the funds necessary to maintain such an important institution whose services were delivered to more and more people. By the beginning of the Depression, public agencies had taken up important elements of the Settlement’s activities, especially that of health services and community health education. Changes such as the first roads being built in the county were also affecting the area and the Settlement and brought difficult governance and fiscal decisions for the institution. Despite financial strain throughout much of the 1920s, it was not until 1928 that Hindman Settlement School’s board of directors launched its first organized fund-raising campaign. As part of this effort, a thirtypage pamphlet, titled “The History of the Hindman Settlement School,” was prepared to show the great expansion in the Settlement since it had become an independent institution thirteen years earlier. The process was described as “Broadening Out” and reflected how the Settlement’s leadership viewed the institution’s efforts during those years. Whereas Katherine Pettit was the central figure in the founding of the Settlement and its early growth, May Stone, along with her assistants, Ruth Huntington and Elizabeth Watts, must be credited with the remarkable expansion of the Settlement’s services and influence in the years before the Great Depression. Whether it was growth in acres, physical plant, the boarding program, extension work in rural Knott County, or in community work in Hindman, the goal was a widening of assistance to ever more people— being what Jane Addams had called a good neighbor. The Settlement’s

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Left to right, Ruth Huntington, Elizabeth Watts, and May Stone.

greatest triumph during these years came when its educational excellence brought the high school a grade “A” accreditation from the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges in 1929. The Settlement opened a large, new high school in 1930, which marked the climax of the expansion of the Settlement’s educational program during the “golden era.” Progress did not come without cost. The School went through a difficult period when Ruth Huntington decided to leave in 1920. By far the most important problem faced by the Settlement during these years was the ongoing financial strain of trying to maintain a large institution with an inadequate endowment by donations alone. In the 1920s, the School ended the year in the black only twice—in 1925 and 1928—and the latter year was exceptional due to the fund-raising campaign. Regular deficits produced an accumulated debt that amounted to more than $10,000 in six of these years. With a revenue that typically ranged from a low of about $55,000 to a high of around $70,000 (except for 1928, when it reached $85,000), the debt that the Settlement carried was equal to 15 to 20 percent of its annual income. Bequests kept the School operating, but only in the early 1930s, when the Settlement received a bequest that doubled its endowment, did it finally achieve a measure of stability. However, since the bequest came in the early days of the Depression, when donations all but dried up, it did not protect the Settlement from having to make fundamental changes in its operations in order to stay open and maintain high academic standards.

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The first kindergarten class in its new building, 1915.

In only ten years, Hindman Settlement School went from an institution of about 70 acres to one with 345 acres, 20 buildings, and its own coal mine. The mine provided fuel for the powerhouse, while the new acreage allowed the Settlement to expand its model farming programs and feed its growing family of more than one hundred pupils and several dozen faculty and staff.1 The Settlement nearly completed its physical plant during this era, and one of the projects was a kindergarten building, which opened in 1915. Although kindergarten had been an integral part of the Settlement’s educational work, it had been discontinued after the fire. Armed with a new building and the salary and equipment for a teacher, and with a kindergarten association created to support the work, kindergarten once again became a full eight-month program at the School. In 1916 the Little Girls’ House was rebuilt and accommodated twentytwo girls, and in 1919 the School realized another dream when it established a “Practice House,” or model home, on campus as an expansion of its home economics program. Six sophomore girls learned to manage a house in its entirety by living together with a supervisor for a semester and undertaking everything necessary to keep the home running.2 The largest and most important construction project of the Settle-

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ment’s “golden age” was the new high school. By the late 1920s, a soaring high school enrollment necessitated a larger and improved facility. There were now more than one hundred high school students, a quarter of the total of Hindman Settlement School’s population. Since 1910, when the Settlement took responsibility for operating the first public high school in the county, it had been run in the old manual arts building that had survived the 1910 fire. It consisted of only three rooms and was entirely inadequate. Another reason why a new building was imperative was that Hindman high school had been awarded a grade “A” accreditation by the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges at the opening of the 1929–1930 school year. This was the highest ranking for academic excellence that a high school could receive and allowed Hindman graduates to enter any college in the association without further testing or course work.3 Dr. John Wesley Duke, the Settlement’s physician, had recognized the inadequacy of the high school facilities when he came to campus for a clinic. Yet, while Duke acted as the catalyst, the new school would not have been built if May Stone had not provided the land and raised twice as much as the public funds that were pledged. She found a major donor in Barlett Arkell of New York, who gave $27,000 for the project. His sisterin-law, Suzanne Grigsby, taught at the Settlement from 1914 to 1917 and served as the Settlement’s field secretary in the early 1920s. Arkell gave the money in memory of his wife, Louisiana, and the school was named for her. The student newspaper described its design as “modified Spanish architecture” since it was built around an open court.4 After 1914 Hindman Settlement School also became widely known as one of the primary centers for traditional mountain ballads. In Romancing the Folk, Public Memory and American Roots Music, Benjamin Filene discusses the history of the collection of folk music in Appalachia in the early twentieth century, which centered on the settlement schools of the region. Interest in the ballads began with Francis James Child, a Shakespearean scholar at Harvard University, who began to collect the texts of English and Scottish ballads dating before the introduction of the printing press into England in 1475.5 According to Filene, an awareness of the abundance of song material in the mountains was not widespread until after 1910. Circumstances changed when folk song societies began to be established in a number of states, with Kentucky’s among the first to be organized in 1912. Interest further increased as the mountain settlement schools highlighted the music in newsletters and sang it for visitors. Both May Stone and Katherine Pettit were interested in the music from the

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beginning of their time in the mountains, and Pettit collected the lyrics of a number of ballads during the summer camp at Hindman (their texts appear in “the Camp Industrial” diary).6 Despite local religious opposition to the music because of its tales of illicit love, star-crossed lovers, and the like, children knew the music and gathered for a weekly songfest at the Settlement. It became a tradition on the evening before the school year opened—when all Settlement students had returned—to bring everyone together to listen to the music and sing. Singing was a natural part of life in the mountains.7 Another important turning point in Hindman Settlement School’s role in ballad preservation was Olive Campbell’s visit in 1908. In her diary, she described her response when, on the first night of her visit, a student sang “Barbara Allen” for her. Campbell wrote: “Shall I ever forget it? The blazing fire, the young girl on her low stool before it, the sound of strange strumming of the banjo—different from anything I had heard before— and then the song! I had been used to singing ‘Barbara Allen’ as a child, but how far from that gentle tune was this—so strange, so remote, so thrilling. I was lost almost from the first note.” It began her lifelong interest in collecting mountain ballads and, by 1910, Campbell had already assembled one of the most far-ranging collections available. She would later show these to the world famous ballad collector Cecil J. Sharp, who subsequently visited the School. When Sharp arrived, he was skeptical about finding anything really valuable, until the children sang for him. The first night, he heard complete versions of two ballads that he had searched for over many years. During the seventeen weeks he spent in the Kentucky mountains, Sharp collected more than five hundred songs, with the hope of seeing them reintegrated into the lives of people everywhere as they were for many in the mountains.8 These years also saw an important expansion of Settlement work in agricultural and extension programs. The 1917 newsletter noted that, following the Settlement’s example, crop rotation had become more general in the region. The same newsletter boasted that the Settlement had harvested four crops out of one garden plot in a single year. A reforestation program was started to help ameliorate the ravages of the timber industry, which had brought soil erosion, silting up of creeks and streams, and other problems that seriously affected mountain farming. The reforestation began on campus property when thousands of pine trees were planted by the boys. Planting projects continued into the 1950s, and when a major reconstruction of the campus began under director Raymond McLain, trees planted in the 1920s provided timber for several of the new structures.9

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Tomato canning on the farm as part of extension work.

Perhaps the most ambitious work along these lines was agricultural extension work with the women of the county. The program was made possible when the Southern Industrial Agricultural Association sent a fulltime extension worker to the Settlement in 1916. Instruction in canning and the cultivation of more productive garden plots formed the core program. Clubs for girls were formed for both of these activities and brought an enthusiastic response from young women in the countryside. Anna Van Meter, the extension worker, helped girls measure off garden plots, showed them how to produce greater yields from their crops, and taught sanitary canning. The 1917 newsletter described her efforts: She is up and ready to be off before six o’clock in a mist so thick she can hardly see the creek bed in front of her horse. She has two saddlebags holding her canning outfit, dish cloths, towels, a dress and an apron, and fastened to the front of her saddle two meal “pokes” containing two dozen bright new cans. To reach one home she must cross three mountains and go up or down seven branches or creeks. When she arrives she superintends the picking of the vegetables and gets everything ready for the canning. She works out of doors, in the shade of the house or of a big tree, using, instead of the patent canner, the big

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iron wash kettles found in most of the homes. After all this preliminary work she sometimes cans as many as forty cans a day.10 In a single summer Van Meter rode two thousand miles on horseback, visited 546 homes, and directed the canning of over a thousand jars and tins at farms. Women came to the Settlement and traded chickens or produce for tin cans so that they could put up more of their summer produce. They often borrowed the canning equipment for a day when it was not in use. Of course, the Settlement itself made good use of the equipment. The Settlement sometimes canned the excess produce of a neighbor, sharing the results, and there was more food for the Settlement table as well. Beginning in 1916, Van Meter taught an important winter extension program. For a fee of two dollars, students received instruction that included sewing, weaving, cooking, home nursing, English, geography, and agriculture. Dairying, chicken raising, and growing fruit trees were also part of the course. Girls paid their fees in kind or with work or cash. The first of the classes was so successful that the Settlement continued them for a number of years. Before leaving, each girl completed a dress and a nightgown as part of her sewing instruction.11 With the success of the winter extension program, the Settlement leaders decided to create five centers for extension work in various parts of the county. The young women who had been in the Settlement course vied with one another to have their homes designated as one of these centers. They wanted their friends and relatives to have the benefit of the knowledge and skills they had learned. For its part, the Settlement saw the centers as a means of “widening and multiplying” its work by taking it to where people needed it. Van Meter also supervised sewing clubs so that rural girls could learn the same skills taught on campus. The clubs concentrated on teaching how to make simple garments and baby clothes. A few years later, sewing instruction was expanded to include a “Design and Dress Making Shop” that operated something like another dimension of the Fireside Industries. The project provided employment to many women, and the money they earned stayed in the community rather than going out to the mailorder catalogue companies.12 The Settlement’s health work increased briefly after its incorporation in 1915. Clinics continued at the School twice a year, and the Settlement sponsored a Red Cross nurse for the area and trained two more Red Cross nurses for district nursing in the mountains. Health work in the remote areas of the county now took place through the joint efforts of the Settlement and

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Town of Hindman around 1915. Note Methodist Church on hill and new courthouse (center).

the county. In 1917 more than one thousand rural children were examined at their schools.13 After the early 1920s, this program was run by the county. The Settlement expanded community work in Hindman as well. In 1922 it established what it called a “Rest Room” downtown—a place for women who came into town to sit and socialize, to have a cup of tea, or to read the magazines and books provided. The Rest Room was moved two years later into larger facilities that included three rooms above a store. The space housed both the rest area for women and a public library. The Settlement had provided library services for the community as soon as it opened. In addition, the Settlement’s printing operations were housed there, and beginning in 1925 the students published their own newspaper, The Mountain Echo, at the facility. It was a true community space and served as a meeting place for a number of civic clubs. One of the Settlement’s earliest endeavors, the Mother’s Club, was still in existence and met there monthly. Teaching young mothers about infant care and providing them with the opportunity to socialize had been the club’s focus from the beginning. The club now also provided a means by which teachers and parents could discuss the progress and problems of students. The Boy Scouts met there, as did a new Community Club with seventy-five members. Twice a month, members gathered to discuss plans for town improvements.14

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Both the town and the Settlement grew and prospered together in these years. When Pettit and Stone arrived in 1900, it was little more than a few houses, two hotels, a courthouse, and two churches. Twenty years later, there were forty-three buildings along Main Street. A prominent Hindman resident attributed the growth “in large measure to the Hindman Settlement School.”15 The School held its twentieth anniversary celebration in 1922, and town and county leaders—as well as many alumni— flocked to the celebration during graduation week. Kelly Day, who had been the County Superintendent of Schools when Stone and Pettit founded the Settlement, remarked on the pleasure he felt at seeing so many improvements. He told May Stone, “A number of the men of the town remarked to me that they would have left Hindman for some better business location, where they could make more money, but that they could not afford to take their children away from the school.” He also told her that many believed Hindman was the best school in the mountains. Former students were equally enthusiastic and formed a Hindman Settlement School Alumni Association that year. A year earlier the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution had voted to make Hindman Settlement School one of its approved schools, earmarking it for gifts and support.16 There were many indications of the School’s academic excellence in these years. For example, its graduates began to return as teachers. In 1919 Lula Hale became the first graduate to return to teach in the academic program. The next spring, Jethro Amburgey was the second graduate to return. He taught manual training and became one of the School’s best known graduates for the hundreds of dulcimers he made over the next fifty years. By 1929 there were four Hindman graduates teaching at the School, and the number increased as the years went on.17 The nucleus of the Settlement’s teaching staff was composed of women who remained for many years. This was supplemented by other women who came for a year or two. Short stays were particularly common with the specialized teachers who taught music and art, as well as with the younger teachers. They were recruited through chapters of the College Settlement Association, which were active on all of the campuses of the women’s colleges of the East. The call to such young graduates was usually couched in terms of temporary service, and those who responded were usually just out of college and single. For many it was the first time they had taught, and most did not have teacher training. They came out of social concern and also from a sense of adventure, intending to stay a few years before marriage or other careers. Recruiting teachers was not difficult, but it took a

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long time and yards of red tape for teachers from outside the state to be granted a Kentucky teaching certificate. May Stone was sometimes able to expedite the process through her connections, as she did when Elizabeth Watts was promoted to principal of the elementary school. Replacing teachers who at the last minute decided not to come was often a problem, but as the years passed, the recruitment of former Hindman Settlement School graduates as teachers helped stabilize the faculty. The rapid expansion of both the school and settlement work was dependent on volunteers as well as paid workers during this era. In 1916, for example, there were four Wellesley College volunteers at Hindman. One of them, Dorothy Hancock Stiles, was there in the winter and spring of 1915 (although much of her time was spent recovering from typhoid) and during the following year as well. As was typical of most volunteers, she did a variety of jobs. Stiles’s observations in her diary provide a corrective to newsletters, which sometimes portrayed the children as nothing less than angels. She remarked, for example, while the older boys would not consciously hurt a woman, “the little ones kick, bite and pummel regardless of sex.” She also described bath night for the older boys at Eastover, where she was housemother, in this way: “It seems that their way of bathing is to attach a garden hose to the faucet in the basin and then turn it upon themselves. Their aim last night was very poor for the walls, floor and ceiling were flooded, and covered with ice as it had been cold last night. The window curtain was frozen to the floor.” There was one particularly disobedient youngster she encountered while assisting with the primary class. Paul Francis, a town boy, was cured of his disobedience by a singular punishment. He was forced to stand in front of the class holding her hand. It worked (temporarily), for she wrote that he was “soon reduced to submission and abject promises of good behavior.” Within two weeks, however, his refusal to apologize for another bout of misbehavior brought on an incident when he was anything but angelic. After much pressure on him to apologize, she finally told him that she was going to take him to his father. His response was to wrap himself around the radiator pipes, and it took two of them to get him off. He did not relent in his stubbornness until he was almost home, when he finally shrieked, “Daggone you, I’m sorry.”18 Dorothy collected gossip and funny stories and thereby learned that John Gibson, a widower with twelve children, had asked almost every woman at the Settlement to marry him at one time or another, including May Stone. She also mentioned two Settlement cats (the mother was named Chicken, and the offspring, Chicken Little), as well as an episode where she and “Mollie” (her name for Dorothy Gostenhofer, her college chum, so

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Wellesley volunteers Dorothy Stiles and Dorothy Gostenhofer, 1915.

that the two Dorothys would not be confused in the diary) went up to Rest House, where they instructed Ann Cobb in the fine art of cigarette smoking. Stiles loved funny situations and related the time that one of the young boys read the wrong text for his supper Bible reading—one not suitable for young ears. All of the teachers were “convulsed” as they left, she said. But, she added, “I don’t think the little boys caught on for I watched them carefully and there was no expression save one of complete boredom.” She once taught a physiology class where, she said, a boy “gave me nervous prostration with his searching questions about lymph.” She went on, “I made up the most unbelievable stories about it.” Stiles was well suited to the work because she saw the funny side of everything, including her own cultural biases. Her diary is a refreshing picture of the school children in all their real-life behavior.19 Of all the things that Stiles and Mollie did during the 1916 spring semester, creating a circus as a benefit to buy hymnals for the School’s Bible class was their proudest achievement. They sewed two-piece elephant and camel costumes and commandeered four boys to fill them. From bedsprings and screens, they fashioned cages that contained a lion, monkeys, and a giraffe head peering over a laurel bush. These were set up in the large kindergarten room. The ringmaster was outfitted in a “barrel dress suit” (one

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that came from the barrels of clothing sent by supporters), with a “boiled shirt” borrowed from the lone male teacher. Dorothy served as the circus announcer, a “masked marvel” clad in many veils, and the show included a clog dance by the elephant, as well as several clowns and acrobats. Sideshows included the traditional thin man and fat lady as well as Bluebeard and his wives. The event was a resounding success, and they collected $7.50 in admissions and another $6.00 for lemonade and cake.20 With such enthusiastic and well-qualified teachers and volunteers, the Hindman Settlement School produced many outstanding students. Its first graduates in 1904, Josiah Combs and Mallie Baker, are good examples. After attending college at Transylvania College, the University of Paris, and the Sorbonne, Combs returned to the Settlement to teach for a while. Mallie taught on Montgomery Branch, being selected after a bitter contest among the three school trustees. In 1911, when the first official public high school class of the county graduated, the five seniors included Lula Hale and Guilford Boleyn, who became a lawyer. In later years, Oliver Stamper, of the 1914 class, went to Harvard, became a successful lawyer in Cleveland, and served on the Settlement’s board of directors. Clarke Pratt, from the class of 1919, became the first bachelor to teach at the Settlement and later served as the Settlement’s lawyer. By 1928, 124 students had graduated from the Settlement, nearly three-quarters of whom had gone on to college, normal school, or other institutions. Forty-five worked as mountain teachers. Five years later, May Stone conducted another survey of graduates, estimating that more than 80 percent had gone on for further schooling, and she counted seventy teachers among the graduates. At a still later date, in 1937, she said that 84 percent of the graduates had returned to the mountains and formed a solid corps of teachers, doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, and community leaders.21 The 1926 graduates can be viewed as typical of those completing high school in the 1920s. Of the twelve graduates, nine continued to higher education. Five eventually returned and taught at the Settlement, with one serving as the grade school principal for ten years. One worked in the Washington, D.C., office of Congressman Carl Perkins. Another supervised the Practice House at Berea College, then joined the army in World War II and made it her career. Virgil Slone went to Amherst and eventually became the owner of Reid Construction Company in Chicago.22 While the School and its graduates were going from triumph to triumph, many of the changes taking place in Knott County and the rest of Appalachia in the 1920s were not positive and reflected the early devastation that the coal industry would bring in its wake. On the twentieth anni-

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The 1926 graduation class. Left to right, Hazel Wallen, Goldie Maggard, Dale Smith, Dixie Bailey, Clarissa Hicks, Bevie Perkins, Verna Pigmon, Devon Pratt, Virgil Slone, Roscoe Gibson, and Morgan Hammond.

versary of the summer camp at Sassafras, May Stone and several others from the Settlement made a trip back to the place that Pettit had described in 1901 as the most remote place in all of the southern mountains. They saw a devastated landscape brought on by mining. Mary Stacy’s home remained as spotless as ever but was now isolated on what Stone described as a “small, ugly triangle of land.” When Stone took a walk down Yellow Creek the following day, she found a mining camp with three companies operating. On Montgomery Creek, literally across from their old campsite, there was now a town. Stone wrote, “I thought if we had been set down there in an airplane, I should never have known the place.” A railroad ran around the wonderful cliff below the original camp and cut off the Stacys’ property. After she had walked a half-mile up Montgomery Creek, Stone found it too distressing to go farther. Everywhere she saw “the hills torn away, the road changed, the hillsides filled with ugly rough lumber shacks on high poles.” She concluded, “Maybe in ten years I may see some good in this change but I do not like it now.” The Settlement was not affected by these changes in the same way that Pine Mountain was, situated as it was on the other side of the mountain from Harlan, a major coal-mining center. However, the newsletter of 1925 mentioned that Hindman’s student body included children from the mining and railroad towns.23 Other changes during these years would also have long-term impact on the Settlement. Sixteen automobiles arrived in Hindman in 1922 as part of a campaign for a state road bond issue. The children went en masse to hear the speeches at the courthouse, and it was not difficult to convince

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the people of Hindman that they would benefit from better roads. Knott County residents voted overwhelmingly for the bonds, and before the end of the decade there was a graded, although unsurfaced, road from Lexington to Hazard. The road between Hindman and Hazard had been improved but was still rough over its last five miles. During the Depression years in particular, road building in Knott County dramatically changed the lives of its inhabitants and had an equally important impact on the Settlement.24 A final expansion of the Settlement’s educational work into remote areas of the county took place in the 1920s, when the Settlement sponsored two branch schools that combined education and settlement activities. It established the Owens Branch School in 1921 and the Decoy School at Quicksand two years later. A cottage for a teacher and a volunteer worker was built at Owens Branch, and May Stone selected the two workers and provided them with necessary supplies and equipment. By its second year of operation, the school changed from a typical six-month rural school to a nine-month schedule, similar to the one at Hindman, so that children could complete a full grade in one year. Two years later, the county took over the school. Once the Owens Branch School became the responsibility of the county, the Settlement concentrated its outreach effort on a school for the Quicksand/Decoy area. This part of Knott County remained remote from Hindman until the mid-1970s. In 1920, it was a six-hour mule or horseback ride to get to Hindman from Decoy, only eighteen miles away. The need for a new school was pressing because of the lumbering that had begun in the area. The Settlement donated the land, while the lumber company built a two-room school and a “teacherage” for the two teachers. Not long after, students from the Decoy school began arriving at the Settlement for high school work. One of them, Frankie Smith Duff, later returned to Decoy with her husband, Lionel, to teach for more than twenty years. Lionel Duff later served as director of the Hindman Settlement School between 1971 and 1977.25 As the number of high school students grew in the 1920s, so too did student activities. The student newsletter provides an excellent glimpse into life at the Settlement in the years from 1925 to 1930. The Mountain Echo had a surprising subscription base of three hundred, which included not only students and their families, but also many residents of the town and a number of alumni. Most of the news was school-related, but several columns regularly highlighted community events and people and the comings and goings of the faculty and visitors. This exceptional student publication

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reported on subjects as varied as a visit to Hindman by the governor, the county fair, the formation of the first county basketball league, debate team activities, mock trials, academic and other honors won by groups or individuals at the School, and social events of the student clubs. It also published monthly attendance honor rolls, class lists, and special commencement issues. Commencement issues indirectly demonstrate the attrition that occurred in high school. Typically, fewer than half who began remained to graduate. Alma Pigmon, a member of the 1929 graduating class of only seven members, recalled that there had been nearly forty freshmen when she started. She believed that when Morehead College opened, during her high school years, and offered a teaching certificate for students with two years of high school, a number of her classmates had taken advantage of this opportunity. Alma’s sister, Vertie Pigmon Conley, a 1927 graduate, added that times were good and there was lots of work in nearby towns. “It was enticing,” she said.26 An article in the commencement issue of 1927 provided a reminder of how female-dominant the Settlement institution was. It recalled that two years earlier, the graduating seniors had been juniors who “were perfectly horrified” to learn that they were to have men teachers the following year. One was “Prof ” Smith, the new principal and biology teacher; the other was Clarke Pratt, a 1919 graduate. Pratt was singled out in the article because, as a bachelor, the girls had practiced upon him “all the wiles of which high school girls are capable, but to no avail.” Pratt was leaving them with “aching hearts” to go off to law school. As it turned out, he proved less invincible than he seemed. Some years later he married Bevie Perkins of the 1926 class. The students and community were already obsessed with sports by this time, especially basketball, and The Mountain Echo published play-byplay descriptions of the games. Basketball was really a community activity since the whole town turned out for games, and the crowds were sometimes unruly. Hindman was once forced to forfeit a game after overzealous fans roughed up the referee.27 The years when The Mountain Echo was published provide unique material about the busy world of Hindman Settlement School when the “broadening out” process had reached its fullest extent. As the Settlement matured, so did its need for more continuous, organized, and sophisticated fund-raising. It continued to rely upon the traditional newsletter, although it was now common for several to be sent each year—one in January as before and another in September or October

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when school opened. Special appeals became more common, and many were now printed to make their appearance more “professional.” The Settlement also employed field secretaries to tell its story. These women traveled around Kentucky and to the cities of the northeast and midwest giving presentations on the Settlement’s work to churches and to civic and women’s organizations. Often, supporters in a city arranged for the lectures to be publicized beforehand in the local press and reported on afterward. It was by this means that Edith Stout learned about the Settlement and became its secretary in mid-1926.28 Another way funding was increased in the 1920s was by the establishment of organizations in key cities that were dedicated to raising financial support for the Settlement. In 1928, when the Settlement’s first major fund-raising drive occurred, a direct mail campaign was supplemented with intensive drives in five cities—Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Hartford, and Providence—all of which had well-established Hindman Settlement School support groups. The Friends of Kentucky Society of Evanston and North Shore (a wealthy suburban area north of Chicago), which dated its official organization to 1921, was the Settlement’s most important organized support group, providing twenty scholarships in 1928–1929, or almost one-fifth of the Settlement’s total. To do this, it raised $4,200. The society also provided gifts for the Christmas celebrations. Among its members was the wife of the head of the U.S. Steel Corporation and probably Mrs. Montgomery Ward, since she left the Settlement a bequest of $15,000 in 1928. The Evanston society continued to operate into the 1980s, although on a much-reduced level as its membership declined. Still, as late as 1947, it supported twelve scholarships, and when it disbanded in the early 1980s, the remaining officers turned over its treasury to the Settlement. Records show that between 1921 and 1980, the society raised $68,798 in scholarships for Hindman Settlement School and gave more in various in-kind contributions.29 Without such organized support groups, the Settlement could not have expanded either the School or its settlement work during these years. Even with their help, the Settlement strained to meet the needs of its rapid growth. Although these years were highly successful for the Settlement’s mission, three major problems distracted and taxed the Settlement’s leadership. The first came with the resignation of Stone’s assistant, Ruth Huntington, and the search for a successor, which proved far more difficult than anyone expected. The Settlement was without an on-site, full-time administrator for a number of years. The second problem was a local dis-

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May Stone with visitors, Mrs. Pusey and Mrs. Connor, of the Kentucky Society for Evanston and North Shore, late 1920s.

traction that arose from conflict between the Settlement and Alice Geddes Lloyd, who came to Knott County in 1915 to undertake social settlement work. A third problem—by far the most serious—was the long, unsuccessful quest for financial stability, which hung like a cloud over an otherwise positive picture. After incorporation in September 1915, the first board of directors meeting was held in October. Stone chose to have a small board made up of herself; her father, Colonel Henry Stone, who served as president; his friend Charles Huhlein, chairman of the B.F. Avery Company, a manufacturer of farm machinery; Frances Beauchamp, president of the Kentucky WCTU; and Ruth Huntington, principal of the high school and Stone’s partner in the management of Hindman Settlement School. Stone and

100 Challenge and Change in Appalachia Huntington formed the executive committee and had authority to act on behalf of the board between its annual meetings.30 Historians have speculated on why, only a few years after incorporation, May Stone sought to turn over the Settlement to other hands. It seemed unexpected when Stone told the board in 1919 that management changes would be needed soon. However, Stone and Huntington had discussed between themselves the increasing burden the Settlement’s rapid growth had placed on them. Stone eventually turned to John C. Campbell of the Russell Sage Foundation for advice. In a long letter written on November 26, 1918, she outlined the problems they faced. The work had grown very quickly, and the war had affected the School’s ability to hire and retain satisfactory teachers. With war industry work more glamorous (and better paid) in that academic year, five teachers left with little or no warning to take war jobs. In addition to these administrative problems, there were others of a more personal nature. Both Stone and Huntington found themselves so tied down in Hindman with administrative duties that they were unable to get away for needed rest and renewal. As she put it, “We cannot grow as fast as the work does nor do it as well as even we see it needs.” Stone told Campbell that for two years the directors had attempted to find someone trained and experienced to take the place of one of them and then to be able, over time, to assume responsibility when Stone ceased her active role. But, she said, “There are so many trained but few willing to undertake the management of such work with its enormous burden and responsibility of raising $37,000 a year for current expenses.” She was clearly worried about what would happen to their enterprise, telling Campbell that “After twenty years in the mountains we cannot lay down our responsibility unless we have turned the work over into more capable hands.” While she believed that such a leader could carry the Settlement to new heights of success, she also felt that the institution needed a strong organization—experienced in the kind of work done at Hindman Settlement School—to back it. While the current board of directors was comprised of “broad liberal-minded” members, it left the entire responsibility for initiating, executing, and funding the School and its programs to Stone and Huntington. Stone asked Campbell if he knew of any group or board that might be capable of taking on this role and continuing the Settlement’s work along the lines that had been established over the preceding years. She added that she felt that the work would be most successful if it remained independent rather than coming under denominational control. Clearly, she had Campbell’s employer, the Russell Sage Foundation, in mind and

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hoped that the transfer of authority could be completed before the opening of the 1920 school year.31 Stone’s letter led to a meeting between the two on January 9 in Asheville, North Carolina, where Campbell was headquartered. Afterward, he prepared extensive notes of their conversation, including a new scheme for the Settlement’s future. He proposed a plan in which other agencies engaged in rural educational or settlement work would become active participants in the School’s management through individuals who would come to work at Hindman and act as representatives for their respective agencies. Campbell also suggested the need for rural experts in education and rural farm life and argued that these people should have strong ties to appropriate governmental agencies. The scheme laid out indicates that Campbell expected public authorities to assume most, if not all, responsibility for public education. Hindman Settlement would no longer be a school but a “rural educational center, made up of a family group of experts in rural life.” Stone had already broached the turnover of the school to the county with the Settlement’s local advisory board in 1916, who had replied that it would be a catastrophe for Knott County. Campbell had also raised some very practical issues after presenting his scheme. The two most important ones were financial. The first was obvious: Where would the money come from? While the various agencies might fund their own representative, some workers would have no organizational backing and funds would be needed to pay them. A second vital financial concern was whether the Settlement’s endowment was sufficient for the upkeep of the institution’s extensive campus and buildings. Campbell told Stone he would be willing to lay the proposal before his foundation, but he also said he did not think August 1919 was a realistic date for the new arrangement. However, he concluded, “some beginning might be made.”32 May Stone replied to him two days after the January board meeting, writing that she and her father had decided to present the issue to the board in a general manner rather than in the form of any specific proposal. The minutes of the meeting confirm this and indicate that Stone asked the board to allow her to find a group of individuals or an organization to take over Hindman Settlement School to “insure the continuance of the work.” The board authorized the executive committee to proceed with its search for new management. Stone’s failure to discuss specifics at the meeting indicates her reluctance to move in the direction outlined by Campbell’s plan. It is clear, however, that Stone was preparing to make a proposal to the Russell Sage

102 Challenge and Change in Appalachia Foundation, for she asked Campbell’s advice on what kind of letter she should send. In a letter of February 7, Stone had asked if he would seek support from his employer for the salaries of at least two Settlement workers—a manual training instructor and a man to oversee the furnace, the electric power plant, general repairs, and the coal mining operation. Campbell answered that it was useless for him to approach the foundation with such a request, since it would establish a precedent for other schools to seek salaries for their teachers and workers. And, he pointedly remarked, “my hope of securing any aid from the Foundation lay in helping Hindman to get on an entirely new basis,” something it appears Stone was not prepared to do. Campbell died later that year and it is not known if there were any other steps taken to seek new management. The matter never appeared in the board minutes again.33 Ruth Huntington resigned at the end of the summer of 1919, and May Stone managed Hindman Settlement School without a partner for most of the next seven years. Stone spent more time in Hindman, and it is not clear how much assistance she had or from whom during those years. By that time, Elizabeth Watts was the principal of the grade school and may have assisted Stone, although there is no indication of this in her letters home. The Settlement had several high school principals during this period, which makes it doubtful that any of them assumed major administrative responsibilities for the institution as a whole. Initially, Stone had focused on trying to find a new partner, especially one who would undertake the responsibility of on-site administration.34 Stone found Alice Magoon Fuller as a temporary replacement, but Fuller lasted only one year, and her resignation in late 1921 left another gap in the institution’s management. This time it appears to have caused serious problems. No newsletters or other appeals for donations went out in 1922–1923, with dire results. Although expenses had exceeded revenue by $978 in 1921–1922, the following year—when no appeals were distributed—expenses soared over revenue by $8,337 and wiped out all the accumulated surplus of the earlier years, leaving a $2,000 deficit. Not all of the situation can be attributed to the Settlement’s management problems, although they were undoubtedly a factor. After World War I, there was a sharp business recession, which peaked in the early 1920s. In a 1924 newsletter, Stone wrote that the past two years had been the most challenging to raise funds that she had known in twenty-two years. To add to her difficulties, Stone’s father, who had been active in the Settlement’s affairs from the beginning, died in 1922. The death of Frances Beauchamp the following year also took away a strong and well-connected supporter. The man-

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agement problem was eventually resolved when Elizabeth Watts agreed to become Stone’s assistant in 1925. However, Watts chose to take a year’s sabbatical and did not assume her new responsibilities until 1927. Just how the institution was managed during these years is unclear, although Stone clearly had the major responsibility. She may have been assisted by the new high school principal, J.F. “Prof ” Smith, after 1925.35 Once Watts returned, Stone spent less time at the Settlement, coming for the summer months to release Watts for a vacation. Stone was now sixty years old and preferred to spend the winter months in Louisville. She usually arrived in time for her birthday celebration at the Settlement on May 1, staying through the summer and for a month or so after school opened again in mid-August. Aside from managerial problems, an unfortunate conflict arose between the Settlement’s leadership and Alice Geddes Lloyd, who was also engaged in social service work near Hindman. A fine study of Lloyd and her school by P. David Searles, A College for Appalachia, Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek, described the conflict, which centered on several issues. In the early years, Lloyd tended to exaggerate her work in the fund-raising appeals she sent out. Equally important, she denigrated the work of Hindman Settlement School. Needless to say, this did not please Stone nor the supporters of the Settlement.36 A second factor involved differing views the leaders of the two institutions held about how mountain people and society should be depicted in fund-raising and publicity materials. Stone had always taken care not to offend the Settlement’s neighbors by describing them as backward or with other negative stereotypes. In contrast, Lloyd’s portraits of mountain life, both those in print and on fund-raising tours, presented mountain society as it might have existed a generation or two earlier, but was generally no longer accurate. These portrayals greatly upset Stone and other mountain workers, and the Settlement was part of a concerted effort to eliminate Lloyd’s support. The worst of the “battles” occurred between 1917 and 1923, but animosity—at least on the part of the Settlement— lasted much longer. Both Edith Stout and Elizabeth Watts described Lloyd unfavorably in letters to their mothers, with Stout referring to Lloyd as “that awful woman on Caney,” and Watts telling her mother that anyone with the smallest connection to Caney would be persona non grata at Hindman. Negative sentiment continued as long as Elizabeth Watts remained director.37 Searles also explained the conflict between the two institutions as a clash between different educational philosophies and goals. To him, Hindman Settlement School represented a conservative educational ap-

104 Challenge and Change in Appalachia proach intended to educate students for the status quo. In contrast, he argued that the goal of Alice Lloyd and her Caney Creek Community College was to create mountain leaders. This exaggerates the differences between the institutions and stands educational theory on its head. Industrial education was not conservative but still progressive and reformist in the 1920s. Lloyd’s insistence on a purely academic education was the more conservative position. As for who educated the mountains’ leaders, the question is irrelevant since a great many Caney Creek students were graduates of Hindman Settlement School. The excellence of the schooling they received at Hindman Settlement School has been made clear from extensive documentation.38 Another assertion that Searles made, based on the views of several former Hindman students, was that when Hindman graduates left the mountains for higher education, they did not return. The history of the 1925–1926 class, discussed earlier in the chapter, provides a good example of the fallacy of this claim. Two of the twelve graduates went away to work for a time but returned. Another left during World War II but only after spending almost twenty years teaching there. Only one graduate, who settled in Chicago, never returned to the mountains; however, Virgil Slone certainly did not turn his back on the land of his birth and schooling. He became an active supporter of the work of Hindman Settlement School through the Kentucky Society of Evanston and North Shore.39 The last and most serious of the three problems that the Settlement faced in the 1920s, the struggle for financial stability, occupied a great deal of time for Stone and the board of directors and presented a direct challenge to the institution’s mission. While it does not appear to have affected the educational program in a substantial way, it did impact teachers and workers. Most of the programs that the Settlement eliminated or turned over during these years was by mutual consent with public authorities rather than forced by financial difficulties. Yet the financial strain that began in the early 1920s may explain why the Settlement undertook no new extension or community work after a flurry of new programs between 1915 and 1922. The first years after incorporation were promising, but after the early 1920s, the volatility of the Settlement’s revenue from year to year made planning very difficult. The newly incorporated institution began life debtfree in 1915 after Stone and some friends paid the last outstanding loan of $10,000 on the endowment that had been taken out to rebuild the campus. Funds to operate Hindman Settlement School came from two sources, endowment income and donations. The Settlement’s endowment of $36,165

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in 1915 grew to $95,000 by the end of 1932. While the Settlement received a number of significant bequests during the period, the need to use those that were unrestricted for current expenses limited the endowment’s growth and made it more difficult for the Settlement to acquire an adequate and stable income. Cash revenue generated by the endowment changed little during the era. Income ranged from $2,200 to $2,400 annually during the first ten years, although it dropped by half in 1923 when the largest holding, Elkhorn Coal Stock, ceased to pay dividends. By the end of the decade, almost one-third of the endowment was nonpaying, and two years later, the nonpaying portion had risen to nearly half of the portfolio. Consequently, endowment income remained around $2,800 annually during the second half of the decade. The endowment became an important factor in stabilizing the Settlement’s financial picture only when a bequest by Colonel John Durrett, worth more than $124,000, doubled it in 1933.40 The other major source of income came from general donations, but these fluctuated greatly over the period. Donations rose steadily from $28,500 to $54,000 between 1915 and 1920. In 1921–1922 they dropped to just below $43,000. With the exception of 1928, when the Settlement ran a successful fund-raising campaign, donations remained in the $40,000 range. The opening of the new high school in 1930 brought another good revenue year, owing to appeals to help furnish the new facility. As the Depression unfolded, donations dropped, and two years later revenue was only $5,000 greater than it had been in October 1915, when Hindman Settlement School was incorporated.41 The relationship between revenues and expenses varied in a way that could not help but be unsettling for May Stone. Everything went smoothly for the first five years, so that the School’s accumulated surplus was $11,489 in 1920. Then came the sharp business recession that followed World War I. The failure to secure an assistant for Stone impacted fund-raising. The 1920–1921 school year, when Alice Fuller was Stone’s partner, ended with a $2,831 deficit. Each of the next three years saw deficits, so that by 1923–1924 it had grown to $8,387.42 While the postwar recession and management problems partially explain the situation, the Settlement’s biggest problem was its own success. It was now a large institution with overhead costs that could not easily be reduced if donations declined. Field secretaries employed by the board for organized fund-raising sometimes produced short spurts of success; however, they could only reach a small audience, and it was difficult work with considerable turnover. The board was slow to assume direct responsibility for raising funds. But after the disastrous 1927 year, the board authorized a

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Settlement secretary Edith Stout on her horse, “Prince.”

major drive and turned to a combined direct mail approach (perhaps in recognition of the enormous success that Alice Lloyd had achieved with this technique) and an intensive campaign centered in the five cities where the Settlement had its strongest support groups. This produced $13,308 after expenses. The centerpiece of the direct mail campaign was a brochure that laid out, in a series of sections, the successes and challenges at Hindman Settlement School. The final section discussed the current financial situation.43 The funding crisis took its toll on the teachers and other workers, who were often owed back pay. Although some who came to work at the Settlement were semi-volunteers, receiving only their room and board, and financially comfortable, others greatly relied upon their small salaries to survive. The letters of Elizabeth Watts do not mention these difficulties, but Edith Stout’s letters to her mother do. Since Stout was the secretarybookkeeper from June 1926 to June 1929, she was more intimately acquainted with the state of Settlement finances than any person other than Stone or Watts. Her letters provide a sense of the impact that the lack of funds made on those who worked at the School. Stout also provided the only information in the archives about a serious event that occurred in the spring of 1927, which resulted in the School’s

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temporary closing. Even she was hesitant to detail what had happened, writing cryptically on April 1, “We are sailing through rather troublous seas just now, and I’m not quite up to writing.” She wrote again on Easter Sunday of problems with “some of the bad town boys.” The School had actually shut down by this time, and Prof Smith traveled to Louisville to consult with Stone about what to do next. They reached the decision to reopen so that the children could earn their credits for the year, but not to hold commencement week events or the regular graduation ceremony. A graduate of the 1927 class, Vertie Pigmon Conley, explained what had happened. The trouble began when a number of the town boys became increasingly impudent toward a new young teacher and became uncontrollable in her class. Normally the principal handled discipline, but in this case the manual training teacher, Mr. Roberts, decided to punish the boys and roughed up the ringleaders in his class. Afterward, rumors flew that he had employed a two-by-four on them. Whatever he used, their fathers became very angry and threatened violence against Roberts and his wife, who was the School nurse that year. They left the Settlement immediately after the incident. The young high school English teacher who had been the object of the harassment left also. To allow things to simmer down, the School was closed for two weeks.44 The incident frayed the generally good relations and divided the community. Shortly after the school year ended, civic leaders and supporters of the School, including Dr. Duke, called a town meeting on June 27 to pledge renewed support and help in preventing further problems at the Settlement. The resolution, which passed unanimously, stated that the citizens and residents of Hindman and Knott County pledged unqualified support and loyalty to May Stone and the Hindman Settlement School and expressed the intention to give the School better support and cooperation. They promised to “take special pains and care to see that there is no interference with the school upon the part of anyone.” The opening-day ceremonies for the following fall suggest that some lingering tension still existed. Dr. Duke, one of the regular speakers on these occasions, reminded the audience of parents, students, and townspeople of the importance of the Settlement to the community. A second speaker appealed for unity and spoke of the parents’ responsibility for their children’s behavior.45 One result of the events was a major teacher turnover in the spring. An added factor was the delay in paying salaries of the teachers. Only five of twenty-one teachers from 1927 returned in 1928. Stout’s letters intimated the effect of the financial difficulties, when she told her mother that

108 Challenge and Change in Appalachia there were some very nice teachers in the new group and she hoped that “we can just get money to keep them paid up.” She revealed to her mother that she had received her salary only three times in fifteen months. The situation eased that fall when the Settlement received a $15,000 bequest from Mrs. Montgomery Ward, which was sufficient to pay back bills and teachers’ salaries and leave a balance in the bank. Stout remarked, “It is certainly a wonderful feeling to be able to look people in the eyes.”46 Despite a temporary improvement resulting from the direct mail campaign, the fiscal uncertainty returned, and by August 1928 Stout was writing to her mother saying that almost no donations had been received for two months and she did not see how she could pay bills with no income. By February of 1929, the Settlement was saddled again with overdue bills and back salaries amounting to $9,500. Increasingly depressed, Stout wrote, “I don’t see how the business can be arranged when there is no money.” When she expressed similar thoughts to May Stone, Stone always replied, “We always have paid, and we shall be able to do so sometime.”47 It took a great deal of faith to believe this, and even more to act on that belief and keep the School running at full capacity. Perhaps expenses should have been trimmed during the decade to ease matters. But with revenue fluctuating wildly from year to year and hundreds of students waiting for a place at the Settlement, the only way Stone and Watts could have reduced costs substantially was to reduce the number of boarding students. Neither of the Settlement’s leaders was prepared to take this step, until the Depression forced it. Even then, other steps were taken first. The salaries of teachers and workers were slashed in half in 1930–1931. Nine of the eighteen paid workers became, for all practical purposes, volunteers and remained so for a number of years. It would appear that the only people drawing salaries were local employees such as Doc Pratt, the Settlement’s farmer, and the women who helped in the kitchen and laundry. James Still arrived in 1933 to become the librarian but received nothing but room and board for the next three years.48 When it is sometimes suggested that Hindman Settlement School should be compared to the operations of the large and well-funded urban settlements such as Hull House and Henry Street, the criticism shows little appreciation for the size of the Settlement’s budget and how far it had to be stretched. What Stone and Watts managed was no small feat. The newsletters of the 1920s had a mostly positive emphasis, although the difficulty of meeting expenses was sometimes highlighted. The tone of appeals changed dramatically in the fall of 1931, when Elizabeth Watts sent a flyer telling supporters that the children were paying their entrance

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fees in labor, canned goods, beans, cabbage, sorghum, chickens, and “anything else we’d take because cash was so scarce.” The School eliminated printed appeals and returned to a simple typed and copied mailer. A second flyer noted that scores of long-faithful supporters had omitted Hindman from their budgets that year and revealed for the first time that the Settlement’s small endowment had been crippled by Depression-era nonpaying investments.49 Watts and Stone sent a final appeal in 1932 at the opening of the 1932–1933 school year. It set forth the stark choice facing the Settlement: “We have done our best to cut expenses and feel that the dollars are made to do full duty. . . . The important thing now is to decide what to do for the future of the school. Shall we go on? Shall our school continue its work or give up the struggle as many have done?” While this nearly desperate appeal awaited a response, Stone and the board of directors discussed the sober choices they faced.50 At its next meeting in January 1933, the board took action, and it may have been along the lines that Stone had recommended a year earlier. Two steps were agreed on: The first was to sell one of the Settlement’s farms; the other was to drastically reduce the number of children living at the Settlement, “so that the school could be run on a curtailed budget with reduced numbers but not lower standards.” Boarding would be reduced by almost 40 percent. This action relieved the Settlement of the need to raise the $150 scholarships and other funds needed to cover the cost of each student. The change would leave about sixty boarding students and bring expenses down by $16,000. Almost all of the younger children were eliminated by this scheme, under the logic that they could still attend a local school. If the Settlement received the same amount of revenue the following year as it expected in 1932–1933—and cut the expenses in this fashion—Stone said that the institution should be able to pay salaries and bills and have a small surplus to eliminate old debts.51 She hoped the plan would be temporary. Financial conditions improved in the latter part of the decade and the Little Girls’ House was reopened, yet the decision to reduce the boarding program became a permanent change at Hindman Settlement School. Later changes to the program in the 1940s made only highschool-aged students eligible to board at the Settlement. The peak years of settlement work were over, and efforts now concentrated almost entirely on the provision of quality education, library services, and community activities. It would be another fifteen years before the county assumed full responsibility for the elementary and the high school that the Settlement had established. Even then, Hindman Settlement School

110 Challenge and Change in Appalachia continued to provide the classes that had constituted its progressive curriculum for forty years, and this service did not end until 1990. May Stone’s decision to reduce the Settlement’s boarding program must have been one of the most painful choices she ever had to make. It showed her tenacity in the face of severe economic circumstances and her ability to find the best practical solution. Her decision allowed Hindman Settlement School not only to survive but also to maintain high academic standards. Working as a team, she and Elizabeth Watts brought the Settlement through a period when many of its fellow institutions failed.

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Chapter Four

“THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE MOUNTAINS”

LIFE AT THE Settlement in the years between the two world wars has been captured in rich detail through interviews with students who attended the School during those decades. Their recollections provide a portrait of student life during Hindman Settlement School’s “golden age,” when it was the most influential educational institution in Knott County. Hindman always had two kinds of students—the day scholars and “Settlement students.” From the rebuilding of the campus after the 1910 fire until 1934, the Settlement population grew and accounted for 15 to 25 percent of the total student body. During the 1920s, boarding capacity was set at 105, although there was one year when the Settlement had 114 in residence. Hundreds of others remained on waiting lists. The story of one woman looking for a place to educate her children illustrates the popularity of the Settlement’s boarding program. When a friend suggested that she try Hindman Settlement School, she replied, “Hindman! You might as well try to get them into heaven.”1 While Settlement students were a unique group within the larger School population and their lives differed from those of town students in important ways, the two groups shared many common experiences and are remarkably similar in their assessment of the Settlement’s influence on them. There were several reasons why students came and lived, often for many years, on the campus. Some came because of parents who were determined that their children would receive additional education beyond the rural elementary schools. Many of the students at Hindman were the first in their family to go beyond the country school, which often ended at the sixth grade. Others were younger children from families in which an older sibling had broken ground by living in the Settlement earlier. While it was unusual for children to arrive before the age of eight, it was common for three, four, or even more children from a single family to be at the Settlement at the same time. Whole families of children from remote areas of the county passed through. One graduate said that ten in her family had

112 Challenge and Change in Appalachia attended, nine of whom had graduated. Well before the 1930s, there were second-generation students at the Settlement. Teachers in country schools, often Hindman graduates themselves, facilitated the transfer of many children to the Settlement.2 Another distinct group among the students was composed of those who had lost one or both of their parents or no longer had an intact family. These pupils often arrived at an earlier age than others and accounted for a large number of the youngest children in the Settlement. A good example is Albert Stewart, the Settlement “baby,” who was five when he came to live with Lucy Furman in 1919. He remained at the School for almost all of his education, graduated from the high school in 1932, went on to Berea, and became a well-known poet, editor of the Appalachian Heritage Magazine, and founder of the Settlement’s Appalachian Writers Workshop. There is no other instance of a child of preschool age living in the Settlement. His brother and twin sisters were at the Settlement when he arrived, and another sister had left several years earlier. The death of their mother from complications of childbirth in late 1916 was the primary reason all of these children remained at the Settlement for many years, most until graduation.3 Although Stewart’s age made him unique, the circumstance of his family situation was all too common. The newsletters and the letters of Elizabeth Watts to her mother are filled with stories of the various ways children reached the Settlement. The common route was an application and interview. Once a student was in the Settlement, an invitation to return was not automatic. Stone based her decisions on the reports of the teachers, housemothers, and workers from the previous year. A large sheet of paper, called the “Settlement Sheet,” followed each student year by year, and teachers recorded not only the student’s grades but a personal evaluation as well. This was the information upon which an invitation to return was based. The earliest decisions each year involved those who would not be asked back, in order to know the number of actual vacancies for the coming year. “I think the policy is to keep only those who seem to be gaining constructively,” wrote Edith Stout, the Settlement secretary. Attention also had to be paid to available dormitory space for the various age groups and for males and females when selecting new students. Watching Stone during this process led Stout to tell her mother, “The lady is a wonder to me.” She later described Stone as a “general.”4 Others were accepted at Hindman Settlement School by more unusual means. Bess Creech Browning said they took her in because her name was Creech and one of her relatives had given the land to build Pine Moun-

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tain Settlement. A man with three children in tow stopped May Stone on the road and told her that the four of them had walked fifty miles so that he could bring them to the Settlement. She agreed to enroll them. Lucy Furman recorded another incident when she went into the living room at the Settlement house one day to find a man with nine children, some his own and some belonging to neighbors. She described them as being offered to the Settlement as a “free gift.” Flora Ritchie was accepted when May Stone found her sleeping on the porch after a twelve-mile walk from home. Everyone at the School agreed that the hardest part of their job was saying “no” to children and parents, easy enough to believe with a waiting list of seven hundred in 1917 and vacancies for only fifteen. Students recognized that it was a great privilege to be a Settlement student. The worst punishment these children could imagine was not a whipping but expulsion.5 Students often arrived from homes that were isolated and had poor living conditions. They sometimes felt overwhelmed during their early days of adjustment. Lucy Furman mentioned that it was not unusual for the young boys to run away, several times in some cases, before they became accustomed to Settlement life. The Settlement tried to maintain a familylike environment. By 1920 there were four dormitories and six other locations where the one hundred students were housed. Housemothers in all of the dorms also helped assure this. There was a hospital and a twelve-room teachers’ residence (Hillside), both of which had running water, as did Orchard House, which contained the kitchen and dining room as well as the dormitory for the older girls. Other facilities built after the 1910 fire included a retreat for teachers (Rest House), the two schoolhouses (the high school was housed in the original manual training building until 1930), a kindergarten building, a new manual training shop, the Fireside Cabin (where the Fireside Industries were housed), and a large barn. Flowers lined the walkways from the high school and kindergarten over to the dormitories, and in the spring, jonquils, iris, mountain laurel, dogwood, redbud, and apple trees provided an explosion of color. The girls especially remembered the peonies that bloomed in the late spring because they carried armfuls of them on graduation day. Class photographs capture their young images dressed in white with the sheaves of peonies.6 Lucy Furman, and later Martha Burns, had responsibility for the campus grounds during these years. Furman wrote in 1907, “I saw great possibilities for beauty in our place,” and she went to work with her boys, ditching, draining, and sowing bluegrass and clover for a lawn. Her boys planted several hundred fruit trees as well as shrubs and vines and made flower borders all around the main buildings and along the paths. A pergola was

114 Challenge and Change in Appalachia built through the garden with grapevines, honeysuckle, and clematis. When Furman left in the mid-1920s, Martha Burns continued to care for the grounds for the next twenty-five years. The beauty of the campus was seen as having a function beyond the intrinsic pleasure it afforded. The Settlement sought to be a model in every respect for its neighbors. One teacher told his class in the 1920s that you could tell the homes in the county with former Settlement students or graduates by the flowers in their yards and well-kept gardens.7 A volunteer vividly captured the excitement of the opening of school in August: Saturday was the day most packed with warm human interest. All day came the wagons, with the parents bringing the students and their bundles and bags and trunks of clothes. Some came on mules, riding behind an older brother or sister. Others walked across Troublesome on the footlog, having left the wagons and mules hitched “daown taown” in Hindman. But all headed eagerly for the same destination—Miss Stone’s office at Hillside. Miss Watts was on the porch to welcome them and admit each student or family group, one by one, to Miss Stone’s office. Sometimes she had several students and groups awaiting admission, but as each pleased youngster emerged, proudly bearing a slip assigning living quarters and Settlement tasks, another was admitted to the important audience. An “audience” with Miss Stone, however, is much more of a friendly visit than a formal audience. For years she has known the parents of most of the students. In fact not a few of the parents were themselves Hindman students in the early days of her pioneer work in building up the school. . . . Once, from the back office where I sat working, I overheard a homesick quaver in the goodbye of a boy whose parents were leaving, and once there came to me a suddenly choked voice of a mother who said that while she knew it was going to be hard to do without her daughter at home, she would not complain because she wanted her child to have all the advantages that being in the school would give. By the time the last arrivals had gradually moved up to first place outside the office door, the supper bell was ringing, and soon we were all walking toward Orchard House. The housemothers from Little Girls’ House, Eastover, and Little Boys’

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House had the largest groups. Outside the dining room, on either side of the door, were lists showing the order of the tables and the teachers and students to be seated at each table. Once inside the dining room it was surprising how quickly quiet came, with everybody standing at his proper place ready to be seated in his hickory chair at Miss Elkin’s faint tap of her bell. . . . Monday morning was full of sunshine. At breakfast there was eagerness on every childish face, veiled a little by shyness in some of the younger children entering for their first year at Hindman. Morning tasks were done with quick willingness, and by the time the first bell had finished ringing some of the pupils, and teachers too, were moving along the footpaths and up and down stepping stones to reach the school house. By the time the second bell had tapped, all the faculty and the one hundred and four Settlement children, as well as the town students and many of their parents, were in the auditorium. On the platform with Miss Stone and Miss Watts and Mr. [Carew] Smith sat the County Superintendent of Schools and several Hindman citizens. A dignified man of sixty or more, [Dr. John Wesley Duke] rose to speak. “I have come here,” he began, “as I have done for twenty-five years, to be present at the opening of this school. And I have come because I want to renew my allegiance to the fine work being done by the splendid women who run the school. . . .” Miss Stone . . . asked that all Hindman graduates present come forward. And a fine group of young men and women they were. Some of them teachers now, some in professional work, and some college students glad to be at Hindman for the first day of school before starting to Amherst or Berea, or elsewhere, for their own year’s school. One man [Guilford Boleyn of the 1911 class] was asked to say a few words for the graduates. He told, in a simply spoken speech, how his Hindman training had given him the foundation of his later training in the legal profession. He expressed, for himself and other Hindman graduates, the gratitude and loyalty that will always remain in their hearts for what the school gave them.8 One way the Settlement experience was exceptional was that all students worked three to four hours a day. The School kept track of student accounts by maintaining a folio-sized ledger in which was recorded each

116 Challenge and Change in Appalachia

“Doc” Jasper Pratt served as head farmer from 1905 to 1957.

student’s work assignment, the money charged to his or her account for work (first at ten and later fifteen cents an hour), and deductions for any charges incurred. Several graduates remembered working in the summer to earn money for tuition, clothing, or books.9 Although the Settlement had a farmer, “Doc” Jasper Pratt, and a few local employees such as Willie Hale, who ran the powerhouse, and women who helped in the kitchen and supervised the laundry, the School operated primarily with student labor. Tuition was ten dollars a year. Scholarships and work covered the rest. For Settlement students, the routine of work and study took up most hours of the day, and the strict schedules changed little between 1915 and the end of 1945. The day started early. Students rose at 5:30 A.M. and spent an hour to ninety minutes on assigned chores. For the younger ones that usually meant making beds, dusting, and emptying wastebaskets and slop jars. Older girls worked mostly in the kitchen or dining room, while the boys took care of the furnaces, the farm work, and animals. Breakfast on school days was at 6:30, an hour later on Sundays. Students worked for another hour before school began. For boys it was mostly outdoor work, while girls cleaned up from breakfast, prepared for the dinner meal, and readied the classrooms for the day. Bells marked the various times of the school day. The grade school had a bell in its tower that could be heard all over town, and the day schol-

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ars especially remember listening for it. At about 7:45 A.M. it rang three times, signaling fifteen minutes to the beginning of classes; the second ring came about five minutes before the 8:00 A.M. start, which was marked by the final bell. Classes were held from 8:00 to 11:30 A.M. The lunchtime break was ninety minutes, since Settlement students had chores to perform after eating. Only Settlement students ate in the dining room. Others who lived too far to go home brought a lunch and were supervised at the schoolhouse. Two bells marked the renewal of classes, the first about fifteen minutes before, the second at 1:00 P.M. when the afternoon session began. Classes were over at 3:15 P.M., and Settlement students worked again from 3:30 until 5:15, a schedule that allowed them a few minutes to clean up before the supper bell rang at 5:30. From 6:00 to 7:00 they had a free hour, outdoors in good weather, while in winter they gathered around the fire in the Little Girls’ and the Little Boys’ Houses, played checkers and dominoes, or sang and listened to stories. Then it was bedtime for them. The older students studied from 7:00 to 8:00, then had “free time” until lights-out at 9:00 P.M., when the electricity for the campus and the town shut off. This schedule did not leave much time for mischief, and most graduates believed (at least in retrospect) that it had been good for them and very much what their parents expected. Several other routines augmented this basic schedule. One was the weekly bath, which Furman’s boys thought was senseless but was cherished by the girls, who signed up to guarantee a turn. There was a half workday on Saturday. On Sundays they had church, Sunday school, and a quiet hour from 1:00 to 2:00 P.M. after dinner. Boarding students could go home two or three times during a semester. Two were short visits, beginning after work on Saturday and ending by suppertime on Sunday. For the long visit, a student could leave after classes on Friday. These rules gradually loosened as travel became easier, but students were always limited on visits home or to town as long as Elizabeth Watts remained director.10 Albert Stewart spent more years at the Settlement than any other student, from 1919 until 1932, and has clear memories of campus life during the 1920s. His recollections include not only student life but memories of Lucy Furman, who was almost a second mother to him. Even though he had a brother and sisters at the School, he recalled crying all the way when his brother came and got him. Vertie Pigmon Conley, a graduate of 1927, remembered Albert as a small boy, saying that when the supper bell rang, “Miss Furman would bring her little boys. . . . They almost marched in formation. Albert, the smallest, skipped along in front of her and then would run back and take hold of her hand.” May Stone worried about what

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Albert Stewart, the Settlement “baby” and founder of the Appalachian Heritage Magazine.

to do with a child so young, since he could not be assigned work and, at age five, attended kindergarten for only a half day. He was eager to be like the other boys, begging Furman for little chores, and she often sent him out with a long spike to pick up trash.11 Furman served as housemother of the Little Boys’ House, the building in which the founders had originally lived in 1902. It had six rooms, a living room, and a room for Furman. Her twelve boys typically slept three to a room. Furman’s first book about the Settlement, Mothering on Perilous, described their favorite activities—wrestling, marbles, basketball, and Fox and Hounds. She took them on walks, especially during the quiet hour on Sunday, when the thought of keeping a dozen small boys quiet for an hour was out of the question. She let them play or sat them down for stories of ancient Greek heroes. In 1924 Furman built a house for herself, which she named Oak Ledge, from the proceeds of her second book about the Settlement, The Quare Women. It was much smaller, with only one large room. She took four of the boys to live with her, including Albert. Because she was a fervent believer in fresh air, when they moved into the new home

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everyone slept out on the big porch, “rain or sunshine, snow or cold or whatever,” the five of them lined up on cots.12 She left the Settlement shortly after this due to poor health. Her contribution to its work continued, however, since her very popular books (including a third Settlement-based novel, The Glass Window, published in 1927) awakened the interest of people across the nation who became donors. In addition to the Little Boys’ House, there was also a Little Girls’ House. Eastover served as the dormitory for the older boys, while Orchard House was the principal dormitory for the older girls, although some also lived at the hospital, in the practice home, and at Hillside, the teachers’ residence. Sophomores lived at Practice House, while a few senior girls lived and helped at the other two places. Living arrangements, both at the Little Girls’ House and in Orchard House, were typically four to a room with double-deck beds, a washstand, a bowl and pitcher for water, and a single closet. Alice Foster, the best-remembered housemother at the Little Girls’ House, read to the girls before bed most evenings. The girls opened their doors, got into bed, and Foster sat in the hall reading so that everyone could hear. A girl recalled hearing Anne of Green Gables and The Girl of the Limberlost read to them in that fashion. Occasionally girls who would normally reside at Orchard House lived at the Little Girls’ House because of special circumstances. Both Ruby Boleyn Allen and Sophia Holliday lived there because of younger sisters whom May Stone did not think should be separated from them. Sophia recalled that her sister cried almost every night, and she would climb down into her bunk and stay with her until she fell asleep, although sleeping together was prohibited by Settlement rules.13 Girls gradually made their way from the Little Girls’ House to Orchard House. It was a tri-level wooden building built on a sloping hill, with the kitchen and storerooms on the first floor and the dining room, sitting room, and office on the second floor, which was at entry level. The third floor housed the high school girls. Apple trees nearby gave the building its name, and Elizabeth Elkin reigned here for several decades, both as matron and housemother. No one who lived on campus during these years ever forgot Elkin. Indeed, since almost all the girls spent some time working in the dining room or the kitchen and all the boys ate there, Elkin’s personality remains one of the strongest memories of the graduates. Almo Smith, a 1935 graduate, said that she ruled with an iron fist. Even though she was a tiny thing, weighing less than one hundred pounds, “she could stop a grown man dead in his tracks and cause the girls to tremble in their shoes.”14

120 Challenge and Change in Appalachia Elkin put the fear of the Lord into the girls as well. She inspected them to insure that they followed the rules forbidding powder or lipstick. She also inspected their rooms each day, and if a bed was not made correctly, that is, hospital style, it had to be remade. She swatted a girl on her bottom once when she caught her in a prohibited sleeveless dress. She watched carefully to see that they wore the hated cotton hose prescribed by the dress code. What the Orchard House girls recalled most about Elkin was how she watched like a hawk when any boy came around. She favored Settlement boys over their town counterparts and took a keen interest in who walked her girls home from a ball game or folk dancing. If she disapproved, Elkin was more than forthright in saying so. Many girls resented such close supervision, but others recognized the tremendous burden Elkin carried supervising twenty-six high school girls as well as running the kitchen and dining room. Some, like Gertrude Maggard, decided to become home economics teachers because of her influence.15 Rules were strict for the boys too, but they found more ways around them. It was easy to get out at night after hours from Eastover. The dorm was a two-story structure on the hillside, and all one had to do to exit was climb out a window, walk on the roof of the shed, and jump onto the hill. Boys usually lived two or three to a room and had their study hall downstairs. Elizabeth Watts was housemother in the early 1920s, and James Still, the librarian, lived at Eastover in the 1930s, when there was also a housemother, Miss Jones, who was admired for her ability to keep the boys under a semblance of control. They recalled that she would invite them to her room on Saturday nights in the late 1930s to listen to the Grand Ole Opry. A number of the boys played the guitar, banjo, or fiddle, and almost all of them liked to sing. Several times over the years there were enough musicians for a pick-up band.16 The older boys had the most physically demanding jobs on the campus, with some of their primary tasks being working in the shop, fixing things around the campus, and doing the gardening. The most difficult work was the dairy herd. The barn was a large, two-story wood structure with hay and grain stored upstairs. A herd of twelve to twenty cows was housed downstairs, along with a dozen milking stations. The “barn boys” got up at 5:00 A.M. to milk and wash the cows. After breakfast, they took the cows to pasture and cleaned the barn. Occasionally they were late for class, and sometimes other students pointedly held their noses when the barn boys arrived, having managed to clean the barn but not themselves before school began. In the early days Lucy Furman named all of the cows for Greek god-

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desses, and they carried the fanciful names of “Venus,” “Psyche,” and “Aurora.” Martha Burns took over responsibility for the outdoor work by the late 1920s, and Almo Smith, a 1934 graduate, described an event in the “barn boys’” life that is a revealing commentary on the relationship of students with some of their supervisors. He was having trouble with a cow named Daisy (goddesses had gone out with Lucy Furman’s departure) who was in heat. Daisy jumped on the back of the cow he was milking, causing the pail to spill. Angry, he whacked Daisy in the head with a yellow-handled broom. She promptly fell into her trench, scaring them all terribly for fear they might not be able to get the cow up and she would die. The boys finally managed it and no one breathed a word to Martha Burns, who, fortunately, was not there at the time. The next day, however, she came in just as they were locking the cow into her stanchion for milking. Apparently seeing dirt somewhere, she grabbed the yellow-handled broom. “Wham, bang, Daisy threw it in reverse, broke out of the stanchion, and bolted out the door,” Almo recounted. Burns, frightened and confused, kept muttering, “What in the world is wrong with that cow?” Almo noted, “No one answered.” Smith also recalled how Martha Burns outlined each day’s work to them in detail, even though it never varied. Almo was new to the Settlement and had the temerity to ask why. For this, he was sent to Elizabeth Watts, who put him on probation for a week. An older, wiser cousin who had been at the Settlement longer told him afterward, “Almo, if you want to survive at the Settlement, you must learn to please the little old ladies. . . . They want to tell you and they want you to listen.”17 Girls did general housecleaning as well as kitchen and dining room duty. The most disliked job was working in the laundry. The water had to be very hot, and they hated to get down and scrub on a washboard. The major washing took place on Saturday mornings in giant iron pots of scalding water, with wooden sticks to move the linens and clothing around. Clothes were ironed during the week, and every student got a fresh set on Friday. Kitchen and dining room duty was the most common work for girls. Elizabeth Elkin supervised the work in the same rigorous way she handled her role as housemother. One kitchen worker called her a terror, “so persnickety that you couldn’t bang two dishes together.” This was not hyperbole, for others said they were expected to be perfectly quiet when drying dishes and silverware and had to use two towels to guarantee no clanging. Each girl had to bring her dishpan to Elkin after washing up. She would run her finger around the rim, and if she felt any grease, it was returned to be washed again. Sophia Holliday said that much later when she was at home and got

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Washing dishes at Orchard House.

too fanatical about something being done just right, her sisters would tease her by calling her “Miss Elkin.”18 Meals were indelibly printed on the memories of many Settlement graduates. Everyone filed in and stood behind his or her chair at an assigned table. When all were present, Elkin rang a hand bell and everyone sat down to say the blessing. Each table seated twelve, including one or two teachers. Every place had a mat, and each child had his own napkin, which was changed weekly. The food came up from the kitchen in large bowls. The head of the table served the main course, and then the vegetables and other side dishes were passed around. The little boys had a table to themselves for good reason. They were in the early stages of learning dining hall etiquette. Otherwise, all ages and both sexes were mixed at the tables. Some were set aside for students with similar interests, such as the French table, where students could practice their conversational skills with Miss Cobb. One town student recalled that she could never become as proficient as her Settlement classmates because they had the advantage of practicing at meals every day. Students were expected to eat everything on their plates, something not too difficult for growing children who did a lot of physical labor. They also were required to take some of everything and eat at least three bites, even if they did not like what they tasted, according to Albert Stewart. He hated canned spinach

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and managed to hide his unwanted vegetable in a biscuit in order to get away with not eating it. Biscuits were the only food students were allowed to leave on their plates.19 However, that rarely happened, as the beaten biscuits were the favorite food at the Settlement—“the best things that ever was,” as one student described them. Served most mornings, the biscuits were made by using a machine that operated rather like the roller on an old washing machine. Dough was rolled back and forth on the roller to make it thin, and then it was cut into silver-dollar-sized biscuits. Whether it was the twenties, thirties, forties, or fifties, students remembered these biscuits reverently. Many girls tried to replicate them, without success. One said, “[W]hen I think of the Hindman Settlement School, delicious hot beaten biscuits come to mind.” Cornbread was also common at meals, served with butter and jelly or sorghum or molasses. The heated syrup was put in a bowl in the center of the table, with a big spoon in it. Oatmeal and Cream of Wheat® made up other common breakfast items in winter, while cold cereal was typical in the warm months.20 The Settlement family ate a lot of vegetables from their gardens, served in both fresh and canned form. The School bought produce from neighbors as well, sometimes by the wagon load—especially fresh fruit. Students recalled typical meals of macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and salmon croquettes. Meatloaf, a common item on the menu, was a culture shock for Ruben Roberts, a 1953 graduate. He had never eaten anything like it and could not believe that they had prepared it correctly. He said of his experience, “I thought jeez, there’s got to be something wrong with this, nothing would taste like this.” Some graduates described the fare as health food (for it was generally cooked without grease), and several commented that the meals were more balanced than what they received at home.21 Food was in many ways a more difficult adjustment for the teachers than for students. Elizabeth Watts complained to her mother in 1912, “[I]t’s as bad as ever here. We’d die if it weren’t for extras we import. Oh for mushrooms and all the other things.” The fare was especially monotonous in the early years before canning provided a greater variety of fruits and vegetables in the winter. Still, Edith Stout said that she and others at the Settlement in 1926 and 1927 considered Christmas shipments of fresh fruit and lettuce from their families as a godsend, better than presents.22 Dining room memories included camaraderie as well as food. Ruby Boleyn Allen remembered playing games at the table, including “ghost” and guessing games featuring the Bible, history, and geography. Dorothy Stiles sat at the table with the little boys and said that they liked to play

124 Challenge and Change in Appalachia games about famous people. Once when they were each deciding what famous man they wanted to be, one boy said Lincoln and another Washington. When a third named Methuselah, Dorothy continued, “‘Oh,’ says small James—‘if you are aimin’ to be Bible characters I’d rather be God.’” For many, learning manners—not only which fork to use, but also not shouting or using bad language, saying “please” and “thank you,” and showing consideration—was an important component of the dining room experience. A girl, older than most when she arrived and exceptionally shy, recalled how a basket of apples on the table would be passed around at the end of the meal. Being timid, she was always the last one to take one and usually was left with the smallest and least desirable piece of fruit. She was seated at a table with one of the most popular boys at the Settlement. After a couple of such incidents, Mason Moore, the boy, reached over and took one of the best apples and placed it on her plate just before the basket went around. From then on, he did this whenever the basket was passed.23 After beaten biscuits, the memories of favorite meals were not so much of a particular food as of the Sunday evening “picnic-style” supper. On Sunday night, rather than a cooked meal, the students had sandwiches and punch. Several girls would be excused from church so that they could prepare the sandwiches. In the dining room, two sets of chairs were lined up across from each other, students got their napkins, and then sat down. Someone passed the sandwiches. The punch usually had fruit cocktail in it, and the lucky ones got fruit as well as punch. This practice allowed the local cooks to have Sunday night off and also meant there was no clean-up duty for the girls. The meal’s informality greatly appealed to all of the students. A few girls did not eat in the dining room during the semester because they lived at Practice House. This experience allowed the six girls to do everything involved in running a home, including estimating meal costs, preparing the food as well as eating it, and learning general housekeeping.24 Three generations of children attended grade school in the schoolhouse built after the 1910 fire. None recalled the building more vividly than Bob Young, a 1960 graduate who went through all eight grades there. By the time he started in the late 1940s, it was an old building, but little had changed except for the teachers. A big frame building, it was three stories high and built on a hillside. Students entered on the second floor, which had a larger foyer with two rooms on each side. A double wooden staircase led up to the top floor. Part of the first floor seemed underground because of the way the structure was built on the hillside. Besides four rooms on that floor, there were two large rooms upstairs on the top floor that could be made into a single large space that served as an auditorium

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Ann Cobb, beloved teacher, taught from 1905 until 1938.

for plays, graduation, Christmas festivities, and other events. It had no indoor toilets even when Young attended. The privy was a long concrete structure outside, with one end for boys and the other for girls. A wooden sidewalk led from the building to town.25 In the 1920s, standing directly behind the grade school was the smaller, three-room former manual arts building that served as the high school. After the new high school opened, the building reverted to its original purpose, housing both manual training and weaving. While many of the students who studied in these two facilities have clear recollections of them, it is their teachers who made the deepest impression. Unquestionably, for students of the era before 1940 the Settlement’s most beloved teacher was Ann Cobb. Short and slender, fair and ruddyskinned, with red hair and light-blue eyes that spoke of her Irish ancestry, Cobb had received a classical education and graduated from Wellesley in 1894. She was from a family of scholars, with one brother a missionary in Japan, another a professor of mathematics at Amherst, and a sister who worked at Boston’s Natural History Museum. She was also a Mayflower descendent. Cobb loved to say that she got to Hindman in 1905 because of a free

126 Challenge and Change in Appalachia railroad pass that enabled her to accept the invitation of her friend Antoinette Bigelow. Arriving just before the 1905 fire, Cobb described how people “escaped in wrappers and slippers,” and how the housemother exited in a “purple and yellow bathrobe and feathered velvet hat with a violin under one arm and a typewriter under the other.” She liked to tell people that another reason she stayed was because her return ticket had burned up in the fire.26 Cobb taught high school from 1905 until the late 1930s. Her gentleness was as legendary as her bubbly personality and her sense of humor. Although some students could be difficult with the female teachers, Cobb never had problems. Charlie Tignor, a 1930 graduate, said, “[I]t would have taken a rather brazen individual to say anything mean to Miss Cobb.” Another added, “If a big boy made too much noise or something, her eyes would puddle up like she was going to cry. And they’d quiet right down.” Students spoke of her positive approach to teaching. If someone made a mistake in class, she’d correct it without making the student feel embarrassed. She put passion into her teaching. One student leaving Cobb’s history class remarked, “Hit wus a sight! Pore ol’ Miss Cobb! She takes on jes’ like that ’ar king wus one of her kinfolks.” Her considerate nature extended well beyond the classroom, tutoring students for college and keeping in touch with former graduates. Aside from her role as teacher, Cobb was well known for her poetry and short stories, using humor very effectively to make serious observations. Her book Kinfolks: Kentucky Mountain Rhymes, published in 1922, includes many poems that capture life in the mountains and the Settlement. Although her background and training could not have been more different than the mountain society in which she lived her life, the thing that suited her best was service at Hindman Settlement School. Cobb continued to live at Hillside into her eighties. When Elizabeth Watts retired, Cobb moved to Florida, where she died on January 12, 1960. Edith Stout summed up the universal view of this teacher and mentor when she wrote, “There is just one Miss Cobb in all the world . . . one of the most unselfish souls I have ever known.”27 Another figure of great importance in the lives of these graduates was Elizabeth Watts. Although she had no formal training as either a teacher or an administrator and no college education, Watts taught for fifteen years, ten in the primary grades. During the other five, she served as the elementary school principal and taught seventh and eighth grades. In 1925 she became Stone’s assistant in running the Settlement and ceased teaching. Most of the graduates of the late 1920s and 1930s remembered her only vaguely as a teacher.

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Bevie Perkins Pratt, who was in Watts’s primary classes and had her for a teacher again in the seventh and eighth grades, recalled the word “attention,” as spoken by Watts. It awakened a familiar chord in the minds of many who had been in her classes, as it was their teacher’s way to call them to order. Bevie also recalled the anticipation she felt at the opening of the day, when they would sing the “Good Morning Song” or the favorite, “I Have a Yellow Duck.” Another fondly remembered time in class was just before lunch or at the end of the day, when Watts read them stories or a selection from “One Hundred and One Famous Poems.” More than thirty years later, Bevie could still recite some of the poems she learned in Watts’s classes.28 Watts came to Hindman as the result of a visit to her family from John and Olive Dame Campbell. Olive was a friend of her mother, and the Campbells stopped by on their way to visit schools and centers in the southern Appalachians for the Russell Sage Foundation. “When I heard what they were going to do,” Watts recalled, she told them, “‘if you find anything for me to do down there, let me know’—but I didn’t give it too much thought and didn’t expect to hear anything from them.” She had recently graduated from Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and she said that she went “not because I had any particular urge to serve but more because I wanted to see Kentucky!” Less than a week after the Campbells had gone, she received information about Hindman Settlement School, and only a week after that, she began her great adventure. After her arrival, Watts did odd jobs for a month. Then the primary teacher became ill and left, and Katherine Pettit told Watts that she would have to teach the first three primary grades. “It made no difference that I said I couldn’t, and I hadn’t any training for it. I was told there was no one else to do it. So I did.” She had more than one hundred students. Although it is hard to imagine that the Elizabeth Watts who could later paralyze a student with a piercing glance from her blue eyes would be floored by the assignment, she said that at first she could “either keep order or teach but couldn’t do both at the same time.” So, she alternated. She would get the children in to order for a while, and then leave some of them while she taught a lesson to others. When those she left became too unruly, she called them all back to order and started again. Although Watts did not exactly see this as a calling, she came to adore teaching the little ones. Her success as a teacher and principal was so widely respected in the community that when she resigned to become May Stone’s assistant at the end of the 1924–1925 school year, there was consternation among the parents about losing her as principal. In 1927 Watts became the on-site administrator of the Settlement.29

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Elizabeth Watts, assistant to May Stone, 1927–1946, and director of Hindman Settlement School, 1946–1956.

It was during the twenty years from incorporation until the mid-1930s that the greatest number of teachers and workers lived in the Settlement and taught in the schools. Among the best remembered, aside from Elkin, Watts, and Cobb, were Clara Miles Standish and Clara Keezle. Clara Miles Standish was a Phi Beta Kappa with an M.A. degree in chemistry. Short and heavyset, she arrived at Hindman in 1933. She came as a volunteer, and shortly after introduced chemistry into the curriculum. When James Still left, she took over as librarian. Twenty years of teaching in the South prior to coming to the Settlement had in no way diminished her New England accent, and Marcia Smith Lawrence recalled that when she asked Standish where she could find something in the library, the teacher replied, “Look in the Encyclopedier Brittanicar, Marciar.” Clara Keezle was another favorite remembered by many. Tall and plump with glasses, she had a sparkling smile and a full head of wavy white hair. She taught the middle grades and made it a practice to give a dollar bill to the student whose handwriting improved the most during the semester. A story involving Keezle illustrated the close cooperation between parents and teachers in these years. Joy Sturgill Terhune said that her father had an arrangement with Keezle to deal with her problem brother, who was in Keezle’s class. Every day, Joy, who was in second grade, had to

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stop by Keezle’s class and pick up a note for her father that described her brother’s behavior that day. She adored her older brother, and they conspired to offset the worst consequences of this arrangement. Both knew the note had to be passed on, but her brother wanted advance warning to prepare his excuses if necessary. As a reward for her cooperation, they would then go downtown, where he would buy her a favorite candy bar.30 All girls took domestic science, where they learned to sew and cook. Sewing began in third grade and continued through elementary school, with another year in high school. By then, girls were expected to be skilled enough to make their graduation dresses. Samples of their handiwork were displayed at the crafts exhibits during graduation week. The manual arts building held a large kitchen and small dining room where cooking students learned many different lessons, starting with how to make white sauces and biscuits. They moved on to the proper cooking of vegetables and to other basics of nutrition during their freshman year. One remembered learning to make potato chips and other “neat stuff.” The freshman year ended with the preparation of a meal for the faculty to which each student could invite a guest.31 Among the last of the “outside” teachers to arrive was Betty Burroughs Combs, an Oberlin College graduate who came to teach English in 1937. She became one of the most popular and admired teachers in the high school. Betty’s happiness at Hindman—aside from her pupils—may have stemmed in part from the fact that she fell in love with Pearl Combs, the adored basketball coach. One girl said that the high school girls thought Betty was “the most beautiful person we’d ever seen.” They followed, breathlessly, the budding romance between Betty and Pearl.32 Pearl Combs may well have been the most popular figure at the high school in the late 1930s and 1940s, since these were the Settlement School’s glory days of basketball. The brother of Beckham Combs, the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Knott County, Pearl came to Hindman in 1936 and the following year had already built a strong team around two of Hindman’s basketball greats, “Copper John” Campbell and Otis Cornett. It was the beginning of a fifteen-year era during which Hindman dominated regional basketball, culminating in 1943, when the Hindman Yellow Jackets won the state tournament—a considerable feat for a school with a senior class of thirty-three. In his thirty-six years of coaching, Pearl led the Hindman team to 760 victories, which placed him third on the list of Kentucky’s most successful high school basketball coaches. He also taught math but did not win accolades in that area. One student said, “We didn’t learn anything but we had a good time.” Another said much the same

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Pearl Combs with his 1943 State basketball champions. Back row (left to right), Menefee Slone Jr., Lacy Risner, Ed Maggard, J. B. Sturgill, Malcomb Bentley, and Pearl Combs. Front row, Eugene Slone, French Jones, Luther Risner, Palmer Engle, Charles Combs, and Foster Calhoun. Courtesy of the Troublesome Creek Times.

thing and blamed it on the fact that most of the basketball team was in the class and more basketball than math was discussed. It made little difference. Boys and girls alike idolized Pearl Combs.33 By the 1920s a number of former students had returned to teach at Hindman, among them Eda Kay Smith, a University of Michigan graduate primarily remembered as a strict disciplinarian. A much better known “local” and Settlement graduate was Jethro Amburgey, who in 1921 was the second graduate to return to teach (after Lula Hale). After graduating from Berea College, Amburgey spent his career at the Settlement, teaching manual training, which students said consisted primarily of carpentry and learning how to use tools. Amburgey became famous for the dulcimers he made over his fifty-year career.34 During its early decades, Hindman was similar to other settlement institutions in two respects. Like settlement programs everywhere, most workers at Hindman resided in the facility. Hindman also resembled many

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other settlements in that its resident personnel were entirely female. This changed with the arrival of James Still in 1933. While the high school principal was male and there had been at least one male teacher besides the manual training teachers, these men did not live in the Settlement. Still was the first unmarried resident male. He served as the librarian for six years and taught library science and typing. When interviewed for the oral history project, Still said that he never felt really comfortable around the secretaries or Miss Watts, although he did become friends with a few of the teachers such as Ann Cobb. He said that he felt somewhat excluded since he was not invited to the activities that made up the social life of the female teachers. It may have been that the single female staff, many of them middleaged at that time, felt uncomfortable having a young man in his twenties at their tea parties, waffle suppers, and such. Many who came to know Still in later years, however, commented on his shyness and aura of remoteness, which may offer another explanation for his feeling of exclusion. What Still remembered most clearly was that he was there for three years without receiving a salary. He got housing, food, and laundry, and that was it. Even the old clothes sent in were off-limits to him since they were saved for needy students. However, with respect to pay, Still was actually better off than most others at the Settlement. Still’s biographer, Carol Boggess, cited a letter he wrote to May Stone, probably in July of 1933, in which he asked if he could return to Hindman Settlement School. He had been there two years earlier as a volunteer in a summer program. He told Stone that he had been interested in pursuing writing for some time, and a friend, who Boggess believes was his early mentor, Guy Loomis, was willing to provide him with a salary of twenty-five dollars a month. In contrast to his situation, teachers who had previously received pay from the Settlement were now volunteers who, like Still, received only room and board from the Settlement. Only local people like Doc Pratt, the head farmer, continued to be paid during the Depression years. After three years, Watts provided Still with a salary of fifteen dollars a month. When he left at the end of a school year (as he was required to do) Still received only the bus fare to his destination, nothing more for even a cup of coffee or a sandwich. During those summers, he worked many odd jobs around the country before returning to the Settlement for the school term. Still also recalled the struggle he had in order to get ten cents out of Elizabeth Watts for a pack of blank index cards that he used for cataloguing since the Settlement could not afford the printed ones. Even while he described frugality that bordered on the miserly, Still admitted, “[Y]ou knew that every penny that came in here went to the right place. There was

132 Challenge and Change in Appalachia never anything frivolous.” Moreover, he appreciated that Elizabeth Watts never interfered in the classroom. No one ever told him what to do or what not to do. Still’s recollections are a reminder of the strict economies that were in place during the Depression.35 Still was to become one of the region’s most famous writers and soon sold some poems that brought him a little additional cash. He later remembered the moment when he started writing his acclaimed book River of Earth. “I recalled distinctly the Saturday morning I began to write a novel in the storeroom of the high school.” He had been anxious for authenticity in it, and in preparation for writing, when he heard mountain slang, he’d write it down in a little notebook for future reference. When Still received a contract to finish his novel, he left the Settlement in 1939 to live in a remote cabin loaned to him by Jethro Amburgey. The log house between the waters of Wolfpen Creek and Dead Mare Branch became his permanent home, although he returned to live at Hindman Settlement School for the last decades of his life. Upon finishing service in the army from 1943 to 1947, Still became librarian at the Settlement again between 1953 and 1962, then taught at Morehead State University for eight years. After another period at his log house, during which he published both The Wolfpen Poems and The Wolfpen Notebooks, A Record of Appalachian Life, he returned to the Settlement, living in the cottage that Lucy Furman had built with royalties from her novel The Quare Women.36 From the very beginning, Settlement teachers gave of themselves far beyond the classroom. Stone arranged for her most promising female graduates to go to Science Hill, one of the South’s best preparatory schools for girls, in order to ready them for her alma mater, Wellesley, or the other elite eastern colleges. She left a scholarship endowment at Wellesley for Kentucky girls in her will. She also provided two scholarships at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.37 Stone and Watts maintained close ties with the successive presidents at Berea College, and many Hindman graduates found its doors open to them as a result. Lucy Furman used royalty money to help several of her boys go to college, including Al Stewart. Even teachers who were at the Settlement only a few years maintained a strong interest in the students they had known. When Lula Stamper Begley went north to Smith College, her train fare was paid by Judy Underwood, who had been her fourth grade teacher. Judy and another former teacher found work for Lula, took her to plays, and showed her the ropes of city living. Another way the close relationships between students and Settlement workers can be seen is the large number of girls in the area who carried the

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names of teachers or May Stone. Elizabeth Smith Cornett of the class of 1938 was named for Elizabeth Watts because her sister had been in Watts’s class when Elizabeth was born. Her family ties to the Settlement went back as far as her mother’s participation in the summer camp at Hindman in 1900. Cornett summed up the feeling that so many students had for these women when she said: “I don’t know what we would have done, what this place would’ve been like if it had not been for the Settlement School. . . . A lot of them after they graduated from Hindman, the teachers would connect them with people up east. And they were able to go to school and get a real education.” Cornett concluded, “I just don’t know what would have become of the people of Knott County if it hadn’t been for that Settlement school.”38 Students did not have regular contact with other workers, such as the nurses, but they certainly remembered the clinics. Few got away from these unscathed. Every child received an annual exam during the opening weeks of school, whether living in town or in the Settlement. Those found to have problems, especially bad tonsils or adenoids, were scheduled for an operation. Some recalled the procedure for removing tonsils in excruciating detail. Ruby Boleyn Allen said they would first be lined up to be checked by the nurse. They would go in one by one and have each tonsil injected to deaden it, sitting between the visiting surgeon’s knees while Dr. Duke held their heads steady. After receiving a shot in each tonsil, students returned to the hall to wait their turn for removal. Meanwhile, the tonsils began to feel as if they were swelling up, and Ruby, at least, felt as if she were going to choke to death. So, she said, “by the time it came for you to go in and get them out, you went willingly.” There are graduates for whom the “snip, snip” sound of the surgeon’s knife is indelibly imprinted on their memories. Elizabeth Watts recalled that some of the younger children ran away in terror from the fearful experience and that on clinic days attendance of the town children was always down significantly.39 The Settlement watched for another scourge, hookworm, because it was difficult to eradicate. Students usually went barefoot all summer, which made them very susceptible to the disease; some had it more than once. During the annual exam in the fall, students had to present a specimen for inspection, and those found to have the problem took a weekend-long cure with nasty-tasting medicine. A boy recalled that he tried to beat the system by presenting the stool of a classmate who had never been diagnosed with hookworm in the past. This time the specimen results were positive and he had to take the cure again. There was almost always at least one student in the hospital at any

134 Challenge and Change in Appalachia given time since the most common stay was for childhood diseases such as measles and chicken pox. If the stay was prolonged, teachers sometimes came to the hospital to give lessons, and several older girls lived there in order to help with duties such as carrying the food trays to and from the kitchen, helping to sterilize instruments, and keeping the place germ-free. The Settlement maintained a nurse on-site until 1967. Although it had turned over its community nursing and health education to the county in the 1920s, Elizabeth Watts expressed great pride that “the settlement started all the health work in the county.”40 The academic achievement at Hindman High School was very high during these years, and there was an added incentive to do well since students with an “A” average in class did not have to take the final exam. The rigorous and rich curriculum benefited many who went on for higher education. Harold Watts, who currently serves on the board of directors, graduated in the University of Kentucky’s first class of Transportation Scholarship students. He remarked that while he was in high school, chemistry, plane geometry, algebra, and general math were all taught. “For Eastern Kentucky that was unusual that they had the chemistry classes,” he said. The community understood the importance of maintaining the School’s standards for accreditation, and despite the Depression, students, teachers, parents, and alumni joined to equip an up-to-date science laboratory for the new high school. The board of education donated $150, while the senior class raised $40 with a candy sale. Juniors put on a play that netted $20, and the PTA raised $190 by various methods. It was Ann Cobb, however, who raised the most money, with a poetic appeal to alumni. Its first and last stanzas entreated: Sad! Sad! To beg from a grad. ’Specially during the Great Depression. Besides, to hollar For a whole Dollar That’s Pedagogical Oppression. To ready fill The (so-called bill) This letter should be more “appealing” But if you fill this Letter with bill, ’Twill set my heart with joy a-pealing.

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Between the doggerel and the activities, enough was raised to buy the tables, chairs, a teacher’s desk, and other needed equipment. Advanced work and good facilities allowed students like Harold Watts to go on in engineering, while others took premedical education and other degrees that required a strong science and math preparation.41 Rules were strict in the classroom as well as in the Settlement throughout these years. The high school principal from 1925 until World War II was J.F. Smith, or “Prof ” Smith, as he was called by the students. His primary role was to enforce discipline, although he also taught biology. While few students recalled serious problems with elementary school students, the need for discipline was far greater in the high school, where many boys were big, strong, and often “unruly.” Consequently, the graduates remembered Prof Smith primarily for the fear he inspired. Darla Hicks wrote that he would come into a room and “we’d be scared to death. . . . You could hear a pin drop.” She recognized that “he had some tough boys to deal with.” He whipped many for misbehavior, and only a few were big enough or foolish enough to resist. Charlie Tignor remembered that Carl Perkins was among them. Sent to Smith’s office one day, he fought with the principal “all over the office and out in the hallways,” Tignor said. “Both of them took a pretty good licking.” But, he added, “unfortunately for Carl, he got the worst of it because he got a second licking after he got home when his father learned what he had done.” Girls did not receive corporal punishment but, instead, a stern lecture. That was quite sufficient when, as one said, “all he had to do was clear his throat and every body became silent.”42 When Smith left at the beginning of World War II to head a large technical high school, a female principal replaced him. However, Pearl Combs, the coach, handled discipline. On the whole, students understood the reasons for the strictness and for the many rules on campus. Moreover, they knew that their parents endorsed both. There were rules for everything from what you could wear to drinking and guns. Whether it was the early twenties or two decades later, the rules did not change appreciably at the Settlement. Alma Pigmon remembered that in the early 1920s she often had dresses made from flowered grain sacks, and most girls wore their hair in a long braid down the back. By 1930, fashions had changed enough that the Settlement imposed a dress code. In that year, May Stone’s letter of acceptance to parents described the permissible clothing for campus. Boys were to wear dark and serviceable work shirts and pants. Cotton dresses, hose, and aprons were required of the girls. The Settlement forbade trousers on girls until the fifties, and then they could be worn only in their rooms. Items such as

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High School principal “Prof ” Smith with 1925 debate team.

sleeveless dresses, short or narrow skirts, silk dresses and stockings, spiked or French heels were also forbidden, as were chewing gum, makeup, and powder. Needless to say, the Settlement banned tobacco, whiskey, and guns, and their possession resulted in expulsion. The dress code and rules, especially regarding the behavior of girls, reflected the notions of propriety that Stone and Watts had brought with them into the mountains decades earlier. In this respect, there was no adaptation to changing times.43 The Settlement’s prohibition of the use of alcohol was always absolute since it was a constant problem and because of the School’s long association with the WCTU. Almo Smith learned just how absolute in his junior year. During the junior-senior play, the male members of the cast decided they needed something to “boost their morale” and “give us confidence,” so they drank a pint of whiskey before going onstage. It apparently worked wonders, for they were a smash hit. Drunk on both the moonshine and applause, the boys stood at the exit doors and bowed to the audience as it left the auditorium. Unfortunately, Almo bowed so low that he fell flat on his face just as Elizabeth Watts passed by. She gave him a look and told him to come to her office the next morning. As Almo realized, “[F]or me, the party was over.”

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Almo Smith, one of the Settlement’s born storytellers and a 1935 graduate (center), with friends. Courtesy of Almo Smith.

Up to Hillside he went the next day. Watts ordered him to come in and sit down. As he described the experience, “[S]he could intimidate a person at a hundred yards. Sitting three feet from her, you were immobilized.” She wanted to know where he had gotten the whiskey and told him, “[D]on’t give me any of that code of the hills malarkey. If you don’t reveal who furnished the whiskey, you will not be coming back your senior year.” Almo honestly did not know who had sold them the pint, but there was no reprieve. His father received a letter saying that Almo could not live in the Settlement the following year. His father was equally unforgiving, telling Almo he would have to walk to Hindman and find someone who would let him work for room and board, because he would not give him a penny. Fortunately, Almo found someone to take him in. A happy ending came in March, when Almo was summoned to the principal’s office and informed that he was the class salutatorian. Told to report to Elizabeth Watts’s office, she invited him back to the Settlement for the last months of his senior year.44 Settlement students had little time for recreation during the school week, but for town students the most common form of after-school enter-

138 Challenge and Change in Appalachia tainment was what teenagers seem to have done from time immemorial: They congregated at one of the special places that catered to them, such as the Palace Lunch or The Hole in the Wall, and drank soft drinks, listened to the jukebox, danced, and flirted. There was little visiting between town and Settlement students after school, but only because of the work schedules of the latter. The experience of the town and Settlement students was not significantly different with regard to school activities. They participated in the same clubs and social activities, especially the weekend folk dances. Ballad singing and dance nights were open to all.45 Most students described the relations between town and Settlement students as good and recalled general mixing between the two student populations. Al Stewart recalled the days when Settlement boys were viewed as special and the town boys harassed them by picking fights, even on Sunday when Settlement students were on their way to church. It was not Settlement boys alone who came in for such treatment; the clannish town boys did the same thing to any hapless country boy who came to town. But on the whole, students shared social activities and the many clubs on a friendly basis. These met on Friday evening, until the county began to bus students to high school in 1936. In deference to the growing number who were bused, the clubs were changed to school hours on Tuesday.46 Nearly every special day on the calendar was celebrated at the Settlement, from the opening-day songfest, to Columbus Day, through Thanksgiving, Christmas, Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and May Day. Graduation was the most special occasion of all. It was both solemn and joyous, not only for the graduates and their parents but for the entire community. Everyone turned out for commencement whether or not they had a child graduating or even had a child at school. The girls wore white dresses and shoes; the boys wore suits or dark pants and white shirt. One girl recalled how her mother sold her best quilt to buy a graduation suit for her brother. Before the new high school was built, the ceremony was held on the top floor of the grade school, and the high school graduates marched in to “Pomp and Circumstance” in two lines that met at the bottom of the stage. Two rows of chairs were placed on the stage, with the girls seated in front of the boys. Through the years, the programs remained very similar to the one described for the first commencement ceremony in 1911. Students gave their graduation orations, the class song was sung, and other music was performed. There was always a commencement address, often given by Prof Smith or a leading citizen. Occasionally, someone from outside spoke, such as Presidents Frost or Hutchins from Berea College or the president of another nearby college.47

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The 1929 graduation class. Front row (left to right), Gertrude Maggard, Marie Stewart (the author’s mother), and Alma Pigmon. Back row, Joe Slone, Andrew Hammond, Orban Pratt, and Beckham Miller.

There is much less information about the lives of teachers than there is about the students. However, they did have an adult life that was separate from the students. Letters sent by Elizabeth Watts and Edith Stout describe this life, as do the recollections of visitors and volunteers. Hikes, picnics, and walks formed a large part of their off-hour, weekend outdoor activities during good weather. Many liked to ride, and Edith Stout kept a horse in town for this purpose. Those who stayed many years made friends in the community, and Elizabeth Watts described gargantuan meals to which she and others were often invited. When there was a greater mixture of teachers who lived both on and off the campus, social events often took place in the homes of married faculty who did not live on campus. The resident teachers almost all lived at Hillside, and what little free time they had on weekday evenings was spent in conversation. Several students mentioned that both Lucy Furman and Ann Cobb loved to talk and tell stories and would chatter away with one another for hours at a time. It became a tradition for the camp diaries to be read aloud sometime early in the school year so that newcomers could get a feeling for the early days. Elizabeth Watts wrote in 1912, “All the Hillside family collected before a jolly big open fire and Miss Stone read us the diary that she and Miss Pettit

140 Challenge and Change in Appalachia kept the summer before they came to Hindman . . . and it was perfectly fascinating.” Watts had a keen sense of the ridiculous when describing plans that went awry. She often sent her mother humorous anecdotes of “doings.” One excursion that was definitely memorable for what went wrong occurred after two weeks of brutally hot weather at the opening of school in 1911. May Stone decided that the teachers needed to get away for a hike and picnic supper. They were late leaving the campus, and it was perhaps an omen when Ann Cobb fell down and cut her lip on the way to the picnic site. The picnic went fine, but it was quite dark when they began their journey home. Stone was certain that she knew a shortcut, but as soon as they started their descent from the mountain, things went amiss. As Watts described it, “It sure was down and no mistake.” One minute Stone was there, the next she had disappeared. Watts called out to her and heard a faint voice below answering, “Here I am.” No sooner had she tried to find a better place to descend to Stone than down she went as well. Both found themselves in a waterfall and quite wet. At least they now knew they could locate the creek and follow it home. But, as Watts had feared, they came out on the wrong side of town and did not get home until 11:30 that night. Watts recounted another funny episode from the days when the Settlement was still the WCTU School. It was very cold in the residences, so several teachers went to Judge Napier to get some bottles to use as hot water bottles. He gave them five two-quart whiskey bottles, labels and all. Elizabeth described how they had hidden them in a valise and then made their way back through town very carefully, thinking of the reaction there would be if an accident revealed the WCTU faculty traveling with a large number of empty whiskey bottles.48 For the most part, the faculty’s social life was quite ordinary, with waffle suppers, shared meals, small celebrations, game playing, and after the roads improved, trips to Hazard, the nearest large town. They often went there to see a movie. The Settlement had a constant stream of visitors, and entertaining them also kept Watts and the teachers very busy. The Settlement made a deep impression on the teachers who came from far away and from such very different lives, even in the waning days of the “fotched-on” teachers. Betty Burroughs Combs, the young teacher from Oberlin, represents many others in her memories of Hindman Settlement School. She recalled a conversation that took place her first evening on the campus. She walked back along a campus path with a fellow teacher who told her, “You may not think it now, but you will come to love this place and want to stay here.” She admitted that at the moment, she thought he

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was crazy and was quite dubious about his prediction. But she did come to love it—especially the children (and, of course, her future husband, the coach). There were many like her, whether they stayed a few years or a lifetime. They came to love the place and the children and remained supporters all of their lives.49 When graduates of this era described the impact of the Settlement on their lives, many stressed the obvious—that Hindman Settlement School opened up opportunities for bright, ambitious young people so that they could more completely fulfill their dreams. This was the central aim of Pettit and Stone when they founded Hindman Settlement School, and its graduates confirm how successful they were in achieving their goal. “They just opened up the world for you, that’s all,” said Albert Stewart. Sisters Vertie and Alma Pigmon remarked that the type of leadership provided “was just beyond imagination in this territory,” while Mildred Slone Collins stated simply, “[N]ext to the church, the Hindman Settlement School is the most important place in Knott County.” Sophia Holliday said that she became a social worker because she wanted to give back some of what she had been given by the Settlement. More than one graduate suggested that the School produced so many teachers because of all the people who students knew, it was their teachers who were the most admired role models. James Still sensed what these students were expressing when he wrote the words for the plaque at the School that honors May Stone. It says, “Her achievement was to give the people of the mountains the opportunity to be their own best selves.”50 Almo Smith rejected criticism of the settlement workers on the part of some historians and journalists. He said, “Some modern writers attempt to question the motives of the settlement women,” implying that “they came to the hills to impose their own culture and ideas on the people of the hills. . . . I never met all of the settlement women who came to Kentucky. But I did meet those at the Hindman Settlement School. The settlement women taught us to appreciate our heritage and to recognize our own talents.”51 Graduates over several decades consistently said that their school days were defined by high expectations, dedicated teachers who were both friends and mentors, and a combination of what Vivian Sexton Flannery Dees called “old fashioned ideals . . . [and] the newest methods of modern education.”52 In their recollections, student life at the Settlement seemed to change little, while “modern life” rushed in everywhere else. Yet, this Settlement world was coming to a close as World War II ended. The changes of the outside world reached the Settlement’s door. Adapting to them would be the greatest challenge of the institution’s next quarter-century.

142 Challenge and Change in Appalachia

Chapter Five

THE CHALLENGES OF A CHANGING WORLD, 1932–1977 ONE OF THE most important precepts of the social settlement movement was the idea that “the work of the settlement is to make itself unnecessary.” However, as settlements matured, they came to understand that they could shift their emphasis from being “a leaven in a lump” to becoming “a stimulating center [that] might well occupy a permanent position of usefulness.”1 That is the precise challenge that Elizabeth Watts, Raymond McLain, and Lionel Duff grappled with during their years leading Hindman Settlement School. The three served as directors from the time of the Depression, World War II, and during the following quarter-century. Each faced different issues, although all struggled with the problem of funding. For a time, the Depression placed the Settlement’s survival at risk. Yet, as difficult as the financial situation was, road building and other improvements undertaken by public works projects in the 1930s altered Knott County and Hindman Settlement School even more. During the 1930s, the opening of the mountain region and its integration into the state and nation was a watershed event for mountain residents and mountain institutions. The coming of the war accelerated another transformation already under way. Out-migration from Appalachia became a defining feature of the region. In addition, the postwar period saw coal mining becoming more automated, thus eliminating the need for the vast labor force that had given many mountain families a livelihood and leaving behind a legacy of severe economic problems. To a great degree, the world into which Hindman Settlement School had been born and in which it had flourished over four decades disappeared. Most institutions like Hindman that had not closed during the Depression would close their doors within the next decade. In a sense, the ability of Hindman Settlement School to keep operating and providing valuable educational programs was a tribute to its leadership. Despite the Settlement’s financial recovery after the mid-1930s, a brief return to solvency did not bring a return to the conditions of “the

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golden age.” Renewed financial problems in the postwar decades again strained the Settlement’s ability to maintain its programs for the community. Public agencies assumed more of the activities that had once defined the Settlement’s role in Knott County. In particular, the county took over most of its educational responsibilities, and while important programs continued to be provided by the Settlement, outside support for its work diminished. It was no small achievement that the Settlement was able to find the funds to maintain its work in manual arts, home economics, music, and art, and to continue its expensive but needed boarding service. By the time of Elizabeth Watts’s retirement in 1956, it was obvious the Settlement needed to find new roles for itself, although chronic financial strain made the road to that goal long and arduous. While the achievements of later years were not of the spectacular nature of earlier decades, they were truly hard won. Most notable were reorganizing the endowment, renovating the dilapidated campus, and modernizing the institution’s governance structure. Not until the end of the 1970s were conditions in place that allowed Hindman Settlement School to assert itself again as the kind of community partner it had been in the years before the Second World War. While no new permanent programs were launched after 1940, the groundwork was established for the successful pursuit of new endeavors that would be initiated during the administration of Mike Mullins. During the 1930s, Hindman Settlement School began or improved several additional educational and community services. It coped with its financial crisis by taking severe economies that affected both the boarding program and the staff. Once finances improved, an important new recreation program was started and Recreation House was built in 1937. Extension library services for the outlying regions of the county also began, and in 1940 the Settlement built and operated a new public library for the community. One of the early signs of how change would affect the Settlement’s traditional role can be seen in the boarding program. In 1933 the board made a planned reduction of 40 percent to meet the economic crisis of the time, with the expectation that the program would later return to its earlier capacity. Even after financial stability returned, however, the boarding program was unable to reach the size it had been in the 1920s. Although there were still many students for whom boarding was essential, the WPA had created a county road system in 1936 that made it possible to bus students to Hindman, the county’s principal high school. Another important impact of busing was that many more students were now able to continue on for a high school education. The combined effect of easier access and more

144 Challenge and Change in Appalachia students produced a burgeoning day-student population that reached six hundred by 1940 (from just over three hundred in 1930), and almost all of the growth was at the high school level. The number of residential Settlement students barely increased during the period. With the tremendous increase in high school students, the graduation classes of the late 1930s showed slightly more modest academic ambitions than the students of the 1920s, yet they were still remarkably high. The majority continued their education at Caney Creek Community College or nearby institutions. This pattern may reflect several changes: the declining number of “fotched-on” teachers with connections to the eastern colleges, the impact of the Depression, and the convenience of a nearby two-year institution of higher education within Knott County.2 Given the rapid growth of the high school population, it was inevitable that the Settlement would be unable to shoulder responsibility for its continued operation. This circumstance led to discussions with the Settlement’s local advisory board and with Beckham Combs, the County Superintendent of Public Instruction, that fundamentally altered the lines of responsibility for education between the county and the Settlement. A central aspect of the settlement idea upon which Hindman had been founded was the belief that services provided by the Settlement should be turned over to a community as soon as it was able to undertake those services. This principle had already been applied in many areas of work initiated by the Settlement. The concept of community building lay behind this policy, as well as the notion that the Settlement would then be free to move on to other programs that the community was not yet capable of providing for itself. As early as 1917, this reasoning had led May Stone to discuss with the local advisory board the transfer of responsibility for education. The board was unanimous that the time was not ripe and that transfer would bring the failure of quality public education. Nonetheless, over the next twenty years, the authorities increasingly took on more responsibility, especially in paying teachers’ salaries. A new discussion began on this matter in the late 1930s, and an agreement was drawn up to realign the responsibilities of each party at the opening of the 1940–1941 school year. At the time, the Settlement paid half of the high school principal’s salary, the entire salary of one high school teacher, and part of the salaries of two grade school teachers along with the costs of two extra months of education offered in the grade school to provide a nine-month academic year. All of the “extras”—manual training, home economics, music, recreation, weaving, home nursing, and the librarian—were paid for by the Settlement. The Settlement and the county school board, which had replaced

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the old trustee system in 1934, agreed that the Settlement would continue to financially support the seven special-subject teachers. The other salary costs would be transferred to the county, which would select all academic teachers. As it turned out, the county could not assume the entire transfer at once, and the Settlement continued to pay the salaries of all grade school teachers for the eighth and ninth months of the academic year until 1947. A second element of the agreement called for the county to return the grade school building to the Settlement and build a modern elementary school for the town. Initially, Beckham Combs had thought it possible to put the entire agreement into place in the 1940–1941 year by building a temporary frame grade school to serve until other school construction in the county (mainly consolidation of the ninety rural elementary schools that operated in the mid-1930s) had been completed and a permanent new grade school for the town of Hindman could be built. In the end, the parties agreed it would be best for the students if the county continued to use the Settlement grade school until it could build the long-planned new facility. It was just as well that a temporary building was not hastily built, since it was more than fifteen years before Hindman had a new elementary school. The final aspect of the plan called for transferring the library, then housed in the high school, to the new building constructed in 1940. While the Settlement had extended its library work into rural schools as part of its expansion of community services during the late 1930s, the decision to build the new freestanding library was a direct result of the severe overcrowding that had occurred in the new high school in less than a decade. When an alarmed official of the State Department of Education, Freddie Riddle, wrote to Watts after learning of the impending educational changes in Knott County, Watts assured him that the Settlement was not removing itself from a major role in Knott County education but would continue to support at least two-thirds of its earlier program. She further explained that the overcrowding of the high school was what had led the Settlement to build a separate library.3 The plan would free up high school space and make the library accessible again to the community. Watts also told Riddle that the agreement to return the grade school building to the Settlement was based on the county board of education’s long-standing desire for a modern facility in the town of Hindman. The Settlement grade school, constructed after the 1910 fire, was viewed by all as no longer adequate. It was the Settlement’s intention to use the building for home economics classes, which would free up more space for other classes at the high school. After the agreement went into effect, there was

146 Challenge and Change in Appalachia what one observer called a “period of adjustment.” In a 1942 letter, Watts implied that the county was experiencing something of a steep learning curve during the first years, but that the Settlement was “firmly sticking to a hands-off policy.” However, “the departments we [continue to] supply we feel are too important to drop.” She mentioned that there were people in the community who wanted the Settlement “to take full control again,” but she responded, “[W]e feel strongly that the time has come for them to stand on their own two feet and maintain an adequate High School with public funds under local control.” This was not the abandonment of responsibility but an adaptation to changing times.4 However, the transfer of control, although necessary, may not have been entirely positive. According to Virginia Combs, the wife of the superintendent, there was a loss of strong educational direction for the system. With two smaller high schools in other parts of the county, there may have been some political divisions on the county school board as well. Combs observed, for example, that jealousy toward Hindman High School continued because of its better qualified teachers and its extra programs.5 In the mid-1950s, the county took responsibility for the salaries of the home economics and manual training teachers, but art, music, and recreation continued to be provided by Hindman Settlement School until 1990. Other challenges beyond the loss of the Settlement’s central educational role also arose. The difficulty of initiating new programs was secondary to the problem of finding the funds to pay for the ones currently operating. Insufficient income was the constant motif of all three of these decades and affected everything the Settlement did and did not do. Postwar inflation, often reaching 8 percent annually, was the first threat. The problem was made worse by waning interest in institutions such as Hindman. A third factor was that the Settlement’s original group of dedicated and affluent supporters was aging and dying off. These circumstances limited the options available to all of the directors and delayed development of new programs. As part of her growing role as a leader in mountain education, Watts regularly attended conferences, especially the annual meeting of the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers. May Stone also attended, and they used the opportunity to confer on Settlement business, to plan the following year’s budget, and to select teachers. Watts also attended meetings of the Southern Handicrafts Guild, an organization created by the conference, and was elected to its executive board. There are indications that she lectured to groups at Berea College and elsewhere. Early in her first decade as Stone’s assistant, she visited Hull House in a trip somewhat

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reminiscent of the one Pettit and Stone had taken thirty years earlier. She went on to New York and visited the Henry Street Settlement.6 Watts also visited May Stone several times a year in Louisville. The trips involved Settlement business but also served the purpose of letting Watts get away from the School for a while. A trip in 1936 included a visit to Katherine Pettit, who at the time was living with her sister, Minnie Bullock. Pettit, had terminal cancer and died later that year, on September 3, 1936. The mountain people had certainly lost a great friend and pioneer educational reformer. After she retired from Pine Mountain in 1930, Pettit had spent the next five years lobbying civic leaders to improve conditions in the coal camps and towns and sought to persuade destitute miners to return to the land. Hindman Settlement School held a memorial service for her during which Elizabeth Watts called her “the most unforgettable person I had ever met,” and a woman of “indomitable courage.” She had lived by the precepts “If something ought to be done, it can be; learn by doing; and God never fails.” Since May Stone was now near seventy and in poor health, she spent less and less time at Hindman. While Watts, for all practical purposes, ran the Settlement, she still relied on Stone’s long experience and wisdom, and told her mother, “I always feel as if the bottom has dropped out when she goes.”7 The difficulties posed by the Depression were rarely the subject of Watts’s letters; nevertheless, they can be seen in the economies taken on every hand in the struggle to stay solvent. As mentioned earlier, almost all of the settlement workers became “volunteers,” at least until the mid-1930s. The fund-raising materials sent to supporters reflected the much-reduced budget. The Hindman Letter, as the newsletter was called after 1928, had initially been handsomely printed with photographs and other expensive touches. Three years later—to save money, and to underline the Settlement’s message to donors that not a single penny was being spent on anything except necessities—the letter changed back to a typed flyer format with student drawings. The appeals and newsletters tried to accentuate the positive, although they regularly reminded readers that when they helped the many deserving children, they were helping the children’s families as well. The only information about the hard times that came directly from Watts was when she admitted, in an interview many years later, how often the Settlement could not pay its bills to local merchants on time. She singled out Elijah Hicks for special praise because he had extended the Settlement credit, often for long periods of time, and said that she did not see how the Settlement could have survived without his help and patience.

148 Challenge and Change in Appalachia While most graduates of the era did not recall very specific effects of the Depression at the Settlement, one remembered a soup kitchen set up to provide lunch at the grade school. Others spoke of government programs that hired high school students either through the WPA or through the National Youth Administration. The hard times changed one longestablished Settlement activity. The practice of taking Christmas trees and gifts to the rural schoolhouses was ended. Instead, the Settlement concentrated its help on the neediest families. It provided boxes of food and clothing to families whose names were supplied by the county school teachers. Many men and women walked miles to get this assistance and then walked back to their homes carrying the heavy boxes.8 Fortunately, after 1934 the Settlement no longer ran deficits. Indeed, the 1934–1935 audit showed a $5,000 surplus. The surplus grew over the following year, and by 1946 the Settlement had a reserve of $66,000. Stone’s pleasure in moving beyond the financial problems of the 1920s and early 1930s was evident in her financial reports at the annual meetings of the board of directors. She announced the year’s surplus and always included the size of the accumulated funds.9 Student interviews and other sources make it clear that one of Elizabeth Watts’s chief goals was to keep the institution operating in a manner as close as possible to the model she had known for twenty years. The routines of the Settlement remained much the same with regard to rules; decorum in classrooms, the dining hall, and dorms; and in the dress code required of girls. The dress code, especially the hated cotton hose, must have made the Settlement girls increasingly distinct within the high school population. A home economics teacher remembered how she failed to convince Watts to allow the young girls to wear slacks during play in the early 1940s. Betty Burroughs Combs also expressed surprise at the dress code, and a wartime teacher admitted that she gave the girls tips on makeup, to be worn only “on the way to school.” The rules still did not allow the girls to wear obvious makeup. Jean Ritchie, whose sisters attended Hindman in the 1920s, recalled visiting the Settlement during the last years that Elizabeth Watts served as director. She was struck by how little things had changed in the dining room since she had been a visitor three decades earlier. Ritchie recalled, “I would sit at her table . . . and nobody spoke. Everybody was quiet. . . . eating dinner over there wasn’t much fun.” At that time there were only thirtyfive boarding students in residence.10 Neither Watts nor Stone wanted everything to stay just as it was. Working together, they inaugurated several important changes. The im-

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proved finances by the mid-1930s allowed them to fulfill one of the Settlement’s long-delayed goals. They instituted a recreation program and appealed for funds to build a facility to house it. The appeal described it as a “long-held dream” and mentioned that such a center had been part of the institution’s plans as early as 1910. Watts told friends that Orchard House was too small to serve as the center for community and Settlement social activities. Folk dancing in particular had become an important part of social life of both students and adults. However, the main room of Orchard House was too small to accommodate the Saturday evening community dances. Students were also in great need of a place to spend their leisure time. Watts felt that such a place was particularly critical for the town’s youth. Without healthier outlets, the boys resorted to “pool and loafing”—options that the director said led to drinking and much “meanness.” The cost of the proposed building was very modest (estimated at $2,500, it was built for $2,900). The appeal elicited an almost instant response, and Recreation House was operating before the next newsletter was issued in the fall of 1937. In addition to providing a larger facility for folk dancing, the building served as an all-purpose youth and community center. Students could pursue hobbies and activities there, play board games, Ping-Pong, and cards, or just gather to sing or talk. Stone told the board of directors that with the new building and recreation director she saw an “excellent prospect for more far-reaching community work” than had been possible in recent years. The building made possible a great expansion of both music and folk dance programs at the Settlement. The strenuous schedule of Mary Marvel, the first recreation director, included twice-weekly play sessions for each grade in the elementary school, supervision of the dramatics club at the high school, and responsibility for all of the special programs, such as the Christmas pageant and the senior play. Singing and folk dancing now took place almost every night of the week and included day students and townspeople as well as Settlement students. The following year the Settlement launched an ambitious program of recreation education featuring folk music, dance, and games in the rural schools.11 The new program led to the establishment of a folk dance group at the Settlement who participated in gatherings such as the Mountain Folk Festival at Berea College. They regularly danced in the May Day celebrations at the Settlement also. Watts took the opportunity to highlight the program by taking several girls with her to the meeting of the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers in Knoxville. They sang ballads as part of

150 Challenge and Change in Appalachia a presentation put on by students from a number of schools. A professor from the University of Tennessee heard the girls and arranged to record their songs the following day. These excursions were intended both to showcase the new cultural work and to broaden the experience of students. In this case, it did so in an unexpected way when Elizabeth Watts took the girls downtown to see an automatic door in a drugstore. Judging from a letter she later sent to her mother, it is not clear who was more amazed at the progress of technology, the girls or Watts.12 The gift of a station wagon the following year made it possible for the recreation director to take the program to rural schools. During the first year, the Settlement had brought teachers to Recreation House and taught them games and songs to take back to their pupils. Now the recreation director herself visited the schools. Betty Winslow, the director in 1942, indicated how popular the program was. She described how she regularly passed a schoolhouse on the way to an even more distant school. One morning as she approached the first school, the boys were all lined up across the road so that she could not pass, and there was a sign tacked to a nearby tree that said, “Betty, we like to play too.”13 Not long after the recreation program got under way, plans for a new public library began. From the earliest days, library services had been a central Settlement activity. There had been libraries at the camps, and when the Settlement was first established a library was part of the main building. Students and townspeople alike were encouraged to use it. The library moved downtown in 1924, and the three-room facility included a children’s room with little low tables and kindergarten chairs; a hallway where poetry and reference books were kept; a room for fiction, girls’ and boys’ books, and periodicals; and another room used for printing the Mountain Echo. All of the library’s equipment, including the bookshelves, were made at the School. A librarian and a senior girl who served as her assistant made it possible to keep the facility open six days a week. When the new high school opened in 1930, the library of eight thousand volumes moved there. Books that were not needed were distributed to teachers in the rural schools, who rarely possessed any of their own. At the time, not even textbooks were furnished by the state. Before the decade was out, the library had grown to more than eleven thousand volumes and there was no longer room for it and the growing student population. Thus, Stone and Watts decided to build a public library. They had already initiated another type of library service in the mid-1930s, and Watts’s appeal for the new library building featured this program. For several years, Settlement librarian James Still assumed responsibility for the program. He had

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James Still, Settlement librarian, with book box he carried to remote county schools, 1937.

been acting as a human “bookmobile” for nineteen county schools, which meant carrying boxes containing twenty books on his shoulder out to schools six to ten miles away. A box was left for two weeks, and then Still reclaimed it for another school and brought a new box. He and the local teachers kept track of usage and found that many books would be read twenty times during the two-week stay at the site.14 The positive response to the library appeal was similar to the one that had been received for Recreation House two years earlier, and the new library was completely paid for when it opened in 1940. The facility had special significance for Elizabeth Watts, for it was built from the plans of her family home. It included a large reading room for adults and a smaller one for children, along with books, reading desks, and the librarian’s office on the first floor. Upstairs there was a storage room and two bedrooms for workers with a kitchen and a bath. It was open to students and the community during the day and served as a meeting place in the evenings. Settlement boys built its furniture, and the handwoven curtains came from the Fireside Industries. Both the county board of education and the high school set aside annual grants to purchase books.15

152 Challenge and Change in Appalachia By this time the Settlement’s librarian, James Still, was a rising literary figure. Watts wrote to her mother in 1936 about his growing acclaim, saying, “It has been remarkable the recognition he has had of a sudden, twenty-nine verses published in a year.” The brochure that opened the library appeal in 1937 included not only a photograph of Still carrying a box of books but also one of his best-known poems, “Troublesome Creek.” These people here were born for mottled hills The narrow trails, the creekbed roads, Quilting dark ridges and pennyroyal valleys. Where Troublesome gathers forked waters Into one strong body they have come down To push the hills away, they shape sawn timber Into homeseats, to heap firm stones into chimneys, And rear their young before splendid fires. And Troublesome floods with spring’s dark waters, Dries to sand in summer, and purple martins Flock to poled gourd, molting stained feathers Which fall like blackened snow on clapboard roofs Of hill townsmen biding eternal time And men here wait as mountains long have waited. Still left Hindman in 1939, served in World War II, returned as librarian for a time, and then taught at Morehead College before returning to the Settlement to spend the remainder of his life. The leaders of Hindman Settlement School continue to take great pride in the fact that the institution has supported public library facilities for the county for one hundred years.16 A more telling marker of change was the death of May Stone on January 29, 1946. Watts mentioned to her mother in 1944 that when the seventy-five-year-old Stone had left for the winter, “she was so tired it frightened me. The summer is really too much for her now.” Stone contracted the flu in early January of 1946. Her illness had not been seen as serious, and her sudden death from heart failure came as a shock. Only the night before her death, Stone had written a note to Watts praising a new brochure. Watts also later told the board of directors that the final check May Stone had written had eliminated the last indebtedness of the Settlement—a fitting tribute to the woman who had been so responsible for both the growth and the financial stability of Hindman Settlement School.17

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To the end, May Stone saw education as the Settlement’s appointed work and was tireless in extending it into the community in many forms. During the forty-four years she served as the director of Hindman Settlement School, almost every program she initiated was educational in its purpose. At times, she was called upon to make difficult decisions to maintain the School’s excellence, and it is clear that she often had greater faith in the Settlement’s future than anyone else. May Stone always seemed to stand in the shadow of her more charismatic partner, Katherine Pettit, due both to her more reticent personality and to the fact that she left little personal documentation of her work. Bevie Perkins Pratt’s eulogy said of Stone, “[H]er life was like those great lives . . . which left footprints on the sands of time.” The best testimonial to her accomplishments is Hindman Settlement School itself. It earns May Stone a place among a small group of women who led educational reform in the mountains and transformed life there as a result.18 Plans began immediately for the creation of a suitable memorial to Stone, and by the time of the alumni banquet during commencement week, it had been decided that a new kitchen and dining hall dormitory should replace Orchard House and be named for her. The project took twelve years to complete and provides an example of the challenges in the postwar years. Fund-raising for the May Stone building began in 1947, but at the end of the year, Watts and the board discovered that regular donations had dropped by almost the exact amount raised for the May Stone fund. This caused a $13,500 deficit in the operating budget and led to the decision to suspend direct appeals for the building. The next development came two years later when Ann Cobb’s nephew—a young architect from Chicago— offered to provide building plans for the structure at a minimal cost. Unfortunately, this offer further delayed construction. Though well-meaning, he did not know how to design economically for the area, and Watts had to tell the board in 1951 that his plans were “impractical.” Even after revision they remained “prohibitively expensive.” The six-year delay doubled the estimated cost of the facility. Nevertheless, several heartening steps took place over the next two years. The board came up with a workable scheme to finance construction, and Neil Gerst, the manager of the Settlement’s endowment, persuaded the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund to make a gift of $5,000 toward the building. This foundation gift was as important for the way it pointed toward a new funding source as it was for what it added to the building fund. Unfortunately, these steps did not produce immediate results because, in all too typical fashion, an emergency intervened. A summer drought in

154 Challenge and Change in Appalachia 1954 necessitated an immediate replacement of the ancient sewage and water system that dated from the end of the typhoid epidemic in 1914. During her final year as director—just when it might have been expected that the Stone building would serve as the crowning achievement of Watts’s years as director—the sanitation upgrade and a state highway project next to the school property further delayed construction. Watts’s last summer at Hindman was a veritable nightmare, with machinery “rumbling and groaning” from 4:00 A.M. to dark, dust everywhere, and the campus showered by rocks, which destroyed the gardens. The work on the sanitation system, going on simultaneously with the road improvement project just beyond the Settlement grounds, meant that every drop of water used on campus that summer and early fall had to be boiled. On two occasions during the work, breaks in the water line left the campus without water for days at a time. When Watts announced her resignation and retirement in April of 1956, the board decided to lay aside plans to begin the Stone building until a new director was in place.19 The saga of the Stone building during the decade that Elizabeth Watts served as director illustrates the continuous deterioration of the Settlement’s financial situation from the late 1940s on. Board minutes are full of repeated warnings that income was not keeping up with inflation, but several factors made it difficult to solve the situation. The Settlement incurred substantial personnel costs from staff on campus and the extension program. The costs of the boarding program were very high on a per capita basis since it now served only one-third of the number of students it had in the 1920s. The staff included a nurse, housemothers, a dietician, a secretary, and an assistant to Watts, as well as local employees in the kitchen and on the farm. The days of volunteers or workers who served for almost nothing had ended. Watts told the board, “There isn’t the glamour of the early days.” Everyone had to be paid, and inflation necessitated increases in salaries well beyond the rise in Settlement income. The problem of keeping staff, even at wages that the Settlement could not afford, was compounded by new personnel-related costs. In 1951 the Settlement began paying Social Security—the first pension plan of any kind at the institution. Watts often expressed her frustration that no matter what she did, costs kept increasing faster than income. In the “Dear Friends” letters that went out, she repeatedly stressed that the boarding program was still needed, as were the scholarships that supported it. One of these letters described the obstacles that remained for students who attended from the Decoy area. If they did not live at the Settlement, they left home before daylight and returned after dark. The buses often could not get through at all in

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winter and the pupils simply missed school. Despite these entreaties there was no improvement in general purpose contributions during Watts’s last years, except for 1952–1953, when the Settlement celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.20 The celebration, which included a special edition of the local newspaper and a pageant involving several hundred people from the community, produced an outpouring of appreciation for the Settlement. The newspaper featured articles highlighting the history of the School, its founders, its best-known teachers, and recollections of many former graduates. The anniversary pageant, “From Where the Pattern Grew,” was a community celebration. Written by a 1920 graduate, Una Ritchie, it told the story of the School’s founding and first five decades. Narrated by Lula Hale, the valedictorian of the first official graduating class, men and women from all over the county played roles, built stages, sewed costumes, loaned props, provided elaborate lighting, and helped in any way they could. More than two thousand sat under a full moon on a “perfect night” to hear the opening prologue. For in the warp and woof of all her days Some thread from all our lives is caught And woven there in history’s bright patterned Memory. While in the heart of each Do we not bear the imprint of a better Way of life marked by her dreams and those Who created Hindman school? Her past is our past too. Come—Walk back with me From where the pattern grew, to other times we knew. The Louisville Courier Journal described the pageant as full of calico dresses, black sunbonnets, and women pretending to puff on corncob pipes, with the men in overalls, false whiskers, and mustaches. The reporter described it as “depicting the transition of a people and a way of life from crude pioneer livelihood to modernism.”21 Despite the real affection so many felt for the Settlement, it did not translate into adequate financial support. When Elizabeth Watts announced her retirement four years later, the Settlement’s future was more uncertain than at almost any time in its past. Its reserve was spent and its cash balance was at its lowest since 1941. After nine years of planning, the May

156 Challenge and Change in Appalachia Stone building was still not built. Watts realized that the Settlement needed to change but also knew she was not the leader to undertake this task. Possible new directions for service—and how they could be funded—were beginning to be explored, but Watts was naturally conservative and was hesitant to change the old Hindman Settlement School that she loved. However, her letter of resignation looked to the future. “Hindman needs new blood,” she wrote. “Long range planning for the future should be made.” And, she continued, “It is my firm belief that there is much more that the Settlement could and should do. I see dreams and see visions but I no longer have the energy to work them out.” Her steady work at the head of the Settlement, following faithfully in the footsteps of the founders whom she revered, had been vital to the continuation of the Settlement’s educational mission. What her efforts meant, over nearly three decades as one of the institution’s chief administrators, was made abundantly clear in a report issued by the State of Kentucky in the year she retired. The report placed Knott, one of the state’s poorest counties, first among Kentucky’s 120 counties for the percentage of high school graduates who went on to college. In 1955, Knott had sent 52 percent of its graduates on for further schooling, while the state average was just 31 percent.22 When asked some years later why she had spent a lifetime of work at Hindman, Watts replied, “The authenticity of the mountain people, their lack of sham or social pretension of any kind, won my heart from the first.” She added that her mother was a great beauty and very socially skilled, while she herself was painfully shy. “At Hindman the people honestly cared for me, and what I had to say was important to them. My shyness was over at Hindman and, to a great extent, I found myself.” She stressed that she saw her years at Hindman as a lifelong exchange with the people of Knott County. “I grew up there in many ways. I became much more broad-minded and able to see other points of view than my own. . . . I grew in ways I never would have done had I not come to the Settlement.” For Elizabeth Watts there was no doubt that “mixin’ larned both parties.”23 Watts’s successor, Raymond McLain, was a young man who had been serving as the Settlement’s recreation director for two years when she recommended him to succeed her as director. He was just what Watts thought the Settlement needed—someone full of energy and plans. She was able to leave him an additional legacy to begin a new era at the School. At her request, the manager of the Settlement’s endowment restructured it, placing more of its funds in higher-paying stocks and less in low-paying bonds. The result nearly doubled the value of the endowment, with a commensurate improvement in regular income as well. McLain thus began his years

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as director in a much-improved financial position from the one with which Watts had struggled for a decade. Raymond McLain had visited the Settlement as a youngster, shortly after his father became president of Transylvania College, and had returned in 1954 to become recreation director. After service in World War II, McLain had used the G.I. Bill for graduate studies in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was completing an M.A. degree when he saw the notice for a recreation director at Hindman. His wife, the former Betty Winslow, was familiar with the program since she had been the Settlement’s recreation director during the war. When he assumed the post, the recreation program flourished and included folk dancing and ballad groups, activities with the high school and town, and the extension recreation program.24 No new permanent programs were initiated during McLain’s directorship, but he rebuilt the campus, most of which dated from the 1910 fire. He also modernized the boarding program, and in the 1960s took advantage of funds from the War on Poverty to establish temporary projects that were quite different from those previously undertaken by the Settlement. These projects took Hindman Settlement School into the world of state and federal funding and presented still another option for revenue, which along with foundation money, would become two of the Settlement’s most important new sources of funding in future years. McLain also modernized the board of directors by expanding its size and ending its clubby and passive nature with the appointment of younger and more active members. McLain’s energetic leadership substantially increased the number and size of private donations, although this source of income was still insufficient to meet expenses. Rather, an unusual number of large bequests was what kept programs operating and funded McLain’s construction program. In McLain’s own words, finances remained “precarious.”25 This first real transition in Settlement leadership went smoothly, and McLain presented the board with a thoughtful and comprehensive overview of the Settlement’s work at its initial meeting. He noted that only thirty-five students currently boarded. While he would double that number by 1960, the rapid expansion brought financial strain since neither the cost of food nor the money for additional scholarships had been budgeted to reflect the increase in students. McLain also told the board that the work program for students needed to be reduced due to higher academic standards at the high school and the need for students to have time to participate in extracurricular activities. He suggested that with the boarding program less central, the Settlement might

158 Challenge and Change in Appalachia think about serving more as a community center for adults in the future. He made it clear that current staff was stretched to the limit and no new programming could be undertaken without new personnel and resources. Changing standards had affected the Settlement budget as well. McLain conveyed to the board that the current kindergarten program would require better-trained teachers because the state had recently set higher standards. Better-trained teachers meant higher salaries. As he discussed each department, it became clear that he intended before long to operate the Settlement with far fewer staff than in earlier days. There was no longer a paid dietician. There would no longer be a nurse after the current one retired. Martha Burns, now in her eighties, still supervised the grounds but would not be replaced when she retired at the end of the following year. Doc Pratt, the Settlement’s longest-serving employee, was also retiring after fiftyfour years as head farmer. While the assistant who had been employed to help him for a number of years would take over, it was only a couple of years before the farming operation and the dairy were both discontinued. Higher construction standards also impacted building plans. McLain left the discussion of the May Stone building to the end of his report and told the board there was $27,000 currently available to build. He emphasized the need to get under way immediately by telling them that Orchard House was a fire hazard. In order to keep the cost to a minimum, he presented a plan to build using student labor and his own design.26 The board approved a plan to start construction with the funds on hand, a departure from past practice. Work began early in 1959, continued at full pace during the summer, but then slowed somewhat once school began. As construction progressed, the Settlement received several substantial bequests and donations that brought the building fund to $70,000. The May Stone building was ready for occupancy in the fall of 1961 and dedicated in the spring of 1962. The final audit showed that over one thousand gifts, ranging from a dozen eggs to a $17,500 donation, had paid the building’s $95,152 cost.27 The new Stone building was now the largest and most important structure on the campus. Even before the dedication of the May Stone building, McLain brought a second building project to the board, this time for a new manual and industrial arts building to be named for Elizabeth Watts. The need for this project was driven by accreditation problems relating to the dilapidated condition of the existing structure, which was another building that had been erected hastily after the 1910 fire. He told the board that the county had agreed to pay for new equipment, and since it already paid the salaries of the teachers, the Settlement’s financial responsibility would be

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Above, Raymond McLain with Elizabeth Watts, inspecting the model for the May Stone building. Below, boys preparing the foundation for May Stone building.

160 Challenge and Change in Appalachia limited to the cost of construction. When McLain submitted the proposal in October 1961, he told the board that he and Watts had already looked into a plan to build quickly even though there were no funds on hand. Although such a procedure was highly unusual, the board authorized McLain to proceed, although one member, Marcia Eastham, objected to the lack of consultation. About three months later McLain and Watts reported that they estimated the building’s cost at about $45,000. As with the May Stone building, it would be built with student labor, and by the fall of 1963 the building was under construction and the response to an appeal for donations had gone remarkably well. Nearly half of the estimated cost had been raised. Unlike the experience with the Stone building, these donations did not affect the operational budget.28 However, the final cost of the Watts building ended up being $67,381—nearly 50 percent above its original estimate. And in the summer of 1964, the project ran out of money and McLain was forced to ask Neil Gerst to sell $28,000 in endowment securities to meet bills. The new building probably opened in the fall of 1964 or, at the latest, in the winter of 1965.29 As in the case of the Watts building, McLain’s final project was undertaken due to circumstances beyond his control. In the fall of 1967 the state fire marshal condemned Eastover, the boys dorm built in 1911. When McLain told the board about this in a letter, he said that he agreed completely with the marshal’s assessment. He called the building “uninhabitable,” “substandard,” and a fire hazard. “The floors are coming through and the chimney is crumbling,” he wrote. Dennis Shepherd, who lived at Eastover just before this time, later confirmed McLain’s assessment. He described the dormitory as an open area with eight or ten fellows sleeping on old army cots. “You had cold water, forced radiators. They didn’t work all the time. When they did, they were very noisy. The pipes were clanging all night long,” he recalled. To make matters worse, “Many of the windows . . . were not insulated. Windows were single-paned and many of those broken out. So it was cold. We put [up] sheets and we would tape blankets over the windows to keep the snow out at night.”30 McLain proposed replacing the Eastover dormitory with a building to be named for Katherine Pettit. He told the board that he and Pettit’s sister, Minnie Bullock, had already discussed an appropriate memorial for Pettit on the campus, and Bullock had contributed $9,000 toward it. He believed he could convince her to give even more for something as substantial as a new building, and fortunately he was correct. Bullock’s gifts and bequest eventually amounted to $90,000 of the total cost.

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In an attempt to save money, McLain turned over the responsibility for preparing building plans to a Yale graduate student who was participating in a program to design buildings in Appalachia. The well-intentioned move ended up being a mistake, however, because although the boys vacated Eastover and were housed in very overcrowded conditions in the hospital, the student architect had not completed the plans a year later. The choice of an inexperienced student architect not only resulted in a long delay but also drove up costs and produced a design that was incompatible with the rest of the campus. Far more serious, the plan resulted in costly engineering mistakes that arose once the project went into construction. By 1969, two years after launching the project, some progress had been made after it was turned over to local contractors. The design was far too complicated and the hillside building site far too difficult for student labor to manage. More than $20,000 had been spent, with little to show for it, while turning it over to commercial builders made the project’s cost rise significantly. By the time all bills were paid, the Katherine Pettit building cost $144,000. The project caused problems beyond expense and delay. It also produced altercations between the director and board members. The first occurred when, at the October 1967 board meeting, Marcia Eastham raised questions about the Settlement’s commitment to program offerings and about the director’s authority to spend money. The discussion filled most of the meeting and nothing at all was said about problems with Eastover. A couple of weeks afterward, McLain announced to the board—by letter— that the fire marshal had condemned Eastover.31 He urged their immediate approval of the construction of a new building without a meeting or discussion. McLain was unhappy with the discussion of the lack of new programming that had taken place and was angrier still when Eastham wrote to complain to other board members regarding the lack of discussion before approval of a new construction project. McLain asked Watts to help him with Eastham, an old friend of hers, and told Watts he had already received approval from other board members to go forward with the Pettit building. She advised him to have a discussion of the matters raised at the next board meeting, but McLain was skeptical that anything positive would result, describing these meetings as lasting barely an hour and dominated by the board president.32 Watts wrote to her old friend, expressing shock at her lack of confidence in the director, and defended him. Eastham responded that she had been misunderstood, and there the matter rested for three years.33 When the building project bogged down badly during the next years and a second unexpected financial emergency arose over unpaid bills simi-

162 Challenge and Change in Appalachia lar to the one with the Watts building, the board president, Yancy Altsheler, now openly questioned McLain’s financial management of the project. On October 7, 1970, McLain had reported to the board that $25,000 was on hand to complete construction of the Pettit building and he mentioned no problems. A week later, McLain made emergency calls to Altsheler and Neil Gerst to ask them to approve the use of $25,000 of endowment funds to pay past-due bills from the contractor.34 The board president was both angry and suspicious at being placed in the position of making such a serious decision almost overnight when there had been no hint of financial trouble at the meeting. The money was forwarded, and by various means the bills were paid, although the juggling left the Settlement without operating funds by December. McLain agreed he had not paid sufficient attention to whether all of the bills were in before he made his report. He also admitted that the Settlement was completely out of operating funds and could not pay bills or salaries in December. In yet another unpleasant surprise, he told the board that another $25,000 would be needed—beyond the $25,000 already advanced as emergency funds—to complete the building. McLain felt he had been unfairly criticized for his management of a difficult project and was weary of the problems plaguing the Pettit building. Almost thirty years later, he summed up these feelings by saying, “I thought I’d never get out from under the building on the side of the hill. It was just almost more than I could take.”35 It may well have been more than he could take when the board president openly questioned his management. The blow-up in November and December may have been the catalyst for McLain’s decision to resign and take a position to teach music at Berea College a few weeks later. Despite his sometimes casual financial oversight, McLain’s construction efforts had significantly modernized the campus. There were other, smaller projects, including Pole House, an experiment in inexpensive housing for mountain terrain, and the removal of Uncle Sol’s cabin and the old Fireside Industries cabin from the flood-prone bottomland to higher ground. The two buildings were remodeled into an office and a new home for the McLain family after a fire destroyed Hillside on New Year’s Eve of 1970. Once the dairy program was eliminated, the old barn was removed and made way for the Paul Earp ball field, named for McLain’s assistant from 1959 to 1964. The grade school was also razed when the county finally built a new one at the other end of town. With the demolition of Orchard House, the old manual training building, and Eastover, nothing from the great rebuilding after the 1910 fire was left standing in its original place

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except for the hospital. By the time of his departure in 1971, McLain’s construction projects, removals, and repairs had established most of the modern campus of Hindman Settlement School. McLain also revised the Settlement’s governance structure. The full value of this reform would not be felt before his departure, however. From the time of incorporation, the Settlement’s board had always been very small. In 1915 it consisted of only five members. A later change in the articles of incorporation increased it to nine, and there were eight members when McLain took over in 1956. Problems with the board were not limited to its small size, however. Board members usually served until death, and Hindman Settlement School’s proved to be a hardy lot. The board McLain inherited was definitely elderly. Two members sat on the board for over forty-five years; others lived into their late eighties and nineties. So McLain’s board was composed of at least six members well over seventy and probably no one under sixty, except perhaps for Neil Gerst, the endowment manager. In addition, the board McLain inherited was rather passive. It had engaged in no general fund-raising campaign since 1928, and it still met in Louisville, where most of its members resided. The board had never met in Hindman, and some of its members had never visited the Settlement despite decades on the board. By the time McLain left, the board had expanded to fourteen members. During his final years as director, a number of younger members were appointed, along with the first members who were Settlement graduates, and the board acquired better regional representation. The turning point for the board’s development began in 1968. Four new members joined, including McLain’s father, who had many years of experience in the field of education as the president of Transylvania College in Kentucky and of the American University in Cairo. Another significant change was signaled by the appointment of Mrs. Fred Osborne. She joined as a result of a modification in the policy of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. The policy required that a DAR representative sit on the boards of the institutions it supported. Osborne was the State Regent of the Kentucky DAR. A further milestone occurred with the appointment to the board of the first graduates of Hindman Settlement School—Oliver Stamper, a Cleveland lawyer, and William Miller, who lived at Quicksand. The board was again altered when Robert Miller and Susanne Grigsby died in 1968 and were replaced by Jean Ritchie Pickow and Joseph Graves, a Lexington businessman and member of Lexington’s city council. Graves in particular provided strong leadership for the board during the directorship of McLain’s successor, Lionel Duff, who was also added to the board that year.

164 Challenge and Change in Appalachia

Students folk dancing at Recreation House in 1960s.

Looking back, it is clear that McLain fundamentally altered the board of directors, although the next administration would see even further reforms.36 The oral history interviews with students from these years make it clear that these students did not have a lot of contact with McLain, who, with a family of his own, rarely ate in the dining room. Their principal form of interaction with him was through folk dancing and singing. McLain’s professional training as a folklorist led to the establishment of a touring dance and music group among the students during his administration, and all graduates interviewed spoke of the dancing as a highlight of their life on campus. It became the major recreation for Settlement students whether or not they were among the eight or ten who served as ambassadors to introduce more people to the Settlement’s work. This group toured all over Kentucky and also danced in New York, New England, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.37 Much of campus life remained structured even at this late date. Students ate at assigned tables, and there was a mandatory study hour from seven to eight in the evening. Lights were out at 9:30 P.M.—a thirty-minute change from the 1920s. They were still required to work each day, although the hours were substantially reduced. Rules permitting students to go home were also greatly relaxed in the sixties. Dennis Shepherd said that when he came in 1961, students could go home only several times a semester, the

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Helen and Paul Earp, members of the Settlement staff in the McLain era. Courtesy of Helen Earp.

rule for decades. When he left in 1965, they could leave after Saturday work anytime they wanted. The students’ primary contact in these early years was with Paul Earp, McLain’s assistant, and Earp’s wife, Helen. They functioned as surrogate parents for the students, who often went to them for advice. Jana Everage described Helen Earp as “kind of like an old, mother hen with her wings out stretched [sic].” Dennis Shepherd explained Paul Earp’s importance by saying that McLain had a quick temper and students tried to stay out of his way. In contrast, Earp was easygoing and “had a real knack for understanding people.” If something went wrong, he handled things quietly. His years as a teacher had given him a good understanding of teenagers. These recollections make it clear that the presence of the Earps on campus was an essential factor in keeping the atmosphere of family life alive at the Settlement and creating an environment in which students were happy to board. Paul Earp died suddenly of a heart attack in 1964, but his wife stayed on at the Settlement for many years, serving as the Settlement’s bookkeeper.38

166 Challenge and Change in Appalachia Shepherd was an astute observer of the changes that took place in the 1960s. He recalled that when he arrived, the Settlement still produced much of its food, and there were large gardens in the area above the May Stone building, in the bottom where the playing field would later be placed, and also across the road. Hardly anything was grown by the time of Shepherd’s departure. Using the boys for the building projects ended what limited farming still took place at the Settlement. Rules were also loosened after Watts’s departure. Boys could go downtown almost anytime they chose, including evenings, so long as they were back at an assigned time. Joe’s Café was the popular hangout for them and for town students. Girls remained more restricted but could now go to town one night a week. This was supposed to be scheduled at a time when the boys would not also be there. Given the easy exit from Eastover, it is doubtful that the rule was much observed. In addition to the folk dancing, basketball remained the most important student activity, and it was now permissible to attend games away from the campus.39 The only area where McLain made no significant progress as director was in finding adequate income to support new programs at the Settlement. The pattern of his years is similar to the Watts era in that the Settlement never met its operating expenses from endowment revenue and general donations alone. Soon after becoming director, he prepared a chart that examined finances in an historical context. It covered the twenty-year period between 1937 and 1957 (his first year in office) and indicated that income from regular sources alone had been insufficient to maintain the program during the entire period. During those years the Settlement had diverted more than $100,000 from bequests into operating expenses. Far more was used during McLain’s administration. Without bequests and sales of endowment securities, he could not have built the May Stone, Elizabeth Watts, and Katherine Pettit buildings. Looking at bequest income versus general donations from 1957 through 1978 provides a striking picture of the way the Settlement was financed during these decades. Bequest income often ran two or three times that of donations. Donations more than tripled, from just under $11,000 in 1957–1958 to $40,000 in 1977–1978, the last year of the Duff administration. Yet, during nine of those twenty years, bequest income exceeded $50,000 (the highest was in 1974, when Barlett Arkell, who had provided funds to build the high school in 1930, left $87,500).40 The endowment and the Evans Trust provided about half of the Settlement’s revenue in these years. Some endowment growth occurred— primarily during the early years of McLain’s administration—before the

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building projects got under way. Margaret Sherwood’s bequest of $140,000 in 1955 increased the endowment substantially. But once construction work began, unrestricted bequests were used for that purpose and for operational costs rather than being placed in the endowment. Although the era was a kind of golden age for bequests, by their nature, bequests represented a one-time occurrence and when they were not placed in the endowment did nothing to help increase income over the long term. Whether it is called “hand-to-mouth” or “bequest-to-bequest” financing, this was the way the Settlement operated. The Settlement received another “windfall” of a sort during McLain’s directorship. When a New York court declared that the trustees for the various Evans Trusts were obliged to distribute accumulated dividend income from the trusts, the amount owed to the Hindman Settlement School was more than $100,000. As restricted income, it had to be placed in the endowment. The effects of Sherwood’s gift and the windfall from the Evans Trust are the principal reasons for the rise of the market value of the endowment from $607,000 in 1957–1958 to just under $1,000,000 in Duff ’s final year.41 Despite the precariousness of Settlement finances, McLain attempted some new projects during his years as director. Most new ones, however, such as a bookmobile, a “kindergartenmobile,” and a “musicmobile,” were funded by the state or, more commonly, with federal funds from the War on Poverty. He found money for programs that varied from “work-study” money for the wages of the Settlement students to the sponsorship of courses to train men in woodworking and women in production weaving. Naoma Powell, one of the extension teachers of the period, trained a substantial number of women, enabling them to take on a large weaving project for the historical restoration of “Shakertown” (Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill). Powell remarked on what a difference it made in the lives of these women, since with their new skills the best weavers could earn one hundred dollars a month. The largest War on Poverty program the Settlement ran was a summer recreation program in 1966 and 1967 that employed twenty local workers and operated in four counties. Later, when the poverty program shifted emphasis, it ran a four-county program for school dropouts. Before McLain stopped seeking War on Poverty funds, he had concluded that the Settlement’s experience with the program had not been positive. Time and energy put into these ventures was largely wasted, as the programs were gone before they could make any real impact. McLain became skeptical, if not cynical, about the government’s approach to reducing poverty, questioning both its appropriateness and “their lack of understanding or respect for the people with which they are dealing.”42

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Students using bookmobile, the first in eastern Kentucky.

Following McLain’s resignation in early 1971, the board began a search for a new director and soon selected Lionel Duff. He was in his mid-fifties and had taught for more than thirty years at Decoy, where he and his wife, Frankie, ran the school and community center. Both Frankie and Lionel Duff had attended Hindman Settlement School in the 1930s. She came from the Decoy area, and after college and marriage, the Duffs returned in 1941 to teach in the two-room schoolhouse. Along with their regular elementary school work, they also taught folk dancing and music to their students. They had been adept at getting assistance to keep the school and community center in repair and to modernize it over the years. Their mutual interest in folk dancing drew the Duffs and Raymond McLain together, as the couple had served as adult supervisors on several of the folk dance tours taken by the Hindman dancers. Duff joined the Settlement board two years before he became director, which gave him considerable knowledge of its programs, operations, and finances. Yet despite a commendable record of educational and community work, he proved to be illsuited for the remaining challenges at Hindman Settlement School and took a cautious approach to new programs. There were some clear achievements during Duff ’s six years as director. He oversaw the completion of the Katherine Pettit building, created an

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The Settlement’s fifth director, Lionel Duff, and his wife, Frankie, who ran the kindergarten program. Courtesy of Lionel and Frankie Duff.

executive committee, and moved the board meetings to Hindman. At his first meeting, he began a discussion about donating land for a public swimming pool that was later approved. In his final year, the board approved his proposal to renovate the old hospital into guest quarters. Opened the year after he retired, it was named the Stucky building, for James Stucky, the doctor who had held the clinics there and led the fight to eradicate trachoma. During Duff ’s years as director, a major community project to construct a human resources building for Knott County was under discussion and required a donation of Settlement property. Delays in funding and several redesigns of the project meant that it did not come to the board for final approval until just before Duff retired. But he had paved the way by convincing the board to donate the land. The Settlement also participated in a demonstration library project that brought back a public library to Knott County after several years without one. In addition, Frankie Duff ran a very successful childcare program and kindergarten.43 There were also problems, however. The boarding program declined to almost nothing, plunging from thirty-five students to five. Part of this can be explained by the consolidation of the county’s high schools into Knott Central in 1974, which moved the school some distance from the

170 Challenge and Change in Appalachia Settlement, and by the opening of a road that finally connected Decoy to Hindman. Several Settlement students offered other explanations. They said there was an immediate end to the School’s homelike atmosphere, which made students unwilling to board. Students who lived on the campus during these years also expressed disappointment that the Duffs eliminated folk dancing, something that is surprising given the Duffs’ interest in it. Employees complained that Duff was rarely at the Settlement on weekends, and at least one person said that she believed that many of the problems arose from the fact that “he was retired in a sense.” Still another source of friction appears to have stemmed from resentment of Duff and his wife sharing joint authority.44 As the Settlement’s two primary programs went into serious decline, with only a handful of boarders and three extension teachers who served a small number of schools, the board took a critical step in 1975. They hired a professional research firm to look at the entire operation of the Settlement and suggest new directions. Theodore Broida, president of the QRC Corporation of Lexington, spent six months talking to people and studying the School and needs of Knott County before presenting his report. The study organized its recommendations under two categories: short-term programs that the Settlement should anticipate would be taken over at some point in the future, and continuing or permanent programs that the Settlement might initiate in light of the modern needs of the county. It offered an excellent professional look at the Settlement and Knott County as the institution neared its seventy-fifth anniversary. The report drew the general conclusion that the program in the past decade, “although meritorious, represents a level of underachievement.” The boarding program, the music and arts programs, and the bookmobile were all viewed as valuable but likely to end or be taken over by the county at some point. The extension program needed strengthening, and the report recommended a staff increase to six and that the 4-H leader and his work also be supported by the Settlement. It suggested that funding for such an expansion might come from private foundations or the Kentucky Arts Commission. Broida estimated the likely cost for these improvements at $40,000 a year. Although the Settlement had operated a public library since 1902, it had recently been taken over by the county. County officials had expected the state to fund the facility permanently, but after several years the state declined further support. When the county refused to institute a library tax, the library closed, leaving Knott County one of only two counties in the state without a public library. The report recommended that the Settle-

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ment join with the county in a proposed two-year demonstration library project to get the service up and operating again. The cost to the Settlement over the two years would be a pledge of $36,000. When the report addressed possible developments for permanent programming, it suggested several new areas of service for the Settlement that would fill gaps in the county’s educational and human resource services. Most important was the recommendation that the Settlement create a structured child development program for children ages three to six. There were more than one thousand children of this age in the county, and somewhere between 10 and 15 percent might be expected to take advantage of the program. In estimating its cost, the report noted that such a program would require a head teacher trained in child development, full health services for the enrollees, and parental involvement and volunteer help. The program would meet a real need, would provide a real service, and could be initiated at a modest cost beyond the current costs of the child care and kindergarten programs. In concluding observations, Broida pointed to the failure of the board of directors to assume responsibility for the Settlement’s future. He observed that while it was not uncommon in nonprofit organizations for board members to have largely honorary duties, if the Hindman Settlement School’s program were to expand, there would have to be a redistribution of responsibility between the director and the board. He characterized the current board role as one of “benign neglect” and said the board must take primary responsibility for broadening the financial base of the institution. To accomplish this, Broida recommended further enlargement of the board to twenty members, semiannual meetings, and broader regional representation. The newly formed executive committee should work with the director to establish a budget prior to the opening of each fiscal year. These recommendations, if implemented, would give Hindman Settlement School a much more involved board of directors, and the report concluded by saying that at every board meeting, the board should ask itself the question, “Is the school doing enough?”45 Broida’s report provided a blueprint for making the Settlement’s programs more relevant to the needs of Knott County and for requiring more board responsibility. The governance changes were immediately carried out. The board, particularly its energetic and capable new president, Joseph Graves, seemed truly prepared to work toward a revitalized institution and approved the suggestion for participation in the library project and for the initiation of the child development program. Lionel Duff was more reluctant to take on responsibility for new programs, however, and conflict arose

172 Challenge and Change in Appalachia between him and Graves over both projects. After the board authorized the Child Development Center, a well-qualified woman was chosen as the program’s director. But just as the process neared completion, Duff refused to put it into operation, insisting that the Settlement could not afford the program and that there was not enough money for the program director’s salary.46 Meanwhile, another conflict arose over the demonstration library project. Because it would be in a Settlement building, Duff took the position that he had to be on the library board and have more-or-less veto power over decisions. This view put him at odds with the librarian and the other library board members and threatened to sink the project. Graves asked Duff to resign from the library board in order to guarantee that the project would go forward, but Duff declined. Both problems were symptomatic of a larger one that Joseph Graves voiced in a memo to the other directors, saying, “Perhaps I am more ambitious than I should be for the Hindman Settlement School. However, I feel that with our financial resources, all our land and buildings, and our public support, we should be far more active in providing innovative and useful programs which are consistent with the purpose of Hindman Settlement School.” Resolutions passed by the board sent a clear message that it favored Graves’s activist approach. The burden of leadership of Hindman Settlement School appears to have been considerably different from what Lionel Duff had expected when he accepted the position, and while the director was not yet sixty-five, he asked for retirement to take effect in December of 1977, citing both age and family responsibilities.47 It is not clear whether members of the board of directors were truly prepared to undertake the fund-raising that would have been necessary to support the programs they had approved. Indeed, it would be some years into the next administration before the directors accepted the necessity of a major fund-raising drive, although Mike Mullins urged them to do so as soon as he became director. Nonetheless, it is evident that Lionel Duff did not agree with the ambitious new programs that Joseph Graves and the board had in mind. Frankie Duff later highlighted what she viewed as central accomplishments during her husband’s years as director of the Settlement. These included the creation of the day care and kindergarten programs, continuation of the weaving program, and the return of the alumni luncheon to the campus after the new consolidated high school opened. More significant, perhaps, was the organization and management of a folk dance and writers’ summer workshop in 1977, which marked the beginning of the

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Settlement’s current summer cultural programs—the Appalachian Writers Workshop and Appalachian Family Folk Week. In addition, Duff ’s decision to enter into a cooperative experiment with the state agricultural extension department to support a 4-H agent proved to be a lasting and important element of the Settlement’s community outreach.48 In conclusion, looking back over the decades of transition—especially those after World War II—it can be seen that Watts struggled to keep the Settlement solvent and as she had known it in her youth, while growing increasingly aware of the need for new programs. In contrast, the McLain years were full of energy and purpose, and he was able to accomplish some really important tasks that helped modernize the institution. The Duff administration took a more cautious and incremental approach to the challenges that the board of directors was ready to assume, but there are several important legacies from his years. Overall, it is easy to view this era as rather lackluster. This is particularly true when comparisons are made to the early days of Pettit and Stone. Yet, such an interpretation fails to assess the work of these directors in the context of their own times and challenges. To be sure, the founders overcame isolation, fire, financial uncertainty, and questions about the propriety of women in leadership roles. Later directors were obliged to contend with a chronic lack of funds, declining popular interest in the work of private social service institutions, the expansion of public agencies into the roles once played by the Settlement, the deterioration of the buildings and infrastructure, and continued decline in the area’s economy. Knott County now had acute new needs to be met. It had lost a quarter of its population between 1940 and 1980. Of those who remained, nearly half lacked an eighth grade education and only 10 percent had a high school diploma. Low educational levels, unemployment that followed in the wake of the decline of coal mining, and the increasing impoverishment of the region were the new challenges facing Knott County and the Settlement.49 In the coming years, Hindman Settlement School would again find a wider sphere of usefulness for itself and take a leadership role in “arousing the neighborhood” to a new sense of its capacities and a new vision of its future.

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Chapter Six

A WIDER SPHERE OF INFLUENCE Hindman Settlement School Today

DURING THE PAST quarter-century, Mike Mullins has brought a clear vision for program development and skilled fund-raising to Hindman Settlement School, and has made it a “good neighbor” and an education leader again in the community. Loyal Jones, the chairman of the board of directors, credits Mullins with defining new roles for the Settlement that go beyond the programs of the “missionary era.” Joseph Graves, a former board president and its longest-serving member, describes what has occurred as a “phenomenal success in terms of really serving people in this region.”1 Mike Mullins was the first director to take over the leadership of the Settlement without having previous ties to it. He is, however, mountainborn and grew up in High Hat in nearby Floyd County. His early education was in a one-room school not so different from those at the turn of the century, complete with outdoor privies and a big coal stove in the middle of the room. His early education was interrupted for an entire year by a serious accident, which had a significant impact on how he views his life’s work. He was the first in his family to attend college. During his years at Berea, he had what he describes as a seminal experience when he “fell into” an Appalachian studies course taught by Loyal Jones, which “opened up a whole new world” and gave him his first political and cultural understanding of what it meant to be a mountaineer. After graduation from Berea, he earned an M.A. degree in American history from the University of Cincinnati, where in the early 1960s, “bottom-up” history was just beginning to challenge traditional approaches to the interpretation of the past. He returned to Floyd County after marrying his college sweetheart, Frieda Smothers, and secured a job at Alice Lloyd College as campus director of the Appalachian Oral History Project. There he began a long and close friendship with Bill Weinberg, the project’s director, and his wife, Lois Combs Weinberg.2 One of Mullins’s responsibilities at Alice Lloyd was to conduct the

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New director Mike Mullins, with daughter, Cassie, and wife, Frieda, 1977.

“Appalachian Term,” a program providing short courses on Appalachia that involved site visits, including one to Hindman Settlement School. He described his first impression of it as a “beautiful piece of property . . . getting moldy and mildewed.” Still, he told Anne Weatherford, then chairwoman of the board of directors, that he was interested in the Settlement and that if any administrative positions came up in the future, he would like to know. Only a few months later, Lionel Duff resigned, the twenty-nine-year-old Mullins applied for the job of director of the institution, and by a close vote, which he attributes to his association with Alice Lloyd College, Mullins was selected. Mullins later explained how the Settlement has developed during his directorship. He said, “The first thing was to get the place to a point where it was decent to live for the staff and to look at the community’s needs in order to begin some new programming.” He recognized that when he came, many in the community were saying, “What good is the Hindman Settlement School? It has outlived its usefulness.” Consequently, he focused much

176 Challenge and Change in Appalachia attention on these concerns in the first five years. They were marked by the introduction of new programs, and it was also a period when costly repairs had to be made to the grounds and buildings to make the Settlement a truly functional facility. Mullins believes those efforts caused some in the community to think that the School was “coming back and doing some good.” Further program expansion, along with two major building renovations, convinced the community that Hindman Settlement School is something “we can’t do without.”3 Over the past twenty years, the Settlement’s program and services have changed almost completely. The initiatives undertaken by Mullins have required substantial amounts of money, and he has been an exceptionally adept fund-raiser. In the twenty-two years between 1978 and 2000, he raised between $18 million and $20 million for Settlement projects.4 The institution has received strong and continuous support from a number of foundations, and another major funding source has been the Appalachian Regional Commission, a national funding agency whose money is channeled to projects through the office of the governor of Kentucky. Mullins greatly strengthened the Settlement’s ties to the Daughters of the American Revolution, which has produced substantial financial support for many new projects. The DAR is now one of the Settlement’s largest annual donors. As Elizabeth Watts was still a very influential member of the board, Mullins went out of his way to win her respect and trust. Over the last fifteen years of her life, the two developed a very close relationship, as is clear from the letter she wrote to him on his tenth anniversary as director. “It was a fortunate day for the Hindman Settlement School when you took over as director,” she told him. “I hope you realize how completely I recognize that.” Mullins found ways to keep her actively involved with the Settlement almost until her death at the age of 102. Anne Weatherford described his treatment of Watts as “like family.” Birthday celebrations, a gala to mark her seventieth year of association with the Settlement in 1979, provision of transportation to board meetings, and, later, visits to her in her retirement home in Knoxville, Tennessee, all kept Watts at the heart of Settlement life. Elizabeth Watts died on May 3, 1993, and was buried on the Settlement’s grounds. At her memorial service, 1932 graduate Mildred Creighton gave a eulogy that ended with a verse by Kahlil Gibran. And I say that there is indeed darkness save where there is urge and all urge is blind save where there is knowledge

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and all knowledge is vain save where there is work and all work is empty save where there is love.5 The sentiment sums up not only the spirit that moved Elizabeth Watts during her eighty-four years of service, but also that of other teachers and workers who devoted themselves to Hindman Settlement School. Mullins described some of the immediate problems he faced as the new director. The Settlement was at a crossroads. The board had struggled for new directions consistent with its original mission for some years, and Mullins says that he brought a philosophy based on Jane Addams’s idea that the essence of settlement work was “to be a good neighbor.” She had urged, “Take what resources you have and try to deal with the needs of the community.” This ethic had infused the vision of May Stone and Katherine Pettit earlier and would infuse Mullins’s leadership of Hindman Settlement School as it began a transition into new educational and cultural programs.6 The oldest service of the Settlement was its boarding program, which Mullins briefly attempted to revive. Although there were only four or five boarders when he arrived, extensive efforts to publicize the program during the spring and summer of 1978 drew twelve boarders in the fall and twenty over the school year. But only three of these students remained the entire year. While this presented planning and staffing problems, the more serious issue was the students themselves, according to Mullins. Not only were they lax about their work requirement and other responsibilities, many were often truant from school. Mullins tried again the following year, but at year’s end he told the board that although he would continue to make boarding available if it was really needed, it would no longer play a major part in the Settlement’s mission. Even though the program no longer worked and cost a lot of money that could be better spent elsewhere, it took courage to end it. Many alumni had an enormous emotional attachment to the program, and the board went along only reluctantly. Mullins observed, “Lots of folks felt like we should close our doors after that.” The decision was an important indication that he intended to take a clear-eyed view of how the Settlement could best use its resources.7 At that time, the extension program for county schools was the only other major Settlement activity. Mullins immediately expanded the corps of teachers from two to five, including the partial support for 4-H instruction. A year later, the number of people working in the program increased to eight: three teachers in music, two in art, a kindergarten teacher, a folk artist who was separately funded, and the 4-H agent. When it reached its

178 Challenge and Change in Appalachia height in 1983, the program provided services to all elementary schools in the county.8 The extension program remained the Settlement’s primary educational charge during the 1980s, although new programs for dyslexic children and adult learning were initiated. Art instructor Michael Ware recalled that among his assignments was the two-room school at Decoy. His recollection of Decoy and his other schools is very positive. The students were responsive, he said, “They wanted you to come back.” He enjoyed creating a curriculum that integrated materials and images from the students’ environment and heritage.9 The rapid growth of instructional services provided to the county’s schools was made possible in part by grant monies. Volunteers sent in by the Mennonite Central Committee’s Appalachian Program were even more important. The MCC had been a presence in Eastern Kentucky for a number of years when one of its representatives suggested the possibility of cooperation with Hindman Settlement School. When Mullins eagerly “jumped on it like a dog on a bone,” MCC volunteers first focused on the extension services, but later they assisted with the dyslexia program and craft shop. These volunteers made it possible to provide weekly instruction in music and art for the thousand or more students enrolled in county schools. Mullins noted that the Settlement could not have hired instructors of the quality of the Mennonite Central Committee volunteers, and they continue to play a central role in the Settlement’s programs. Today they are most heavily utilized in adult education.10 In addition to these core programs, the Settlement provided other enrichment activities, including artists in the schools, which brought storytellers, folk singers, and dance. Funded primarily by grants from the Kentucky Arts Council, the innovative nature of this work was recognized in 1987, when Mullins received the Governor’s Award for Arts Education.11 A drop in the number of Mennonite volunteers in 1985 brought home the realization that if the extension program were to continue in its current dimensions, the Settlement had to establish a partnership with the county to help pay for it. Although the Knott County superintendent was not enthusiastic about sharing the cost, Mullins and one of the Settlement’s board members, John Preece, a local businessman, approached the school board with a request for $20,000. At the time, the Settlement was providing between $90,000 and $100,000 annually for the program. The school board approved the request, and Mullins was optimistic about what he saw as growing public support to help pay for these services. But the program also became enmeshed in local politics, and not long

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after—and with no forewarning—the superintendent first withdrew funds for some teachers and then refused to commit funds to share other costs for that year, leaving the Settlement with a $30,000 deficit as the 1988–1989 school year opened. The board of directors was greatly disturbed by this action and agreed that the Settlement would have to terminate the program if the school system would not share the cost. Mullins again went to the board of education and laid out in detail how much the Settlement had spent on these programs during the preceding ten years. The total outlay was $1,284,000, with the vast majority of those funds going toward the art and music programs. Mullins’s presentation won approval of $20,000 for that year and $30,000 for the next.12 Despite what looked like a very positive resolution of the issue, the arts and cultural program came to an abrupt end in 1990. At that time, a state-level educational reform gave the mountain counties additional funds to cover the cost of special programs such as music and art. Although Mullins attempted to negotiate an agreement to continue these programs under the auspices of the Settlement, the superintendent refused and the program was discontinued. Ironically, all of the Settlement’s teachers were soon hired by nearby school districts that previously never had the funding to provide such classes for their students. Mullins told the board of directors that the Settlement could not continue to fund both the arts program and the growing dyslexia program. In keeping with its long-standing philosophy “to provide activities and services that can’t be provided by other agencies or groups,” the extension arts program was ended and the dyslexia program became the Settlement’s main focus.13 That decision notwithstanding, the Settlement has played a major role in preserving the cultural heritage of the region, with two annual events whose influence has reached far beyond Knott County. The summer before Mullins became director, Albert Stewart suggested to Lionel Duff that the Settlement hold a combined Writers and Folk Arts Workshop. While the event was only moderately successful, Stewart and Mullins decided to separate the activities into two weeklong events the following year. Both have become enormously successful and continue to thrive. The summer of 2001 marked the twenty-fourth year of the operation of both the Appalachian Writers Workshop and Appalachian Family Folk Week. Each, with its own special cultural emphasis, has made a significant contribution to preserving the heritage of Appalachia and to widening an appreciation of this heritage. The Appalachian Writers Workshop is an acclaimed regional conference that brings writers and poets at all levels of skill and reputation into

180 Challenge and Change in Appalachia contact with one another each summer. The staff for the first workshop in 1978 reads like a “Who’s Who” of Appalachian literature, with Al Stewart, James Still, Harriet Arnow, Gurney Norman, Wilma Dykeman, Jim Wayne Miller, Cratis Williams, Loyal Jones, Verna Mae Slone, Harry Caudill, and Shirley Williams all serving as workshop leaders. Poet and writer Barbara Smith, who heads the English Department at Alderson-Broddus College in Phillipi, West Virginia, has attended all of the workshops since the beginning, and in an article celebrating the workshop’s tenth anniversary she recalled her first experience. Her words reflect those of many who speak of the warm, relaxed, and nurturing atmosphere that sets the Appalachian Writers Workshop apart from many other gatherings of writers. “I pulled into a parking spot and pretended courage as I walked into the closest building,” she recalled. “A small, white-haired man peered up over the edge of his glasses. I said I’d like to register, I’m Barbara Smith.” She continued, “[H]e was out of his chair in one move, his hand reaching for mine. ‘Barbara Smith! I’ve read the manuscript you sent in, and I can’t wait to talk with you about it. Come on in! Come on in!’” The man was Al Stewart, founder of the workshop and founding editor of Appalachian Heritage Magazine. He was already well known for mentoring young Appalachian writers and would continue in that role until his death in 2001.14 The bonds of friendship and professional help fostered during the event are something many speak of. Some of the staff have been part of the event for nearly all of its twenty-four gatherings, and participants single them out for the special influence they have had on shaping the workshop and on emerging writers. Jim Wayne Miller, George Ella Lyon, and Gurney Norman are the ones most commonly mentioned. Until his death in 1996, Miller—a poet, essayist, novelist, and expert on Appalachian literature—attended all of the workshops. Poet Dana Wildsmith experienced Miller’s concern for young writers in her first encounter with the workshop. She applied to attend the workshop, sent in a packet of poems, and was accepted but, thinking she was not a “real” writer, called and cancelled. To her amazement, several weeks later she received a manila envelope from Western Kentucky State University. “It was my poems come back to me like words spoken in haste, and with commentary,” she recalled. “Jim Wayne had typed two pages of comments on my work, specific, detailed comments, because, he said, he was sorry I hadn’t been there for him to talk with in person, as he thought my poems deserved.” Leatha Kendrick also placed Miller at the very center of the Writers Workshop, calling him the “heart and soul” of the gathering in a 1998 article in a special issue of Appalachian Heritage Magazine honoring Miller’s

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Early Writers Workshop group, (left to right) Verna Mae Slone, Chris Holbrook, Gurney Norman, and Al Stewart.

life and work. He introduced participants to many tales, novels, and jokes that formed Appalachian culture, and Kendrick believes that his lectures, given widely in schools, libraries, and at other conferences “almost singlehandedly spread the idea of a body of literature that could be called ‘Appalachian.’” He was also central to the revival of interest in James Still’s writing, bringing it “back into focus for the scholarly world,” according to her. Miller emphasized the way that Still’s work captured a sense of location and transformed it into a vision that was “both local and universal”—an understanding of a central aspect of his greatness as a writer that is now widely accepted.15 Miller credited Mike Mullins for the gathering’s growth and influence on Appalachian writing. Miller saw the workshop as “like the center of a wheel . . . with spokes going out in all directions” and said that “here a direct connection is made between literature and life.” Mullins, he declared, had made the gathering a place “for people to associate with Appalachia.”16 With Miller’s passing, George Ella Lyon inherited the mantle of the central figure in the gathering, or “its spirit” as one participant said. She has always played an influential role, according to Mullins, because “George Ella can work in so many different areas and, like Jim Wayne, she doesn’t

182 Challenge and Change in Appalachia let her ego get in the way of what is best for the workshop.” Lyon’s versatility as an instructor and her connections to writers in many different genres has made her an ideal advisor to Mullins, and he says of her that she often acts as an “assistant director” as he plans the annual event. Gurney Norman is another name that almost always comes to mind immediately when writers are asked about who has been especially influential on the gathering. Mullins calls him the “guru” of the workshop, the “pied-piper who is out there constantly promoting this workshop and other gatherings of writers.” He believes that Norman did more to help the workshop in its early years than anyone else.17 At the end of every workshop week, participants provide evaluations, which attest to the high quality of the experience and to the unique atmosphere at Hindman. Workshop participants especially value the one-onone critiques of manuscripts by staff, a practice that is somewhat uncommon at similar gatherings. Over the years, participants have come in all ages and stages of experience. At one end of the spectrum are young, just-emerging writers such as Silas House, whose novel Clay’s Quilt was published just prior to the 2001 workshop. The first recipient of a newly created scholarship to assist young writers, House has attended every workshop since 1996. At the other end are participants such as Mae Bell Wells and her sister, Theodosia Barrett, seventy-eight and eighty-five respectively at the time of the tenth-anniversary celebration. They attended five of the first ten workshops and both subsequently published a book.18 One explanation for the loyalty of participants and staff who return year after year is the atmosphere of the gathering. Kevin Nance captured the informality and nurturing atmosphere so valuable to young writers in an article for the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1994 where he described how staff and participants are “summoned to meals by the clang of a bell. Before they eat, they bow their heads while someone says the blessing. They chow down on potatoes, soup beans with bacon and slices of ripe tomato. Afterward they pitch in and help wash the dishes. . . . These homey rituals are just part of the comforting welcome that draws many of them back year after year.”19 For the fifteenth anniversary of the workshop, work inspired by its meetings was brought together in an anthology, A Gathering at the Forks. By then, the workshop was so influential within Appalachia that a sixtyminute documentary film was also made of the fifteenth gathering and widely screened on Kentucky Public Television.20 From an original eighteen participants in the 1978 session to a current attendance of between eighty and ninety, the Appalachian Writers Workshop at the Settlement

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plays a major role in shaping Appalachian writing. The conference has gone from what Mike Mullins called “that sweaty little workshop” in the days when the Settlement buildings lacked air conditioning to an event that has had major influence on the course of Appalachian literature. Through the workshop, one of the original goals of Katherine Pettit and May Stone, “to provide an educational opportunity for the youth of the mountains and keep them mindful of their heritage,” is preserved. According to Mullins, meeting that goal remains “one of the most important things we do at Hindman.”21 Serving a somewhat different audience, Appalachian Family Folk Week draws people from across the country who are interested in enjoying traditional folk arts in a natural setting. Very popular, it is always oversubscribed; for example, the 2001 week drew more than 150 people, 30 of them children. There is something for every interest, with a schedule that includes folk dancing; quilting; doll making; weaving and basket making; a wide variety of music and instruction on the fiddle, banjo, and dulcimer; pottery making; and storytelling. Family Folk Week includes nationally acclaimed staff members such as Lee Sexton and Jean Ritchie. Sexton grew up among musicians—on both sides of his family. He gained renown as a master of the “drop-thumb” banjo and, with his Lee Sexton Band, has been a featured performer at music festivals for decades. Sexton received a “Lifetime for the Arts” award from the State of Kentucky in 2000 for a sixty-five-year career playing mountain music. Ritchie, one of Uncle Sol’s “greats” and a living “folk legend” herself, has had close ties to the Settlement since she was a little girl. She did not attend the Settlement, but three of her sisters did and several others went to Pine Mountain. Ritchie belongs to a family of singers, and her presence at Folk Week provides a living connection with the past represented by the traditional music she sings and composes.22 While most adults and families come for the simple pleasure of enjoying the mountain arts and crafts and, perhaps, being reunited with their cultural heritage, Family Folk Week has also nurtured young artists. Cari Norris began attending with her family from the time she was eleven years old through her college years. Today she often participates as a member of the staff, and although she credits her grandmother, Lily Mae Ledford, for her interest in music, it was hearing Jean Ritchie sing at a Folk Week in the early 1990s that kindled her interest in traditional music. Dr. Ron Penn, professor of music and director of the John Jacob Niles Center for Music at the University of Kentucky, is another member of the staff who has attended for many years.23 Mike Norris captured what Penn

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Jean Ritchie.

described as “the ecstasy of shared music, dance and culture” when he wrote: You have to be there, walking down the hill toward the dining hall and supper and hear the sound of a banjo to your left, a lap dulcimer farther down the hill, and in the distance (thankfully, the far distance) the sound of a beginning fiddler trying to saw out Old Joe Clark. As you get closer you smell the soup beans and cornbread and walk up to the porch where Jean Ritchie and James Still and Verna Mae Slone are sitting . . . talking, being themselves, and you sit down and listen.24 Each day opens with an hour of group singing and ends with another hour of traditional music or folk dancing. In the evening there are concerts by the staff and open to the public. Without any question, the single most anticipated event of the week is the Wednesday night concert by Jean Ritchie. Probably more than any other musician of her generation, Ritchie

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brought the traditional ballads of the mountains to the “outside” world through her concerts at home and abroad. She also served on the board of directors at Hindman from 1968 until her retirement in 2000 and remarked that she considered Folk Week one of the Settlement’s most important activities for the way that it keeps alive the heritage of the region. “I think it’s important to the future because we need the past to build on,” she said.25 More recently, the goal of preserving the cultural traditions and folk arts of the region has been expanded by the revival of a program as old as the Settlement itself. In 1995 Hindman Settlement School opened a craft shop by making use of the gift of a log house given by Naoma Powell and Claire Martineau, who both had long association with mountain crafts through the Quicksand Craft Cooperative. The Marie Stewart Craft Shop, established as a cooperative that sells juried crafts and hosts teaching and craft demonstrations, has added another cultural dimension to the Settlement’s services. With a new federal and state-funded Community Development Initiative under way that is focused on the revitalization of Knott County’s economy by making Hindman a regional craft center, it is likely that the Settlement’s cultural activities along these lines will continue to expand.26 In the years immediately prior to Mike Mullins’s arrival, the board’s major concern had been the School’s limited scope of program offerings. But when Mullins assumed the directorship, he also faced an immediate challenge of completing the modernization of the campus, which comprised fifteen buildings on two hundred acres next to downtown Hindman. Although Raymond McLain had replaced dilapidated buildings, there were still many maintenance problems that needed urgent attention. Mullins took over in October of 1977 just before one of the worst winters on record. As he described the situation, “Frozen pipes burst. There were six inches of water and ice in the dorm of May Stone. On the campus it looked like Yellowstone National Park, water shooting out of pipes and nobody fixing them. . . . Water froze up in the apartments. If you had rainwater, it would come down through the windows. They had cups sitting along ledges to catch all the water.” The electrical wiring all across campus was dangerously antiquated, with a single service pole serving five buildings. When wind or rain struck the wires together, the overloads and power surges knocked out the electric typewriters and other equipment. Mullins recalled those first months as a nightmare, during which he spent a great deal of his time in ditches, fixing water lines in water up to his knees.27 Aside from emergency work and repairs, over the first couple of years

186 Challenge and Change in Appalachia buildings were rewired and brought up to code at a cost of more than a half-million dollars. The hospital was remodeled into a guest house, and Recreation House was renovated and renamed for John Preece, the board member who had provided most of the funds for the project. The majority of the funds for these improvements came from operating income, however, and the most serious remaining problem on the campus—the need to renovate the old library, now named for James Still—could not be undertaken using regular income. Although it was still in use until 1984, Mullins was obliged to close the structure as a safety hazard, and for several years thereafter it was used only for storage.28 Mullins emphasized the need for raising more income from the outset of his administration, but his personal success in finding the money to run programs had made it possible for board members to resist his urging to assume more responsibility for fund-raising. In the early 1980s, however, the board approved an endowment campaign and asked the Settlement’s most illustrious graduate, Congressman Carl D. Perkins, to lend his name to the venture. At the time, Perkins was a seventeen-term congressman, chairman of the powerful Education and Labor Committee of the House of Representatives, and legendary for his work on education legislation during the Johnson administration. While initially no one was too optimistic that Perkins would agree (he had never lent his name to any solicitation in the past and regularly declined campaign contributions), he surprised them by consenting. Mike Mullins believes Perkins agreed because the Settlement proposed that the campaign be undertaken in the names of both the congressman and his wife, Verna, who was also a Hindman graduate.29 The campaign was an appropriate tribute to Perkins’s lifelong interest in education. He was responsible for a number of laws that form the basic components of the federal government’s role in education to this day. These include the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which provides federal aid to school districts with large numbers of disadvantaged children. It remains today the federal government’s largest program for public education. In addition, Perkins was responsible for the Library Services Act of 1956, which funds public libraries in rural areas; the Vocational and Adult Basic Education Act of 1961; and the Child Nutrition and School Lunch programs. Known in Congress as “Mr. Education,” Perkins explained his decision to lend his name to the campaign by saying, “The Hindman School gave me the foundation to visualize what we need in education.” Indeed, much of this legislation reflects the goals of Hindman Settlement School raised to the national level.30

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Congressman Carl Perkins and wife, Verna, with Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill during Perkins endowment drive, 1984.

Events moved rapidly. A professional fund-raising company was hired and an extensive schedule of activities began, with the goal of raising $1,000,000. The kickoff event was held in the state capitol rotunda in Frankfort on October 14, 1983, as a surprise birthday party for Perkins hosted by Governor John Brown and his wife. A second major fund-raiser took place the following March in Washington at the National DAR Library. In just a year’s time, several additional tributes were in the planning stages and the Settlement had cash or pledges of more than a quarter of a million dollars. The congressman’s untimely death from a heart attack on August 3, 1984, changed everything. At that point, about $350,000 had been committed, and during the next six months pledges and memorial gifts totaling another $200,000 arrived. After that, additional fund-raising became difficult, and the board brought the campaign to its official close in April of 1986. It had raised $533,000, and with expenses of a little more than $100,000, the new Perkins Fund held well over $400,000, generating needed income for the Settlement. Despite the failure to reach the million-dollar

188 Challenge and Change in Appalachia goal, the Settlement’s board of directors viewed the fund-raising experience very positively, and it probably played a factor in their willingness, shortly afterward, to approve another project that required raising substantially more funds.31 The most important program at Hindman Settlement School today is the Eastern Kentucky Tutorial Program for dyslexic children (EKTP). The Settlement takes great pride in the fact that this project arose from the community’s genuine needs. In 1979, Lois Weinberg asked Mullins if she and some other parents could have a place to meet to tutor their four children, who had learning difficulties. From this simple beginning, a program has been developed that has assisted well over fifteen hundred children. As it is presently structured, the EKTP includes an after-school tutoring program, a six-week summer school that offers boarding facilities, and a full-time school, the James Still Learning Center. These services currently account for one-third of the Settlement’s annual operating costs. It is estimated that because of its genetic component, as many as 30 percent of children in Appalachia have dyslexia to some degree. Most of these children are of average or above average intelligence. In fact, some are truly gifted, but even they are unable to succeed in traditional mainstream classrooms. Many such children go undiagnosed and eventually drop out of school. When Weinberg first approached Mullins, there was no program of any kind in Knott County to help such children. Bill and Lois Weinberg had a bright eight-year-old son who could not learn to read. A pediatrician in Cincinnati diagnosed the boy’s problem as dyslexia and told his mother about a remedial program in Louisville. When she looked into it, she found that the program used a parent-centered tutoring approach. In an interview in which she discussed how the program developed at Hindman, Weinberg said, “[T]here have always been expensive, elite, private institutions . . . Even if you could afford something, you would have to send your child away.” Rather than do that, Weinberg decided to try to get something started in Knott County. She recalled that she stood at the door of the Emmalena School, where her son attended, and “just kind of sidled up to parents and got a conversation started and pretty soon they were saying, ‘[Y]eah, my child’s really having difficulty reading’ . . . And I would say, ‘[W]ell, we’re going to have an informational meeting.’” From that small beginning, she generated enough interest to bring a representative from the Dr. Charles L. Shedd Kentucky Association to explain its parentcentered approach. The organization had been named for the educator who had created the intensive tutoring program. Weinberg’s early attempts to

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establish a program in Hindman meant going to Louisville for weekly training sessions for a semester, tutoring in one of the association’s programs in Lexington for another semester, and finally, spending a summer learning how to train others. With a group of parents that now numbered fifteen, an after-school program was begun in 1980, with the Settlement’s involvement modestly limited to the use of its facilities.32 The only available space for the program was in the unheated and dilapidated James Still building, with its leaking roof and unreliable electric lights. The building was in such disrepair that Mullins closed it in 1984, so, as Weinberg put it, “[W]e took our satchels . . . and went to the May Stone Building and then to the Library and then to the Human Services Building.” As the program took shape, it became a one-night-a-week, three-and-one-half-hour tutoring session for thirteen weeks each semester. Its underlying principles were parent involvement and one-on-one tutoring, with highly structured sessions.33 News of the program spread rapidly since there was nothing else like it within two hundred miles. As more students and parents joined, four other counties started after-school programs with Weinberg’s help, and Hindman provided the training. At one time, there were seven after-school programs spun off with the assistance of the Hindman program. It quickly became clear, however, that some children needed more than after-school tutoring. A few, including Weinberg’s son, participated in a Louisville summer school program after the Hindman tutoring program’s first year. But the cost ($1,200 for a six-week session in 1981), housing, and other problems made participation in that program problematic for most Knott County children. When Weinberg discussed this with Mike Mullins one night, she recalls him saying, “Well, if they can do it in Louisville, we can do it in Hindman—better.” In that spirit, the two began to plan for a summer school at Hindman the following summer, and the Settlement now became involved in the project in a major way. For several years the summer school operated as a commuting program that cost parents fifty dollars. But the necessity of daily commuting put the summer school out of reach for students enrolled in the growing after-school dyslexia programs in neighboring counties. Consequently, a boarding component was added at an initial cost of $650—one-half the amount of the Louisville summer school fee. In practice, however, parents paid as much as they could and the Settlement undertook to raise the remainder. Thirty students attended the first summer school session in 1982, and the program currently serves more than fifty children each year.34 The summer school has been a resounding success, almost beyond

190 Challenge and Change in Appalachia the Settlement’s ability to fund. Even though tuition has been raised over the years, about 90 percent of the students receive scholarship assistance and many have full scholarships. As a highly labor-intensive program it is extremely costly. Yet, the six weeks of one-on-one work produce significant results—on average, a gain of an entire year in reading and in math. Raising the money for the summer school beyond what the Settlement can provide from its income now occupies a great deal of Mike Mullins’s time, despite help from many benefactors over the years. The Appalachian Regional Commission and the E.O. Robinson Fund have made substantial grants for scholarship support, as has the Berea College Appalachian Fund. The DAR has also been an important contributor. Nonetheless, when the program was only a few years old, Mullins told the Settlement executive committee that he “didn’t know how long we could do this” without running a deficit. Cash flow problems became endemic in the 1990s due to the heavy drain imposed by summer school and from the problems associated with the final step in the expansion of the dyslexia program: a full-time school.35 Weinberg kept hearing from parents that even with tutoring and summer school there were children still not ready for mainstream classrooms. She and Mullins began to consider doing what most people would have thought impossible—establishing a school to provide a full-time educational environment for dyslexic children. “All we needed,” said Weinberg, “was six or seven hundred thousand dollars.” The board courageously approved the initial proposal in 1986. Raising sufficient funds to operate a full-time private program was extremely difficult, and it took five years to win the public assistance required to fund a new facility and curriculum.36 The board decided that, once renovated, the James Still building would be an ideal location for the full-time program. It was a way to give a new role to the beautiful library building constructed in 1940. The E.O. Robinson Fund provided seed money for the renovation, giving the first grant of $50,000 and indicating that it would provide another $50,000 the following year if additional funds were raised. The J. Graham Brown Foundation matched that sum, and with other gifts in hand, work commenced. Additional grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Mary and Barry Bingham Fund, and Ashland Oil, together with the board’s approval of the use of $80,000 in coal royalties from mining on the Settlement’s Smith Branch property, covered additional costs, and the building was dedicated on October 5, 1991. One of the speakers at the dedication was Twyla Jacobs Messer, who had been both a student and a tutor in the dyslexia program. She told the audience there was no way she would be receiving a

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teaching degree that year without the help of the Settlement’s dyslexia program. Twyla was later hired as the program’s first full-time teacher paid for by the Knott County School District.37 Choosing a curriculum for the full-time program was the next important consideration, and once again Weinberg turned to the work of Charles Shedd. He had provided the curriculum for the only private school for dyslexics in Kentucky, the DePaul School in Louisville, which was now selected for Hindman.38 Although the facility and curriculum were in place, neither the legal issues nor the question of the cooperation of local school districts had been resolved. In the first place, a public-private arrangement of this type was all but unknown. Except for the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf, there was nothing in the state of Kentucky similar to what Hindman Settlement School was proposing. At the state level the bureaucratic hurdles stemmed largely from the fact that since such a thing had not been done before (or, at least, not in a long time), there were no guidelines for doing it. There were no application forms or procedures to move the request through the educational bureaucracy. Once those issues were dealt with and the application submitted, no one seemed to know what to do next, until sympathetic members of the State Board of Education helped guide the Learning Center proposal through the approval process. There was another, greater problem, however. As the likelihood of program accreditation drew closer, local school districts, principals, and directors of special education in the counties affected became much less enthusiastic about the work of the Eastern Kentucky Tutorial Program than they had been when its services were provided at no cost.39 The James Still Learning Center opened in January of 1992 with only four students—all private placements—in attendance. When the school received state approval later that month, the enrollment surged to five. Both Mullins and Weinberg now realized they were in for a real fight if they were to enroll enough students in the full-time program to offset even a small portion of operating costs. Mullins recalled the public school response as “resistance [that] became rather entrenched.” Except for the assistance of the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Learning Center might have been obliged to close before it really opened. The Commission provided a $70,000 grant to help with operating expenses during the first year.40 Convincing local districts to place students was the most difficult challenge in making the Learning Center a success. Weinberg described the “territoriality” of teachers and administrators, who felt they were just as qualified to “take care of these children.” But no one, in fact, was taking care of these students, and even the administrators were honest enough to

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Above, Lois Weinberg, founder and director of the Eastern Kentucky Tutorial Program. Below, Intensive, one-on-one tutoring of dyslexic students.

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admit it. Negotiations were sometimes rough, and only when parents began “to really push” were there results. They went to school board meetings and told stories of the failure to meet their children’s needs. Recognizing that these parents were not going away, the Knott County School Board finally directed the administration to find a way to implement student transfers to the Learning Center. The last element of the impasse was broken when the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Thomas Boysen, called a meeting in Frankfort of all the parties, including representatives from the State Department of Education, the Knott County Board of Education, and the James Still Learning Center. The meeting ended with a clear declaration that the Center was legal and that the county should submit procedures to the State Department of Special Education. The Knott County Superintendent, Harold Combs, then came up with a final solution by suggesting use of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative as the fiscal agent for the public money that would flow to the Learning Center. Knott and adjacent counties already used this agency for other special programs. In essence, the arrangement made the James Still Learning Center a special program of the public schools of the Kentucky River area. The breakthrough with Knott County was critical, and over time, nearby districts began to send students. Rather than having to maintain contracts with four or five separate school districts, the program has been run through the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC). Mullins praised the role played by the KVEC and said he does not think the Settlement could have made the program work without it. The agency provides small mountain districts with services they cannot offer by themselves, along with the opportunity to purchase supplies more cheaply by buying in bulk for all of the systems.41 Once the arrangements were made, the Knott County system became quite supportive, and eleven Knott County students were enrolled in the James Still Learning Center in 1992. Despite the improved situation in Knott County, however, other districts continued to resist sending students. Transfers often came only when parents threatened their school district with legal action. A major Supreme Court decision in 1993 settled the issue once and for all when the court upheld the right of parents to receive public funds to place a child in private programs if the public school did not provide an adequate education.42 In addition to Knott, four counties, all within commuting distance, currently have students at the Center. The cost of educating each child is about $9,000. Since the school districts pay only $3,000 per pupil, the Settle-

194 Challenge and Change in Appalachia ment shoulders responsibility for approximately two-thirds of the expense, at about $200,000 a year. The public contribution of $3,000 a year was set in 1992 and is below the state’s current average daily attendance funding. The James Still Learning Center has never received any of the special education funds that districts receive to educate students. The Center remains the only program of its kind in Central Appalachia and serves children in grades five through eight. Children enter the full-time program primarily through the after-school and the summer-school channels, so the vitality of these programs is essential to the health of the Learning Center. Many students have returned to mainstream classrooms and have completed high school and gone on to college, as did Twyla Jacobs Messer and Lois Weinberg’s son.43 It is difficult to overstate the tenacity required of Lois Weinberg, Mike Mullins, and the board of Hindman Settlement School to establish the full-time dyslexia school. Not only in Knott County but also in adjacent counties, parents have help for their children that is unavailable anywhere else in eastern Kentucky. To date, more than fifteen hundred students have benefitted from at least one of its three components. As originally planned, the Learning Center’s enrollment was projected to be around fifty to seventy-five students annually by the end of the program’s first five years. However, enrollments have remained closer to thirty-five pupils per year due to the lack of funds to hire staff. Nevertheless, Mike Mullins takes great pride in the fact that no child has ever been turned away from the summer school for lack of funds.44 Because of ever growing student need and static resources, the board of directors in the spring of 2001 launched an endowment campaign in conjunction with the celebration of the School’s centennial in 2002. Most of the new income will be channeled into expansion of the dyslexia program. The campaign got off to a good start with a gift of $500,000 from Barbara Kennedy, who is a graduate of Abbot Academy, Elizabeth Watts’s old school. After she and her mother visited Hindman in the summer of 1941, Kennedy remained in contact with the Settlement over the years and became especially interested in the dyslexia program since her daughter had struggled with this learning difference. Kennedy’s gift, along with another one of $200,000 from the Madeline C. Stabile Foundation, establishing a scholarship fund for the dyslexia program, put the Settlement well on its way to the $3,250,000 goal of the centennial campaign, which it called, “A Bridge to the Future.”45 Although there have been frustrations and occasional setbacks in achieving the full potential of the dyslexia program, everyone involved with

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its creation and growth takes great pride in what it has accomplished. Mike Mullins expressed his view of the program by saying: [It is a] prime example of how the Settlement has responded to the needs of the community. It wasn’t anything we started. We responded, and as the need increased and as they needed resources, we tried to get those resources for them. . . . We know that we have students today who went on to graduate from college and become everything from architects to a Ph.D. candidate in education who said to us that without this program they would never have finished high school. There are just a whole group of young folks out there who got a chance at life because of the opportunity to get this additional help that we provided. It has been a major financial undertaking, literally millions of dollars spent on this program. Every penny of it has been worth it.46 In 1995 Lois Weinberg’s seminal role in establishing the program and her many other contributions to education in Kentucky brought her the Governor’s Distinguished Service Medallion from Governor Brereton C. Jones. In his remarks at the presentation, he said, “Lois Combs Weinberg won’t take no for an answer. If something is needed and it’s not available, she’ll find a way to get it. That’s how the Hindman Settlement School’s Dyslexia Program was founded.”47 Another outreach commitment that started in a small way now provides critically needed adult education programs. Shortly after Mullins’s arrival at the Settlement, these activities began with tutoring services offered to Knott County residents who had dropped out of high school. Fifty percent of the county’s students who begin the first grade do not finish high school, and many older adults do not have the equivalent of an eighth grade education. As recently as 1987, Knott County had the dubious distinction of ranking third highest in the nation for adult illiteracy and remains one of the highest today. A number of factors explain this situation; chief among them are poverty, early marriages and family responsibilities, scarcity of good jobs, and even the sheer difficulty of getting to high school from remote parts of the county. And, of course, there are the adults who, as children, did not have their learning differences met in school. Whatever the cause, illiteracy is a chief obstacle to the improvement of many lives in the area.48 The program that began in 1978 involved one volunteer tutor and sixteen students. It was organized to help the participants pass a battery of

196 Challenge and Change in Appalachia five tests given nationally by the General Education Development Testing Service (GED). Students who pass these tests are certified as having attained the equivalent of a high school education. By 1980 the Settlement had hired a new staff member to conduct the training. Since that time, the number of students participating in the GED program has ranged from thirty to ninety pupils a year. The Settlement became a GED testing center in 1985, and in the following year it held the first of its annual award ceremonies for those students who successfully completed the GED exam. Board member Joseph Graves, who attended the ceremony, spoke of the emotion he felt, “seeing those students come up one by one, to receive their certificate and how proud their families were of them and they were of themselves for accomplishing these goals.” A 1998 survey of former students indicated that nearly half believed the Settlement’s program helped them secure employment or a promotion, and one-quarter said they had been able to leave public assistance after successfully completing the program.49 A second program in adult education got under way not long after the start of the GED training. As Mullins tells the story, it began in 1981 when a woman called to ask if he could help her find someone to teach her to read her Bible. The wife of a Settlement employee agreed to tutor her, and that was the beginning of what would become the Knott County Literacy Program—a service for adults whose reading skills are below a fifth grade level. Although the Settlement did not initially seek out students, there was soon a waiting list of people who had called for help in learning to read. The Settlement’s success in meeting this demand, along with its other adult education offerings, is due in large part to the volunteers provided by the Mennonite Central Committee for Appalachia. Anywhere from one to three full-time MCC volunteers regularly assist in the program, and over the past twenty years there have been about twenty-five workers sent in by the MCC.50 From the time the Settlement began regular offerings in adult education, it enjoyed the assistance of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. The Settlement remained entirely responsible for the day-to-day costs of the programs until 1987, when it began receiving support from the Kentucky Literacy Commission and the Kentucky Department of Adult Education. In the meantime, the KVEC had begun offering Adult Basic Education, an instructional program for adults who could read above the fifth grade level but who were not prepared to enter the GED program. In the early 1990s, these projects became part of the educational component of welfare reform legislation enacted by Congress and computer literacy was added to the curriculum. Of greater local consequence was the deci-

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sion by the Kentucky Literacy Commission to give priority funding to “comprehensive” training programs. This led the Settlement and the KVEC to form a partnership that brought the Settlement’s efforts—the Knott County Literacy Program and GED tutoring and testing activities—and the KVEC’s Adult Basic Education training under one roof with the establishment of the Knott County Adult Learning Center in 1992. At present, a staff of nine, which includes MCC volunteers, conducts all three of the instructional programs with the assistance of some twenty local volunteers who mainly help out with in-home, one-on-one tutoring.51 One of the most exciting developments in the Settlement’s effort to promote adult literacy came in 1995, when nationally recognized novelist and short story writer Lee Smith won a Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award. This grant freed her to concentrate on her writing and to participate in the Learning Center’s literacy program on a regular basis over a three-year period. Smith is a native of Grundy, Virginia, a coal mining community just across the state line from eastern Kentucky. As part of the grant’s terms, she was required to engage in community work with a nonprofit institution of her choice. “I went back to the coal fields,” she said, and because of her previous participation in the Appalachian Writers Workshop, she decided to affiliate with the Hindman Settlement School. During her visits, she gave readings, talked to local groups, and conducted daily workshops with students enrolled in the adult literacy program. She worked one-on-one with people who, as she puts it, “really have a lot to say.”52 The experience “radicalized” Smith’s own feelings about writing by bringing her to a new understanding of “the enormous sense of empowerment that comes with language.” She recounted her experience working with one student, saying, “It was a revelation for me to meet red-headed, good-looking, talkative Connel Polly” of Vicco, Kentucky, who kept his illiteracy secret from everybody but his wife for fifty-five years. Smith helped him prepare a memoir, It’s Like Coming out of a Deep Hole, in which he recalled what it had been like to be unable to read: “One time the mining company sent me to Canton, Ohio, going after mine parts. . . . I was supposed to find this company that was on Fifth Street. So I drove all around looking for a 5, and I couldn’t find it. That’s when I realized “Fifth” was a word, and I couldn’t read it. I just pulled off the road and sat there and cried.” Polly finally got the courage to seek help, but he remembered the day set to meet with his tutor as one of the worst of his life. He called it “the lowest period of my adult life, having to admit to her that I couldn’t read.” Yet he knew that this was “my only chance to change my life.” Literacy has changed his life completely, as he says in the memoir: “I didn’t

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Connel Polly, whose memoir describes his struggle with illiteracy.

know learning to read would change my life so much. . . . Before, . . . I had fear of being embarrassed by someone handing me something to read. I stayed away from places such as banks, post offices, and doctors’ offices. . . . Now I’ll go anywhere. Also, me and my wife leave notes for each other. Now that’s something.”53 Launching new programs and rebuilding facilities are expensive propositions, and Mike Mullins has spent a great deal of time raising money to make these things possible. The renovation of the kitchen in the May Stone building was another major improvement for the campus, and before the project’s completion, it cost as much as the renovation of the James Still building. The campus had become a much more attractive place for meetings, and the two summer cultural programs, in addition to the summer dyslexia program, had greatly increased the number of people staying on campus. These events earned the Settlement considerable revenue, and a modern kitchen was key to expanding this revenue source. Old friends, such as the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Steele-Reese Foundation of New York, the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund, and the J. Graham Brown Foundation of Louisville, along with the Daughters of the Ameri-

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can Revolution, all helped, but there still was not enough money to carry out the renovation. Indeed, the kitchen project proved especially difficult to fund, for, as Mullins remarked, kitchens are “not very fancy or romantic things.” The breakthrough that made the kitchen renovation possible came when an Elderhostel group visited the campus in November 1995. After Mullins’s assistant, Doris Miller, had taken the visitors on a tour of the campus, a woman from the group asked if the Settlement had any special needs. Miller named a few—including the kitchen. The woman, Toni Stabile, said she would like to receive more detailed information, so Mullins sent her an itemized list. Stabile and her brother, Vincent, were most interested in helping to fund the kitchen and soon sent a check for $150,000. Several months later, another check for $150,000 arrived from the Stabiles’ sister, Madeline. When Mullins tells this story, he never fails to mention that although he had spoken to Toni Stabile on the phone a number of times during the renovation, he never met her until she and her brother visited the campus in the fall of 2000, three years after the kitchen project had been finished. The Stabile family provided more than half of the project’s cost of $650,000.54 The Settlement’s history is replete with unexpected donations, including its two largest bequests. Henry Evans supported scholarships at the Settlement from 1914 on, before leaving one-sixteenth of a multimillion-dollar estate to Hindman Settlement School in 1925. His gift remains the largest bequest ever received. Another large bequest, of $140,000, came from Margaret Sherwood in 1957. It was mysterious in the sense that nothing was known about her, and then-director Raymond McLain knew of no connection with the Settlement. However, in May Stone’s receipt ledgers for the WCTU years, every individual gift is recorded with the name of the donor, the date of the gift, and usually the address of the donor. The records reveal that Margaret Sherwood began making small donations to the Settlement starting in 1913, when she was a student at Wellesley. More than forty years later she remembered the institution generously in her will.55 Whereas in the past, donations came primarily from individuals in the form of many small gifts, today public funds, foundations, and the DAR play the largest role in the Settlement’s ability to fund new ventures. The tie with the DAR goes far back, for May Stone was active in the first generation of DAR members after the organization was founded in 1890. She served as the chair for the Patriotic Education Committee of the Kentucky DAR, spoke at many chapter meetings, and regularly attended the annual meeting of the NSDAR. Financial support for the Settlement began im-

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Above, The Hindman Settlement School’s Board of Directors break ground for May Stone kitchen renovation in 1997. Left to right, Dorothy Douglas, state regent, Kentucky DAR; Mike Mullins; Loyal Jones, chairman of the board; Wilburn Pratt, vice chair; Joe Graves, treasurer; James Still; Marlene Payne; Mark Holloway; Peggy Pratt; Glenn Leveridge; Charlene Farrell; Jack Combs; and Marilyn Creedon, chairwoman, NSDAR Schools Committee. Below, California DAR twins, Mrs. Carol Reeder (left) and Mrs. Linda Calvin, with dolls from the Craft Shop during 1996 NSDAR tour. Mrs. Calvin became regent of the California DAR in 2000.

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mediately after the School was founded, for Stone’s ledgers list gifts from DAR chapters as early as 1904. The Settlement became an NSDAR-approved school in 1921, which further solidified the tie. Mullins estimates that $50,000 to $75,000 a year comes to the Settlement through DAR help today. He travels to many chapter and state conference meetings and attends the NSDAR conference each year. The bond has been further strengthened by the inclusion of DAR officers on Hindman Settlement School’s board of directors. The Kentucky State Regent has a permanent seat on the board, as does the Schools Chair of the NSDAR. The board also has members who first became interested in the Settlement through their DAR service.56 The Settlement’s financial situation has also been strengthened through the years by support from several foundations and agencies that have a particular interest in the kinds of work the Settlement performs. The Berea College Appalachian Fund is one such foundation, and its director, Julia Stammer, estimated that its contributions to Hindman over the years have exceeded $160,000. The E.O. Robinson Fund and the SteeleReese Foundation have supported several projects, with the former contributing more than $250,000 to building projects. Steele-Reese, a New York foundation, funds projects to help people help themselves, and one of its board members, Bill Buice, said an important criterion for the foundation’s grant giving is that a project must have significant local support and must help the community in which the organization is located. The Steele-Reese Foundation has supported several projects that meet these criteria, with funds totaling more than $120,000. No one has been a better friend to the Settlement than the Appalachian Regional Commission. It has provided more than $350,000 for the dyslexia program and has also funded the adult literacy program and craft shop. The Kentucky Arts Council has also been of major assistance in support of the Settlement’s cultural programs.57 Early in his administration, Mullins secured a significant grant of $400,000 that served a different purpose than have the other public funds the Settlement has received. It enabled the preservation of the archives of Hindman Settlement School as well as those of the remaining settlement institutions of Appalachia. When he served as the Settlement Association’s president in the early 1980s, Mullins recognized how important it was to insure the survival of these records as school after school closed. The Settlement, in collaboration with Berea College, applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for funds to survey these records. The NEH funded a survey of the holdings of the remaining institutions and then provided $300,000 to microfilm the documents, copy the photo-

202 Challenge and Change in Appalachia graphs, and undertake an oral history project. The latter program was never begun, but in the mid-1990s the Settlement undertook its own more focused project with funding from the Kentucky Oral History Commission.58 The Settlement’s ability to find new sources of financial support kept it in the black, despite program expansion and renovation projects, up to the late 1980s. One reason for this was that the Settlement leased its Smith Branch property for mining. Coal operators had sought to obtain leases prior to this, but the issue was never brought before the board until 1984. By then federal law prohibited some of the types of damage associated with the strip mining of earlier times. Board member John Preece, an independent coal operator, believed he could negotiate a lease for the Settlement’s mineral rights that would assure the land would be returned to its natural state. The idea was nonetheless controversial and some board members opposed it, especially Elizabeth Watts, who reminded the director that the Settlement “has always stood four-square against strip mining.” Mullins knew there would be criticism, but in October 1984, the board agreed to lease the rights, which were expected to produce anywhere from $250,000 to $400,000. By the fall of 1985, Mullins reported a substantial increase in operating capital from the $40,000 up-front payment when the lease was signed. Along with new income of $40,000 generated by the Perkins endowment, the Settlement’s cash flow problems eased.59 The Shawn Coal Company began strip mining the land in the early summer of 1987. After two years of operations, when the mining ended, the Settlement had earned royalties of $160,000. The South-East Coal Company then began deep mining in early 1990, which brought in another $80,000, most of which went to the dyslexia program. Mining ceased on the Smith Branch property in 1991, and by then it had brought the Settlement about $250,000.60 The high cost of summer school, the difficulties in securing adequate public school funding for students in the Learning Center, and the end of coal royalties from the Settlement’s property brought new cash flow problems. Three board members—Joseph Graves, along with professional money managers Glenn Leveridge and Mark Holloway—were central to conducting a comprehensive review of the budgeting and auditing operations. Working with the endowment’s manager, they redesigned the way endowment money flowed to the Settlement, replacing the old procedures with a system of transfers based on the three-year floating average of the endowment’s value, a practice employed by many other nonprofit organizations. This formula produced a more predictable flow of income from

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one year to the next and enabled more accurate budgeting and orderly planning. Real-cost budgeting was introduced so that “hidden” expenses such as insurance or the fringe benefits of personnel were included in specific program budgets to give the director a better overall sense of each program’s full cost.61 A final element in recent financial reforms involved taking control of the Henry Evans Trust. In the past, the Settlement controlled its revenue but not its principal. By the mid-1990s, as a result of very conservative management, the trust’s transfer twice in six years due to bank mergers, and increasingly steep management fees, it produced little income for the Settlement given its principal of $2.3 million. It took several years to accomplish the transfer, but the funds were shifted to the Settlement’s endowment late in the summer of 2000. The expectation is that when these funds are managed as rigorously as the rest of the endowment monies, there should be a substantial increase in income from the Evans Trust. While these financial reforms are a “silent” transformation, their completion has made it possible for the Settlement’s financial structure to keep pace with the growth of a far more active and complex institution. During Mullins’s directorship, the endowment has increased from $1.6 million to $7.9 million as of the 2000–2001 audit year.62 No one person has been responsible for the rebuilding of the Hindman Settlement School over the past quarter-century. However, everyone connected with the Settlement recognizes the leadership provided by Mike Mullins. Joseph Graves—now the longest-serving member of the board— calls it “an exhilarating experience to be part of a nonprofit organization like this that has progressed so well. Under Mike Mullins it has had phenomenal success in serving people in the region.” Marlene Payne, another longtime member of the board, said of Mullins that he “is racing ahead of us in all the ideas of things that are possible.”63 Mullins’s political acumen, along with his political activity, has played a significant role in the leadership of the Settlement and for the region in general. According to Joe Graves, who is also active in Kentucky politics, “[Mullins] knows how to operate in the political atmosphere of Kentucky and in Knott County.” Indeed, Mullins’s collaboration with a group of other young progressives from eastern Kentucky has made him an important regional political player. His role reflects, in part, the changing conditions of political life in eastern Kentucky as well as a belief that those who live there—not outsiders—must now lead change in eastern Kentucky. Mullins helped found the Eastern Kentucky Leadership Foundation along with Grady Stumbo, Benny Ray Bailey, Bill Weinberg, and the current governor

204 Challenge and Change in Appalachia of Kentucky, Paul Patton. The organization’s goals have been to develop new leaders for the region, and to foster a broader approach to problem solving and a less corrupt political system. The large network of friends and political contacts that Mullins has cultivated over several decades gives the Settlement a more important voice in the region’s future than it has had at any time other than at its founding.64 Mullins sees the camp to which he belongs as wanting to use the political system for the public good rather than for private reward. This type of leadership, he says, seeks to build the “civic capital” of the area to provide jobs and a better educational system. His adamant opposition to nepotism and cronyism, the traditional way of doing things, makes him unpopular with a number of people in Knott County, and few of these make any distinction between the director and the Settlement. To date, however, it seems that Mullins’s activism and connections have had mostly positive effects for Hindman Settlement School. Whether he and the other reformers can successfully alter a political system so well entrenched is less certain.65 Former board member Al Smith, who headed the Appalachian Regional Commission from 1980 to 1982, described Mullins as both a “progressive and a preservationist. He seeks a better life for his people but he also wants to save the best of the past.” Smith added that during the years he was on the Commission, “[N]o one from Eastern Kentucky, short of Carl Perkins, was a more eloquent advocate for this region than Mike.” Mullins sees the inherent tension between his two ideals of progress and preservation. When asked what he thought was the greatest threat to the Appalachian culture and way of life, he said it consists of the same things that have been the great threat from the beginning. “We all want better for our children, and in the process of wanting better for the children we sometimes do not pass on to them the things that have made Appalachian culture unique. We do not want them to work as hard. We want them to have a better education. . . . In the process we don’t give them an opportunity to experience a lot of the things that made the culture the beautiful thing it is.” Above all, he said, “I want to be remembered as a person who did not exploit this region, but one who tried to do some good.”66 The Settlement has been fortunate to have a highly qualified and dedicated staff who form a team with their director. Mullins is the first to acknowledge this. Several, including James Phelps, who has run the Knott County 4-H program since 1973, have been at the Settlement longer than Mullins. Rebecca Ware, another staff member with a quarter-century of service, explained why loyalty to the institution runs so deep by saying it is

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due to the type of person who comes and stays: “Working here is not a normal job, it’s not eight to four, it’s not nine to five. It never has been. I think you need to really have people who are willing to do whatever is necessary.” She added, “I don’t think the pay was ever enough. . . . I think it’s been all the other things that come along with the job, and that is people. . . . I think to stay in a place, you can’t look at the money you receive. It has to mean something to you. . . . It is about helping others.”67 Mullins described his directorship as a calling, saying: I came here as a young person, not really realizing why I came here. I have come to the conclusion that . . . the good Lord led me to the Hindman Settlement School. I truly believe that I was led to come here. And I truly believe that I have been led to stay here. I talked about my injury in being hit by a car. Well, I’ve often thought that I was given a second opportunity in life. And that my life had to be more than just for me. I’ve always felt that I had to give back, because I was given the opportunity.68 Observers sum up Mike Mullins’s leadership during the past quartercentury by saying that the Settlement has returned to its original role in the community. Recently, he, along with a number of leading citizens of Hindman and Knott County, has taken on a project that, if successful, will transform the area. Launched in 1997, the Community Development Initiative (CDI) has no less a goal than to construct a comprehensive plan to deal with the problems of poverty, the lack of jobs, poor educational opportunities, and the out-migration they bring. It is seeking to do so in an unusually creative way. With more than thirty million dollars in state and federal funds, the CDI’s leaders envision a viable and stable economy for Knott County by utilizing its history and traditional culture to make it a regional crafts center for eastern Kentucky. Mike Mullins played a central role in winning the CDI project for the county, and the Settlement has staked a great deal on its outcome. In the next decade or so, it will take not only Knott County but also Hindman Settlement School into new directions that cannot even be imagined today.

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Chapter Seven

“AROUSING

THE

NEIGHBORHOOD”

The Community Development Initiative

ON OCTOBER 18, 1997, Governor Paul Patton, speaking in the Great Hall of Hindman Settlement School, announced that Knott County and the town of Hindman had been chosen as one of two eastern Kentucky communities to benefit from the state’s “New Towns” project, or Community Development Initiative. Developed through the Kentucky Appalachian Development Initiative, the project capped fifteen years of Patton’s work with Mike Mullins and other eastern Kentucky leaders in a search for new ways to deal with the region’s problems. The steps that led to the New Towns initiative began during the administration of Governor Brereton Jones. Jones established the Kentucky Appalachian Task Force in 1993 to prepare a comprehensive development plan for eastern Kentucky. Its report, entitled “Communities of Hope,” included a number of guiding principles for the development of eastern Kentucky—among them community-based planning and programs, regional linkages, sustainable economies, lifelong learning, and citizen involvement—all of which figured prominently in the subsequent Community Development Initiative. The most important immediate outcome of the report was the creation of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission, whose first meeting was held in November of 1995. That same month, Paul Patton was elected governor, the first from eastern Kentucky since Bert T. Combs had held the office thirty-one years earlier. Patton intensified the effort to find new solutions for the problems of eastern Kentucky. He decided to chair the new commission himself and added all of the members of his cabinet along with other important figures, including Senator Benny Ray Bailey, who represented Knott County. Governor Patton named Bill Weinberg, also a Knott County leader, as his vice-chair. Discussions within the commission led to a decision to concentrate resources in one or two communities where

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they could make a real difference. With a goal of “growing a community in its entirety” into a sustainable economy, the Community Development Initiative was born. Two towns would be selected for concentrated help, and the governor stipulated that only small communities not making progress would be eligible for the initiative since earlier assistance had been directed primarily to larger and more prosperous places such as Hazard. A second stipulation was that the community must engage in a “visioning” process in its application, laying out where it wanted to be in thirty years and what steps it would take to get there. The two best applications would be selected for funding in this first phase of the program.1 The procedure for the competition was in place by the spring of 1997, and in June, Knott County community leaders met at Hindman Settlement School to discuss whether to apply. The first planning session was attended by about twenty-five people. At the meeting, Ewell Balltrip, executive director of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission, explained the CDI’s purpose and guidelines, and afterward the group decided to submit a proposal. As they met in subsequent weeks, more people became involved and all kinds of ideas were offered. Whereas many other communities did little more than designate a local official to cobble together a small project, Hindman’s citizens engaged in a highly participatory process to produce themes that everyone eventually agreed on. “Most especially,” Mullins noted, the outcome of these discussions was that people believed “the area was a wonderful community to live in and that it had a culture and heritage that was very special.” These sentiments became the nucleus of the set of projects that formed the Knott County/Hindman CDI proposal. Mullins feels that the long presence of the Settlement in Hindman provided the group with the philosophical basis for what emerged, and Ewell Balltrip agreed, saying: “The Hindman Settlement School has had an inherent influence on the CDI, its goals and its advancement.” He continued, “The legacy of the school provides part of the platform on which the community development concept stands.” Acknowledging that Knott County was at the center of the nation’s rural settlement school movement, “the community turned to its heritage as a guide. . . . Hindman Settlement School contributed immeasurably to the focus of the CDI project by virtue of its position as a bedrock institution in the local culture.”2 Before the application was filed, more than one hundred local people participated in its development, and by all accounts—including those of the governor—the Hindman/Knott County application was unique among the fifteen submitted. Not only was it the most ambitious and comprehen-

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Governor Paul Patton announces CDI award to Knott County/Hindman. Left to right, Senator Benny Ray Bailey; Ewell Balltrip, director of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission; Kim Logsdon with the State Economic Development Cabinet; and Governor Paul Patton, October 22, 1997. Courtesy of the Troublesome Creek Times.

sive, but also it sought to establish a sustainable economy through an innovative concept that went beyond the traditional approach of creating industrial parks to lure manufacturing with easements and tax breaks.3 “You could feel the excitement and energy that was coming out of the process,” Mullins said. Indeed, a consensus grew that even if they did not win, those who had been involved wanted to pursue many of the ideas that had been brought forth. They began to seek funds for an “Opportunity Center” even before the announcement that Hindman had won the competition. A funding application was submitted to the Appalachian Regional Commission for the Center, which was intended to house a branch of the Hazard Community College along with an advanced facility for distance learning. The opportunity to have community college classes in Hindman came through a program funded by the Ford Foundation. President Ed Hughes of Hazard Community College was already in discussions with CDI leaders about hiring staff to launch the immediate start of a branch operation in Hindman. In order to apply for the ARC funds, the Knott

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County Fiscal Court hired an architect to design plans and also pledged $182,000 toward the project during the summer of 1997. That commitment allowed the steering committee to seek $800,000 from the Commission to undertake what was estimated to be a $2.4 million building. Plans were thus going forward even before Governor Paul Patton appeared in Hindman to announce that the towns of Hindman and Jenkins (in Letcher County) were to become the first pilot projects funded under the Community Development Initiative. The elation that greeted the news was clearly captured in the Troublesome Creek Times, which pronounced Hindman’s leaders “giddy” at the news and ran its front-page stories under the headline “Whoopie!”4 Hindman’s proposal differed from the more traditional approach of Jenkins and the other applicants not only because of its emphasis on education, but also because of its plan to use the area’s cultural history in a creative way. The proposal, “Using Our Heritage to Build Tomorrow’s Community,” spoke of “the rich culture and history of the area,” its “ natural assets [such] as Troublesome Creek and our close-knit mountains,” and the “many historical attributes, beginning with the Hindman Settlement School.” It noted that Knott County—with the Settlement School, Caney Creek Community Center (Alice Lloyd College), and Cordia School (formerly Lotts Creek Community Center)—had been at the center of the nation’s rural settlement school movement in the twentieth century. The application included a ten-page summary of the projects that would make the concept a reality. The cost was estimated at $11.7 million dollars, and the area covered by the initiative included not only the town of Hindman, but also the entire watershed of Troublesome Creek. Specific plans called for the integration of the Hindman Settlement School with downtown Hindman and a cleanup of Troublesome Creek. Additional elements included a community education and recreation center, an artists’ colony, an amphitheater/assembly hall, the renovation of Congressman Carl D. Perkins’s childhood home into a museum, and a museum to highlight the literary heritage of the area. It was thought that these additions would significantly enhance Hindman as a tourist destination. In addition, an eighty-five-acre industrial site, a recycling center, a site for small entrepreneurs, and water, sewage, and bridge projects completed the vision of a transformed town and county. The CDI guidelines required applicants to share a percentage of the cost, and Hindman’s proposal for an $11.7 million project meant that a sum of $2.4 million would have to be raised by the town and county to match state money. To assure the reviewers that Hindman’s proposal was

210 Challenge and Change in Appalachia feasible, the application pointed to the county’s current operating surplus of $1.8 million and an additional $3 million in uncommitted coal severance tax monies.5 The Settlement School was affected primarily by the component of the plan linking the town to the Settlement. It envisioned a bold redesign of the town’s main street to turn it toward its most attractive features, the creek and the Settlement. A pedestrian walkway between town buildings and the creek would become the new Main Street. In addition, wooden walking bridges would cross the creek from downtown to the Settlement property, and a covered walkway would be constructed to run the length of the campus along Troublesome Creek to the public library and auditorium at the far end of the Settlement’s property. New nature trails would fan out from the town and Settlement. The design included the renovation of vacant downtown buildings for artisan stalls and specialty shops. Razing downtown buildings that regularly flooded and replacing them with green space would make Hindman an extremely attractive place to live as well as an inviting tourist destination. When Hindman was chosen over other towns, there were some who were ready to attribute its success exclusively to Governor Patton’s close ties with Mullins and the other founders of the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation. But while Hindman’s connection to Patton aroused suspicions of special treatment in some, both the director of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission, Ewell Balltrip, and Professor Ron Eller, who was a member of the review panel and director of the Appalachian Studies Center at the University of Kentucky, pointed to the unique and comprehensive nature of the Hindman proposal as the reason for its selection. The wide citizen participation that had gone into the plan was another prime factor in the panel’s decision. When questioned on the matter, Governor Patton responded that the more appropriate question to be asked was “Why Jenkins?” rather than “Why Hindman?” All other proposals, including the winning one from Jenkins, were cast in very traditional terms. Jenkins won funding for a seventy-seven-acre industrial park to which it hoped to attract manufacturing. The $2 million it received to fund the proposal was less than Knott County was prepared to guarantee as its portion of the CDI proposal. But the grumbling about favoritism was only beginning, due to the extraordinary treatment the proposal received during the next legislative session.6 In the spring of 1998, the legislature approved more than $20 million for a significantly expanded proposal of the Knott County/Hindman CDI. After its selection the preceding fall, the proposal had been fine-tuned, and

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a much more ambitious concept emerged from the process, which involved the Settlement School more directly than the original plan. The Opportunity Center now became a four-story multipurpose facility that would house the Knott County branch of Hazard Community College, the public library and museum, the Settlement’s Adult Literacy Center, a technology center for distance learning, and a child care center. Given its size—some 37,000 square feet (subsequently scaled back some)—rather than build it as an addition to the Human Resource Center as originally planned, it was clear that the Opportunity Center required separate land. Its cost was now more than twice the original estimate, and the only logical place to build the structure was on Settlement property. Another entirely new proposal was added and funded during the legislative session. The revised plan dropped the idea of renovating the old Hindman High School into an auditorium in favor of using it to house a very different project—a new, two-year Kentucky School of Craft. It would be the first institution of its kind in the state and greatly strengthened the concept of Hindman as a center for craft instruction and marketing. The legislature approved $4.5 million for the project.7 It is clear that during the months of post-selection planning, the individual components of the original application coalesced into a more integrated and ambitious vision of the town as an education and craft center for the region. The curriculum of the new craft school would teach design and skills in a specific craft and also provide training in how to market crafts successfully. Craft education now assumed a position of importance equal to the general education program to be provided by the new community college branch. Each would strengthen the other. Once the legislature approved the new facility, a National Advisory Council for the school was selected to prepare a curriculum and assist in the design of the renovated building. To guarantee that the commercial component of the venture would be as strong as its educational side, Governor Patton provided an additional $1.5 million to fund a Knott County Arts and Crafts Foundation to help Hindman become a marketing center for artisans in eastern Kentucky. The money was earmarked for the purchase of a site in downtown Hindman to house the Artisan Center. While the bulk of the original proposal remained intact, the post-selection planning greatly enlarged the sense of what was possible and focused more clearly on the area’s craft and educational heritage. In the winter and spring of 1999–2000, a nine-member Arts and Crafts Foundation Board was created. It purchased two downtown buildings for renovation, the first of which currently houses the Artisan Center, which opened in December 2001.8

212 Challenge and Change in Appalachia There can be no doubt that Governor Patton’s enthusiastic support for the revised plan and Senator Benny Ray Bailey’s position as chair of the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee made it possible to increase the Hindman CDI from a $11.7 million proposal into one eventually funded at $30 million. It was success beyond all expectations and led to criticism in some newspapers. Articles accused Governor Patton, Senator Bailey, Mullins, and others (particularly Bill Weinberg and Ron Daley— now the director of the new Hindman branch of the community college) of corruptly influencing the budget process for their own ends. The articles were often factually incorrect, such as the one stating that all of the CDI projects were on the Settlement School campus. There were accusations, also inaccurate, that local leaders such as Mullins were personally benefiting from the funding. The four leaders who had worked so long with Paul Patton were characterized as the “Knott Mafia.” The resentment behind these allegations arose over the multimillion dollars in funds provided by the legislature for the Knott County CDI.9 Mullins and the Settlement’s board of directors were not happy with the criticisms, one of which described the CDI proposal as “a Christmas stocking full of costly foolishness . . . providing employment not for eaters of beans, but for eaters of bean sprouts.” Mullins was particularly incensed by the inference that the Settlement benefited financially from the CDI. All of the funding had been carefully designated by state statute for specific projects precisely so that it could not be diverted to other purposes. The only funds that could affect the Settlement in any way were those set aside for the public library since that facility was still located in a Settlement building. The ground it occupied, however, had already been deeded to the Knott County Public Library Board years earlier. In fact, what the expanded proposal would require was a further contribution from the Settlement—its donation of the land needed for the site of the Opportunity Center.10 When Mullins detailed the legislative successes and the changes in the CDI to his board at its spring and fall meetings in 1998, he praised the central role that Governor Patton and Senator Bailey had played in moving the CDI proposal through the legislature. The fact that much of the CDI funding was accomplished by direct appropriations provided more up-front money and a fast track for completion. Rather than the ten years originally envisioned, the entire project might possibly be completed in about four years—an amazing feat if it could be realized. By the time of the Settlement board’s fall meeting in 1998, the School of Craft and several other new artisan projects had been added to the plan. Only a small amount

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of Settlement land would be needed for a bridge and walkway to connect the new School of Craft to the Opportunity Center a short distance away. However, the Center—the linchpin of the CDI—could not be built without Settlement land. Since the legislature had included no funds for that purpose, the land would have to be donated. Plans were not yet final, but Mullins told the board that while things were moving very fast, any “decision about the use of Settlement property for the CDI Project . . . will be made by the Board of Directors.” Once he knew precisely what would be asked of the Settlement, he would call a special meeting to decide about the donation. The need for a special meeting in February 1999 indicates how fast the timetable was unfolding.11 The master plan for the CDI was approved by its steering committee in January of 1999. In the report submitted to the Kentucky Appalachian Commission, Mullins (who wrote the unsigned report) described the process that had produced the final document. The planners recognized from the outset that everything had to be even more open than before, since large sums of money were involved. “The first thing that a lot of people want to know is what are they getting out of it and you have to give them an answer that will instill trust,” he wrote. “Who benefits?” was an inevitable question, given the degree of impact the project would have on the community. The planners felt it was especially important to keep citizens informed about what was happening and to give even more members of the community the opportunity to participate. The steering committee carefully designed its process to do this.12 The thirty-person steering committee (including new members added after the CDI proposal won funding) represented a good cross section of the county. All meetings were widely advertised. Nonmembers sat at the same table with the committee and had plenty of opportunity to express their views. Each meeting drew fifty to seventy-five citizens. As part of its democratic efforts, the committee took its meetings to every part of the county so that anyone who wanted an update or the chance to express his or her views had easy access. The first “away” meeting (they had taken place at the Settlement until this time) was at Alice Lloyd College, whose president, Joe Stepp, offered the school’s facilities for the CDI and expressed a strong desire to be part of the decision-making process. President Stepp soon joined the CDI steering committee.13 To further increase joint decision-making, the steering committee ran by consensus rather than by vote. Newspaper articles appearing in the Troublesome Creek Times, which reported the meetings, served as the minutes of the committee and provided the widest possible dissemination of information to the community.

214 Challenge and Change in Appalachia Such an open procedure for dealing with changes in the community was new, and Mullins believes the CDI succeeded in “capacity building” as well as education. By this he was referring to the way the process encouraged other civic organizations to become active participants in thinking about change. There was a revival of the Knott County Chamber of Commerce, spurred by the exciting possibilities in the CDI. A Knott County Industrial Authority was formed, and the Downtown Merchants Association was reinvigorated by the focus on reviving commerce in Hindman. The synergies built by the community-wide planning were striking, Mullins said. The new Industrial Authority, for example, took an option on property in hopes of acquiring an important, non–CDI-related project—a prison under consideration for eastern Kentucky. Mullins felt that “the chances of this happening without the Knott County Industrial Authority were slim to none.”14 There are many examples of how civic groups participated during these next months and began augmenting the CDI with plans of their own. The Downtown Merchants Association explored the possibility of becoming part of the “Main Street America Program,” a national organization that provides consulting advice and seed money to help towns revitalize their downtown areas. There was a new openness reflected when Tim Cody, representing the association at a CDI meeting, announced the group’s intention to apply to Main Street America and asked everyone to attend the group’s next meeting, when the application would be discussed. The association wanted to begin by asking what the community wanted in order to write the proposal. By the summer of 2000, it had received a consulting grant from Main Street America and expected to apply for money the following year. Mullins ended his report on a very optimistic note, saying that Hindman was building what eastern Kentucky needed most— “civic capital,” that is, community involvement and cooperation not only for the CDI but also for the longer range. “We have been studied to death in the hills of eastern Kentucky. . . . the CDI process lets the folks with the greatest knowledge and concerns do the dreaming,” he wrote. What was happening was bigger than the CDI, for what was developing was a greater sense of community.15 Two and a half years of local newspaper articles confirm the success of this community process. If the CDI has done nothing else for the town and county, it certainly has involved a large number of its citizens in meaningful discussions about their future and vested them strongly in both the decision making and its outcome. Soon after the master plan was submitted, a special meeting of the Hindman Settlement School board of directors agreed unanimously to donate one and a half acres of land for the Opportunity Center. By then

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another new concept had been added—an outdoor amphitheater to be called “The River of Earth” in honor of James Still. Mullins described the facility at the special board meeting in February 1999 but noted that no funding was yet available, so the project remained in what he called the “visioning” phase. Today the amphitheater remains unfunded, although it is on a list of projects that will be presented during the 2002–2004 legislative session. If funds are found at a later date, more Settlement land will be needed, however, for the proposed site is on Settlement property. The master plan included time lines for each of the building projects, with the construction of a City Hall–Visitor Center as the initial one. Groundbreaking was set for March 1999, with a fall 2000 date for completion, which was met. The multipurpose center was scheduled to begin in December 2000. The complicated negotiations over the building, which will house many different agencies, delayed the groundbreaking for a year. The School of Craft, the last major project, was given a March 2002 start, with completion scheduled for the end of the year or early 2003. It appears that little more than five years will separate the announcement of Hindman’s victory in the New Towns competition and the completion of a major transformation of the town and county. 16 Credit for this goes to the extraordinary efforts of the county’s leaders and the many citizens who took part, as well as the critical support provided by Governor Patton and Senator Bailey. Credit must also go to Mike Mullins and Hindman Settlement School. The School has certainly been both a good neighbor and a leader in making the CDI possible. The undertaking exacted an enormous investment of time by Mullins and the Settlement staff over several years beginning in June of 1997. More than anyone else, Hindman Settlement School got the project going and kept it on schedule. Ewell Balltrip of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission recognized the singular role played by Mullins, saying: “Hindman Settlement School has taken a significant leadership role in the CDI. . . . Mullins has been a champion of the CDI, a dedicated worker in the project’s process and a promoter of the vision the CDI holds for Hindman and Knott County. . . . He has also been among those community leaders who have been a force in advancing the project, giving it energy and keeping it on track.” When the steering committee hired a full-time staff person to oversee the program in the summer of 1999, Mullins admitted that the project had been “all consuming” for him up until then. For the preceding two years, everything had moved forward through volunteer efforts backed up by the Settlement’s resources and staff.17 By that time, the Knott County branch of Hazard Community Col-

216 Challenge and Change in Appalachia lege was already operating and is currently housed in part of the old Hindman High School building. Ron Daley, its director, told a CDI meeting “for anyone asking, ‘When will this start?’ We can already answer, it’s already started.” Extensive collaboration between the Knott County Board of Education, Hazard Community College, the Hindman Branch of Hazard Community College, and Morehead State University has brought a twenty-two-seat computer lab, open to the public; a four-seat minilab with Internet access; and a distance learning classroom with video conferencing capability. Both undergraduate and graduate level business courses have been offered since the fall of 1998. Fifty other offerings were scheduled during the fall semester of 2000. Hazard Community College added another important piece to the design for a new Knott County when it announced the purchase of the home and seventy-acre farm of Carl Perkins just outside Hindman in April 2001. It plans to preserve the home as a state and national historic site and to use the property for programs for the college and also for the new Kentucky School of Craft.18 A further aspect of the CDI developed during the winter and spring of 1999–2000, when planning for the School of Craft entered a new phase as an advisory council—made up of leading experts in both crafts and craft marketing from all over the country—was selected to guide its establishment. The council began to create a curriculum and plan the renovation of the old Hindman High School. Its goal was nothing less than for the school to become a national, perhaps even international, model for craft education as a part of community development. The group reached consensus that the school should focus on training people to start and build business around high-quality crafts based on traditional designs in wood, clay, fiber, and metal materials. Students would have top quality studios and hands-on instruction, and the school would work closely with the downtown Artisan Center to promote craft businesses. When the council visited Hindman in mid-April of 2000, Mullins said they were “enchanted” by the charm and possibilities inherent in the building, which has a beautiful inner courtyard. While they were there, a CNN news crew interviewed council members as part of a program highlighting communities that were creating jobs through entrepreneurial activity. CNN’s decision to highlight the School of Craft was certainly appropriate, since President Hughes made it clear that aside from the other things that students would learn, they would get a “big dose of how to make a living with their skill.” He also remarked that when he asked the advisory group to whom they should compare themselves, the members answered, “If we do this thing right, in five or seven years, they’ll all be comparing themselves to us.”19

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Meanwhile, the work went forward. Ground was broken in March of 2000 for the City Hall–Visitor Center, with both Governor Patton and Senator Bailey in attendance. During the ceremony, Patton spoke of difficulties in getting additional CDI funding through the current legislative session. The steering committee submitted a number of proposals to augment the original water and sewer projects along with a request for $2.5 million for a Museum of Eastern Kentucky and for design funds for the River of Earth amphitheater. Nothing new was approved, although additional parts of the original proposal were funded, including a parking structure and three bridges, together with previously approved water and sewage projects. The unexpected loss of his seat in the legislature in the May 2000 primary by Knott County’s long-serving senator, Benny Ray Bailey, makes it more uncertain whether the later additions to the Hindman CDI will receive state funding in the near future. The success of the CDI in terms of what Mullins calls “civic capital” is clear, however. Despite the change of political climate, those who have become involved with the project are determined to see the plan fully implemented, even if it takes a decade or more. They are also seeking other sources of funds to finish their vision of a new town and county. The continued progress was illustrated in a report of ongoing CDI activities in the Troublesome Creek Times on January 31 and February 14, 2001. The City Hall–Visitor Center was open; the library had been moved to temporary quarters in preparation for the razing of its former home for the multipurpose Opportunity Center. Buildings for the Artisan Center and the Arts and Craft Foundation had been purchased, and renovation begun on the Center building. A planning grant had been obtained for the design of the Foundation’s space, and both buildings were expected to open within two years. The Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Association received a grant from Main Street America and hired a director to supervise the Hindman Main Street Project. Preliminary discussions had begun about new housing needs that the CDI will generate, particularly the need for housing for the one hundred students who will take the two-year course at the School of Craft. The ripple effect of the original CDI on other civic activities was apparent.20 Watching the CDI unfold, it seems remarkable how much has been accomplished in so short a time. Equally important, the community-building environment it established seems capable of sustaining continued change. Linda Gayheart, vice president of the Hindman Chamber of Commerce, wrote that “putting all of the components together . . . is rather awesome,” but she believes “the focus on heritage and arts and culture [will] make this

218 Challenge and Change in Appalachia whole process wonderfully workable.” Ron Daley encapsulated the new sense of possibilities when he said, “CDI stands for ‘Can Do It.’”21 As the larger work of community building continues, Hindman Settlement School stands at its center because of the leadership that Mike Mullins has provided. It is unlikely that the unique vision in the proposal would have been formulated—and even more unlikely that it could have been realized—without the strong support of the Settlement and its director. The chair of the CDI steering committee said, “Without the support of Mike and the Settlement, I don’t think our dreams would have been realized.” The donated land was only a small part of the contribution. Mullins put himself and the Settlement’s resources totally behind the effort, and his board of directors backed it up enthusiastically in the desire to help Hindman achieve a better future. For several years, the Settlement staff did the paperwork, provided the meeting space, offered the food, and helped negotiate the fine details that come with a multimillion-dollar project. Mullins was one of those who believed strongly that heritage could be the road to a viable and sustainable local economy. He served on almost every committee and subcommittee created to turn the concepts of the CDI into concrete proposals and the proposals into concrete plans. It is little wonder that he sees this as his greatest achievement. Speaking to Loyal Jones, he said: “If I left this earth today, I’d say the greatest legacy that I would leave the Hindman Settlement School has been this work with this Community Development Initiative. Because, I’m telling you right now, it is going to change the whole structure, the whole base of the Hindman Settlement School campus. And it is going to bring about tremendous change in the Hindman–Knott County area.”22 The CDI project fits what Mullins believes has been learned from the strengths and the weaknesses of the “missionary era” in eastern Kentucky. He told Jones that the CDI was a good example of how things should be done today. “In order for the area to be built up, I think the leadership and the stimulus and the commitment has to come from within.” Mullins says that what is needed now is “investment in the people” and “empowerment, the educating and the funding of local projects and people. Because I don’t think that major initiatives are going to come from outside.” Indeed, if the CDI suggests anything, it is that initiatives do not have to come from outside. Local people have shown themselves eager to shape their own future.23 Until the component parts of the project have been completed and had time to operate, no one can say whether the CDI can build a prosperous future for Knott County. Doubters remain, for it is not an easy thing to

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Hindman Settlement School staff, August 2001. Front row (left to right), Linda Amburgey, Gail Young, Doris Miller, Rebecca Ware, Lema Gibson, and Mike Mullins. Middle row, Angeline Bentley, Jim Phelps, Anne Ritchie, Carolyn Combs, Sheila Jacobs, Shirley Asher, Ann Titsworth, Ola Pigmon, Trena Hotelling, LaDonna Collins, Tammie Owens, and Moses Owens. Back row, Lorriane Baron, Jean Johnson, Arnold Baron, Jason Scruggs, Montina Scruggs, and Sam Linkous.

believe in the possibility of a very different future. More important, the politics of eastern Kentucky remain an unknown factor in trying to assess the future of the Hindman CDI. The philosophy that underlies the Community Development Initiative is predicated on wide community cooperation to find regional solutions to regional problems. Those who see regional approaches as a threat, who dislike participatory processes, or who are uncomfortable with change may make progress difficult. Bill Weinberg, for example, is not as optimistic as Mullins that a new era of civic cooperation has opened. Weinberg served as chairman of the Hindman/Knott County CDI committee from the time the grant was awarded in 1997 until the summer of 2000. He looks upon the project as “the best government program with which I’ve been involved.” But he went on to say, “The main problems . . . center around politics and getting people to work together. The CDI has not been successful in helping to develop any sort of new political approach and the old factionalism has existed throughout.” While

220 Challenge and Change in Appalachia this could be too pessimistic an evaluation of how the CDI has operated, Weinberg knows from long experience that people can lose heart when it becomes very difficult to surmount political challenges.24 Dr. Vaughan Grisham, a professor at the University of Mississippi who teaches graduate courses in community development, became interested in the CDI in the spring of 2001. His observations about the progress and prospects of the CDI fall somewhere between those of Mullins and Weinberg. Asked to evaluate the progress of the CDI, in June 2001 Grisham brought to Knott County a team that included his wife and two graduate students who studied the program for a report that will focus on what the CDI has accomplished during its first three years and how it might be improved. During the field research, more than two dozen local citizens were interviewed, and Grisham offered some preliminary observations to the CDI committee and in an interview with The Troublesome Creek Times. The team identified much that is positive in the project, such as its central emphasis on education and the location of the public library within the new multipurpose Opportunity Center. Grisham also felt the plan did an excellent job of incorporating the natural beauty of the area as an asset for economic development. He expressed amazement at how fast the work has gone forward and called the CDI “brilliant and a model not just for Eastern Kentucky but for rural America,” concluding, “There are no losers in this plan. Everyone in Knott County will benefit.” However, the visit also revealed that while the CDI committee attempted to encourage—and thought it had achieved—the broadest possible public participation, many citizens still felt left out and did not see how the initiative would impact them or their communities in a positive way. While Grisham praised the volunteerism that had propelled so much of the effort during its first three years, he suggested that some of the problems of communication could be overcome by the immediate hiring of more paid staff members to encourage additional involvement, disseminate information more widely, and help move projects along. Grisham and his team were astonished at the political atmosphere that exists within Knott County. He said the team “had never seen a place with such strong political divisions.” They thought it was nothing short of amazing that so much had been achieved in such circumstances. But, Grisham noted, as those interested in the success of the CDI are already well aware, there must be a greater effort made to lay aside petty differences. He pointed to the Opportunity Center as a model of cooperation, showing how citizens and officials at many levels were able to act together for the common good. The Center, which will house the Knott County

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branch of Hazard Community College; the Knott County Public Library; the Knott County Adult Education Center; the Letcher, Knott, Leslie, and Perry County Head Start Day Care Center; county government offices; the Morehead State College and Rural Development Center Distance Learning classrooms; a technology center open to the public; Knott County School District’s Community Education Program; and the Knott Opportunity Educational Channel, is living proof that cooperation is possible. Grisham’s September report called the CDI plan “excellent” and gave it an “A+.” He estimated the financial impact of the new educational and cultural endeavors at $40 million, bringing new jobs. While it would not solve all of Knott County’s economic problems, he also pointed out that, typically, six jobs generated in this way would bring at least one more job in some ancillary activity. Grisham concluded by saying that “community development is part science, but it’s also an art,” and “[I]t takes practice, and you get better at it.”25 The Hindman experience should also be viewed in the context of the wider national debate that continues about all of the “Hindmans” in Appalachia. In this respect, what happens with the Knott County CDI may have wider impact than in eastern Kentucky alone. Its success or failure will add a chapter to the ongoing debate about whether is it possible in post-coal Appalachia, and in rural America generally, to find ways to create a sustainable economy. A successful outcome can provide a model for exploring new ways for local people to shape the future of their communities. Ewell Balltrip sees Hindman’s plan as “broad-based strategic planning,” which is the best hope for making a difference in rural redevelopment. But, he notes, “there is no silver bullet to building an economy.” What Hindman has achieved is a hopeful beginning. It also has many advantages in attempting a bold revisioning of the community, not the least of which are the talent, resources, and leadership that reside in Hindman Settlement School. Balltrip points out that “By maintaining a tradition of service to the community and its people as a partner in the CDI, the Hindman Settlement School is still influencing the future of Knott County and Hindman.” He also observes, “[A]s Hindman is impacted, so will be the settlement school.”26 Hindman Settlement School is venturing into territory as uncharted as that faced by Katherine Pettit and May Stone a century earlier. This study has shown that Hindman Settlement School is the story of two remarkable women, the unique institution they established, and those who have directed it after them. Hindman is clearly the most successful rural social settlement founded during the Progressive era. Its founders

222 Challenge and Change in Appalachia belong to a small group of female reform leaders who transformed education, health care, farming practices, and community organization in the mountains at the opening of the twentieth century. The Settlement has steadfastly pursued its original educational mission through the many challenges that change has brought to the people of Appalachia. What occurred was not, as an early study suggested, a case of outsiders imposing an alien culture on mountain people. Rather, Hindman Settlement School is an example of an ongoing exchange between settlement workers and mountain residents that has been sustained to the present time. While Stone and Pettit were not free of biases brought from their backgrounds, they became influential leaders because they were pragmatists who desired to serve real needs. Their work is held in high esteem in recent scholarship on settlement work and mountain reform.27 The current programs and leadership of the Settlement reflect the same approach. This study has also shown that the founders belonged to the generation of women who for the first time emerged into public life in large numbers during the late nineteenth century. Stone’s and Pettit’s careers provided a path to a fulfilling life as well as to positions of leadership. In founding Hindman Settlement School, they were part of a great educational awakening across the South, and the School’s curriculum—based on progressive educational ideas and tailored to the needs of an agrarian society—merged innovations such as kindergarten, manual training, scientific farming, and domestic science with rigorous academic training. Its boarding program provided an educational lifeline for thousands of students who would not have had the opportunity to go beyond sixth or seventh grade without it. The School supplied many of the mountain teachers and other leaders. It sent scores of graduates on for higher education, many to elite universities and colleges. Whether students entered professions or became housewives, farmers, or local business leaders, they speak with gratitude of both the values and the knowledge they acquired during their years at Hindman Settlement School. No one better exemplified those values than Congressman Carl Perkins, a 1930 graduate, who took the lead in establishing the federal government’s role in public education during the 1950s and 1960s. The founders intended their institution to engage in educational activities in the broadest sense. Their role in health education significantly affected the quality of life in Knott County, introducing modern medical knowledge that reduced infant and maternal mortality and the spread of contagious disease. Programs in scientific farming and extension work with

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farm wives and daughters—along with the Fireside Industries—helped make farm life easier and more viable and gave many families a means to earn cash income. While Pettit’s and Stone’s perceptions of mountain culture changed considerably during their summer camps and years of mountain service, they were human beings, influenced by their times, their social backgrounds, and their prior experiences. For example, both were deeply religious yet never able to shed their bias toward the practices of mountain religion. Reflecting on both their strengths and failings only emphasizes the need to see the founders in light of their own times, their own class, and southern culture. Stone and Pettit stood, as Deborah Blackwell has said, “at the crossroads of tradition and modernity.”28 Theda Skocpol, a leading scholar of the development of social policy in America, has reminded modern feminists that they could learn from this early generation, who “stressed solidarity between privileged and less privileged women, and honor for values of caring and nurturance.”29 This work was carried forward by later directors. Elizabeth Watts gave eighty-four years of service to Hindman Settlement School. Under her leadership, it made a smooth and successful transition from primary responsibility for public education in Hindman to a partnership with the county that allowed continuation of an unusually rich curriculum for students in both Hindman and rural schools. While the Settlement lost its preeminent role in the life of Knott County over the middle decades of the century, its directors accomplished more than has sometimes been acknowledged. Raymond McLain was an energetic and resourceful leader who reconstructed the campus to meet modern health and safety codes and improved the institution’s governance. He continued the Settlement’s commitment to the cultural heritage of the region and took the opportunity to experiment with new programs funded by the federal government during the years of the War on Poverty. He laid a basis for what has been a quartercentury of remarkable achievement under its current director. Mike Mullins has brought the Settlement back into a central role within the community with programs to help dyslexic children and adults who cannot read or who have dropped out of school. Programs focused on the region’s cultural heritage have flourished, making the Settlement an important resource for preserving the cultural heritage of the mountains and for shaping its cultural future. Its long tradition of community leadership has come to the fore again in recent years in its role in the Knott County/Hindman Community Development Initiative. The CDI’s goal is to transform Hindman and Knott County as comprehensively as it was

224 Challenge and Change in Appalachia transformed at the opening of the twentieth century when Hindman Settlement School was founded. The vision for the community’s twenty-first century is built directly on the heritage of the county’s settlement schools. As it seeks once again to become a center for mountain education, arts, and crafts, the legacy of Hindman Settlement School provides the people of Knott County with the basis for new dreams of a better future.

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APPENDIX 1 Social Settlements and Settlement Workers AN ESSAY IN APPALACHIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

THE INVESTIGATION OF Appalachian settlement work and the women who led it grew out of a base of earlier, more broadly focused studies of the region. Three early books have had particular influence on the understanding of mountain society, its people, and their problems. The first was John C. Campbell’s book The Southern Highlanders and Their Homeland, published posthumously by the Russell Sage Foundation in 1921. Campbell offered a strikingly different view of Appalachia from the one popularized by the literary tradition of the nineteenth century, which had defined the region as a land full of strange and peculiar people. Against this image he set forth another construct—that of a mountain society diverse in its economy, people, and culture. Campbell’s work remains highly regarded today, even though it failed to dispel the stereotypes of the earlier depictions of Appalachia. Another volume that had considerable impact on thinking about Appalachia was Harry Caudill’s Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area (1963). It detailed the extensive damage done to the land and people by the coal industry. A third widely read work, written at the time of the “second discovery” of Appalachia during the 1960s War on Poverty, was Jack Weller’s Yesterday’s People (1962). This study argued that mountaineers were mainly responsible for their own circumstances. Rather than seeing them as victims of the large, impersonal forces that invaded their region in the late nineteenth century with the coming of the timber and coal industries, Weller contended that a set of traits unique to mountain culture made its society and people impervious to progress. These studies were among the most important for establishing the framework by which most people understood Appalachia, its people, and its culture. Beginning in the 1970s, a general transformation began in academic scholarship that focused less on the study of elites who dominated political and economic history and more on ordinary people and their social and cultural worlds. An outgrowth of this shift was the emergence of the Appalachian studies movement. The new emphasis can be seen in the first major work to appear, Henry Shapiro’s Appalachia on Our Minds: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness (1978). Shapiro delineated how the local color writers,

226 Appendix 1 travelers, and fiction writers of the second half of the nineteenth century had “discovered” and then “invented” Appalachia as a region with a discrete culture, distinct from the rest of America. Shortly afterward, two studies of Appalachia by David Whisnant appeared, Modernizing the Mountaineer: People, Power, and Planning in Appalachia (1980) and All That Is Native and Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region (1983). Intended to add a cultural explanation to the prevailing economic interpretation of the region’s problems, Whisnant singled out the social settlements, social workers, and missionaries who had entered the area during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as the causal agents for what he described as the destruction of mountain culture. He argued that social settlement work was intended as “cultural intervention,” and he called the process that had taken place “the politics of culture.” Whisnant saw Katherine Pettit, May Stone, and Hindman Settlement School as the preeminent example of his thesis. His second book, All That Is Native and Fine, contains a long opening essay, “‘Hit Sounds Reasonable’: Culture and Social Change at Hindman Settlement School.” In it, he explored the programs of the Settlement and the motivations of Pettit and Stone so as to support his argument. Not only did he assert that the main activities of their settlement were cultural, but he also argued that they were based on a flawed and romantic notion of mountain culture. He explained the emphasis on cultural endeavors as something that allowed Stone and Pettit to ignore the real problems of the region. In so doing, they not only replaced a unique, indigenous culture with their own “genteel” mass culture, but also acted as “handmaidens” of the coal industry as it acquired dominance over the economy and lives of Appalachian people. His investigation of Hindman Settlement School led him to conclude that when compared to the urban social settlements of the time, Hindman’s work was “narrow [in] ambit” and its “accomplishments quite limited.” Whisnant observed that his findings were preliminary, and he urged fellow scholars to undertake additional investigations of the missionaries and settlement workers in order to test his thesis.1 A number of studies have done so, this history being the latest of them. The first work to appear on a specific settlement school was a doctoral dissertation by James S. Greene, “Progressives in the Kentucky Mountains: The Formative Years of the Pine Mountain Settlement School: 1913–1930” (1982). Coming as it did the year before the publication of Whisnant’s study of Hindman Settlement School, it did not speak to Whisnant’s thesis about the priority of cultural programs at Hindman Settlement School, or Pine Mountain. Instead, Greene described a school whose educational ideas were progressive, indebted to John Dewey, and based on the conception that school should develop the whole child, not just the academic side. Pine Mountain operated from the belief (similar to that at Hindman) that education offered the principal means for ameliorating the problems of mountain life and helping mountain residents retain what was best in their culture, while adjusting to the changes arriving in their region. The early debate focused not only on Whisnant’s arguments but also on how to understand cultural change in general and whether the change in Appalachian culture was unique. A number of scholars have rejected the idea of Ap-

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palachian exceptionalism, arguing that all cultures evolve in much the same way— through interaction. These scholars prefer the concept of “cultural exchange” as more accurate than “cultural politics.” Historians also produced specific studies of communities, institutions, and settlement workers with Whisnant’s study in mind, and their conclusions often differed in important respects from his. Durwood Dunn’s Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818 to 1937 (1988) dismissed the idea that Appalachian people had a unique set of “mountain values.” His investigation of the Cades Cove community convinced him that the people there held values similar to the rest of America. Three years later, Dunn published an article, “A Meditation on Pittman Center: An Interview with Jessie Mecham Ledford,” in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly (1991). There he questioned the underlying assumptions of Whisnant’s work more broadly, saying that “however plausible or appealing such theories . . . are at the macro-level of regional analysis, like so many earlier stereotypes of Appalachia by well-meaning writers, these generalizations seem gross distortions of objective reality when measured against individual accounts from those . . . actually involved in mountain work or by the testimony of their former pupils.”2 The book by P. David Searles, A College for Appalachia, Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek (1995), provided a balanced study of the well-known settlement worker Alice Geddes Lloyd and the institution she founded. While Searles recognized that Lloyd’s methods were not above criticism, he argued that her motives should not be questioned. Moreover, the college she founded—which has educated hundreds of mountain leaders—is “living proof that the men and women who went off to do good at the turn of the century did indeed do good. We do not have to apologize for their work, nor can we denigrate it.”3 Scholars generally concerned with women’s issues have become particularly interested in the settlements since their leadership was female and because they were closely connected to the major women’s organizations of the time. Nancy Forderhase began the investigation of such women reformers in several articles, including “The Clear Call of Thoroughbred Women: The Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs and the Crusade for Educational Reform, 1903–1909” (1985) and “Eve Returns to the Garden: Women Reformers in Appalachia in the Early Twentieth Century” (1987). Both appeared in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. She described settlement workers as viewing themselves “as modern pioneers, transplanting the concept of the settlement house into a rural setting and introducing the ideas of progressive education, improved health standards, and community development to the people of Appalachia.” She felt they had done important work and argued that Whisnant’s depiction gave “too little credit to the very extensive and educational work carried out by the women workers in the mountains.”4 Her views were echoed in Rhonda England’s doctoral dissertation, “Voices from the History of Teaching; Katherine Pettit, May Stone and Elizabeth Watts at Hindman Settlement School” (1990), the only full-length study of Hindman Settlement School prior to this. England defined Pettit, Stone, and Watts as liberal and progressive in their educational ideas and described their work as a

228 Appendix 1 cultural exchange “in which the teachers learned from the mountain people,” something she felt Whisnant did not appreciate. She also stressed that Whisnant’s criticism of Hindman Settlement School was flawed by his personal belief that political activity aimed at structural economic change in Appalachia was the only positive form of social action. Since the settlement women emphasized educational activities, he failed to see the significance of their efforts.5 Women’s studies scholarship has long been interested in the transformation that took place in the lives of women at the end of the nineteenth century. Women moved from the ideal of domesticity that limited them primarily to the private spheres of life into active roles within the public sphere, the domain of men. This phenomenon is seen most clearly in the enormous influence of women in general and women leaders in particular during the Progressive era. The earliest studies concentrated on the well-known, urban women reformers of the era, such as Jane Addams, and on the institutions and organizations they created. These works concluded that the prevailing ideology of women leaders of the transitional generation was “maternalism”—a belief that a unique feminine value system based on care and nurturing existed and that women were united across class and race by a sense of their capacity for motherhood and their responsibility for all children. Women were thought to have an intrinsic capacity to resolve the problems of women, children, and the family in the changing world of modern America. Scholars have suggested that this ideology not only reflected an acceptance of widely held cultural attitudes about the separate spheres of men and women that dominated nineteenth-century culture, but also that a maternalist focus provided an acceptable way for women to enter the public sphere. A number of recently published studies have turned their attention toward the role of women reformers outside of the cities and have investigated settlement workers within the context of gender. These include Deborah Blackwell’s dissertation, “The Ability ‘To Do Much Larger Work’: Gender and Reform in Appalachia, 1890–1935” (1998); Karen Tice’s article, “School Work and Mother Work: The Interplay of Maternalism and Cultural Politics in the Educational Narratives of Kentucky Settlement Workers, 1910–1930,” Journal of Appalachian Studies (1998); Sandra Barney’s article “Maternalism and the Promotion of Scientific Medicine during the Industrial Transformation of Appalachia, 1880–1930,” National Women’s Studies Association Journal (1999); Barney’s book, Authorized to Heal: Gender, Class, and the Transformation of Medicine in Appalachia, 1880–1930 (2000); and the dissertation of Melanie Beals Goan, “‘First, Foremost and above All for Babies’; Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service” (2000). Each of these studies investigated, in various ways, how these women dealt with problems specific to an agrarian society and to the conservative culture of the South. Deborah Blackwell’s doctoral dissertation studied five women mountain reformers—May Stone, Katherine Pettit, Ellen Frost, Mary Breckinridge, and Olive Dame Campbell. Her research led to the conclusion that all five brought gender-based notions of the world to their work as they shaped “Appalachian progressivism.” It was by way of a maternalist ideology that they demonstrated, as Blackwell aptly used the

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phrase, “the ability to do much larger work.” She described Stone and Pettit as “trailblazers” and placed them at the “crossroads of tradition and modernity.”6 Karen Tice investigated the role that both gender and class played in relations between settlement workers and mountain women. From the writings of Lucy Furman and Ethel de Long, she determined that class differences existed and could be seen most clearly in the settlement workers’ depictions of “good mothers” and “bad mothers.” However, face-to-face contact lessened differences, and she concluded that settlement workers’ depictions of mountain people were much more sympathetic than the stereotypes of earlier years. Tice rejected an interpretation of mountain people as victims, dominated by outsiders. Sandra Barney’s work investigated the introduction of scientific or “modern” medicine into Appalachia, replacing the natural healers and midwives who had provided health care in the region. Barney argued that settlement workers were critical to this process. Their alliance with professionally trained doctors was the key factor in the ability of doctors to gain the acceptance of mountain residents and replace the natural healers and midwives. Barney believes it was the trust mountaineers placed in the settlement women that made it possible for the transition to take place in a relatively short period of time. She sees May Stone and Katherine Pettit as among the most effective of the settlement women and described them as skilled, influential leaders who rejected traditional roles in order to build influential institutions that shaped mountain society. Melanie Beals Goan provided a new study of Mary Breckinridge, the founder of the Frontier Nursing Service, that examines the obstacles Breckinridge and others such as Stone and Pettit faced due to the conservatism of agrarian society and traditional southern ideas regarding gender roles. Her study provides an excellent example of the networks established by mountain reform leaders. The board of Breckinridge’s organization, formed in 1925 and originally called the Kentucky Society for Babies, included not only Katherine Pettit, May Stone, and Lucy Furman but also two males who were closely associated with Hindman Settlement School, Desha Breckinridge and Judge Edward O’Rear.7 All of the studies noted above offer arguments affirming the success that Pettit and Stone had in finding a place for their work and the realization of their goals. None of them view Hindman Settlement School’s achievements as narrow or limited. Rather, they conclude that the work of the Settlement School was carried out within a context of cultural exchange that resulted in lasting improvements in the lives of mountain people. This body of scholarship suggests that Hindman provides a poor argument for the thesis offered by David Whisnant. These works contain strikingly different assessments of the motivations and accomplishments of May Stone and Katherine Pettit than the one found in All That Is Native and Fine. Whisnant, however, has also reconsidered the views expressed in his original essay in an interview he gave in 2000, saying he was not certain he would use the term “cultural intervention” again, and suggesting that he would “nuance” his assessment of Katherine Pettit and “those missionary women.” Undoubtedly, Hindman Settlement School’s influence gave it an important role

230 Appendix 1 in the evolving culture of the region. However, it is important to recognize that larger forces were at work as well. Technologies as disparate as railroads, newspapers, and radios were creating both a national economy and a national culture in America, each characterized by many regional and local variations. For example at the time the Settlement was established, the Cincinnati newspaper was available in Hindman.8 The present study provides evidence on many subjects covered in “‘Hit Sounds Reasonable’” leading to the conclusion that the essay is of dubious value for understanding the work of May Stone, Katherine Pettit, and Hindman Settlement School. It has shown that education, and not cultural activities, was the primary endeavor of the Settlement. It has demonstrated that settlement work in health care, farming and extension work, and community building significantly improved the quality of life for those it served. It has also revealed how other of Whisnant’s characterizations of Hindman Settlement School are inaccurate. For example, the School was always public. Its curriculum was not conservative or reactionary, but was shaped by the most important Progressive ideas in education. Its excellent academic program did not send students out of the mountains and away from their homes, never to return. Even those who went on for higher education outside the region usually returned to become its teachers, businesspeople, professionals, social workers, husbands, and wives. The Settlement’s programs were broadly conceived to meet numerous real needs that Stone and Pettit personally witnessed during the summer camps and their residence at the Settlement. They went to considerable lengths to prepare themselves to establish their institution, working at Neighborhood House in Louisville and visiting the major northern settlement houses as well as the one rural settlement in existence in the South at the time they were organizing their own enterprise. There is good reason to believe they remained in touch with the latest educational and settlement ideas after Hindman Settlement School was launched through personal contacts at Hull House, the premier settlement in America. Stone and Pettit reflected their times and their class, but the diaries and early newsletters of the Settlement do not bear out a portrayal of the founders as embracing a narrow view of culture that focused only on manners and dress, diet, and home decoration. Even his discussion of the Settlement’s organized cultural programs, which Whisnant believed represented the “full cultural significance of the Settlement,” can now be seen to have been presented too simplistically. The handicrafts program is a good example. Mountain handicrafts began as survival skills that at one time all mountain women possessed. As mountain culture changed in the late nineteenth century (well before the arrival of Pettit and Stone), influences such as country stores and mail-order catalogues had already diminished the need to continue these crafts. When Stone and Pettit arrived, beautiful work was still being done in the labor-intensive crafts of weaving, quilting, and basket making, but these were primarily skills of older women. Pettit and Stone valued these handmade objects for their inherent beauty as well as for their role in mountain culture. They realized, however, that few women would continue to make such crafts without an incentive. They provided this in a very practical form through the Fireside

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Industries Department, which opened immediately after the Settlement was founded. From the outset, the aim of the Fireside Industries was twofold—to preserve handicraft arts and to help women improve their lives by providing an economic outlet for their work. The Fireside Industries was not a money-making venture for the institution. The program was never profitable nor intended to be. The Fireside Industries was a service to mountain women and a way to preserve a part of the rich cultural heritage of the mountains. Whisnant approved of the program so long as it was aimed exclusively at preservation and self-identity (which was never the case at Hindman). He saw it as corrupted, however, when it became an “economic venture,” because it obliged “mountain craft workers to change their designs.”9 Over the first four decades of the twentieth century, craft techniques and patterns did change in the mountains. But there is some irony in suggesting that Pettit and Stone were its catalyst, for they were the “purists,” not the mountain craftswomen. Alma Pigmon described how they had asked her grandmother, Letitia Hays, to go around and talk to the older women to “help bring in all the old patterns and the ways of weaving.”10 When the Fireside Industries got under way, Pettit and Stone were unable to persuade craftswomen who produced goods for it to maintain the use of natural dyes. Few were willing to continue the laborious process once chemical dyes were available. This “defeat” illustrates an important truth about the evolution of mountain handicrafts: the women who produced these items did not view their designs or techniques as static or sacred. They altered designs on their own and adopted new techniques and machinery when it made their work easier or more efficient. A 1932 report by the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture and the Kentucky Agricultural Extension Station on indigenous crafts in the mountains surveyed craftspeople still engaged in earning an income from weaving. Most had adopted a new loom because of its greater ease and technical efficiency, even though it produced a somewhat different type of woven goods. The craftspeople also discussed how they borrowed and changed designs to suit themselves.11 The form and design of mountain handicrafts altered, and some of the change was most certainly the result of commercial pressures. But changes were also undertaken by mountain craftswomen of their own volition, and the story of craft production at Hindman and elsewhere is more complicated than the one in Whisnant’s essay. Given its overly narrow focus in regard to the Settlement’s programs and the questionable characterizations of Pettit and Stone, readers of Whisnant’s essay should view it simply as a pioneering study that sought to explain cultural change in Appalachia and to relate it to economic change as it was understood at the time when All That Is Native and Fine was published. As such, the work evoked valuable scholarly debate and served as the beginning point for many research projects. The scholarship since its publication almost two decades ago indicates, however, that the essay should not be read as a definitive account of settlements and their workers in Appalachia. More particularly, it should not be read as an accurate description of the work of Hindman Settlement School nor of the motivations and accomplishments of its founders, May Stone and Katherine Pettit.

232 Appendix 1

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APPENDIX 2 Faculty and Staff, 1925–1926

HINDMAN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL’S annual printed brochures provide a good indication of the quality of the faculty, since they listed each person’s college, university, or other relevant credentials. Hindman had a faculty that could not be matched anywhere in the mountains. The faculty for 1925–1926, typical of the era, illustrates the high quality of the staff.1 In the graduating class of that year, nine of the twelve went on to college. Elizabeth Watts, a graduate of Abbot Academy, was listed as May Stone’s assistant. Then came the other departments. The high school department included: J.F. Smith, University of Indiana, principal Ann Cobb, Wellesley College, assistant Clark Pratt, University of Kentucky, assistant (a Settlement graduate) Grace Rider, Ohio Wesleyan University, assistant The grade school was divided into three levels—upper, intermediate, and primary, with the following teaching staff. Teachers: Caroline Parkhurst, Northfield Seminary, upper Edna Black, Ohio University, upper Marion Chandler, Gorham Normal School, Maine, intermediate May Smith, Eastern Kentucky Normal School, intermediate (a Settlement graduate) Rena Yeiser, Berea College, intermediate Mrs. Givens Treadway, Eastern Kentucky Normal School, primary Special Faculty: Katherine Marshall, Teachers’ College, Columbia College, New York, kindergarten Catherine Sutherland, Western College, Ohio and Columbia College, New York, music Mrs. Mattie Hale, Art League, Cooper Union, New York, art Margaret Fishback, Transylvania College, cooking and sewing Jethro Amburgey, Berea College, woodwork and carpentry (a Settlement graduate) Anna Van Meter, Ohio State University, director of Practice Home

Faculty and 234Staff, Appendix 1925–1926 1

234

Elizabeth Roberts, Columbia University, Fireside Industries Mrs. Jethro Amburgey, Berea College, weaving Staff: Elizabeth Elkin, School of Home Economics, Battle Creek, Michigan, matron Flora Ritchie, Battle Creek Hospital Training School, nurse (a Settlement graduate) Mrs. Owen Bailey, Louisville, Kentucky, housemother, older girls Mrs. Edith Rogers, Sayre College, housemother, little girls Clara Wilson, University of Michigan, housemother, little boys Alice Foster, Teachers Training School, Gloucester, Massachusetts, librarian Elizabeth Ross, Transylvania College, field secretary Rebecca Eaton, Radcliff College, secretary Julia Hammat, Wellesley College, secretary Lauretta Gartrell, Lenox Hall, Missouri, volunteer

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APPENDIX 3 A Chronology of Hindman Settlement School

1867 1868 1883 1884

1895 1896

1899

1900 1901

1902

1904

May Stone is born in Owingsville, Kentucky. Katherine Pettit is born on a farm outside Lexington, Kentucky. Buckner Academy is constructed and operated by Professor George Clarke (later purchased for Hindman Settlement School). May Stone attends Wellesley College (1884 to 1887). Knott County is formed and named for Governor J. Proctor Knott. The county seat is named for Lieutenant Governor James Hindman. Katherine Pettit makes her first trip to the mountains. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs establish programs of traveling libraries in the mountains with Katherine Pettit as their chairwoman. May Stone and Katherine Pettit begin work in the mountains with their first camp, “Cedar Grove,” sponsored by the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs. Uncle Solomon Everidge entreats Stone and Pettit to found a school “for his grands and greats.” Katherine Pettit pens her essay, “Kentucky Mountain Folk.” May Stone and Katherine Pettit hold their second summer camp, “Camp Industrial,” at Hindman. The last summer camp takes place on the Carr Creek branch of the Kentucky River at Sassafras. Stone and Pettit decide to found a permanent settlement and school at Hindman. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union becomes the sponsor of Hindman Settlement School, which opens on August 5, 1902. Jean Gordon becomes the first principal of Hindman Settlement School. The manual training cabin is built. The Settlement acquires a full-time nurse. A program of taking Christmas trees and gifts to remote areas of the county begins. Josiah Combs and Mallie Baker become Hindman Settlement School’s first graduates.

236 Appendix 31 1905

1906

1907

1908 1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

Ann Cobb, the Settlement’s most beloved teacher, arrives. Twenty-eight room Settlement Loghouse is built but is destroyed by fire two months later. New Settlement Loghouse, weaving cabin, workshop, and power house are built. The Settlement supplies electric power to the town of Hindman. The schoolhouse burns. The schoolhouse is rebuilt. Lucy Furman, author of three novels about Hindman Settlement School, arrives. Two Hindman Settlement School graduates begin work in rural schools as teachers/settlement workers. Olive Dame Campbell’s visit to Hindman Settlement School begins its role in the collection and preservation of the mountain ballads. Elizabeth Watts arrives for what will be eighty-four years of service to Hindman Settlement School as teacher, principal, assistant to May Stone, director of the Settlement, and member of the board of directors. The first hospital is built. The school dairy is started. Fire destroys all but one building of Hindman Settlement School. The town purchases sixty-five acres for an expanded campus in return for a pledge from May Stone and Katherine Pettit to continue their school and settlement work. Hindman Settlement School becomes Knott County’s official high school. The Settlement acquires its first farm. The University of Kentucky sets up an agricultural experiment station at the Settlement. An endowment fund is started. The first official high school class of Knott County graduates. The first trachoma clinic is held at Hindman Settlement School by Dr. James Stucky, marking the beginning of a national campaign to eliminate trachoma. A Fireside Industries cabin and a barn and silo are constructed. The Settlement organizes the first county fair. A new manual training workshop and the Rest House for teachers is built. Katherine Pettit leaves Hindman to found a second settlement at Pine Mountain. Pine Mountain Settlement School opens. Lucy Furman’s first book about the Settlement, Mothering on Perilous, is published. The Settlement supports a second nurse for district health work.

ASocial Chronology Settlements of Hindman and Settlement Settlement Workers School 237 237 1914

1915

1916 1917 1918

1919 1920 1921

1922

1924 1925 1927

1928 1930

1931 1933 1934

A community hospital is opened. A typhoid epidemic strikes the Settlement. The Little Girls’ House burns down. Hindman Settlement School ends its affiliation with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and is incorporated as an independent institution. A kindergarten building is constructed and kindergarten reopens fulltime again at the Settlement. The Little Girl’s House is rebuilt. The Southern Industrial Agricultural Association sponsors a full-time extension worker for programs focused on rural farm wives. Ballad collector Cecil Sharpe visits Hindman Settlement School and discovers many new versions of ballads. May Stone seeks new management for Hindman Settlement School but rejects a plan that would eliminate its school. Hindman Settlement School grows to 20 buildings, 225 acres of land, and a coal mine. Practice House opens. Ruth Huntington leaves Hindman Settlement School. Hindman Settlement School becomes one of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution–approved schools. Friends of Kentucky Society of Evanston and North Shore is organized to support Hindman Settlement School. Owens Branch School is established as a center for educational and settlement work. The Settlement creates a “Rest Room” in downtown Hindman for country women visiting town. The Hindman Settlement School Alumni Association is formed. Ann Cobb publishes Kinfolks: Kentucky Mountain Rhymes. The Settlement opens a downtown library and community center. A branch school at Decoy is opened. A student newspaper, The Mountain Echo, begins publication. Elizabeth Watts is named May Stone’s assistant. Elizabeth Watts assumes her duties as the on-site assistant to May Stone. Serious problems close the school for two weeks and all graduation events are cancelled. Hindman Settlement School is admitted to the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. The Settlement donates land and the majority of the funds needed for Knott County to build and open a large, new high school. Katherine Pettit retires from Pine Mountain. Uncle Sol’s cabin is moved to the Settlement. James Still arrives to become the Settlement librarian. The Settlement boarding program is reduced by 40 percent due to the Depression. Little Girls’ and Little Boys’ Houses are closed.

238 Appendix 31 1936 1937 1938 1940

1942

1943 1945 1946 1950 1952 1953 1955 1956

1957 1958 1961 1964 1966– 1967 1968

1969 1970 1971

Katherine Pettit dies on September 3. Recreation House is built and the recreation program starts. James Still’s first book of poetry, Hounds on the Mountains, is published. Ann Cobb retires. Hindman Settlement School builds and opens a new library for the community. James Still’s award-winning novel, River of Earth, is published. Knott County and Hindman Settlement School agree to an arrangement by which the county takes responsibility to select and pay the teachers in all academic subjects. The Settlement retains responsibility for manual training, domestic science, art, music, and recreation. The Settlement begins extension education program in the rural schools of Knott County. The Hindman Yellow Jackets win the state high school basketball tournament. Hindman Settlement School begins receiving income from the Henry Evans Trust. May Stone dies on January 29. Planning for the May Stone building begins. The DAR State Regent begins to attend meetings of the board of directors. The fiftieth-anniversary celebration is marked by the town of Hindman and Knott County with a pageant and special edition of the newspaper. James Still returns as Settlement librarian. Settlement cosponsors a bookmobile for county schools. The Settlement purchases Lucy Furman’s home. Elizabeth Watts retires. Raymond McLain takes over as director of Hindman Settlement School. Construction of the May Stone building begins. The Settlement’s farm and dairy programs are ended. The May Stone building opens, housing a girls’ dormitory, dining hall, and kitchen. The Elizabeth Watts building for manual and industrial arts opens. Hindman Settlement School operates summer recreation programs through the War on Poverty. The first two Settlement graduates to join the board of directors are appointed. Work begins on the Katherine Pettit building. Lionel Duff, the Settlement’s future director, joins the Settlement board. Fire destroys Hillside, which houses the Settlement office. Most records of the McLain administration are lost. An executive committee is established for the board of directors. Raymond McLain leaves the Settlement for a teaching position at Berea College.

ASocial Chronology Settlements of Hindman and Settlement Settlement Workers School 239 239 1971

1973 1975

1977

1978

1979

1980

1982

1983 1985 1986

Lionel Duff becomes director of Hindman Settlement School. The Board of directors holds its first meeting at Hindman Settlement School. The Katherine Pettit building opens. A 4-H program is established for Knott County by agreement between the State of Kentucky and Hindman Settlement School. The Settlement donates land to Knott County for a public swimming pool. The DAR Kentucky State Regent becomes a voting member of the board of directors. A folk dance and writers’ summer workshop is held, the beginning of the Appalachian Writers Workshop and Appalachian Family Folk Week. Lionel Duff retires as director of Hindman Settlement School. Mike Mullins becomes director of Hindman Settlement School. The seventy-fifth anniversary of Hindman Settlement School is celebrated. Land for a county Human Resources Center is donated. The General Education Development (GED) program begins for adults to obtain a high school equivalency certificate. The public library is named for James Still. The Settlement’s old hospital building is renovated into guest quarters and is named for Dr. James Stucky, who held the trachoma clinics at Hindman. Lois Weinberg establishes the Eastern Kentucky Tutorial Program (EKTP) for children with dyslexia at the Settlement. The Settlement begins a college scholarship program for graduates of Hindman High School. The boarding program at the Settlement ends. The Adult Basic Literacy program begins for adults who cannot read or write. Volunteers for the Mennonite Central Committee’s Appalachian Program begin work at the Settlement. The EKTP holds a six-week summer school for dyslexic children at Hindman. The National Endowment for the Humanities provides a grant for microfilming Hindman Settlement School’s archives. Recreation House is renovated and named for board member John Preece. The Settlement inaugurates an endowment campaign named for graduates Congressmen Carl Perkins and his wife, Verna. The Settlement becomes a GED testing center. The board of directors approves the establishment of a full-time school for dyslexic children. The EKTP begins an endowment drive for the dyslexia program.

240 Appendix 31 1987 1988 1990 1992

1993

1995

1996 1997

1998 1999

2000

2001

Mike Mullins receives the Governor’s Award for Arts Education. The mining of the Settlement’s Smith Branch property begins. The Eastern Kentucky Teachers Network (a Foxfire outreach program) is housed at Settlement, which becomes a sponsor two years later. The Settlement’s extension programs in the arts and recreation end. The James Still Learning Center, the full-time school for children with dyslexia, opens. The Knott County Adult Learning Center is established, uniting all adult literacy programs. Elizabeth Watts dies on May 3. An anthology of works from the first fifteen years of the Appalachian Writers Workshop, A Gathering at the Forks, is published. The Marie Stewart Craft Shop opens. James Still is named the State of Kentucky’s first poet laureate. Lois Weinberg receives the Governor’s Distinguished Service Medallion for her work in education. Author Lee Smith takes advantage of a Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award to participate in the literacy program at the Adult Learning Center. The Kentucky Appalachian Commission is formed. The NSDAR Schools Chair is appointed to the board of directors and to its executive committee. May Stone and Katherine Pettit’s journals of their three summer camps are published as The Quare Women’s Journals, May Stone & Katherine Pettit’s Summers in the Kentucky Mountains and the Founding of the Hindman Settlement School. The State of Kentucky establishes the Community Development Initiative. Mike Mullins and community leaders of Hindman and Knott County submit CDI proposal, which becomes one of two pilot projects funded by the state of Kentucky. The oral history project is initiated to interview Hindman Settlement School’s oldest graduates. The Settlement’s board of directors donates land for the CDI Opportunity Center. The NSDAR creates an endowment for Hindman Settlement School with initial funding of $150,000. A Kentucky School of Craft becomes part of the CDI project. The first CDI construction project, the City Hall–Visitor Center, is built and opened. The Evans Trust Fund is transferred to the Settlement’s endowment. Centennial endowment campaign is launched with a $3.25 million goal. The $200,000 Madeline Stabile Scholarship Fund is created for the EKTP.

ASocial Chronology Settlements of Hindman and Settlement Settlement Workers School 241 241 2001

2002

The second CDI construction project, the Artisan Center, is opened. Groundbreaking takes place for construction of the largest of the CDI projects, the Opportunity Center. James Still dies on May 5. The Settlement purchases The Quiltmaker’s Inn in downtown Hindman. Hindman Settlement School celebrates its centennial.

242 Appendix 1

Notes to Pages 000-000

243

NOTES

Introduction 1. Woods and Kennedy, Handbook of Settlements, v–vi. This work clearly shows the growth of settlement houses, with 103 listed in 1900, 204 in 1905, and 413 in this 1911 edition. Four settlements are listed in Kentucky: Neighborhood House (1902) and Louisville Wesley House (1907), both in Louisville; Settlement School (whose only educational work was a kindergarten) in Frankfort (1910); and Hindman Settlement School (1902). Each settlement was briefly described, and looking at the forty-two in the southern states, it does not appear that any others were rural settlements except for the one at Tuskeegee. The data for the handbook was compiled by the “official” organization of the settlements, the College Settlement Association. Nonetheless, there have always been differing opinions regarding what was or was not a settlement institution. This is true not only in respect to Susan Chester’s experiment but also to another in Calhoun, Alabama, mentioned by Frances MacGregor Ingram, the founder of Neighborhood House in Louisville, in an article, “The Settlement Movement in the South.” The quote is from Barney, Authorized to Heal, 90. 2. Doris Daniels described Lillian Wald, head of the well-known Henry Street Settlement in New York, as a practical idealist and quoted Wald as saying, “[S]uccess resulted from developing a practical, workable project.” Daniels, Always a Sister, 3; Stoddart (ed.), The Quare Women’s Journals, 200. 3. Appendix 1 contains an historiographical essay on settlement institutions in Appalachia that discusses the most important scholarship on the settlements and their workers, on Hindman Settlement School, and on Katherine Pettit and May Stone. Chapter 1. “Mixin’ Larns Both Parties” 1. Daniels, Always a Sister, 3; A. Davis, Spearheads for Reform, 49; Carson, Settlement Folk, 27. 2. Sklar, Florence Kelly, 195; A. Davis, Spearheads for Reform, 64–65. 3. Fasteneau, “Maternal Government,” 76. 4. A. Davis, Spearheads for Reform, 50; Greene, “Progressives,” 14–15. 5. A. Davis, Spearheads for Reform, 24; Sklar, Florence Kelly, 201; Carson, Settlement Folk, 27; A. Davis, American Heroine, 61.

244 244 Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 12-21 6. Fasteneau, “Maternal Government,” 12–49 passim. 7. Ibid., 50. 8. A. Davis, Spearheads for Reform, 23; Grantham, Southern Progressivism, xvi, xviii–xix. For other views on Progressivism, see Crunden, Ministers of Reform; Cremin, Transformation of the School; Muncy, Creating a Female Dominion; and Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House. 9. Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics, 180–81. For a brief history of the common schools of Kentucky in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, see Hartford, Little White Schoolhouse. 10. Cremin, Transformation of the School, xviii and 20–21. 11. Kliebard, Struggle for the American Curriculum, 11; Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 186. 12. Cremin, Transformation of the School, 118–19. 13. Dewey, Democracy and Education, 103; M. Stone, “Hindman Settlement School,” Wellesley Alumnae Quarterly, April 1921, HSS, III, 9, 4. For a discussion of the Hindman Settlement School archives (hereafter cited as HSS), see the bibliography. 14. Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work, 2–3. Ladd-Taylor defines maternalism as an ideology that believed there was “a uniquely feminine value system based on care and nurturing”; that women were “united across class, race and nation by their common capacity for motherhood”; and that “ideally men should earn a family wage to support their ‘dependent’ wives and children at home.” She contrasts these beliefs, rooted in the idea of separate spheres, with “feminism,” which demanded “individuality, political participation, economic independence, and sexual freedom.” 15. L. Jones, “Foreword,” in Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals. 16. Shapiro, Appalachia on Our Mind, vii–x. 17. Pettit, “Kentucky Mountain Folk,” HSS, I, 1, 1. 18. L. Jones, Faith and Meaning, 4. 19. McCauley, Appalachian Mountain Religion, 9–13. 20. Blackwell, “‘To Do Much Larger Work,’” 198; Barney, “Maternalism,” 82. 21. Tice, “School Work and Mother Work,” 214; Scott, “After Suffrage,” 300. 22. Scott, Southern Lady, 163; Scott, Natural Allies, 146. The National Federation of Women’s Clubs was founded in 1889, and the Kentucky State Federation, the first in the South, was established in 1894. Price, “The Development of Leadership by Southern Women,” 131. The Federation played an important role in educational reform in Kentucky, lobbying for major legislation that included taxes to support schools and mandatory high schools in each county. Forderhase, “Clear Call of Thoroughbred Women,” 16; Furman, “Katherine Pettit: Pioneer Mountain Worker,” HSS, III, 8, 71. 23. Hay, “Madeline McDowell Breckinridge,” 33–34; Klotter, The Breckinridges of Kentucky, 189–90. For information on Frances Beauchamp, see Woodring, A Glorious Past and a Promising Future, 5–14. 24. Stewart, “’Fessor’ Clarke,” 87–90; Young and Smith, “Professor George Clarke,” 128. For Pettit’s and Stone’s observations on teachers and schools in Knott

Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 21-28 245 245 County, see Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 78–81, 91, 205–6, 208, 224–26, and chapters 1 and 2 of England, “Voices from the History of Teaching.” 25. Hamlett, History of Education in Kentucky, 99. 26. Shapiro, Appalachia on Our Mind, 39–40, 57–58, 63–65; Frost, “Our Contemporary Ancestors,” 311. As late as 1913, an influential book by Horace Kephart depicted the “Southern Highlanders” as “still thinking essentially the same thoughts, still living in much the same fashion as did their ancestors in the days of Daniel Boone.” Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 211; J. Campbell, The Southern Highlander and His Homeland, xxi. 27. McKinney, Southern Mountain Republicans, xi. 28. Ronald Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers, xix, 38. 29. Wilhelm, “Appalachian Isolation,” 79–80; Lewis and Billings, “Appalachian Culture.” For a group of essays containing recent scholarship on nineteenthcentury Appalachia, see Pudup, Appalachia in the Making. 30. Weise, Grasping at Independence, 6, 35, 286–89. 31. Kermiet, “May Stone, the Ladyest,” reprinted from Mountain Life and Work ( June 1946), HSS, III, 9, 21. This article was written as a memorial to May Stone in 1946, the year of her death. There are a number of other folders in the archives containing miscellaneous biographical information on Stone. See HSS, III, 9, 19–31. 32. M. Stone, “Hindman Settlement School,” HSS, III, 9, 4. 33. Stout, July 4, 1927, “Miracle on Troublesome Creek.” Edith Stout was the secretary at the Settlement from 1926 until 1929. Jane Halstead Stout, her daughter-in-law, gathered Edith’s letters to her mother and transcribed them into a chronological narrative of Edith’s years at the Settlement. Recollections of the following students: Alma Pigmon and Nancy Stewart Boatright (telephone interviews), Gertrude Maggard (letter to author), and Ruby Boleyn Allen, “Room in the Wagon,” typescript recollection of May Stone sent to author, Aug. 1994, 1–2. 34. Kermiet, “May Stone”; Richard Drake interview with Elizabeth Watts, 1967; Weavers’ Guild interview with Elizabeth Watts, 1975. Both interviews are in the HSS, Watts collection. Stone received active support from her father, Henry Stone. His friends and business acquaintances may have formed another source of assistance. For example, Mr. Stone’s friend Charles Huhlein served on an advisory committee set up by the WCTU, and later served as a member of the five-person board of directors of the independent institution. 35. Watts, “Profile of Katherine Pettit,” [1936], HSS, II, 8, 97; Greene, “Progressives,” 251–54; Furman, “The Work of the Fotched-On Women,” HSS, III, 8, 71; and Elizabeth Watts to Mrs. Henry Boynton (her mother), Jan. 12, 1912, HSS, Watts collection. 36. Greene, “Progressives,” 14–15. 37. “Report of the Traveling Library in the Mountains of Kentucky,” typescript, June 2, 1899, HSS, I, 1, 15. 38. M. Stone, “Katherine Pettit’s First Trips to the Kentucky Mountains,” typescript article, n.d., HSS, I, 9, 29.

246 246 Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 29-42 39. Ibid. 40. Pettit, “Kentucky Mountain Folk.” 41. Ibid.; Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 74. 42. Pettit, “Kentucky Mountain Folk.” 43. Greene, “Progressives,” 27. Greene says that this expression is part of an anecdote told by William Goodell Frost, president of Berea College. 44. Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 60, 62–63. The camp received national publicity in an article published early the following year. Semple, “New Departure in Settlements,” 159–60. 45. Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 68; Pettit, “Ballads and Rhymes of the Kentucky Mountains,” 251–76. 46. Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 73–74. 47. Ibid., 80. A similar program was established at Berea College under President William Frost in the same year, 1902. It was an outgrowth of the “Homespun Fairs” that had been held at graduation since 1896. In later years, Hindman Settlement School initiated something similar, a large display of student handicrafts during the week of graduation ceremonies, which drew considerable interest in the community. 48. Ibid., 75. 49. Ibid., 79. Stone and Pettit participated in the Teachers’ Institutes in both 1900 and 1901 at Hindman and lectured against alcohol and tobacco at both. 50. Katherine Pettit to Mary Rockwell Hook, Jan. 17, 1929, in Greene, “Progressives,” 21. Several other versions of Uncle Sol’s appeal were circulated, including one that Lucy Furman included in her novel about the summer camp at Hindman, The Quare Women, 19–21. 51. Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 81–82, 94; Elizabeth Watts, “[Auto]Biographical Profile,” 1980, HSS, Watts collection. 52. Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 84, 87. 53. Ibid., 94. 54. Ibid., 168. 55. Ibid., 169. 56. Ibid., 179, 251, 275. 57. Ibid., 170–71. 58. Ibid., 183, 185, 202. 59. Ibid., 169, 174, 177, 213, 222, 229, 254. 60. Ibid., 180–81, 187, 215, 224. 61. Ibid., 211–12, 224, 233. 62. Ibid., 197. 63. Ibid., 211; Still, Wolfpen Poems, 38. 64. Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 189, 202, 211–12, 232, 266. 65. Ibid., 241–42. 66. Ibid., 172, 176, 180, 182, 214. 67. Ibid., 257, 260. There are so many Stacys, Cornetts, and Combses in the diary that it is not always possible to identify them precisely. The Robert Stacy

Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 42-52 247 247 who wanted to go off to school may have been the local schoolteacher, but it could have been someone else by the same name. Pettit usually stated the relationship of people to one another—especially to other Stacys and to Mary and Simon. In this case, she did not. 68. Ibid., 283–84; Greene, “Progressives,” 10. 69. Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 179, 267–68. 70. Ibid., 191–93. 71.This characterization of Stone and Pettit as “genteel, Christian, Victorian ladies,” was made by David Whisnant in the essay “‘Hit Sounds Reasonable,’ Culture and Social Change at Hindman Settlement School” in All That Is Native and Fine, 41. 72. Stoddart, Quare Women’s Journals, 179, 267–68. 73. Ibid., 285. 74. Ibid., 290–91. 75. Ibid., 206. 76. Ibid., 291. Chapter 2. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union School 1. The number of women in the WCTU far surpassed those in any other women’s organization at the end of the nineteenth century, according to its historian, Ruth Bordin, who called it “the first mass movement of women.” The organization engaged in a broad array of reforms in addition to the campaign against alcohol. Bordin, Women and Temperance, 3; Furman, Mothering on Perilous, 270–71. 2. Greene, “Progressives,” 24–25 and 27. Greene mentioned Henderson Daingerfield and Ellen Semple as two academic friends who wrote about the camps. Semple, “New Departure in Settlements,” 158; Elizabeth Watts, typewritten chronology of events between 1896 and 1944. Hereafter cited as “Watts Chronology,” HSS, Watts collection; “WCTU Settlement School, Hindman, Knott County, Kentucky,” pamphlet, undated but 1905–1906, HSS, Watts collection; transcript of taped interview with Elizabeth Watts in Bertrand (Rivera), “Appalachian Settlement Schools,” 69–70. 3. Knott County, Kentucky; History and Families, 10–11, 41–42. Hereafter cited as Knott County History. 4. Ibid., 12, 22, 24; U.S. Bureau of the Census, Twelfth Census of the United States in the Year 1900, Vol. I, Population, parts 1 and 2 (Washington, U.S. Census, 1901), pt. 1, 504, and pt. 2, 628. 5. Stewart, “’Fessor Clarke,’” 87–91. 6. Knott County History, 51–52. Knott County’s best known school for African Americans was at Breeding’s Creek near Sassafras. 7. Hamlett, History of Education, 398. It is doubtful that Clarke’s school was deficient in these ways. Various newsletters and pamphlets give figures for the public money that the Settlement received. In 1905 it received $630 for 192 pupils; in 1908 it was paid $787. By 1912, when it provided the county’s official high

248 248 Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 52-63 school as well as the elementary school for the town, the state paid $1,044 for the 310 pupils in the elementary school and $450 for the 95 students in the high school. How far this was from covering actual expenses can be illustrated from the 1905 pamphlet “Women’s Christian Temperance Union Settlement School, Hindman, Kentucky,” which said that the cost of teachers, the nurse, and housekeeper for the year was $3,084, while the state had provided $630. HSS, Watts collection. 8. May Elkin to Katherine Pettit, Oct. 9, 1902, and Jean Gordon to Katherine Pettit, Nov. 11, 1902, HSS, II, 4, 29. 9. Ibid. 10. May Elkin to Katherine Pettit, Nov. 2, 1902, ibid. 11. Kentucky White Ribbon, Jan. 20, 1903, HSS, V, 11, 1. 12. Annual newsletter, 1909, HSS, I, 1, 21. So far as is known, the newsletter was always sent in January. Karen Tice came to the conclusion that “to some extent, women educational reformers refused stock images of the region to produce sympathetic renderings of mountain people.” They had a deeper conception of their relations with the community than the more detached ones being introduced by the new field of social work, which made them “appreciate the risk . . . in making . . . caricatures of mountaineers.” Tice, “School Work and Mother Work,” 191, 198, 203. Melanie Beals Goan believes that settlement workers have been unfairly criticized for pointing out the problems in mountain life, arguing that they had to do this in order to attract funding to change these conditions. Goan, “‘First, Foremost, and above All for Babies,’” 134. There was a wide difference in how publicity was handled, and Stone and Pettit were certainly among the most circumspect. 13. Annual newsletter, 1910, signed by Lucy Furman, HSS, I, 1, 23. 14. Annual newsletter, 1904, HSS, Watts collection. 15. Ibid.; “The Hindman Settlement School,” Kentucky White Ribbon, Oct. 1904, HSS, V, 11, 1. 16. Annual newsletter, 1909, ibid., I, 1, 21. 17. Annual newsletter, 1904, HSS, Watts collection. 18. Annual newsletter, 1905, HSS, I, 1, 21. 19. Mary Stacy to Pettit and Stone, Jan. 7, 1902, HSS, I, 1, 13. I am grateful to Loyal Jones for a clarification of the matter of the two Christmases. They stemmed from the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Loyal Jones to author, Dec. 6, 2000. 20. Annual newsletters, 1907 and 1908, HSS, I, 1, 21; description of Christmas by Antoinette Bigelow, 1904, ibid. 21. Annual newsletter, 1907, HSS, I, 1, 21; two letters dated December 1912, from Annie Southworth to her uncle and to Katherine Pettit, HSS, I, 1, 25. 22. “Watts Chronology,” HSS, Watts collection; annual newsletter, 1906, HSS, I, l, 21; Edith Stout to mother, June 14, 1926, Nov. 16, 1927, and March 3, 1928, Stout, “Miracle.” 23. Annual newsletter, 1906, HSS, I, 1, 21; Stone and Pettit to E.R. Cutler, 1905, HSS, I, 4, 31; Harvey Smith to author, Sept. 15, 1999. Smith is the son of Albert Smith, the School principal from 1907 to 1910.

Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 63-72 249 249 24. Annual newsletter, 1906, HSS, I, 1, 21; “The Burning of the Hindman Settlement School of the Kentucky Mountains,” typescript by Stone and Pettit, HSS, I, 1, 23. 25. Annual newsletter, 1906, HSS, I, 1, 21. 26. Ibid. 27. Ibid. 28. Annual newsletter, 1907, HSS, I, 1, 21; Furman, The Glass Window. 29. Annual newsletter, 1910, signed by Lucy Furman, HSS, I, 1, 23. 30. Annual newsletter, 1908, HSS, I, 1, 21; fund-raising letter signed by Belle Brett, Versailles, Ky., Dec. 8, 1908, ibid. The annual newsletter of 1908 included a letter written by a Dr. Haggerty, Professor of Economics and Sociology at Ohio State University, quoted here. 31. Annual newsletter, 1908, HSS, I, 1, 21. 32. Pamphlet, “The WCTU Settlement School, Hindman, Knott County, Kentucky,” HSS, I, 2, 57. Elizabeth Watts composed a list of all faculty members from 1902 to 1943, when the School turned over the responsibility for the selection of teachers to the county. “Faculty and Staff List,” HSS, Watts collection. 33. Document, “County Fair.” It is hand-dated “1910,” but the first fair took place in 1911. HSS, I, 1, 23. 34. Drake interview, HSS, Watts collection. 35. Letter from Stone and Pettit including a copy of a letter from the Hindman citizens signed by W.W. Craft, Jan. 26, 1910, HSS, I, l, 23. 36. Greene, “Progressives,” 32–33; Hilliard Smith to May Stone and Katherine Pettit, Jan. 25, 1910, HSS, II, 4, 34. 37. Pettit confirmed the agreement to establish a $100,000 endowment for Hindman before her departure in a letter to Olive Dame Campbell, April 21, 1911, cited in Blackwell, “‘To Do Much Larger Work,’” 174. John C. Campbell wrote to John Glenn, head of the Russell Sage Foundation, discussing some of the problems that the separation had created. He told Glenn that Harriet Butler, the Settlement nurse, wanted to leave Hindman for Pine Mountain. She and Stone had become alienated due to “administrative mistakes” that Butler felt had put her health work in jeopardy. This may be a reference to the delay in guaranteeing a clean water supply, which had been brought to Stone’s attention by the State Department of Health in 1912. Campbell said that the two women did not like each other and that Butler had been a Pettit partisan “during the differences that led to . . . the founding of the Pine Mountain School.” The current difficulties (in 1914) were due to Stone’s insistence that if Harriet Butler left, she should leave mountain work entirely. She had brought significant support to Hindman, and her move to Pine Mountain might have meant a loss of support for Hindman. John C. Campbell to John Glenn, June 15, 1914, The John C. and Olive Dame Campbell Papers, #3800, folio 40, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina. Butler left at the end of the year and also left the mountains, returning to work at Pine Mountain’s medical extension clinic at Laurel several years later. 38. Annual newsletter, Feb. 11, 1911, HSS, I, 1, 24. Although it was not sent

250 250 Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 73-80 in January, this is the annual letter. Pettit and Stone indicated that the letter was late due to all of the work involved with getting the campus rebuilt and opened. 39. Letter signed by Katherine Hurxthal, Oct. 30, 1912, HSS, I, 1, 25. Hurxthal was the volunteer kindergarten teacher who raised money for a kindergarten building and a teacher’s salary. The building opened in 1915. Annual newsletter, Feb. 11, 1911, HSS, I, 1, 24. 40. Annual newsletter, 1912, HSS, I, 1, 25. 41. Commencement program, 1911, HSS, Watts collection; “Lula Hale” in Louisville Courier-Journal and Times, Sept. 21, 1975. The newsletter of 1912 spoke proudly of the accomplishments of the graduates but pointed out that a majority of the former pupils were now homemakers. It stated, “[W]e feel that the best result of our ten years’ work is the farms here and there through the mountains.” Annual newsletter, 1912, HSS, I, 1, 25. 42. “Dr. J.A. Stucky’s Visit to Hindman,” [1911], HSS, V, 11, 15. Linda Neville accompanied Stucky to his first clinic at Hindman. Elizabeth Watts to mother, Feb. 6, 1937, HSS, Watts collection; Flexner, “Fightin’ the Blindness”; see Barney, “Maternalism,” 68–92, for the importance of Pettit and Stone in health work in the mountains. 43. “Abstract of Report of Dr. J.A. Stucky, Lexington, Ky., Made to the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology at Indianapolis, Ind., October 1911, and to the Kentucky State Board of Health.” The archives contain files of publications on trachoma by Stucky and John McMullen. HSS, V, 11, 15–21. 44. Elizabeth Watts to mother, Sept. 21, 1912, HSS, Watts collection. Elizabeth Watts began a weekly correspondence with her mother shortly after she arrived, but destroyed almost all of her letters prior to 1911. The remaining correspondence is a wonderful addition to other Settlement materials because they often touch on ordinary events. For example, in 1913, she mentioned that an ice cream parlor and soda fountain had opened in town and told her mother, “[T]he new establishment has no-spitting signs, screens on the windows and doors and enamel paper on the walls.” On opening day it was “full to bursting and there was a band playing. Gee oh,” she exclaimed, “I love this place and everyone in it.” Watts to mother, April 26, 1913, HSS, Watts collection. 45. Stucky, “Abstract,” HSS, V, 11, 15. 46. The student newspaper, The Mountain Echo, was started in 1925 and carried stories about the later clinics. 47. Dr. Duke was the first doctor in the county to have a medical degree. The School’s physician and a strong supporter, he attended every one of Hindman Settlement School’s commencement exercises until his death in 1954. Annual newsletter, 1913, HSS, I, 1, 26. 48. Greene, “Progressives,” 68, 76–78, 84–87, 124–26, 142. 49. Annual newsletter, 1913, HSS, I, 1, 26. 50. Annual newsletter, 1914, signed by Stone and Huntington, HSS, I, 1, 26. 51. Documents on the 1914 typhoid epidemic include letters of June 17, 1912, and Nov. 24, 1914, and a letter from the State Board of Health to Dr. Stucky,

Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 81-89 251 251 Jan. 16, 1915, HSS, II, 7, 64. The final report from the state sanitation engineer is dated Jan. 16, 1915, ibid. 52. There are a number of appeals in the Pine Mountain Papers that illustrate fund-raising activities. See Series II, B (microfilm Reel 95) and Series IV (Reel 3). Annual newsletter, 1915, and undated appeal but probably late 1914, HSS, I, 1, 26. 53. The list of annual “receipts” for 1902–1915 was written on the back cover of volume 7 of the financial ledgers kept by May Stone. The ledgers do not have file numbers but are kept in the archive after HSS, II, 6, 44. 54. It is unclear when the plan to sever the connection was agreed upon, but the WCTU approved the move at its August convention. Articles of incorporation for the Hindman Settlement School were drawn up in September. If Beauchamp and Stone expected that Mrs. Mayo would become a significant sponsor of the independent institution, they were wrong. She had, however, helped to secure a gift of $25,000 in Elkhorn Coal Company stock for the Settlement’s endowment. Receipt book, volume 6, Jan. 1, 1913, to Dec. 7, 1914. For the election and the Beauchamp letter, see Appleton, “Prohibition and Politics in Kentucky,” 28–54. Chapter 3. “Broadening Out” 1. Annual newsletters, 1917, 1922, 1925, HSS, I, 1, 26, 29, 33. After 1928, the newsletter was named The Hindman Letter. 2. Annual newsletter, 1915, HSS, I, 1, 26; kindergarten appeal and notice of the formation of the Hindman Settlement School Kindergarten Association, 1915, HSS, 1, 2, 58; newsletters of 1916 and 1919, HSS, I, 1, 27–28, 31. 3. Mountain Echo, March 1927, HSS, I, 3, 35. 4. Dr. Duke served as a member of the Settlement’s local advisory board for more than fifty years. Mountain Echo, commencement issue, 1929, HSS, I, 3, 39. Although it has not been in use for a number of years, the former high school is a beautiful structure and has recently been chosen to house the new Kentucky School of Craft, funded by the state and set to open in 2002 or 2003. 5. Filene, Romancing the Folk, 4–8. Katherine Pettit’s collection in 1900 followed this tradition. For the most part, she collected only lyrics. 6. Ibid., 8–9. 7. McLain, “Folk Music at Hindman,” 13–17, HSS, IV, 10, 30. 8. O. Campbell, Life and Work of John C. Campbell, 140; McLain, “Folk Music at Hindman,” 15. 9. Newsletters, Jan. 1917 and Sept. 1924, HSS, I, 1, 28 and 31. 10. Newsletter, Jan. 1917, HSS, I, 1, 28. The author’s aunt, Nancy Stewart Boatright, born in 1903, participated in a tomato growing contest initiated by Van Meter in 1916. Boatright said she could not believe how many tomatoes she was able to produce or how large they were. Telephone conversation with Nancy Stewart Boatright, Aug. 25, 2000.

252 252 Notes NotestotoPages Pages000-000 89-97 11. Newsletter, Sept. 1917, HSS, I, 1, 28. 12. Newsletter, Jan. 1923, HSS, I, 1, 31. 13. For discussion of the district nursing program, see newsletters, Oct. 1922 and Sept. 1924, HSS, I, 1, 30–31. 14. Newsletters, Jan. 1921, Oct. 1922, and Jan. 1923, HSS, I, 1, 30–31. 15. Troublesome Creek Times, Aug. 8, 1984, HSS, Watts collection; Newsletter, Sept. 1924, HSS, I, 1, 31. 16. Newsletters, Oct. 1922, and Jan. 1923, HSS, I, 1, 30–31. 17. Brochure, 1924–1925, HSS, I, 2, 59. The first principal of the School after incorporation was a Smith College graduate, Emma Parker, who served until her death in 1923. 18. The Hindman Settlement School archives container list identifies this diary as Dorothy Hancock Stiles, “Kentucky, 1915,” HSS, III, 9, 11. However, it was prepared by her daughter, covers both 1915 and 1916, and is titled, “Angels on Horseback.” The text is set up by date and is unpaginated. Citations for Feb. 16, 1915, March 14 and 28, and April 1, 1916. Hereafter cited as Stiles diary. 19. Stiles diary, April 7, 11, 1915, Feb. 23, 1916; letter from Stiles to her fiancé, “Lonnie,” March 9, 1916. 20. Stiles diary, March 24 and 28, 1916. 21. Student Graduate Listings, 1904–1963, HSS, II, 7, 27–28. Before the Settlement School became the county’s official high school in 1910, it is not clear just what “graduate” meant. Combs’s advanced work at the Settlement was primarily tutorial. Mallie Baker and the two Everidge girls completed at least the two years beyond the common or elementary school grades required for a teacher’s certificate. Josiah Combs taught at the Settlement briefly after leaving the Sorbonne in 1921. An article about him described both his French wife and the couple’s practice of gathering snails for dinner. “Early Years in Hindman,” centennial series, Troublesome Creek Times, April 11, 1984. “Dear Friends” letter, May 1933, HSS, I, 1, 34. 22. Clarissa Hicks, “The Class of 1926, Fifty Years Later,” HSS, Watts collection. 23. M. Stone, “Walking Trip,” typescript, 1921, HSS, III, 9, 25; Newsletter, Oct. 1925, HSS, I, 1, 31. 24. Newsletters, 1922 and 1929, HSS, I, 1, 30, 32 and Watts, [1922], HSS, Watts collection. A visitor in 1927 described both the state of the roads and the type of adventurous persons attracted to teach at Hindman Settlement School. Four female teachers who attempted to motor from Hazard found themselves stuck in the mud some eight miles from Hindman and arrived on foot, “bedraggled but brave.” The writer observed that a once smart pair of high-heeled shoes arrived with one of the women, “one heel still doing duty and the other tucked away in the limping wearer’s raincoat pocket.” Unsigned, “Some Impressions of My First Two Weeks’ Stay at Hindman Settlement School,” typescript [1928], HSS, I, 1, 32. 25. Newsletters, Oct. 1922 and Sept. 1924, HSS, I, 1, 30–31. 26. Alma Pigmon and Vertie Pigmon Conley, joint interview, HSS, oral history collection.

Notes Notesto toPages Pages000-000 97-103 253 253 27. Commencement issue, 1927, HSS, I, 3, 35; Mountain Echo, Oct. 1925, HSS, I, 3, 32. 28. Edith Stout to mother, March 15, 1926, Stout, “Miracle.” 29. The Evanston society sent its files to the Settlement when it disbanded. It was during the years from 1928 to 1931 that it raised the largest contributions for scholarships. The file contains a list of twenty students they sponsored, including the author’s mother, Marie Stewart, who was one of their recipients in 1928– 1929. Kentucky Society of Evanston and North Shore, HSS, current files. 30. Minutes, board of directors, Oct. 1, 1915, HSS, II, 4, 9. This file contains the minutes of 1915, 1918, and 1919. 31. May Stone to John C. Campbell, Nov. 26, 1918. This letter, along with a limited number of miscellaneous documents that span a number of years, was found in the Hindman archives in May 2001. At present, these materials have not been filed, catalogued, or microfilmed. Hereafter, they will be cited as Stone-Campbell, HSS, uncatalogued. 32. John C. Campbell to May Stone, Jan. 15, 1919, and enclosed document titled “Notes Based on Conversation of Miss Stone and Mr. Campbell, Jan. 9, 1919”; ibid. 33. May Stone to John C. Campbell, Jan. 23, 1919; board minutes, Jan. 21, 1919, HSS, II, 4, 9; John C. Campbell to May Stone, Feb. 23, 1919, Stone-Campbell, HSS, uncatalogued. 34. These events are found in the minutes of 1919–1921, HSS, II, 4, 9–10. Stone was the sole member of the executive committee after Alice Fuller resigned in 1921. 35. Board minutes, Nov. 8, 1920, and Nov. 5, 1921, HSS, II, 4, 9–10; 1924 newsletter, HSS, I, 1, 31; audit, 1921–1922, HSS, II, 5, 53. Elizabeth Watts’s title was “Assistant to the Executive Committee.” It was not until 1933 that she became a member of the board of directors and (with Stone) a member of the executive committee. Board minutes, Jan. 17, 1933, HSS, II, 4, 11. 36. Searles, College for Appalachia, 122–23. Although Searles recognized Lloyd’s acerbic personality and provocative behavior, his treatment of her is, on the whole, favorable. He concluded his discussion of the conflict between Lloyd and the many mountain workers who opposed her by saying, “[T]he record strongly suggests that Alice Lloyd started the fuss by her aggressive fund-raising, by the way she positioned her own work as unique in the mountains, by the way she implicitly and explicitly called into question the value of the work performed by other groups, by her unwillingness to join with other benevolent workers in common cause, and by her sharp, public criticism of denominational missionaries. One can make a case that the hurt caused the other groups was inadvertent—a result simply of the single-mindedness with which Lloyd went about developing support for her own work—and that the response of the others was excessive. I am inclined to accept the accuracy of this assessment.” Newsletter 1925, HSS, I, 1, 31. 37. Edith Stout to mother, Aug. 21, 1927, Stout, “Miracle”; Elizabeth Watts to mother, May 27, 1933, HSS, Watts collection; Marian Williamson to Elizabeth

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Watts, Jan. 6, 1956, HSS, Watts collection. Because of Stone and Watts’s policy not to preserve anything negative about the work of the institution or its relations with the community, the story of this conflict is missing entirely from the Settlement archives. On this principle, Watts destroyed some of her own letters as well as other materials over the years. She intended to cull the remaining letters that illuminated the conflict with Alice Lloyd from the Settlement files at the time of her retirement, but James Still, the Settlement librarian, convinced her to let him save them. These materials now reside in the Alice Lloyd file in the Special Collections Library at the University of Kentucky. 38. Searles, College for Appalachia, 55, 61–62, 66, 79–80, 104–5; Mountain Echo, commencement issue, 1928, HSS, I, 3, 37. 39. Clarissa Hicks, “The Class of 1926, Fifty Years Later,” HSS, Watts collection. 40. Financial information provided in this discussion is taken from the audit reports unless otherwise indicated. 41. Audits, 1919–1920, 1925–1926, 1928–1929 to 1932–1933, HSS, II, 5, 52–63. 42. Audits, 1920–1924, HSS, II, 5, 54–56; board minutes (special meeting), April 16, 1925, HSS, II, 4, 10. 43. “Broadening Out, The Story of the Hindman Settlement School,” 1928 brochure, HSS, I, 2, 59. The largest bequest of the era—indeed, in all of the School’s history—came from Henry Evans of New York City in 1925. Estimated to be worth some $300,000 at the time of Evans’s death, the gift could have ended the Settlement’s financial problems. However, it came to the institution only at the death of his wife in 1944. Evans, a millionaire, made his money in the fire insurance business and became interested in the Settlement’s work through Lucy Furman’s book Mothering on Perilous. He and his wife began supporting two scholarships in 1914. Stone receipt book, HSS, uncatalogued material. The importance of bequests to the Settlement can be gauged by a report prepared in 1968 that showed bequests had provided $581,921 to the Settlement by that date. 44. Stout to mother, April 17, 1927 and May 5, 1927, Stout, “Miracle”; telephone interview with Vertie Pigmon Conley, March 2, 2000. 45. “Hindman Community Statement of Support,” HSS, II, 5, 48 and also individual statements by leaders such as Dr. Duke that appeared in Mountain Echo, commencement issue, 1927, HSS, I, 3, 34. The first issue of The Mountain Echo for the 1927–1928 school year included the remarks of the civic leaders who spoke at the opening-day ceremony. HSS, I, 3, 35. 46. Stout to mother, Aug. 5, Sept. 18, Nov. 18, and Dec. 12, 1927, Stout, “Miracle.” 47. Stout to mother, Jan. 22, 1928, Stout, “Miracle.” Money was not the only difficulty that month. The electric power plant shut down at the end of January for six weeks when the armature failed. The School and town were reduced to candlelight and kerosene lamps. Stout to mother, Feb. 3 and March 2, 1929, Aug. 22, 1928, and Feb. 17, 1929, Stout, “Miracle.”

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48. Stout to mother, June 24, 1929, Stout, “Miracle”; Hindman Letter, Jan. 1932, HSS, I, 1, 34; James Still, HSS, oral history collection; Whisnant, 69–70. 49. Hindman Letter, Jan. 1932, and appeal, April 1932, HSS, I, 1, 34. 50. Appeal, Sept. 1932, HSS, I, 1, 34; board minutes, Jan. 21, 1932, HSS, II, 4, 11. 51. Board minutes, May 21, 1932, and Jan. 17, 1933, HSS, II, 4, 11. Chapter 4. “The Best School in the Mountains” 1. Weaver’s Guild interview, 1975, HSS, Watts collection. 2. Tommy Waddell, class of 1934, HSS, oral history collection. Tressie Prater Messer said, “My mother was determined . . . that we get an education.” There were eleven in her family, six of whom stayed at the Settlement. Tressie Prater Messer, class of 1928, HSS, oral history collection. Even after several smaller high schools were established in the county, only Hindman had boarding facilities. The oral history collection, upon which much of this chapter is based, was developed between 1997 and 1999. The names of female graduates include their married names as they are listed in the interview collection. 3. Albert Stewart, class of 1932, ibid. 4. Drake interview with Watts, HSS, Watts collection; Alma Pigmon, HSS, oral history collection; Edith Stout to mother, Aug. 15, 1926, Stout, “Miracle.” 5. Bess Creech Browning, class of 1942, HSS oral history collection; Drake interview, HSS, Watts collection; “Hindman Settlement School’s Oldest Alumnus Celebrates 100th Birthday,” Mountain Echo (spring 2000). 6. Furman, 1910 letter, HSS, I, 1, 23. 7. “Some Impressions of My First Two Weeks’ Stay at Hindman Settlement School,” [1928] HSS, I, 1, 32. 8. Edith Stout to mother, Sept. 12, 1926, Stout, “Miracle.” 9. Elizabeth Smith Cornett, class of 1938, and Zada Fields Tram, class of 1934, HSS, oral history collection. 10. This description of a routine day is taken from a Lucy Furman document, “Home Life of the Little Boys.” While she wrote it in 1908, little had altered ten to fifteen years later. HSS, I, 1, 21. 11. Vertie Pigmon Conley, class of 1927, and Albert Stewart, class of 1932, HSS, oral history collection. 12. Albert Stewart, class of 1932, ibid. The Settlement later purchased the house from Furman. 13. Gertrude Maggard, class of 1929; Lula Stamper Begley, class of 1930; Ruby Boleyn Allen, class of 1934, and Sophia Holliday, class of 1940, ibid. 14. A. Smith, Bamboo Roots, 16. 15. Bess Creech Browning, class of 1942; Gertrude Maggard, class of 1929; and Tressie Prater Messer, class of 1938, HSS, oral history collection. 16. Tommy Waddell, class of 1943; Clarence Johnson, class of 1939; and Ruben Roberts, class of 1953, ibid.

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17. A. Smith, Bamboo Roots, 16–17. 18. Lucy Furman, 1910 letter, HSS, I, 1, 21; Bertie Simpson Smith, class of 1932; Dale Smith Combs, class of 1934; Zada Fields Tram, class of 1934, and Sophia Holliday, class of 1940, HSS, oral history collection. 19. Ruben Roberts, class of 1953; James Still; Thelma Roberts, class of 1955; Albert Stewart, class of 1932, HSS, oral history collection. 20. Elizabeth Cornett, class of 1938; Tressie Prater Messer, class of 1938; Zada Fields Tram, class of 1934, ibid. 21. Thelma Roberts, class of 1955; Ruben Roberts, class of 1953, ibid. 22. Watts to mother, Sept. 21, 1912, HSS, Watts collection; Edith Stout to mother, Dec. 25, 1927, Stout, “Miracle.” 23. Ruby Boleyn Allen [class of 1934], “Do You Remember?” Hindman News, May 1l, 1952, HSS, II, 7, 11; Bertie Simpson Smith, class of 1932, HSS, oral history collection; Stiles diary, Feb. 16, 1915, HSS, III, 9, 11. 24. Vertie Pigmon Conley, class of 1927; Tressie Prater Messer, class of 1938; and Sophia Holliday, class of 1940, ibid. 25. Robert Young, class of 1960; Afton Smith, class of 1928, ibid. Afton was born on the campus when the land still belonged to his grandfather, William Wellington Baker. 26. Lynn, “Ann Cobb,” 50–52, HSS, III, 8, 24; Bevie Perkins Pratt [class of 1926], “Ann Cobb Arrived in Hindman,” HSS, II, 7, 11. 27. Alma Pigmon, class of 1929, and Vertie Pigmon Conley, class of 1927, joint interview; Charlie Tignor, class of 1930; Albert Stewart, class of 1932, HSS, oral history collection; Lynn, “Ann Cobb,” 53–54; Berenice K. Van Slyke, “A Kentuckian by Choice,” HSS, III, 8, 24. Cobb’s “secret” was her admiration for the mountain people, who readily reciprocated. She said, “[A]s for the Hindman people, I liked them immediately and immensely, whatever their opinions of some of us queer ones.” Bevie Perkins Pratt, [class of 1926] “Ann Cobb Arrived in Hindman,” HSS, II, 7, 11. 28. Bevie Perkins Pratt, untitled typescript of remarks on the occasion of Elizabeth Watts’s retirement, HSS, Watts collection. 29. Elizabeth Watts, “[Auto]Biographical Profile,” 1980, HSS, Watts collection. 30. Wilda Bray Adams [class of 1935], “Clara M. Standish, School Librarian Plans to Retire,” HSS, II, 7, 11; “Clara M. Standish, 70, Native of Dighton, Ending Four Decades of Teaching in South,” HSS, Watts collection; Elizabeth Smith Cornett, class of 1938; Marcia Smith Lawrence, class of 1943, HSS, oral history collection. 31. Bertie Simpson Smith, class of 1932; Zada Fields Tram, class of 1934, ibid. 32. B. Combs, “City Girl,” HSS, II, 7, 11; Tressie Prater Messer, class of 1938, HSS, oral history collection. 33. Calhoun, HSS, Watts collection; Bess Creech Browning, class of 1943; Mildred Collins, class of 1938, HSS, oral history collection. 34. Drannan Pratt, class of 1940, ibid.

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35. James Still, ibid. Boggess, “Following River of Earth,” 82. 36. Boggess, “Following River of Earth,” 87–89 and 128; James Still, HSS, oral history collection. River of Earth, published in 1940, shared the Southern Author’s Award that year with Thomas Wolfe’s You Can’t Go Home Again. 37. Ruby Boleyn Allen, class of 1934, received a scholarship to Science Hill, and after two years, entered Wellesley College. She returned to the mountains to marry a Berea College graduate and taught in the mountains for many years. Ruby Boleyn Allen, class of 1934, HSS, oral history collection. 38. Albert Stewart, class of 1932; Lula Stamper Begley, class of 1930, ibid.; Edith Stout to mother, June 9, 1926, Stout, “Miracle.” Elizabeth Smith Cornett, class of 1938, HSS, oral history collection. 39. Ruby Boleyn Allen, class of 1934; Elizabeth Smith Cornett, class of 1938; Bertie Simpson Smith, class of 1932, ibid. 40. Ruby Boleyn Allen, class of 1934, ibid.; Drake interview, HSS, Watts collection. 41. At the bottom of Cobb’s poem was a notation that if “we don’t get the required science equipment, we can’t keep our place on the accredited list of the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges.” HSS, III, 8, 30. Harold Watts, class of 1948, HSS, oral history collection; Hindman Herald, 1935 commencement issue, HSS, I, 3, 44. 42. Prof Smith earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1928 and a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1935. Darla Hicks, “Prof Smith,” Hindman News, May 1, 1952, HSS, II, 7, 11; Charlie Tignor, class of 1930; Joy Sturgill Terhune, class of 1944; Lorraine Tomko, class of 1940; Elizabeth Smith Cornett, class of 1938; Colleen Campbell Moore, class of 1941, HSS, oral history collection. 43. Alma Pigmon, class of 1929, ibid.; May Stone letter to parents, 1930, HSS, II, 4, 40. One graduate who considered the rules too strict was Frankie Smith Duff, class of 1934, who in a January 14, 2000, written interview sent to the author, said that “the ladies’ ideas of right and wrong seemed too strict.” She attributed their strictness to the fact that “they were all old maids who had no children of their own and didn’t understand.” 44. A. Smith, Bamboo Roots, 18–19. 45. Marcia Smith Lawrence, class of 1943, HSS, oral history collection. 46. Albert Stewart, class of 1932; Ursula Davidson, class of 1940; Drannan Pratt, class of 1940, HSS, oral history collection. 47. Joy Sturgill Terhune, class of 1944; Lorraine Tomko, class of 1940, ibid. 48. Watts to mother, Sept. 9, 1911, and Nov. 13, 1912, HSS, Watts collection. 49. B. Combs, “City Girl,” HSS, II, 7, 11. 50. Albert Stewart, class of 1932; Vertie Pigmon Conley and Alma Pigmon, class of 1927 and 1929, joint interview; Mildred Collins, class of 1938, HSS, oral history collection; board minutes, October 3, 1961, HSS, Watts Collection. 51. A. Smith, Bamboo Roots, 21–22; Ruby Boleyn Allen, class of 1934; Sophia Holliday, class of 1940, HSS, oral history collection. 52. Dees, “Competitive Spirit,” HSS, II, 7, 11.

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Chapter 5. The Challenges of a Changing World 1. Simkhovitch, Settlement Primer, 33. 2. Hindman Letter, May and Sept. 1936, HSS, I, 1, 35; board minutes, 1937 and 1941, II, 4, 12–13; Hindman News, Senior Issue, 1941, HSS, I, 3, 50. 3. Freddie Riddle to Elizabeth Watts, March 18, 1940, and Riddle to Mary [sic] Stone, March 19, 1940, HSS, uncatalogued. These letters are among a group of documents found at Hindman Settlement School in May 2001. 4. Elizabeth Watts to Freddie Riddle, March 22, 1940, HSS, uncatalogued; Elizabeth Watts to Mr. Taylor, March 12, 1942, HSS, Watts collection; Virginia Combs, HSS, oral history collection. The number of grade schools in Knott County in the 1930s is noted in Creighton, “Beckham Combs’ career,” HSS, Watts collection. 5. Virginia Combs, HSS, oral history collection; Elizabeth Watts to Mr. Taylor, March 12, 1942, HSS, Watts collection. 6. Drake interview, ibid. 7. Watts to mother, May 19, 1934, Feb. 6 and 20, 1936, March 30, 1936, Sept. 4 and 10, 1938, HSS, Watts collection. Document titled, “Katherine Pettit,” HSS, III, 10, 5. 8. Lorraine Tomko, class of 1949; Lula Stamper Begley, class of 1930, HSS, oral history collection; “Christmas at Hindman, 1938,” HSS, Watts collection. 9. Board minutes, 1931–1935, HSS, II, 4, 11. The bequest of $124,000 from Colonel John Durrett was the most important element in this transformation (see chapter 2). The endowment grew slowly after this. With the Durrett gift, it stood at $208,000. By 1940 it had grown by less than $30,000 to $235,000. Audit, 1940, HSS, II, 6, 1. In 1950 the endowment was $287,000. Audit, 1950– 1951, HSS, II, 6, 1. A significant change in the Settlement’s financial picture came in 1945, when the Evans Trust began distributing the trust fund the School had inherited twenty years earlier. When Mary Evans died in 1944, the bequest was worth $385,000—more than the endowment. It produced about the same revenue as the endowment, however, since it was invested very conservatively. Board minutes, 1945, HSS, II, 4, 13. 10. Wendy Roberts, home economics teacher, 1942. This reminiscence was one of a number that were collected for the celebration of Elizabeth Watts’s seventy years of service to the Settlement. HSS, III, 10, 3, 13. Jean Ritchie Pickow interview, HSS, oral history collection. 11. Hindman Letter, May and Sept. 1935, HSS, I, 1, 35; board minutes, 1937 and 1940, HSS, II, 4, 12–13, 15; Hindman Letter, Oct. 1936, HSS, I, 1, 35. 12. Watts to mother, March 19, 1937, HSS, Watts collection. 13. Brochure, 1937, HSS, I, 2, 60; Watts to mother, Jan. 22 and Aug. 20, 1938, HSS, Watts collection; brochure, 1948, HSS, I, 2, 61. The brochure was written by Betty Winslow, who later married Raymond McLain, Watts’s successor as the director of the Settlement. See also B. Winslow, “Recreation Was Not Forgotten,” HSS, II, 7, 11. 14. Hindman Letter, May and Sept. 1936, HSS, I, 1, 35; board minutes, 1934,

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1935, and 1941, HSS, II, 4, 11–12, and 15; Mountain Echo, Nov. 1926, HSS, I, 3, 33; Standish, “Settlement School Library,” HSS, II, 7, 11. 15. Board minutes, 1939, 1940, 1943, HSS, II, 4, 12–13; Standish, “Settlement School Library,” HSS, II, 7, 11; brochure, 1937, HSS, I, 2, 60; Watts to mother, Feb. 29, 1936, HSS, Watts collection. 16. Watts to mother, Feb. 29, 1936, ibid.; Still, Wolfpen Poems, 22; Hindman Letter, June 1955, HSS, I, 2, 4; “Dear Friends” letters, Oct. 1954 and Feb. 1955, ibid. James Still lived at the Settlement in the house Lucy Furman built, Oak Ledge, until his death on May 5, 2001, at the age of ninety-five. 17. Newsletter, 1921, HSS, I, 1, 29. 18. Watts to mother, Sept. 9, 1944, HSS, Watts collection; “Dear Friends” letter, Feb. 1946, HSS, I, 2, 2. 19. Board minutes, 1947, 1949, 1951–1952, HSS, II, 5, 15–16, and 6, 1–2; Hilliard Smith brought in an estimate that was just about half that submitted by Cobb. Smith joined the advisory board the following year upon the death of his father. Board minutes, 1954–1955, HSS, II, 4, 17–18. The date of the annual board meeting had been moved from January to April in 1947. “Dear Friends” letters, Feb. 1949, Oct. 1952, and May 1, 1953, HSS, I, 2, 4. 20. Board minutes, 1953, HSS, II, 4, 6; “Dear Friends” letter, Feb. 1955, HSS, I, 2, 4. 21. Hindman News, May 1, 1952, HSS, II, 7, 11; Hindman Letter, Sept. 1952, HSS, I, 2, 4; Fiftieth Anniversary Pageant, complete copy, HSS, II, 7, 10; Louisville Courier-Journal, May 25, 1952, HSS, II, 7, 11. 22. Board minutes, 1953 and 1955, and letter of resignation, April 1955, attached to the minutes of 1955, HSS, II, 4, 16 and 18. 23. Watts, “ W here the Dolls Go,” 3–6, HSS, III, 9, 71; Watts, “[Auto]Biographical Profile,” 1980, HSS, Watts collection; England, “Voices from the History of Teaching,” 138–39, 145. Elizabeth Watts received a number of awards recognizing her leadership and contributions to Kentucky. She was honored at Berea College in 1972, along with Lula Hale, for service to Appalachia. In 1980 she received the Carl Feuss Award for Distinguished Public Service from her [now] alma mater, Philips Andover. (Philips Academy and Abbot Academy had merged into Philips Andover.) The governor of Kentucky also declared May 17, 1980, “Elizabeth Watts Day” in recognition of her service. 24. Raymond McLain, HSS, oral history collection. 25. Ibid. 26. Executive director report, April 9, 1957, HSS, II, 4, 21. 27. Executive director to board, Oct. 13, 1957, HSS, Watts collection; board minutes, Sept. 20, 1960, HSS, II, 4, 22; May Stone Memorial Building Fund, HSS, II, 6, 36. The May Stone building was indeed raised using student labor under the supervision of Luther Bentley, the Settlement’s maintenance man. McLain’s design was supported with architectural and engineering advice from Leon Deschamps, the husband of Una Ritchie. Deschamps had designed several buildings at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina.

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28. McLain to Watts, Aug. 21, 1957, HSS, Watts collection; executive director reports, Oct. 3, 1961, and Jan. 21, 1962, HSS, II, 4, 22. McLain and Watts discussed Eastham’s concerns in an exchange of letters. Watts wrote in February of 1962 that the letter might have been worse and that “we’ll get Mr. Stites to tell her how rich we are if she worries about money.” For the correspondence about the Watts building, see Eastham to McLain, Jan. 26, 1962; Watts to McLain, Feb. 2, 1962. 29. McLain to Gerst, July 18, 1962; and Gerst to McLain, July 24, 1962, HSS, Watts collection, audit, 1964–1965, HSS, II, 6, 2. 30. Executive director report, Oct. 9, 1967, HSS, Watts collection; Dennis Shepherd, class of 1965, HSS, oral history collection. 31. Executive director report, Oct. 1, 1967, HSS, Watts collection. 32. McLain to Watts, Oct. 8, 1967; Watts to McLain, Oct. 26, 1967, and McLain to Watts, Nov. 2, 1956, ibid.; Raymond McLain, HSS, oral history collection. 33. Watts to Marcia Eastham, Nov. 12, 1967, and Eastham to Watts [late November or early December 1967], HSS, Watts collection. 34. Executive director report, Oct. 7, 1970, and McLain to board, Dec. 3, 1969, ibid. 35. Raymond McLain, HSS, oral history collection. 36. Document, “Board Members, 1915–1971,” in Elizabeth Watts to Yancy Altsheler, Aug. 25, 1971, HSS, Watts collection; Raymond McLain, HSS, oral history collection. 37. Dennis Shepherd, class of 1965, HSS, oral history collection. McLain’s intense focus on dance was illustrated when someone mentioned a female student in positive terms and he replied, “Yes, but she can’t polka.” Loyal Jones to author, Dec. 6, 2000. 38. Jana Everage, class of 1972; Dennis Shepherd, class of 1965, ibid. 39. Dennis Shepherd, class of 1965, ibid. 40. Executive director reports, April 8, 1959, HSS, II, 4, 25, and April 9, 1957, HSS, Watts collection. 41. Executive director report, Dec. 4, 1967, ibid. Sherwood began donating when she was a student at Wellesley. Information on donations and bequests for the McLain and Duff administrations can be found in the audits of the years 1957–1958 to 1977–1978. Audits through 1971 are available in HSS, II, 6, 2. The audits for the Duff years are in HSS, current files. 42. Executive director reports, Sept. 28, 1967, Oct. 2, 1962, Sept. 28, 1966, and Sept. 27, 1967, HSS, Watts collection. McLain’s father warned him about the pitfalls of federal funding, saying, “Watch out for ‘boom and bust.’ The Government has a habit of rushing in with great zeal to erase years of blindness and neglect and then rushing out with just as great zeal when enticed by something else.” Even so, he encouraged his son to “get into the thick of the thing” saying that he was inclined to think, “This Appalachian development is one way that the mid-twentieth century has of speaking to your school.” Raymond F. McLain to

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Raymond K. McLain, Feb. 13, 1964, HSS, II, 5, 21; undated Christmas letter from Naoma Powell, HSS, Watts collection. 43. Frankie Duff, written responses to interview questions, May 21, 2000, and a typed manuscript titled, “The Decoy School,” in the possession of the author. There are few records from the Duff administration in the archives. The board minutes and audits are in the current files rather than in the microfilmed archives. The only other documents are several newsletters and changes to the articles of incorporation made in 1975. 44. Audrey Combs Rogers, class of 1974; Jana Everage, class of 1972, HSS, oral history collection. 45. Broida, “Alternatives and Recommendations.” This report is in the current files. 46. Board minutes, June 16, 1975, Oct. 19, 1976, and executive committee minutes, Nov. 4, 1975. These are in HSS, current files. 47. Joseph Graves to board of directors, May 6, 1976, and special board meeting, June 1976, ibid. 48. Frankie Duff to author, May 21, 2000. 49. Broida, “Alternatives and Recommendations.” Chapter 6. A Wider Sphere of Influence 1. Loyal Jones and Joseph Graves interviews, HSS, oral history collection. 2. Mike Mullins, interview, HSS, oral history collection. 3. Ibid. 4. The estimate of fund-raising comes from Mullins after consultation with the Settlement’s auditor. Author’s telephone interview with Mullins, July 12, 2000. 5. Watts to Mullins, Dec. 28, 1987, HSS, Watts collection; Anne Weatherford, interview, HSS, oral history collection. Mountain Echo, fall 1993. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials cited in this chapter are in the current files of Hindman Settlement School. 6. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 7. Board minutes, April 21, 1978; executive committee minutes, Sept. 7 and Dec. 4, 1978; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 8. Board minutes, April 21 and Oct. 20–21, 1978; executive committee minutes, April 24, 1978. 9. Michael Ware interview, HSS, oral history collection. Ware worked in the program from 1974 until its termination in 1990. 10. Mike Mullins, ibid.; board minutes, April 11, 1981, and Oct. 10, 1983. 11. Board minutes, Oct. 3, 1987. 12. Board minutes, April 15, 1983, Oct. 19, 1985, Oct. 4, 1986, April 1, 1989, and Sept. 5, 1990; Mullins memo to the Long-range Planning Committee on Programming, 1986; executive committee minutes, Sept. 6, 1989. 13. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. There was a certain sense of

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“deja vu” in an article that appeared in the Troublesome Creek Times on June 28, 2000, reporting that a citizens’ group had been formed “to incorporate arts education back into the schools of Knott County.” 14. B. Smith, “Celebration,” 8–9. Al Stewart died on April 1, 2001. 15. B. Smith, “Celebration,” 9; Dana Wildsmith, e-mail to author, May 29, 2001; Kendrick, “Hindman Writers’ Workshop,” 19. For the revival of interest in James Still as a novelist, see Jim Wayne Miller’s introduction to The Wolfpen Poems and Dean Cadle’s article, “The Man on Troublesome,” which appeared in The Yale Review in 1968. 16. B. Smith, “Celebration,” 10. 17. Mike Mullins, e-mail to author, June 1, 2001. 18. B. Smith, “Celebration,” 11, and “Vivian Sexton Flannery Dees Scholarship Awarded,” Mountain Echo, spring 2001. 19. Kevin Nance, “Writers Workshop Homey Week,” Lexington HeraldLeader, Aug. 14, 1994, reprinted in Mountain Echo, fall 1994; B. Smith, “Celebration,” 10; brochure, “24th Annual Appalachian Writers Workshop, July 29–Aug. 3, 2001.” 20. Lyon, Miller, and Norman (eds.), Gathering at the Forks. An article in The Mountain Echo on its publication quoted the editors as saying that the anthology reflected “a widespread and sustained interest in Appalachian history, culture and literature.” “Appalachian Writers Workshop Anthology Published,” Mountain Echo, winter 1994. 21. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 22. Brochure, “23rd Annual Appalachian Family Folk Week, June 11–17, 2000”; Carter, “Folk Legend.” Ritchie’s ballad-singing career began at the Henry Street Settlement House in New York City. 23. Sam Linkous, e-mail to author, June 25, 2001. This included the remarks of Dr. Penn. 24. Mike Norris, “Hindman is the Center of the Universe,” Mountain Echo, fall 1994. 25. Jean Ritchie, HSS, oral history collection. 26. Mountain Echo, winter 1994 and fall 1995, 1996, and 1998. The Community Development Initiative is discussed in chapter 7. 27. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 28. Executive committee minutes, March 21, 1978; board minutes, Oct. 20– 21, 1978, Oct. 20, 1984, and April 5, 1986. 29. Brochure, “Carl and Verna Perkins Endowment Fund” [1983]; executive committee minutes, Dec. 1982; board minutes, April 5, 1983; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 30. Special edition, Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 14, 1983; board minutes, Sept. 17, 1983. 31. Board minutes, April 5, 1986; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection; Mountain Echo, Nov. 1986. 32. Mountain Echo, Nov. 1979 and Nov. 1985; Lois Combs Weinberg inter-

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view, HSS, oral history collection. From a distinguished political family in Kentucky, Lois Weinberg joined the board of directors of the Hindman Settlement School in 1984. Her father, Bert T. Combs, was the first governor from eastern Kentucky in a century when he took office in 1959. Later, he was the lead attorney in a suit brought by sixty-six “property poor” school districts in the 1980s—most of them in eastern Kentucky, which led to the Kentucky Educational Reform Act of 1990. Hefling, “Statue.” 33. Lois Combs Weinberg, HSS, oral history collection; Mountain Echo, Nov. 1980 and 1982; board minutes, April 30, 1982, April 15 and Oct. 10, 1983. 34. Executive committee minutes, Sept. 17, 1983. As a requirement for receiving scholarship support in the summer program, parents must commit to placing their children in the after-school or full-time school programs. “Historical Overview of the Hindman Settlement School Dyslexia Program.” 35. Lois Combs Weinberg, HSS, oral history collection; board minutes, Oct. 29, 1984; Mountain Echo, Feb. 1992. 36. Board minutes, Oct. 4, 1986, and Jan. 7, 1989. 37. Executive committee minutes, Aug. 26, 1987; board minutes, April 9, 1988; Mountain Echo, Nov. 1986 and Feb. 1992. The full-time school was initially named “The Hindman School” but was changed to the James Still Learning Center when the Eastern Kentucky Tutorial Program became a special program of the public school system. 38. Lois Combs Weinberg, HSS, oral history collection; Bergstrom, “School in Hindman for Dyslexics.” 39. Lois Combs Weinberg, HSS, oral history collection; executive committee minutes, March 21 and April 13, 1991. 40. Executive committee minutes, March 5 and July 16, 1992; Lois Combs Weinberg, HSS, oral history collection. Weinberg was on the paid staff for several years but then went to volunteer status to free up salary money for other teachers. She continued to direct the program until the fall of 2000. 41. Board minutes, Oct. 1, 1992; Lois Combs Weinberg and Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 42. Executive committee minutes, Sept. 29 and Dec. 8, 1993. 43. Mullins and Weinberg, HSS, oral history collection. 44. Executive committee minutes, June 19, 1996; Joseph Graves, HSS, oral history collection; board minutes, May 13, 2000. 45. Author’s interview with Barbara Kennedy, April 3, 2001. The Toni Stabile Scholarship Endowment for Children with Reading Difficulties is named for a highly successful investigative reporter. “Toni Stabile Scholarship Endowment Established,” Mountain Echo, spring 2001. 46. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 47. Lois Weinberg has received many honors for service to education in Kentucky. She served on the prestigious Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence since its inception in 1980. She has been a member of the University of Kentucky’s Board of Regents, was named by the State Department of Education

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as one of ten outstanding school volunteers in 1986, and was selected as Knott County’s “Person of the Year” in 1987. Weinberg currently serves on the Kentucky Council on Post Secondary Education. In addition, she is a member of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission and serves on the advisory committee of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. Weinberg resigned her position as director of the James Still Learning Center in the fall of 2000 in order to run in 2002 for a seat in the United States Senate for Kentucky. Ann Titsworth, the school’s very capable head teacher, became the director of the James Still Learning Center in the fall of 2001. “Lois Weinberg Honored at MSU [Morehead State University]”; “Weinberg Announces Candidacy.” 48. Troublesome Creek Times, Feb. 4, 1987; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 49. Executive committee minutes, June 13, 1978; Mountain Echo, Nov. 1978; Joseph Graves, HSS, oral history collection; Report on the Hindman Settlement School GED Survey, 1998. 50. Board minutes, April 16 and Oct. 17, 1980, April 5, 1986, Oct. 7, 1989; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 51. Mountain Echo, winter 1994, fall 1995; board minutes, May 6 and Nov. 11, 1995; Kilborn, “Illiteracy Puts Appalachia Back”; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection; author’s telephone interview with Shirley Asher, March 19, 2001. 52. Mountain Echo, fall 1996; Lee Smith, typescript commentary on her work with the Adult Learning Center, Hindman Settlement School, sent to author, June 2000. 53. Connel Polly, It’s Like Coming out of a Deep Hole. 54. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 55. Board minutes, Jan. 17, 1933, HSS, II, 5, 64; executive director’s report, Dec. 4, 1957, HSS, Watts collection; Stone receipt books. Ledgers five through seven cover 1913 through October 1915 and include the Sherwood and Evans donations. 56. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection; Mike Mullins, fax memo to author, July 21, 2000. 57. Author’s interview with Julia Stammer, Aug. 15, 2000, and telephone conversation with Bill Buice, trustee of the Steele-Reese Foundation, Aug. 16, 2000. The figures for foundation and grant money have been compiled from the board minutes of the Mullins administration and are only estimates. Langfitt, “Educator Revives Hindman School.” 58. The NEH project can be followed in the board minutes of Oct. 18, 1979, Oct. 27, 1980, April 11 and Oct. 10, 1981, and April 30, 1982. 59. Elizabeth Watts to Mike Mullins, [Oct. 1984]; Mike Mullins to Elizabeth Watts, Oct. 12, 1984; board minutes, Oct. 20, 1984, April 20 and Oct. 19, 1985. 60. Executive committee minutes, Aug. 26, 1987; board minutes, Oct. 3, 1987, Nov. 19, 1988, April 1, 1989, Oct. 13, 1990, and April 13, 1991. There have been questions raised in the past by scholars about the degree of Hindman Settle-

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ment School’s dependence on income from the coal industry. Whatever decade one looks at, coal industry money was a negligible or nonexistent source of revenue except for the royalties derived in the 1980s from its own property. It is correct that the Settlement received a $25,000 gift of Elkhorn Coal Company stock in 1913 for its endowment. Audits of the years from 1915–1916, when the independent institution was established, to 1923–1924, when the stock ceased paying dividends, show that at its greatest earning power it produced revenue of $1,500 in a budget that ranged from $37,000 in 1915–1916 to $51,000 in 1918–1919. From 1920 to 1923, the dividends from the stock were about 15 percent less. In 1923–1924 the stock ceased paying dividends and was written off some years later. For the Elkhorn Coal Company stock information, see the audits of 1915–1916 to 1923–1924, HSS, II, 5, 50–54. 61. Board minutes, May 9, 1995, May 4 and Nov. 11, 1997; executive committee minutes, Oct. 1 and Dec. 3, 1997. 62. Board minutes Jan. 11, 1995, Oct. 1, 1997, May 9, 1998, Nov. 13, 1999; audit for years ending Aug. 31, 2000–2001. 63. Graves, Payne, and Leveridge, HSS, oral history collection. Mullins’s leadership in the area of education has been widely acknowledged. In addition to serving as the president of the Settlement Institutions of Appalachia, he has also served on the Kentucky Arts Council, received the second annual Governor’s Award in Arts Education, and headed the Kentucky Citizens for the Arts. 64. All of them have held either appointive or elective office. Weinberg was a state legislator. Stumbo ran unsuccessfully for governor and then served as Secretary of State Cabinet for Human Resources in the Jones administration. Benny Ray Bailey served in the legislature for twenty years. His electoral defeat in 2000 produced the following analysis by Joseph Gerth, reporter for the Louisville Courier Journal. He characterized Bailey and his associates as “idealistic young Turks who, in the 1970s, joined to try to cast off the parochialism that so characterized Eastern Kentucky politics. For many years a regional approach seemed to be taking hold and . . . some . . . see the election as a return to the days when county magistrates and other local officials fought over roads, water lines and factories and, in the end, accomplished little.” Gerth, “Bailey’s Defeat a Signal of Change.” Mullins is chairman of the State Board of Claims and Crime Victims’ Compensation. Lee Muller, “Some Wonder if Knott ‘Mafia’ Benefits from Ties to Patton,” Lexington Herald-Leader, May 31, 1998. There is a great reluctance to discuss these political matters with “outsiders.” A number of attempts to investigate the relationship of the Settlement to local politics with Hindman and Knott County leaders were unsuccessful. 65. Langfitt, “Educator Revives Hindman School”; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 66. Mike Mullins, ibid. 67. “Phelps Recognized for Service,” Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 18, 2000; Rebecca Ware, HSS, oral history collection. 68. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection.

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Chapter 7. “Arousing the Neighborhood” 1. All materials cited in this chapter are from HSS, current files, unless otherwise noted. Most of the CDI story is found in articles announcing the grant in the October 1997 edition of the Troublesome Creek Times, including K. Jones, “Hindman/Knott County ‘Chosen Site,’” Daley, “Winning Proposal,” and Gerth, “2 Mountain Towns Dream.” See also Kentucky Appalachian Task Force Interim Report to Governor Brereton C. Jones, presented in Frankfort, Kentucky, July 26, 1994, and James B. Goode, The Kentucky Appalachian Task Force: Re-Democratization of Appalachia, 1996. 2. Ewell Balltrip, e-mail to author, Oct. 10, 2000, titled, “Reflections on the Knott County/Hindman CDI Project.” 3. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection; CDI report to the Kentucky Appalachian Commission, Jan. 14, 1999; Mullins memo to author, July 21, 2000. 4. Daley, “Winning Proposal”; Mead, “New Town Project”; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 5. “Using Our Heritage to Build Tomorrow’s Future,” program application submitted to the Kentucky Appalachian Community Development Initiative by Knott County and Hindman, [summer 1997]. 6. Joseph Gerth, “New Town Projects Go to Jenkins, Hindman,” Louisville Courier Journal, October 19, 1997, reprinted in the Troublesome Creek Times, October 22, 1997. 7. CDI Report. 8. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. The most important element that did not survive the planning stages was a museum honoring Carl Perkins to be installed in the Perkins’s home in Hindman. It was recast into a Museum of Eastern Kentucky. While the plans to turn the downtown home of the Perkins family into a museum did not materialize, the Perkins’s home and farm outside Hindman has been purchased for preservation as an historic site and for use by the new Kentucky School of Craft. Press release, “Carl D. Perkins Home Made Historic Site,” Hazard Community College, April 23, 2001. K. Jones, “Artisan Center Opens.” 9. Mueller, “Knott ‘Mafia’” and “‘Common Thread.’” The articles focused on the governor’s appointments of these men to positions in the state. These included a seat on the State Board of Education for Weinberg, on the Board of Regents of the University of Kentucky for Stumbo, and on the State Board of Claims and Crime Victims’ Compensation for Mullins. The last came with a salary of $20,850. Ron Daley’s selection as the director of the new Knott County branch of Hazard Community College was also viewed as a patronage appointment, with the observation that Mike Mullins sat on the panel who recommended Daley for the job. K. Jones, “Construction Nears.” 10. Webster, “Hindman ‘Mafia.’” Mullins to author, Sept. 4, 1998. 11. Board minutes, May 9 and Nov. 7, 1998. 12. CDI Report.

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13. K. Jones, “Alice Lloyd College Hosts CDI Meeting,” and “Co-chairs Chosen.” 14. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 15. “Group Discusses CDI Plans,” and CDI Report. The chamber of commerce announced in September 2000 that it had received a $44,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to hire a director to attract new business to Hindman. “Knott Chamber of Commerce.” 16. CDI Report; minutes, special board meeting, Hindman Settlement School, Feb. 27, 1999; and K. Jones, “Co-chairs Chosen.” Executive committee minutes, March 1, 2001. Groundbreaking for the Opportunity Center took place in December 2001. K. Jones, “Gov. Patton Attends Knott Celebration.” 17. Board minutes, May 15, 1999; executive committee minutes Aug. 25, 1999, and Oct. 10, 2000; Ewell Balltrip to author, Oct. 10, 2000. 18. “Knott Branch of HCC”; “Carl D. Perkins Home Made Historic Site” press release. 19. “Planning under Way”; K. Jones, “Local Crafters.” Jewelry artisan Tim Glotzbach was named director of the Kentucky School of Craft in the spring of 2001. 20.“Knott CDI Projects,” and K. Jones, “Artisan Center Ready.” 21. Linda Gayheart to author, July 26, 2000. The projects funded in the 2000 legislative session are contained in the memo “Knott County/Hindman Community Development Initiative,” sent by Bill Weinberg to author, Oct. 4, 2000. 22. Minutes, special board meeting, Feb. 27, 1999; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection; Jan Stumbo to author, Aug. 29, 2000. 23. Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection. 24. Bill Weinberg to author, Oct. 4, 2000. 25. K. Jones, “Grisham Group Visits”; [CDI Executive Committee] “Evaluation of the Knott CDI”; K. Jones, “Grisham Gives Report.” 26. J. Jones, “Two Towns Seek to Build Prosperity”; Mike Mullins, HSS, oral history collection; Ewell Balltrip, e-mail to author, Oct. 10, 2000. 27. David Whisnant is the leading proponent of the view that settlement workers like Stone and Pettit destroyed mountain culture and served as handmaidens for the industrialization of Appalachia by the coal industry. For a discussion of this and more recent studies of social settlement work and workers, see “Social Settlements and Social Settlement Workers: An Essay in Appalachian Historiography,” in Appendix 1. 28. Blackwell, “To Do Much Larger Work,” 200. 29. Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, 538. Appendix 1 1. Whisnant, All That Is Native and Fine, xvi, 90. 2. Dunn, “A Meditation on Pitman Center,” 56.

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3. Searles, College for Appalachia, 162. 4. Forderhase, “Eve Returns,” 244 and 259, footnote 56. 5. England, “Voices from the History of Teaching,” 157. 6. Blackwell, “‘To Do Much Larger Work,’” 199–200. 7. Goan, “‘First, Foremost, and above All,’” 92. 8. Briscoe, et al., “On the Other Hand,” 278–79. 9. Whisnant, All That Is Native and Fine, 66. 10. Alma Pigmon, class of 1929, HSS, oral history collection. 11. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, Rural Industries in Knott County, Kentucky, presented at Frankfort, Jan. 1932 (Washington, D.C., 1932). Appendix 2 1. Printed faculty list for 1925–1926 in Stout, “Miracle,” 26.

Bibliography 269

BIBLIOGRAPHY Unpublished Materials Hindman Settlement School Archive

THIS HISTORY OF the Hindman Settlement School is based primarily on the extensive documentation available in the Settlement’s archives. These materials date from 1899 to the present and fall into five major groupings: the “Historical Collection,” the “Current Files,” the “Oral History Collection,” the “Elizabeth Watts Collection,” and the “Photographic Collection.” The “Historical Collection” contains Settlement records for the years 1899– 1977, which were catalogued and microfilmed in the early 1980s. (The microfilm copy is available at the Hutchins Library, Berea College, Berea, Kentucky.) The documents are divided into six series and further identified within each series by box and file numbers. Series I contains 115 files of narrative reports and publications such as the manuscript diaries of Stone and Pettit’s three summer camps, the newsletters and brochures of the Settlement, and the student newspapers. Series II includes the vital and operational records of the Settlement from 1902 to 1977. It includes board minutes; audits; accounts of the Fireside Industries Department; May Stone’s receipt and expenditure ledgers for 1902–1915; donor, endowment, and scholarship records; records of the May Stone memorial fund; student records; the list of Hindman Settlement School graduates from 1904 to 1963; files of student productions; and a file on the typhoid epidemic of 1914. Series III holds biographical materials on figures associated with the Settlement. Arranged alphabetically, the 235 files include Jethro Amburgey, Ann Cobb, Lucy Furman, Josiah Combs, Elizabeth Watts, Katherine Pettit, May Stone, James Still, and many others. Much of the material consists of newspaper clippings and writings by or about these individuals, typescript poems by Ann Cobb, printed short stories by James Still, and the genealogies of a number of local families. Series IV contains the Settlement’s large holding of ballads, folk and religious songs, including the song notebook used at Hindman Settlement School. Series V is a reference series with files on a wide range of subjects having to do with Appalachia. Its primary holdings consist of newspaper clippings, the trachoma files, and publications of Dr. James Stucky and John McMullen. It also has runs of several magazines, including The Quarterly Magazine of the Southern Indus-

270 Bibliography trial Education Association for 1910–1926 and Mountain Life and Work (the journal of the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers) from 1925 to 1977. Series VI is titled the Jethro Amburgey Files, 1896–1972. There are forty-five files containing a variety of Amburgey family materials and many disparate items, such as contour maps of the campus area in 1914–1915, student writings, and a guest book kept at the Settlement from 1911 to 1948. The “Current Files” hold all of the materials for the period of Mike Mullins’s directorship. This collection has not been catalogued but is easy to access since its contents are arranged alphabetically by file subject. Among the main office filing categories are: Alumni, Appalachian Literature, Audits, Board of Directors, Churches, Corporations, DAR, Education, Estates, Folk Week, Foundations, GED, James Still, Literacy Project, May Day, Montessori, Societies, Staff, Supplies, The Mountain Echo, Tutorial Program, and Writers Workshop. There is also a miscellany of other materials such as many, if not all, of the articles published about the Settlement in Kentucky newspapers since 1978. The “Oral History Collection” currently contains the tapes and transcripts of fifty-nine interviews. The collection of these materials began in the late 1990s as part of an ongoing project funded by the Kentucky Oral History Commission. The interviews were conducted with individuals who have been closely involved with the Settlement, including many former students, Settlement staff and volunteer workers, community leaders, executive directors, and members of the board of directors. The “Elizabeth Watts Collection” came to Hindman Settlement School after Watts’s death in 1993. The materials are uncatalogued and have not been microfilmed. Letters written by Watts to her mother during the period 1912–1946 form the core of the collection. It also includes papers that fill gaps in early materials, particularly board reports and executive director reports missing from the archives for the McLain and Duff administrations. A large part of the remainder of the collection consists of cards and letters sent by friends and former students on the occasion of Watts’s birthdays, her retirement in 1956, and the commemoration of her seventy years of service to the Settlement in 1980. Watts’s photo scrapbooks provide valuable historical documentation not available in the Settlement’s photographic collection, since she identifies the persons in the photos. These albums cover the years 1911, 1914–1920, and 1922. There is also an album of miscellaneous pictures from the last half of the 1920s. The “Photographic Collection” contains a substantial number of pictures, some of which date back to the time of the summer camps. The collection was organized at the same time that the materials in the “Historical Collection” were catalogued and microfilmed. Negative and positive prints were made of all photographs, which were then numbered and organized by subject. The subject headings are too numerous to list here, but the major ones include group activities such as folk dancing, May Day, sporting events and graduation ceremonies; scenes of the local landscape, the Settlement’s grounds and buildings, and the town of Hindman; along with fourteen files containing numerous individual and group

Bibliography 271 portraits. Unfortunately, the people in these photographs are not identified, but some identifications are possible due to overlaps with the captioned photos in the Watts albums. The materials in the Hindman archives used in the preparation of this book were drawn mainly from the “Historical Collection,” Series I, II, III, and V; the “Current Files;” the “Oral History Collection”; and the “Elizabeth Watts Collection.” The most salient of these materials are noted below. Historical Collection Series I. Narrative Reports and Publications

Author unknown. “Some Impressions of My First Two Weeks’ Stay at the Hindman Settlement School.” Brochures, 1902–1979. Cobb, Ann. “Appeal for One Dollar.” ———. “Home Life of the Little Girls.” Diaries. Experiences in the Kentucky Mountains, Summers of 1899–1901. Furman, Lucy. “Home Life of the Little Boys.” Letters, 1910 fire. Newsletters, 1904–1977: Annual Newsletter, 1904–1928. The Hindman Letter, 1928–1977. Dear Friends Newsletter, 1931–1977. Pettit, Katherine. “Kentucky Mountain Folk.” Typescript, 1899. Sage, Pauline. “How They Elected the School Teacher at Mallie.” Stone, May. “Walking Trip,” 1921. Student Newspapers, 1925–1943: Hindman Chronicle, 1938. Hindman Echo, 1939–1940. Hindman Hi Herald, 1935. Hindman Hi Lights, 1937. Hindman Hi News, 1940–1941. Mountain Echo, 1925–1930. The Percolator, 1938–1939. Van Slyke, Berenice K., “A Kentuckian by Choice.” Series II. Operational and Vital Records, 1902–1977.

Analysis of General Endowment, 1901–1968. Articles of Incorporation and amendments, 1915–1975. Audit Reports, 1916–1971. Bequests, 1911–1968.

272 Bibliography Christmas Plays, 1931–1957. Correspondence on folk dance tours, 1964–1966. Endowment Fund. Donors, donations, 1910–1967. Endowment. General and Scholarships, 1911–1968. Fiftieth Anniversary Program. Complete copy. Financial Study. Administrative Revenue and Expense, Current Operations, Products, Income and Expense, 1950–1959. Financial Study. Patterns of Bequests, Administrative Income, Annual Expenses to Endowment, 1937–1957. Graduate Listings, 1904–1963. Hindman Community. Statement of Support, June 1927. Minutes. Board of Directors meetings, 1915–1977. Receipt and Expenditure ledgers, 1902–1915. Rules and Regulations, 1948–1965. Scholarship Endowment. Bequests and Gifts, 1915–1963. Stone, May. Memorial Fund: All Recorded Sources, 1946–1959. Student ledgers, 1915–1958. Typhoid Epidemic. Correspondence, 1913–1915. Typhoid Epidemic. Investigation, 1914. WCTU Audit, 1910–1911. Series III. Biographical Materials and Works, 1900–1980.

Altsheler, Mrs. Yancy. “The Ladyest of the ‘Quare’ Women.” Typescript. Bradley, William Aspenwall. “The Women on Troublesome,” 1918. Bancroft, Helen Frizzell. Correspondence, 1939–1950. Cobb, Ann. Articles, correspondence, and poetry, 1916–1961. Combs, Josiah. Articles, correspondence, and essays, 1910–1957. Day, Kelly. “Eulogy for Katherine Pettit.” Typescript, 1936. de Long, Ethel. Correspondence, 1905–1910. Duff, Lionel. Biographical clippings and Decoy School clippings, 1943, 1971. Furman, Lucy. Articles and essays by and about, 1913–1950. Merrill, Louise Moody. “My Summer of 1924 among the Mountain Whites of Kentucky.” Morgan, Alpha. “Autobiography.” Typescript, 1926. Perkins, Carl D. Newspaper clippings, 1950–1973. Pettit, Katherine. “Ballads and Rhymes of Kentucky,” 1909. Ritchie, Jean. Newspaper clippings, 1953–1971. Standish, Clara. Newspaper clippings, 1952. Stiles, Dorothy Hancock. “Kentucky 1915.” Typescript diary. Still, James. Newspaper clippings, 1935–1977. ———. Various typescripts. Stone, May. Newspaper clippings, 1922–1946. ———. Various typescripts, 1921–1923, 1941–1945.

Bibliography 273 Series V. Appalachian Studies Reference File, 1899–1977.

First Knott County Fair, Oct. 1911. Hindman Settlement School. Newspaper clippings, 1902–1944, 1951–1975. Pine Mountain publications, 1913–1953. Trachoma pamphlets by John McMullen, 1912–1913. Trachoma publications of J.A. Stucky, 1911–1916. Current Files Appalachian Regional Commission. “Project Proposal Summary, Knott County Community Opportunity Center Project,” 1997. Architectural Summary, Hindman Branch of Hazard Community College, Knott County. Audits, 1971–present. “Bridge to the Future.” Hindman Settlement School, Campaign Plan, 2001. Broida, Theodore R. “Alternatives and Recommendations for Future Programs of the Hindman Settlement School.” Typescript, June 11, 1975. Brochure: “Carl and Verna Perkins Endowment Fund,” [1983]. Capital Campaign Survey Report. Nov. 4, 2000. Carleton Associates: Lexington, Ky. Community Development Initiative Report to the Kentucky Appalachian Commission, Jan. 14, 1999. “Concept Plan.” City of Hindman and Knott County, Kentucky. Community Development Plan prepared by Lardner-Klein Landscape Architects, R.M. Johnson Engineering, Mary Means and Associates, Economics Research Associates and Sandy Blain, T. Allen Company. Correspondence. Mike Mullins/Elizabeth Watts, 1977–1991. Daley, Ron. “Knott County/Hindman Community Development Initiative.” Typescript, 2000. Duff, Frankie. “The Decoy School.” Typescript, 2000. Flyer. “Traditional Mountain Crafts.” Marie Stewart Craft Shop. Hindman Settlement School. Rules and Regulations for Guests, n.d. “Historical Overview of the Hindman Settlement School Dyslexia Program.” Typescript, n.d. Kentucky Appalachian Task Force: Re-Democratization of Appalachia, (1996). Kentucky Society of Evanston and North Shore, organizational files. Memorandum of Agreement between The Eastern Kentucky Teachers Network and Hindman Settlement School. Minutes. Board of Directors meetings, 1975–present. Minutes. Executive Committee meetings, 1975–present. “Mission Statement.” Knott County Arts and Crafts Foundation, May 31, 1998. The Mountain Echo, 1978–present (Settlement newsletter). “Overview.” Hindman/Knott County Community Development Projects. FY 1999 and FY 2000 biennial budget provisions for program components.

274 Bibliography “Operations Concept and Mission.” Knott County Artisans’ Support and Marketing Center. Pamphlet. “Bridge to the Future Campaign,” 2001. Pamphlet. Hindman Settlement School, an Overview of Programs. Pamphlet. Marie Stewart Craft Shop. Pamphlets. Adult Literacy Program. Pamphlets. Appalachian Family Folk Week. Pamphlets. Appalachian Writers Workshop. Pamphlets. Eastern Kentucky Tutorial Program. Perkins Endowment Fund. Campaign Newsletters, July and Sept. 1984. Programs. Presentation of Awards, Outstanding Volunteers in Adult Education and Outstanding Adult Education Student, Hindman Settlement School. Reports. Summer Tutorial Program, 1987–present. Stout, Jane Halstead. “Miracle on Troublesome Creek.” Typescript [early 1990s]. “Elizabeth Watts. Seventy Years of Service.” Special Newsletter. Hindman Settlement School, April 1980. Oral History Collection Transcribed Interviews

Allen, Ruby Boleyn. Class of 1934. Begley, Lula Stamper. Class of 1930. Belcher, Frances Ritchie. Class of 1939. Browning, Bess Creech. Class of 1942. Collins, Mildred. Class of 1938. Combs, Dale Smith. Class of 1934. Combs, Virginia. Community leader. Conley, Vertie Pigmon. Class of 1927. Cornett, Elizabeth Smith. Class of 1938. Davidson, Ursula. Class of 1940. Earp, Helen. Settlement staff, bookkeeper. Estep, Faye. Class of 1928. Everage, Jana. Class of 1972, Settlement staff, administrative assistant. Graves, Joseph. Member, Board of Directors. Heibert, John and Carol. Mennonite Central Committee volunteers. Holliday, Sophia. Class of 1940. Johnson, Clarence. Class of 1939. Jones, Loyal. Member, Board of Directors. Lawrence, Marcia Smith. Class of 1943. Leveridge, Glenn. Member, Board of Directors. Maggard, Gertrude. Class of 1929. McLain, Raymond. Executive Director, 1957–1971.

Bibliography 275 Messer, Tressie Prater. Class of 1928. Moore, Kathleen Campbell. Class of 1941. Mullins, Mike. Executive Director, 1977–present. Napier, Anna Ritchie. Class of 1965, Settlement staff, cook. Nichols, Amos. Class of 1937. Payne, Marlene Ellis. Member, Board of Directors. Phelps, James. Settlement staff, 4-H agent. Pickow, Jean Ritchie. Member, Board of Directors. Pigmon, Alma. Class of 1929. Pigmon, Alma and Vertie Pigmon Conley. Joint interview. Pratt, Drannan. Class of 1940. Pratt, Wilburn. Class of 1956, Member, Board of Directors. Pratt, William. Student (1940s). Roberts, Eltra. Settlement staff, cook. Roberts, Ruben. Class of 1953. Roberts, Thelma. Class of 1955. Rogers, Audrey Combs. Class of 1974. Shepherd, Dennis. Class of 1965. Slone, Kenneth, Class of 1942. Smith, Afton. Class of 1928. Smith, Bertie Simpson. Class of 1932. Stewart, Albert. Class of 1932. Still, James. Settlement staff, librarian. Sturdivant, Dalma Pigman. Student (1930s). Terhune, Joy Sturgill. Class of 1944. Terry, Bethel. Class of 1940. Tignor, Charlie. Class of 1930. Tomko, Lorraine. Class of 1940. Tram, Zada Fields. Class of 1934. Waddell, Tommy. Class of 1934. Ware, Michael. Settlement staff, teacher. Ware, Rebecca. Settlement staff, bookkeeper. Watts, Harold. Class of 1948. Watts, Vivian Combs. Class of 1965. Weatherford, Anne. Member, Board of Directors. Weinberg, Lois Combs. Director, James Still Learning Center; Member, Board of Directors. Young, R.W. Class of 1938. Young, Robert. Class of 1960. Watts Collection Annual newsletter, 1904. “Board Members, 1915–1971.” Typescript.

276 Bibliography Correspondence with Marcia Eastham, 1967. Correspondence with author’s mother [Mrs. Henry Boynton], 1911–1946. Drake, Richard. Interview with Elizabeth Watts. Transcript, 1967. Duff, Lionel. Report to board of directors, Dec. 4, 1971. Executive director. Reports to board, April 9 and Oct. 13, 1957; Oct. 2, 1962; Feb. 5, 1963; Sept. 28, 1966; Oct. 1 and 9, 1967; Dec. 4, 1967; July 9, 1968; Oct. 1, 1969; Dec. 3, 1969; July 2, 1970. Hicks, Clarissa. “The Class of 1926, Fifty Years Later.” Typescript (1976). Raymond McLain/Neil Gerst correspondence, 1962. Raymond McLain/Elizabeth Watts correspondence, 1956–1971. Pamphlet. “Women’s Christian Temperance Union Settlement School, Hindman, Kentucky, 1905.” Watts, Elizabeth. “Chronology of events between 1896 and 1944.” Typescript, n.d. ———. “Religion in the Changing Highlands.” Typescript (1936). ———. “[Auto]Biographical Profile.” Typescript, 1980. Weavers’ Guild. Interview with Elizabeth Watts. Transcript, 1975.

Other Archives Alice Lloyd File. Special Collections and Archives. Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky Libraries. The John C. and Olive Dame Campbell Papers. Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina. Pine Mountain Papers. Microfilm. Special Collections Department. Hutchins Library. Berea College, Berea, Kentucky.

Theses and Dissertations Bertrand (Rivera), J’May. “The Appalachian Settlement Schools: The Rural Response to an Urban Concept.” M.A. thesis, Bryn Mawr College, 1975. Blackwell, Deborah. “The Ability ‘To Do Much Larger Work’: Gender and Reform in Appalachia, 1890–1935.” Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky, 1998. Boggess, Carol B. “Following River of Earth from Source to Destination: A Critical and Contextual Study of James Still’s Appalachian Classic.” Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky, 1995. Chambers, Virginia Anne. “Music in Four Kentucky Mountain Settlement Schools.” Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1970. Collins, Carvel. “The Literary Tradition of the Southern Mountaineers, 1824– 1900.” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1944. England, Rhonda. “Voices from the History of Teaching, Katherine Pettit, May Stone and Elizabeth Watts at the Hindman Settlement School.” Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky, 1990.

Bibliography 277 Fasteneau, Maureen Karen. “Maternal Government: The Social Settlement Houses and the Politicization of Women’s Sphere.” Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1983. Goan, Melanie Beals. “‘First, Foremost and above All for Babies’: Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service.” Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky, 2000. Greene, James S. “Progressives in the Kentucky Mountains: The Formative Years of the Pine Mountain Settlement School, 1913–1930.” Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1982. Hay, Melba Porter. “Madeline McDowell Breckinridge; Kentucky Suffragist and Progressive Reformer.” Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky, 1980. Jasper, Mary Katherine. “Social Value of Settlement Schools in the Kentucky Mountains.” M.A. thesis, University of Kentucky, 1930. Price, Margaret Nell. “The Development of Leadership by Southern Women through Clubs and Organizations.” M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina, 1945.

Author’s Correspondence and Interviews Allen, Ruby Boleyn. Telephone interview, Feb. 26, 2001. Asher, Shirley. Telephone interview, March 19, 2001. Balltrip, Ewell. E-mail to author, “Reflections on the Knott County/Hindman CDI Project,” Oct. 10, 2000. Boatright, Nancy Stewart. Telephone interviews, Aug. 1, 1995; Feb. 14, 1999; and Feb. 26, 2000. Buice, Bill. Telephone interview, Aug. 16, 2000. Conley, Vertie Pigmon. Telephone interview, March 2, 2000. Duff, Frankie. Letter to author, Jan. 14, 2000. Gayheart, Linda. Letter to author, July 26, 2000. Jones, Loyal. Letter to author, Dec. 6, 2000. Kennedy, Barbara. Interview, April 3, 2001. Linkous, Sam. E-mails to author, June 19 and 25, 2001. Maggard, Gertrude. Telephone interview, Jan. 12, 1999. Mullins, Mike. Letter to author, Sept. 4, 1998. ———. Telephone interview, July 12, 2000. ———. Memo to author, July 21, 2000. ———. E-mail to author, June 1, 2001. Penn, Ron. “Musings on Family Folk Week,” E-mail to author, June 25, 2001. Pigmon, Alma. Telephone interview, Aug. 8, 1995. Smith, Harvey. Letter to author, Sept. 15, 1999. Stacey, Maude. Telephone interview, Feb. 14, 1999. Stammer, Julia. Interview, Aug. 15, 2000. Stumbo, Jan. Letter to author, Aug. 29, 2000. Titsworth, Ann. Telephone interview, April 23, 2001.

278 Bibliography Weinberg, Bill. Memo to author, “Knott County/Hindman Community Development Initiative,” Oct. 4, 2000. Wildsmith, Dana. “Laying the Blame,” E-mail to author, May 29, 2001.

Published Materials Government Publications Hindman, Ky., and Knott County, Ky. “Using Our Heritage to Build Tomorrow’s Community.” Program application submitted to the Kentucky Appalachian Community Development Initiative (1997). Kentucky Appalachian Task Force. Kentucky Appalachian Task Force Interim Report to Governor Brereton C. Jones. Frankfort, Ky.: 1994. [Kentucky Appalachian Task Force]. James B. Goode. The Kentucky Appalachian Task Force: Re-Democratization of Appalachia. Frankfort, Ky.: 1996. Kentucky Department for Adult Education and Literacy. Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development. Kentucky Adult Literacy Survey. Frankfort, Ky.: 1997. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920. Vol. I, Population, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States in the Year 1900. Vol. I, Population, parts 1 and 2, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of the Census, 1901. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station. Rural Industries in Knott County, Kentucky. Washington, D.C.: 1932. U.S. Department of Interior. Bureau of Education. “An Opportunity to Help an Important Work.” Special Inquiry by P.P. Claxton, Washington, D.C.: 1913. U.S. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Education. “A Great Movement in Which Everyone Can Help,” Special Inquiry [into English and Scottish Ballads] by C. Alphonso Smith, Washington, D.C.: Nov. 1913.

Books Addams, Jane. Democracy and Social Ethics. New York: Macmillan, 1902. ———. Twenty Years at Hull House. New York: Macmillan, 1910. Barker, Gary. The Handicraft Revival in Southern Appalachia, 1930–1980. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991. Barney, Sandra. Authorized to Heal: Gender, Class, and the Transformation of Medicine in Appalachia, 1880–1930. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Batteau, Allen, ed. Appalachia and America: Autonomy and Regional Dependence. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983. Becker, Jane. Selling Tradition, Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930–1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

Bibliography 279 Billings, Dwight B., Gurney Norman, and Katherine Ledford, eds. Confronting Appalachian Stereotypes: Back Talk from an American Region. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999. Blair, Karen J. The Clubwoman as Feminist: True Womanhood Redefined, 1869–1914. New York: Holmes and Meier Publications, 1980. Bordin, Ruth. Women and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873–1900. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990. Bradley, William Aspenwall. Old Christmas and Other Kentucky Tales in Verse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917. Breckinridge, Mary. Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1952. Brown, James. Beech Creek: A Study of a Kentucky Mountain Neighborhood. Berea, Ky.: Berea College Press, 1988. Campbell, John C. The Southern Highlander and His Homeland. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1921. Campbell, Olive Dame. The Life and Work of John C. Campbell, September 15, 1868– May 2, 1919. Privately printed, 1921. Carson, Mina. Settlement Folk, Social Thought and the American Settlement Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Caudill, Harry M. Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area. Boston: Little Brown, 1963. Cobb, Ann. Kinfolks: Kentucky Mountain Rhymes. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1922. Cremin, Lawrence. The American Common School: An Historic Conception. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Colombia University, 1951. ———. The Transformation of the School, Progressivism in American Education, 1876– 1957. New York: Knopf, 1961. Croly, Jane Cunningham. The History of the Women’s Club Movement in America. New York: Henry Allen, 1898. Crunden, Robert. Ministers of Reform: The Progressives’ Achievement in American Civilization. New York: Basic Books, 1982. Cunningham, Rodger. Apples on the Flood; The Southern Mountain Experience. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987. Daniels, Doris. Always a Sister: The Feminism of Lillian D. Wald. New York: Feminist Press at the City College of New York, 1989. Davis, Allen F. American Heroine: The Life and Legend of Jane Addams. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. ———. Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890–1914. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967. Dewey, John. Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: Macmillan, 1916. Dunn, Durwood. Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818–1937. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988.

280 Bibliography Eller, Ronald. Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers, Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880–1930. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1981. Filene, Benjamin. Romancing the Folk, Public Memory and American Roots Music. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Ford, Thomas R., ed. The Southern Appalachian Region: A Survey. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1962. Furman, Lucy. The Glass Window. New York: Macmillan, 1927. ———. Mothering on Perilous. New York: Macmillan, 1913. ———. The Quare Women. New York: Macmillan, 1923. ———. Sight to the Blind. New York: Macmillan, 1914. Gaventa, John. Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982. Gibbs, Margaret. The DAR. New York: Holt Rinehart, 1969. Gordon, Lynn D. Gender and Higher Education in the Progressive Era. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990. Grantham, Dewey. Southern Progressivism: The Reconciliation of Progress and Tradition. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1983. Hamlett, Barksdale. History of Education in Kentucky. Frankfort, Ky.: Kentucky State Department of Education, 1914. Haney, William H. The Mountain People of Kentucky. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1906. Hartford, Ellis Ford. The Little White Schoolhouse. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1977. Jones, Loyal. Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. ———, ed. Reshaping the Image of Appalachia. Berea, Ky.: Berea College Appalachian Center, 1986. Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders. New York: Outing Publishing, 1913. Kliebard, Herbert. The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893–1958. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986. Klotter, James. The Breckinridges of Kentucky: Two Centuries of Leadership. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986. Knott County, Kentucky; History and Families. Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing, 1995. Ladd-Taylor, Molly. Mother-Work, Women, Child Welfare, and the State, 1890–1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. Link, William A. The Paradox of Southern Progressivism, 1880–1930. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Lyon, George Ella, Jim Wayne Miller, and Gurney Norman, eds. A Gathering at the Forks: Fifteen Years of the Hindman Settlement School Appalachian Writers Workshop. Wise, Va.: Vision Books, 1993. McCauley, Deborah. Appalachian Mountain Religion: A History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995. McKinney, Gordon. Southern Mountain Republicans, 1865–1900: Politics and the Appalachian Community. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978.

Bibliography 281 Miles, Emma Bell. The Spirit of the Mountains. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975. Muncy, Robyn. Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Polly, Connel. It’s Like Coming out of a Deep Hole. Hindman, Ky.: Knott County Literacy Project, 1995. Pudup, Mary Beth, ed. Appalachia in the Making: The Mountain South in the Nineteenth Century. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Raine, James Watt. The Land of Saddle-bags. New York: Council of Women for Home Missions, n.d. Ritchie, Jean. Singing Family of the Cumberlands. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1980. Rogers, Mary. The Pine Mountain Story, 1913–1980. Pine Mountain, Ky.: Pine Mountain Settlement School, 1980. Russell, Robert Stanley. History of the Southern Highland Crafts Guild. New York: Columbia University, 1976. Saaveda, Mrs. Gabriel Omar, comp. DAR Schools. n.p., National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, 1986. Salstrom, Paul. Appalachia’s Path to Dependency: Rethinking a Region’s Economic History. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994. Scott, Anne Firor. The Southern Lady, 1830–1930: From Pedestal to Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. ———. Natural Allies: Women’s Associations in American History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. Searles, P. David. A College for Appalachia, Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995. Shakelford, Laurel, and Bill Weinberg. Our Appalachia: An Oral History. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1988. Shapiro, Henry. Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870–1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978. Simkhovitch, Mary Kingsbury. The Settlement Primer. Boston: National Federation of Settlements, 1926. Sizer, Theodore. Secondary Schools at the Turn of the Century. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1964. Sklar, Kathryn Kish. Florence Kelly and the Nation’s Work: The Rise of Women’s Political Culture, 1830–1900. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995. Skocpol, Theda. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992. Slone, Verna Mae. How We Talked. n.p., Pippa Valley Printing, 1982. ———. What My Heart Wants to Tell. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1979. Smith, Almo. Bamboo Roots and Peppermint Oil: Stories about Life, Loves, and Lessons. Privately printed, 1944.

282 Bibliography Stewart, Albert. Holy Season: Walking in the Wild–Poems by Albert Stewart. Berea, Ky.: Berea College Press, 1993. Still, James. The Wolfpen Poems. Berea, Ky.: Berea College Press, 1986. Stoddart, Jess, ed. The Quare Women’s Journals: May Stone and Katherine Pettit’s Summers in the Kentucky Mountains and the Founding of the Hindman Settlement School. Ashland, Ky.: Jesse Stuart Foundation Press, 1997. Stone, Florida. “Last Night,” A Garden of Songs. Hindman, Ky.: Knott County Adult Literacy Program, 1995. Stucky, J.A. Trachoma in Eastern Kentucky. Conservation of Vision Series, Pamphlet V, Chicago: American Medical Association, 1914. Thomas, W.R. Life among the Hills and Mountains of Kentucky. Louisville: Standard Printing, 1926. Waller, Altina. Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860–1900. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Weise, Robert. Grasping at Independence: Debt, Male Authority, and Mineral Rights in Appalachian Kentucky, 1850–1910. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2001. Weller, Jack E. Yesterday’s People: Life in Contemporary Appalachia. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965. Whisnant, David. All That is Native and Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983. ———. Modernizing the Mountaineer: People, Power, and Planning in Appalachia. Boone, N.C.: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1981. Who Was Who in America (1897–1942). Chicago: Marquis Publications, 1966. Woodring, Patsy. A Glorious Past and a Promising Future: A Brief History of the Kentucky Women’s Christian Temperance Union, 1880–1995. Privately printed, n.d. Woods, Robert A., and Albert Kennedy, eds. Handbook of Settlements. New York: Charities Publication Commission, Russell Sage Foundation, 1911.

Articles and Essays Allen, James Lane. “Through Cumberland Gap.” In W.K. McNeil, ed. Appalachian Images in Folk and Popular Culture. Ann Arbor, Mich.: U.M.I. Research Press, 1989, 59–74. Appleton, Thomas H. “Prohibition and Politics in Kentucky: The Gubernatorial Campaign and Election of 1915.” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 75 ( Jan. 1977): 28–54. Banks, Alan. “Land and Capital in Eastern Kentucky, 1890–1915.” Appalachian Journal 8, 1 (autumn 1980): 8–18. ———. “The Emergence of a Capitalistic Labor Market in Eastern Kentucky.” Appalachian Journal 7, 3 (spring 1980): 188–200. Barney, Sandra. “Maternalism and the Promotion of Scientific Medicine during

Bibliography 283 the Industrial Transformation of Appalachia, 1880–1930.” National Women’s Studies Association Journal 11, 3 (1999): 67–92. Batteau, Allan. “Appalachia and the Concept of Culture.” Appalachian Journal 7, 1 & 2 (autumn and winter 1979–1980): 9–29. Billings, Dwight, Kathleen Blee, and Louise Swanson. “Culture, Family, and Community in Preindustrial Appalachia.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 13, 2 (winter 1986): 154–70. Bosch, Sherry Heesaker. “A Big Hand for Appalachia.” Berea Alumnus 71, 1 (summer 2000): 16–18. Briscoe, Lori, et al. “Interview with Loyal Jones.” Appalachian Journal 27, 4 (summer 2000): 378–403. ———. “On the Other Hand . . . An Interview with David Whisnant.” Appalachian Journal 27, 3 (spring 2000): 272–96. ———. “Unruly Woman: An Interview with Helen Lewis.” Appalachian Journal 27, 2 (winter 2000): 164–89. Cadle, Dean. “The Man on Troublesome Creek.” Yale Review 57 (1968): 236–55. Campbell, John C. “Social Betterment in the Southern Mountains.” Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections 36 (1909): 130–37. Coats, Lauren. “Crafting Appalachian Identity.” Penn History Review (spring 1997). On-line version. http://www.history.upenn.edu/phr/spring 97/index.html. Accessed April 11, 2001. Combs, Josiah. “Dialect of the Folk-Song.” Dialect Notes IV, v (1916): 311–18. Coogan, Mercy Hardie. “At the Forks of Troublesome Creek.” Reprinted from Appalachian Heritage 14, 4 (March–April 1981). Cornett, William Terrell. “Untying Some Knots in Knott County: Two Educational Experiments in Eastern Kentucky.” Proceedings, Appalachia/America. Appalachian Studies Conference (1980): 179–87. Davis, Charles Thomas, et al. “Appalachian Religion: A Diversity of Consciousness.” Appalachian Journal 5, 4 (summer 1978): 390–99. de Long, Ethel. “The School as a Community Center.” Proceedings of the National Conference of Churches and Corrections (1916): 608–14. Deaton, John H., et al. “The Settlement Schools: Harmful or Benign: Three Responses to Robie.” Appalachian Heritage (summer 1991): 45–52. Drake, Richard B. “Jack and Clio in Appalachia.” Appalachian Notes 4, 1 (1976): 1–8. Dunn, Durwood. “A Meditation on Pittman Center: An Interview with Jessie Mechem Ledford.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly (spring 1991): 55–63. Eaton, Allen. “The Mountain Handicrafts: Their Importance to the Country and to the People in Their Mountain Homes.” In W.K. McNeil, ed., Appalachian Images in Folk and Popular Culture. Ann Arbor, Mich.: U.M.I. Research Press, 1989, 227–42. Eller, Ronald. “Dissertations on the Appalachian South” Appalachian Notes 3, l (1975): 1–6.

284 Bibliography ———. “Industrialization and Social Change in Appalachia, 1880–1930: A Look at the Static Image.” In Helen Matthews Lewis, Linda Johnson, and Donald Askins, eds., Colonialism in Modern America, the Appalachian Case. Boone, N.C.: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1978, 37–42. “Fireside Industries.” The Countrywoman 121 (April 1944): 3. Fisher, Stephen L. “Folk Culture or Folk Tale: Prevailing Assumptions about the Appalachian Personality.” In J.W. Williamson, ed., Appalachian Symposium in Honor of Cratis Williams. Boone, N.C.: Appalachian University Press, 1976, 14–25. Flexner, Hortense. “Fightin’ the Blindness.” Red Cross Magazine (1920): 26–33. Forderhase, Nancy K. “The Clear Call of Thoroughbred Women: The Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs and the Crusade for Educational Reform, 1901– 1909.” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 83 (1985): 19–35. ———. “Eve Returns to the Garden; Women Reformers in Appalachia in the Early Twentieth Century.” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 85 (summer 1987): 237–61. ———. “‘Limited Only by Earth and Sky’: The Louisville Women’s Club and Progressive Reform, 1900–1910.” The Filson Club Historical Quarterly 59, 3 ( July 1985): 327–43. Fox, John, Jr. “The Southern Mountaineer.” Scribner’s Magazine 29 (April–May 1901): 387–99. Frost, William Goodell. “An Educational Program for Appalachian America.” Berea Quarterly 1, 4 (May 1896): 3–11. ———. “Our Contemporary Ancestors in the Southern Mountains.” Atlantic Monthly 83 (March 1899): 311–19. Gaventa, John. “Appalachian Studies from and for Social Change.” Appalachian Journal 5, 1 (autumn 1977): 23–30. ———. “Inequality and the Appalachian Studies Industry.” Appalachian Journal 5, 3 (spring 1978): 322–29. Harney, Will Wallace. “A Strange Land and a Peculiar People.” Lippincott’s Magazine 12 (Oct. 1873): 429–38. Hatch, Grace M. “The Hindman Settlement School, Detailing the Origin, Success, and Needs of a Great Institution for the Educational Redemption of the Kentucky Mountain People.” Kentucky Magazine (1920): 385–93. Hill, Jennie Lester. “Fireside Industries in the Kentucky Mountains.” Southern Workman 32 (April 1903): 208–13. [Informal Education Organization.] “Settlement and Social Action Centres.” http:/ /www.infed.org/association/[b-settl.htm.] Accessed April 11, 2001. Ingram, Frances MacGregor. “The Settlement Movement in the South.” World Outlook (May 1934): 12–14, 38. Inscoe, John. “Memories of a Presbyterian Mission Worker: An Interview with Rubie Ray Cunningham.” Appalachian Journal 15, 2 (winter 1988): 144–61. International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers. “The Foun-

Bibliography 285 dation of the First Settlements.” http://www.datenbank.spinnenverk.de/ifs/ hist1.htm. Accessed April 11, 2001. Jones, Loyal. “Foreword.” In Jess Stoddart, ed., The Quare Women’s Journals: May Stone and Katherine Pettit’s Summers in the Kentucky Mountains and the Founding of the Hindman Settlement School. Ashland, Ky.: Jesse Stuart Foundation Press, 1997. ———. “Jean Ritchie, Twenty-Five Years After.” Appalachian Journal 9, 3 (spring 1981): 224–29. ———. “Mountain Religion, The Outsider’s View.” Mountain Review 2, 3 (May 1976): 43–46. ———. “Studying Mountain Religion.” Appalachian Journal 5, 1 (autumn 1977): 125–30. Kendrick, Leatha. “Hindman Writers’ Workshop: Confirming a Community.” Appalachian Heritage 15, 4 (fall 1987) [Remembering Jim Wayne Miller issue]: 18–23. Kentucky Educational Television. “Settlement Schools of Appalachia.” [Narration text for KET program] http://www.ket.org/programs/ket/settlement/index. Accessed April 11, 2001. Kermiet, Pauline Ritchie. “May Stone, The Ladyest.” Mountain Life and Work, reprint, June 1946. Ladd-Taylor, Molly. “Toward Defining Maternalism in U.S. History.” Journal of Women’s History 5, 2 (fall 1993): 110–13. Lehmann, Nicholas. “Dumbing Down, Did Progressivism ruin our public schools?” New Yorker (Sept. 25, 2000): 89–92. Lewis, Ronald L., and Dwight Billings. “Appalachian Culture and Economic Development: A Retrospective View on the Theory and Literature.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 3 (spring 1977): 3–42. Lynn, Denise Dryden. “Ann Cobb.” Mountain Life and Work (1960): 50–54. Maggard, Sally Ward. “From Farmer to Miners: The Decline of Agriculture in Eastern Kentucky.” In Larry Busch, ed., Science and Agricultural Development. Totowa, N.J.: Allan and Osman, 1981, 25–66. Manning, Maurice W. “A Sense of Place, Appalachian Writers Find Inspiration at the Forks of Troublesome.” Kentucky Network (Feb. 1993): 4–5. McGill, Anna Blanche. “On the Trail of Song Ballads.” Kentucky Progress Magazine (1933): 68–73. McKinney, Gordon B. “Industrialization and Violence in Appalachia in the 1890s.” In J.W. Williamson, ed., An Appalachian Symposium in Honor of Cratis Williams. Boone, N.C.: Appalachian University Press, 1976, 131–46. McLain, Raymond. “Folk Music at Hindman.” Mountain Life and Work 2 (1958): 13–17. McNeil, W.K. “Appalachian Folklore Scholarship.” Appalachian Journal 5, 1 (autumn 1977): 55–64. McVey, Frances Jewell. “The Blossom Woman.” Mountain Life and Work X (April 1934): 1–5.

286 Bibliography Miller, Jim Wayne. “Appalachian Education: A Critique.” Appalachian Journal 5, 1 (autumn 1977): 13–23. ———. “Appalachian Studies Hard and Soft: The Action Folk and the Creative People.” Appalachian Journal 9, 2 (winter/spring 1982): 105–14. Moats, Louisa Cook. “Implementing Effective Instruction for Students with LD: A Challenge for the Future.” In Learning Disabilities: Life Long Issues, #2401. Baltimore: Brooks Publishing, 87–93. Palmierei, Patricia. “Here Was Fellowship: A Social Portrait of Academic Women at Wellesley, 1895–1920.” History of Education Quarterly 23 (summer 1983): 195–214. Payne, Bruce. “Waste in Mountain Settlement Work.” Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections 35 (1908): 91–99. Pettit, Katherine. “Ballads and Rhymes of the Kentucky Mountains.” Journal of American Folklore 20 (1907): 251–76. Powell, Douglas Reichert. “Looking Forward, Talking Back: The Politics of Appalachian Cultural Studies.” Appalachian Journal 27, 2 (winter 2000): 152–59. Reck, Una Mae Land, and Gregory G. Reck. “Living is More Important Than Schooling: Schools and Self-Concept in Appalachia.” Appalachian Journal 8, 1 (autumn 1980): 19–25. Reid, Melanie Sovine. “On the Study of Religion in Appalachia: A Review Essay.” Appalachian Journal 6, 3 (spring 1979): 239–44. Robie, Harry. “Resolved: That on Balance the Settlement Schools Were Harmful to the Culture of the Southern Mountains.” Appalachian Heritage (winter 1991): 6–10. Rogers, F. Scott. “The Missionaries’ Effect on the Appalachian Self-Image.” Appalachian Notes 1, 4 (Fourth Quarter 1973): 1–9. Scott, Anne Firor. “After Suffrage: Southern Women in the Twenties.” Journal of Southern History XXX, 1 (Feb. 1964): 298–318. Semple, Ellen Churchill. “The Anglo-Saxons of the Kentucky Mountains: A Study in Anthropogeography.” In W.K. McNeil, ed., Appalachian Images in Folk and Popular Culture. Ann Arbor, Mich.: U.M.I. Research Press, 1989, 145– 74. ———. “A New Departure in Social Settlements.” Annals of the American Academy 15 (March 1900): 157–60. Shapiro, Henry. “John F. Day and the Disappearance of Appalachia from the American Consciousness.” Appalachian Journal 10, 2 (winter 1983): 157–64. Smith, Barbara. “Celebration for the Tenth Time.” Appalachian Heritage 15, 4 (fall 1987): 8–11. Smith, David R. “Knott’s Educational History, 1890s.” Knott’s Gentlefolk and Flowers of the Forest I, 3–4 (1995): 39–45. Speizman, Milton. “The Movement of the Settlement House Idea into the South.” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 44 (Dec. 1963): 237–46.

Bibliography 287 Stewart, Albert. “’Fessor Clarke, Pioneer Educator in Feud Country.” Appalachian Heritage 2 (winter 1974): 87–93. Stiles, Dorothy. “The Settlement on Troublesome.” Wellesley College News XXIV, 5 (Feb. 1916): 20–28. Stucky, J.A. “Trachoma among the Natives of the Mountains of Eastern Kentucky.” Journal of the American Medical Association (Sept. 22, 1913). ———. “Abstract of Report of Dr. J.A. Stucky, Lexington, Ky., Made to the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology at Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. 1911.” Tice, Karen. “School Work and Mother Work: The Interplay of Maternalism and Cultural Politics in the Educational Narratives of Kentucky Settlement Workers, 1910–1930.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 4, 2 (fall 1998): 191–224. Titsworth, Ann. “Hindman Tutorial Programs Address Needs of Dyslexics.” Regionally Speaking, a Monthly Newsletter for the Regional Service Centers (March 1998). Vaughn, Marshall E. “County Achievement Contest in Kentucky.” Southern Mountain Life and Work (April 1925):14–19. Walls, David and Dwight Billings. “The Sociology of Southern Appalachia.” Appalachian Journal 5, 1 (autumn 1977): 131–44. Walsh, Mary. “The Social Settlement at Narrow Gap.” Berea Quarterly 8, 41 (May 1903): 9–13. Watkins, Charles Alan. “Culture and Rumors of Culture: D.E. Whisnant’s All That Is Native and Fine.” Appalachian Journal 12, 2 (winter 1985): 147–54. Watts, Elizabeth. “Where the Dolls Go.” Abbot Academy Bulletin, 14, 3 (May 1947): 3–6. Whisnant, David. “‘Introduction,’ to Process, Policy, and Context: Contemporary Perspectives of Appalachian Culture.” Appalachian Journal 7, 1 & 2 (autumn and winter 1979–1980): 5–9. Wilhelm, Gene, Jr. “Appalachian Isolation: Fact or Fiction,” in An Appalachian Symposium, J.W. Williamson, ed. Boone, N.C.: Appalachian State University Press, 1977. Williams, Cratis. “Ballad Collecting in the 1930s.” Appalachian Journal 7, 1 & 2 (autumn and winter 1979–1980): 33–37. Winslow, Margaret Elizabeth.“Hindman Settlement School (After Fifty Years).” Schwenkfeldian [Philadelphia] ( June 1952): 3. Young, Robert C., and David R. Smith. “Professor George Clarke, Buckner Academy.” In Knott County Legacy, n.p.: Troublesome Creek DAR, 1994.

Newspaper Articles Adams, Wilda Bray. “Clara M. Standish, School Librarian Plans to Retire.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. ———. “May Stone, Co-founder of Settlement School, Deserted a Life of Luxury to Fulfill a Vision.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “Aid Sought in Providence for Mountain School.” Evening Bulletin [Providence, R.I.], March 27, 1928.

288 Bibliography Allen, Ruby Boleyn. “Do You Remember?” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Anderson, Laurel. “Alice Lloyd College, the Pippa Passes School.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 25,1984. Arkle, Annette Hayes. “Fried Apples.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “Arts Building the Next Job at Settlement School.” Mountain Messenger, May 22, 1963. Baldridge, Lawrence. “Amphitheater Committee Meets.” Troublesome Creek Times, April 26, 2000. Banks, Alta. “Alice Foster, Housemother, Librarian, Gracious Lady.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Beach, Mark. “GED Offers Chance to Change Lives.” Mennonite Weekly Review, Jan. 19, 1995. Bergstrom, Bill. “School in Hindman for Dyslexics Reads Like a True-Life Story.” Lexington Herald-Leader, March 24, 1983. Bird, Robert S. “Christmas in Appalachia.” New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 25, 1964. Bradley, Mary. “The Lucky Mistake, Students Are Taught the Craft of Weaving.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Calhoun, Foster (Tubby). “Hindman Basketball, a Strong Winning Tradition.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 25, 1984. Caudill, Charlotte. “Mennonite Volunteers at Settlement.” Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 1, 1997. “CDI Budget Requests for 2000–2002 General Assembly.” Troublesome Creek Times, Dec. 8, 1999. “CDI Steering Committee Meets.” Troublesome Creek Times, Nov. 1, 2000. “Clara M. Standish, 70, Native of Dighton, Ending Four Decades of Teaching in South.” Taunton [Massachusetts] Daily Gazette, May 24, 1952. Clark, Corrine Hicks. “‘Doc’ Jasper Pratt Gained Devotion of the Entire County.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Coglan, Ralph. “Knott County’s Progress.” Louisville Post, Dec. 9, 1922. Combs, Betty Burroughs. “City Girl, She Said ‘Crick’ for Creek, but 15 Years Has Changed That.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Combs, Josiah. “‘The Quare Women.’” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Combs, Norris K. “Memories of Hindman Settlement School.” Troublesome Creek Times, Aug. 26, 1998. “Congressman Carl D. Perkins, Dead at 71.” Troublesome Creek Times, Aug. 8, 1984. Creighton, Mildred. “Beckham Combs’ Career Spanned Critical Period.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 25, 1984. Daley, Ron. “Perkins Praised as Fighter for ‘Common Man’ by Colleagues.” Troublesome Creek Times, Aug. 8, 1984. ———. “It’s an Exciting Time to Be in Hindman, Knott County.” Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 22, 1997.

Bibliography 289 ———. “Winning Proposal.” [reprinted from the Louisville Courier Journal] Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 22, 1997. “Dedication Set for $95,000 Mae [sic] Stone Memorial Building.” Mountain Messenger, April 25, 1962. Dees, Vivian Sexton Flannery. “Competitive Spirit Dominates School.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Eagle, Mavis. “Music Has Always Been a Must at Hindman Settlement School.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “Early Years in Hindman.” Troublesome Creek Times, April 11, 1984. Eblen, Tom. “Hindman Settlement School, Her Life’s Work for 77 Years.” Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Sept. 7, 1986. Edwards, Don.“Carl D. Perkins Was Loved by All.” Lexington Herald-Leader, Aug. 4, 1984. “Eight Receive Awards for Service to Appalachia.” Berea Citizen, March 2, 1972. “Elijah Hicks.” Troublesome Creek Times, Aug. 8, 1984. “Fighting the Injustice of Illiteracy.” Lexington Herald-Leader, Sept. 20, 1987. “Folk Legend, Singer Jean Ritchie Stays Close to Roots.” Lexington Herald-Leader, June 8, 1986. “Folk Music Concert to Be Presented at DAR Patriotic Tea.” Gleaner and Journal [Henderson, Ky.], Feb., 1962. “Four Buildings Now on Track.” Troublesome Creek Times, Dec. 8, 1999. Frango, Ora Lee. “Lovely Lady in Lavender.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Furman, Lucy. “Katherine Pettit: Pioneer Mountain Worker.” Louisville Courier Journal, Sept. 6, 1936. ———. “Miss Katherine Pettit First Visited Hindman during the Feuding Days of the Late 1800s.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. ———. “Patriotism in the Mountains.” Louisville Courier Journal, June 16, 1918. ———. “The Work of the Fotched-On Women.” Louisville Courier Journal, Sept. 6, 1936. Gerth, Joseph. “2 Mountain Towns Dream of Possibilities.” [reprinted from the Louisville Courier Journal] Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 22, 1997. ———. “Bailey’s Defeat a Signal of Change.” Louisville Courier Journal, May 28, 2000. ———. “New Town Projects Go to Jenkins, Hindman.” Louisville Courier Journal, Oct. 19, 1997. “Group Discusses CDI Plans and Progress.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 14, 1999. Hefling, Kimberly. “Settlement Schools Thrive with Change.” Louisville Courier Journal, July 2, 2000. ———. “Statue Would Honor Our Former Gov. Bert T. Combs.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 5, 2000. Hicks, Darla. “Prof. Smith.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “Hindman Rated among Best High Schools.” The Hindman News, Dec. 9, 1954. “Hindman School Gives Land to Knox [sic] County.” Louisville Courier Journal, April 15, 1959.

290 Bibliography “Hindman Settlement School DAR Day, 1987.” Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 28, 1987. “Hindman Settlement School Shines in the Hills.” Beaver Creek Express, Aug. 1, 1978. “Homes within Reach.” Mountain Eagle, July 27, 1967. Jones, Judy. “Two Towns Seek to Build Prosperity.” Louisville Courier Journal, Oct. 5, 1999. Jones, Karen Joy. “Alice Lloyd College Hosts CDI Meeting.” Troublesome Creek Times, Sept. 8, 1999. ———. “Artisan Center Opens.” Troublesome Creek Times, Dec. 12, 200l. ———. “Artisan Center Ready for Renovation.” Troublesome Creek Times, Feb. 14, 2001. ———. “CDI Group Approves ‘Master Plan.’” Troublesome Creek Times, Jan. 20, 1999. ———. “Co-chairs Chosen for Knott CDI Committee.” Troublesome Creek Times, Sept. 8, 1999. ———. “Construction Nears for CDI Projects.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 14, 1999. ———. “Gov. Patton Attends Knott Celebration.” Troublesome Creek Times, Dec. 19, 2001. ———. “Grisham Gives Report.” Troublesome Creek Times, Sept. 26, 2001. ———. “Grisham Group Visits, Studies CDI.” Troublesome Creek Times, June, 27, 2001. ———. “Groundbreaking Held for First Building of CDI.” Troublesome Creek Times, March 13, 2000. ———. “Hindman/Knott County ‘Chosen Site.’” Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 22, 1997. ———. “Local Crafters to Appear on National TV.” Troublesome Creek Times, April 16, 2000. ———. “Time Line Takes Shape for CDI Projects.” Troublesome Creek Times, April 26, 2000. ———. “CDI Committee Seeks Help for Library.” Troublesome Creek Times, Sept. 6, 2000. “Josiah Combs Was 1st Graduate of Hindman Settlement School.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “Josiah Combs, Chronicles of a Mountaineer.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 25, 1984. “Kentucky Mountain Women Experts at Their Looms.” Springfield [Mass.] Union, Sept. 11, 1930. Kilborn, Peter T. “Illiteracy Puts Appalachia Back; and Efforts to Overcome It Grow.” New York Times, July 27, 2000. “Knott Branch of HCC Offers More This Fall.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 14, 1999.

Bibliography 291 “Knott CDI Projects Advance.” Troublesome Creek Times, Jan. 31, 2001. “Knott Chamber of Commerce to Receive $44,000 ARC Grant.” Troublesome Creek Times, Sept. 20, 2000. Krehbiel, H.E. “Kentucky Versions of Some English Ballads.” New York Tribune, April 30, 1916. Langfitt, Frank. “Educator Revives Hindman School.” Lexington Herald-Leader, Feb. 4, 1990. Larkin, Leah. “The Duffs: They Nurture Learning in the Mountains.” Louisville Courier Journal, Nov. 11, 1979. Lawrence, Marcia Smith. “Hindman Settlement School Has a Colorful History.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “Lois Weinberg Honored at MSU [Morehead State University].” Troublesome Creek Times, June 28, 2000. “Lula Hale.” Louisville Courier Journal, Sept. 21, 1975. Maggard, French. “I Remember.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Mead, Andy. “New Town Project to Aid Jenkins, Hindman.” Lexington HeraldLeader, Oct. 19, 1997. “Miss May Stone Leaves $10,000 to Settlement School.” Hindman News, Feb. 8, 1946. Morgan, John. “We Hiked Twenty Miles to Enlist in the U.S. Army.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Mueller, Lee. “College Called ‘Common Thread’ for Knott Group.” Lexington Herald-Leader, May 31, 1998. ———. “Dyslexic Pupils Learn Together in Hindman.” Lexington Herald-Leader, March 14, 1983. ———. “Some Wonder if Knott ‘Mafia’ Benefits from Ties to Patton.” Lexington Herald-Leader, May 31, 1998. Nance, Kevin. “Writers Workshop Homey Week.” Lexington Herald-Leader, Aug. 14, 1994. Nauss, Jane Bishop. “43 Years of Service Have Made Miss Elizabeth Watts the Heart of Hindman Settlement School.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “News Notes from the Past.” The Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “Optimism over Opportunity Center.” Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 8, 1997. Owens, Minnie Hicks, and Hassie Hicks Martin. “Eda K. Smith Held Listeners Spellbound.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Peck, Elizabeth S. “Triumph over Trachoma.” Louisville Courier Journal Magazine, Nov. 11, 1956. “Perkins—‘Mr. Education.’” Troublesome Creek Times, Special Edition, Oct. 14, 1983. “Phelps Recognized for Service.” Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 18, 2000. Pierce, John Ed. “Alice Sloane on Cordia, the Lotts Creek Community School.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 25, 1984. “Plans Come Together for Ky. School of Craft.” Troublesome Creek Times, Nov. 1, 2000. “Planning under Way for Kentucky School of Craft.” Troublesome Creek Times, April 16, 2000.

292 Bibliography Pollock, Bert D. “Uncle Sol Wanted ‘Larnin,’ for My ‘Grands and Greats.’” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Pratt, Bevie Perkins. “Ann Cobb Arrived in Hindman, 1905 with Aim of Higher Education for Knott.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. ———. “Former Pupil Recalls Work of Ann Cobb in Building Education in Knott County.” Hindman News, Dec. 8, 1955. Pratt, Devaughn. “Manual Training Shop Taught Many Skills.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Pratt, Mrs. Dan [Mary Craig]. “Former Resident Recalls how Tragic Fire in 1905 Claimed Settlement School Buildings.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. “Rehearsals Continue for Lovely Pageant at Hindman School.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Ritchie, Roy. “Three Wars . . . They Answered the Call to Duty.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Smith, Lee. “Given Tools, They Work the Language.” New York Times, June 28, 1996. Reprinted in The Mountain Echo, fall 1996. Smith, David R. “Knott County Historical Report.” Troublesome Creek Times, June 9, 1999. Smith, Mae. “Memories, Early Years in Hindman.” Troublesome Creek Times, April 11, 1984. Stamper, Karen. “National DAR Visits Hindman Settlement School.” Troublesome Creek Times, Oct. 23, 1985. ———. “Settlement Honored for Arts.” Troublesome Creek Times, Nov. 11, 1987. Standish, Clara M. “Settlement School Library Serves Entire County.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Stewart, Albert. “Three Knott County Doctors of the Early Days.” Troublesome Creek Times, July 25, 1984. ———. “A Tribute to Miss Furman.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Stuart, Jesse. “Why Does Knott County Send the Largest Ratio of Graduates to College?” Louisville Courier Journal, Aug. 14, 1957. “There’s No Place Like Homeplace.” Louisville Courier Journal Magazine, Sept. 13, 1953. Tolan, Jamie, “Dyslexic Children’s Brains Shown to Work Harder to Process Data.” Louisville Courier Journal, Oct. 19, 1999. Tudor, Ray. “They Fell in Love with Miss Cobb from the Beginning.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952. Webster, Larry. “Hindman ‘Mafia’ Take Wrong Side.” Lexington Herald-Leader, July 26, 1998. Wilder, Katherine. “Teaching in the Kentucky Mountains in 1923.” Lewiston [Maine] Journal, Jan. 23, 1971. Winslow, Betty. “Recreation Was Not Forgotten in the Hustle and Bustle of Study.” Hindman News, May 1, 1952.

Index

293

INDEX

“Ability ‘To Do Much Larger Work,’ The” (Blackwell), 228–29 Addams, Jane, 49; Sophonisba Breckinridge and, 19; educational reform and, 14; leadership qualities, 12; Social Gospel Movement and, 16; social settlement movement and, 2, 10–11 adenoidectomies, 75 Adult Basic Education, 196 adult education programs, 6, 195–98 adult literacy, 195 adult literacy program, 6, 197–98 agricultural extension program, 15–16, 68, 73–74, 87–88 Aislie (mountain girl), 41 alcohol: Hindman Settlement students and, 136–37; Prohibition, 82 Alice Lloyd College, 174–75, 213 Allen, Ruby Boleyn, 119, 123, 133 All That Is Native and Fine (Whisnant), 226, 230–31 Altsheler, Yancy, 162 Amburgey, Jethro, 91, 130, 132, 233 Amburgey, Mrs. Jethro, 234 amphitheaters. See River of Earth amphitheater Appalachia: geographical isolation and, 23; impact of coal mining on, 94–95; industrialization and, 22–25; studies of, 225–27. See also mountain culture; mountain people; mountain religion Appalachian Family Folk Week, 7, 179, 183–85 Appalachian Heritage Magazine, 112, 180 Appalachian Mountain Religion (McCauley), 18

Appalachian Oral History Project, 174 Appalachian Regional Commission, 176, 190, 191, 198, 201, 204, 208, 267(n15) Appalachian studies movement, 225–26 Appalachian Writers Workshop, 7, 112, 179–83 Appalachia on Our Minds (Shapiro), 225–26 Arbor Day, 53 archives: of Hindman Settlement, 201–2 Arkell, Barlett, 86 Arkell, Louisiana, 86 Arnow, Harriet, 180 Artisan Center, 211, 217 arts extension program, 178–79 Ashland Oil, 190 Authorized to Heal (Barney), 228 Bailey, Benny Ray, 203, 206, 212, 215, 217, 265(n64) Bailey, Mrs. Owen, 234 Baker, John, 52, 54, 63 Baker, Mallie, 94, 252(n21) ballads. See folk music Balltrip, Ewell, 207–10, 210, 215, 221 “Barbara Allen” (song), 87 “barn boys,” 120–21 Barney, Sandra, 1–2, 18, 19, 228, 229 Barrett, Theodosia, 182 basketball, 129, 166 Batchelor, Ruth, 53 baths, 117 Battle Creek Sanitarium, 49 beaten biscuits, 123 Beauchamp, Frances, 19, 20, 28, 62, 82, 99, 102

294 Begley, Lula Stamper, 132 Benevolent Society of Waltham, Massachusetts, 66 Bentley, Luther, 259(n27) Berea College, 49, 94, 146, 149, 246(n47) Berea College Appalachian Fund, 190, 201 Bibliography of Settlements, 1 Bigelow, Antoinette, 57, 60–61, 64, 126 Billings, Dwight, 23 biscuits, 123 Black, Edna, 233 black families: illnesses and, 43 Blackwell, Deborah, 18, 223, 228–29 boarding program: beginning of, 49; decline in, 109, 110, 143–44, 154, 169–70; ending of, 177; work requirement, 56 board of directors: Daughters of the American Revolution and, 201; dyslexia program and, 194; fundraising and, 172; Ray McLain’s construction projects and, 160, 161, 162; Ray McLain’s restructuring of, 157, 163–64; original members, 99– 100; QRC Corporation report and, 170, 171 Boatright, Nancy Stewart, 251(n10) Boggess, Carol, 131 Boleyn, Guilford, 94, 115 bookmobile, 167 Bordin, Ruth, 248(n1) Bourne, Walker, 25 Boy Scouts, 90 Boysen, Thomas, 193 Breckinridge, Curry, 19–20, 33 Breckinridge, Desha, 20, 229 Breckinridge, Madeline McDowell, 19, 20, 28, 50 Breckinridge, Mary, 228, 229 Breckinridge, Sophonisba, 19 Broida, Theodore, 170, 171 Brown, John, 187 Browning, Bess Creech, 112–13 Buckner, Simon Bolivar, 51

Index Buckner Academy, 20, 34–35, 50, 51 Buice, Bill, 201 Bullock, Minnie, 147, 160 Bullock, Walter, 65 Burns, Martha, 113–14, 121, 158 Butler, Harriet, 58, 71, 75, 77, 249(n37) Cable News Network (CNN), 216 Cades Cove (Dunn), 227 Cades Cove community, 227 Campbell, “Copper John,” 129 Campbell, John C., 22, 68, 70–71, 100– 101, 102, 127, 225, 249(n37) Campbell, Olive Dame, 68, 87, 127, 228 Camp Industrial, 31–35 Caney Creek Community College, 103– 4, 144 Caudill, Harry, 180, 225 CDI. See Community Development Initiative Cedar Grove summer camp, 30 Centre College, 132 Chandler, Marion, 233 Chester, Susan, 1 Chicago, 98 Child Development Center, 172 child development program, 171, 172 Child, Francis James, 86 Child Nutrition program, 186 Christmas celebrations, 58–62, 148 circus fund raiser, 93–94 Civil War, 50–51 Clarke, George, 20, 34, 46, 50, 51, 52 Clay’s Quilt (House), 182 “Clear Call of Thoroughbred Women, The” (Forderhase), 227 clothing, women’s, 33 coal industry/mining, 24; Hindman Settlement and, 85, 202, 264– 65(n60); impact on Appalachia, 94– 95; Pine Mountain Settlement and, 78; postwar changes and, 142; Stone’s reaction to, 26 Cobb, Ann, 233; admiration of mountain people, 256(n27); arrival at Hindman Settlement, 64; bio-

Index graphical sketch of, 125–26; dining hall and, 122; fund-raising for the science lab, 134, 257(n41); social life at Hindman Settlement and, 139, 140; James Still and, 131; volunteers and, 93 Cody, Tim, 214 Cody family, 41 College for Appalachia, A (Searles), 103–4, 227 College Settlement, 10 College Settlement Association, 10, 91 Collins, Mildred Slone, 141 Combs, Beckham, 129, 144, 145 Combs, Bert T., 263(n32) Combs, Betty Burroughs, 129, 140–41, 148 Combs, Currie, 43–44 Combs, Diana, 42 Combs, Fernando, 42 Combs, Harland, 42 Combs, Harold, 193 Combs, Uncle Ira, 18, 39–40 Combs, Josiah, 53, 94, 252(n21) Combs, Judge, 38–39, 42 Combs, Mattie, 42 Combs, Pearl, 129–30, 135 Combs, Virginia, 146 commencement ceremonies, 138 “Communities of Hope” report, 206 Community Club, 90 Community Development Initiative (CDI), 185, 205, 206–7. See also Knott County/Hindman Community Development Initiative Conference of Southern Mountain Workers, 5, 25, 146, 149–50 Conley, Vertie Pigmon, 97, 107, 117, 141 cooking instruction, 129 Cornett, Elizabeth Smith, 133 Cornett, Otis, 129 craft education/programs: at Hindman Settlement, 230–31; regional craft center proposal, 185, 205, 211. See also Fireside Industries Department

295 craft shops/sales, 62, 185 Creighton, Mary, 176 cultural heritage programs, 6–7, 149–50, 172–73, 178–79. See also Appalachian Family Folk Week; Appalachian Writers Workshop “D” (widower), 39 Daingerfield, Henderson, 248(n2) dairy herd, 120–21 Daley, Ron, 212, 216, 218, 266(n9) Daniels, Doris, 243(n2) Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), 25–26, 163, 176, 190, 198– 99, 201 Daughters of the War of 1812, 25 Davis, Allen, 11, 13 Day, Kelly, 67, 91 day students, 111, 136–37 Decoy School, 96, 178 Dees, Vivian Sexton Flannery, 141 De Long, Ethel, 62, 70. See also Zande, Ethel de Long DePaul School, 191 Depression. See Great Depression Deschamps, Leon, 259(n27) Design and Dress Making Shop, 89 Dewey, John, 4, 15, 19 Dr. Charles L. Shedd Kentucky Association, 188 dormitories: Eastover, 119, 120, 160, 161, 162; Little Boys’ House, 118; Little Girls’ House, 72, 80, 85, 109, 119; Orchard House, 72, 113, 119, 149, 158, 162; Practice House, 85, 119, 124 dress code, 135–36, 148 Duff, Frankie Smith, 96, 168, 169, 170, 172, 257(n43) Duff, Lionel: as board member, 163; directorship of Hindman Settlement, 6, 96, 142, 168–73; resignation of, 175; Writers and Folk Arts Workshop, 179 Duke, John Wesley, 77, 86, 107, 115, 133, 250(n47), 251(n4)

296 Dunn, Durwood, 227 Durrett, John, 105, 258(n9) Dykeman, Wilma, 180 dysentery, 43–44 dyslexia, 6, 188 dyslexia program, 179; costs of, 193–94; development of full-time program, 190–91; endowment campaign, 194; enrollment figures, 194; funding of, 190, 191; Mike Mullins on, 195; origins of, 188–89; relations with local school districts, 191, 193; summer school, 189–90 Earp, Helen, 165 Earp, Paul, 165 Eastern Kentucky Leadership Foundation, 203–4, 210 Eastern Kentucky Tutorial Program, 188–95 Eastham, Marcia, 161 Eastover dormitory, 119, 120, 160, 161, 162 Eaton, Rebecca, 234 education: goals of Hindman Settlement in, 56–57; in Knott County, 20–21, 51; Sassafras summer camp and, 42; May Stone’s dedication to, 153. See also adult education programs; craft education/programs; educational reform; industrial education educational outreach program, 66 educational reform: Jane Addams and, 14; John Dewey and, 15; kindergarten and, 14–15; southern reform movement, 13–14 Elderhostel, 199 electric power plant, 254(n47) Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 186 Elizabeth Russell Settlement, 1, 49 Elizabeth Watts building, 158, 160, 166 “Elizabeth Watts Day,” 259(n23) Elkhorn Coal Company, 79, 105, 251(n54), 265(n60) Elkin, Elizabeth, 119–20, 121, 122, 234

Index Elkin, Mary, 52 Eller, Ronald, 23, 210 Emmalena School, 188 England, Rhonda, 227–28 E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund, 153, 190, 198, 201 “Epitaph for Uncle Ira Combs, Mountain Preacher” (Still), 40 Evans, Henry, 66, 199, 254(n43) Evans, Mary, 258(n9) Evans Trust. See Henry Evans Trust Everage, Jana, 165 “Eve Returns to the Garden” (Forderhase), 227 Everidge, Mary and Rachel, 66 Everidge, Uncle Solomon, 33–34 eye diseases, 75. See also trachoma faculty: of Hindman Settlement, 233– 34. See also teachers Family Folk Week. See Appalachian Family Folk Week farming. See agricultural extension program Fasteneau, Maureen, 12–13 Federation of Women’s Clubs, 25 field secretaries, 98, 105 Filene, Benjamin, 86 Filson Club, 25 fires: at Hindman Settlement, 63–64, 69–70, 71–72, 80, 126 Fireside Cabin, 113, 162 Fireside Industries Department, 32, 50, 62, 230–31 “First, Foremost and above All for Babies” (Goan), 228, 229 Fishback, Margaret, 233 fleas, 44 Floyd County, 24 flux (dysentery), 43–44 folk dancing, 149, 164, 168, 170 folk music, 31, 86–87, 149–50 Forderhase, Nancy, 227 Ford Foundation, 208 Foster, Alice, 119, 234 4-H, 177

Index Francis, Paul, 92 Friends of Kentucky Society of Evanston and North Shore, 98, 253(n29) “From Where the Pattern Grew” (Ritchie), 155 Frontier Nursing Service, 25, 229 Frost, Ellen, 228 Frost, William Goodell, 21–22, 246(n47) Fuller, Alice Magoon, 102 fund-raising: board of directors and, 172; for the dyslexia program, 190; for Hindman Settlement, 97–98, 105– 6, 108–9, 154–55, 186–88; Mike Mullins and, 172, 176, 186, 190; Perkins Fund, 186–88; for the science lab, 134, 257(n41); for WCTU School, 49, 50, 54, 57–58, 70, 79 Furman, Lucy, 113; books about Hindman Settlement, 65–66; Christmas celebrations and, 60; depiction of Settlement life, 55–56; on fund-raising by Pettit and Stone, 19; Hindman Settlement’s dairy herd and, 120–21; “Home Life of the Little Boys,” 255(n10); as housemother, 48, 65–66, 118; Kentucky Society for Babies and, 229; on May Stone, 26; on predator hogs, 73; residences at Hindman Settlement, 118–19; social life at Hindman Settlement and, 139; Albert Stewart and, 117, 118, 132; support of students, 132 Gartrell, Lauretta, 234 Gathering at the Forks, A, 182, 262(n20) Gayheart, Linda, 217 GED program, 196, 197 General Education Development Testing Service, 196 Gent, Squire, 39, 42 Gerst, Neil, 153, 160, 162, 163 Gerth, Joseph, 265(n64)

297 Gibson, John, 92 Glass Window, The (Furman), 119 Glenn, John, 249(n37) Goan, Melanie Beals, 228, 229, 248(n12) Gordon, Jean, 50, 52–53, 54 Gostenhofer, Dorothy, 92–94 Governor’s Award for Arts Education, 178 Governor’s Distinguished Service Medallion, 195 grade school: agreement with Knott County for new building, 145; description of building, 124–25; faculty, 233–34; Elizabeth Watts as principal, 102 Grange, 14 Grantham, Dewey, 13, 14 Grasping at Independence (Weise), 24 Graves, Joseph, 163, 171, 172, 174, 202, 203 Great Depression, 5, 142, 147–48 Greene, James S., 78, 226 Grigsby, Suzanne, 86, 163 Grisham, Vaughan, 220–21 Hale, Lula, 74, 91, 94, 130, 155, 259(n23) Hale, Mattie, 233 Hale, Willie, 116 Hammat, Julia, 234 Hampton Institute, 49 Handbook of Settlements, The (Woods and Kennedy), 1, 13, 243(n1) Harlan Academy, 42 Hays, Letitia, 231 Hazard, 28, 30 Hazard Community College, 208, 215–16 health work: at Hindman Settlement, 5, 16, 89–90, 133–34; Sassafras summer camp and, 43–44; student health clinics, 133–34; at WCTU School, 75–77 Henry Evans Trust, 166, 167, 199, 203, 254(n43), 258(n9) Henry Street Settlement, 9, 49, 108, 147

298 Hicks, Darla, 135 Hicks, Elijah, 147 high school students: percentage from Knott County attending college, 156; at WCTU School, 57, 74–75. See also Hindman High School; Knott Central High School Hillside cottage, 72, 113, 162 Hindman (town): Christmas celebrations, 59; growth of, 91; Hindman Settlement and, 69, 90, 91, 107; history of, 51; location of, 50; origin of name, 50; state road building and, 95–96; trachoma hospital in, 77; Women’s Christian Temperance Union chapter, 53. See also Knott County/Hindman Community Development Initiative Hindman, James, 50 Hindman City Hall-Visitor Center, 215, 217 Hindman Downtown Merchants Association, 214 Hindman High School, 57, 125, 251(n4); academic achievement and, 134–35; faculty, 233; first graduating classes, 74–75; number of students enrolled in, 86; science laboratory, 134; student discipline, 135; transfer of responsibilities to Knott County, 146 Hindman Letter, 147 Hindman Settlement School: accreditation, 84, 86; administrative and management issues, 98, 99–103; adult education programs, 6, 195– 98; agricultural extension program, 15–16, 87–88; archives preservation, 201–2; bequests and donations, 84, 105, 166, 167, 199, 201, 254(n43), 258(n9); boarding program, 109, 110, 143–44, 154, 169–70, 177; branch schools, 96; campus grounds, 113–14; child development program, 171, 172; Christmas celebrations, 148; coal royalties, 202,

Index 264–65(n60); commencement exercises, 138; Community Development Initiative and, 4, 7, 185, 204, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212– 13, 214–15, 218, 221, 223–24; community settlement work, 90; craft shop, 185; crafts program, 230–31; cultural heritage programs, 6–7, 172–73; curtailment of services, 109, 110; daily schedule, 116–17; description of opening day in August, 114–15; dress code, 135– 36, 148; Lionel Duff ’s directorship, 142, 168–73; dyslexia program, 6, 179, 188–95; educational reform and, 14; electric power plant, 254(n47); endowment funds, 104– 5, 156–57, 166–67, 202–3, 249(n37), 251(n54), 258(n9); Rhonda England’s study of, 227–28; Uncle Solomon Everidge and, 33– 34; expansion of services and influence, 83–84; extension program for county schools, 177– 79; faculty and staff, 91–92, 125–33, 158, 204–5, 233–34; family-like environment of, 113–14; fiftieth anniversary, 155; finances, 83, 84, 102, 104–6, 107–9, 142–43, 146, 147, 148, 154, 156–57, 166–67, 199, 201–3; fires and, 126; folk dancing and, 149, 164, 168, 170; folk music and, 86–87, 149–50; founding of, 1, 46–47; fund-raising, 97–98, 105–6, 108–9, 154–55, 186–88; Alice Lloyd Geddes and, 99, 103–4; goals of, 1–2; grade school at, 102, 124– 25, 145; graduates, 53, 74, 91, 94, 104; Great Depression and, 5, 142, 147–48; health work, 5, 16, 89–90, 133–34; historical overview of, 4–7, 221–24; impact on teachers and students, 140–41; incorporation of, 81–82, 251(n54); influence of, 2; kindergarten program, 85, 158, 169; Ray McLain’s directorship, 142,

Index 156–67, 173, 223; meals at, 122–24; memorial to May Stone, 153–54; Mike Mullins’ directorship, 174, 175–76, 177–79, 185–205, 223; number of students at, 86, 111, 144; oral history project, 202; physical plant and building projects, 85–86, 113, 124–25, 153–54, 158–63, 185– 86; Progressivism and, 9; public library services and, 90, 143, 145, 150–51, 152, 169, 170–71, 172; public money received by, 248– 49(n7); QRC Corporation report on, 170–71; recreation program, 143; scholarships, 56, 98, 199; school rules, 135–37, 166, 257(n43); social settlement movement and, 1, 2; state road building and, 95–96; May Stone’s dedication to, 153; student newspaper, 90, 96–97; student work assignments, 56, 115– 16, 120–22; transfer of educational responsibilities to Knott County, 143, 144–46; tuition and fees, 56, 116; volunteers, 92–94, 178, 196, 197; War on Poverty program, 167; Elizabeth Watts’ directorship, 142, 146–56, 173, 223; David Whisnant’s study of, 226, 229–31; winter extension program, 89. See also board of directors; Hindman High School; students; Women’s Christian Temperance Union School Hindman Settlement School Alumni Association, 91 Hindman summer camp, 31–35 “History of the Hindman Settlement School, The” (pamphlet), 83 “‘Hit Sounds Reasonable’” (Whisnant), 226, 230–31, 247(n71) hogs, 73 Holliday, Sophia, 119, 121–22, 141 Holloway, Mark, 202 Holly Bush, 60–61 home economics, 48–49, 73–74, 129

299 “Home Life of the Little Boys” (Furman), 255(n10) Home Missionary Movement, 16, 17, 21 Home Place, 74 “Homespun Fairs,” 246(n47) hookworm, 76, 133 House, Silas, 182 housemothers, 118–20 Hughes, Ed, 208, 216 Huhlein, Charles, 67, 99, 245(n34) Hull House, 9, 10, 49, 108, 146, 230 Huntington, Ruth, 79, 81, 83, 84, 99, 100, 102 Hurxthal, Katherine, 250(n39) illiteracy, 195 illnesses: dysentery, 43–44; hookworm, 76, 133; tonsils and adenoids, 75, 133; trachoma, 5, 16, 75, 76–77; typhoid, 79, 80 industrial education, 48–49 industrialization: impact on Appalachia, 22–25; Pine Mountain Settlement and, 78 Ingram, Frances MacGregor, 243(n1) It’s Like Coming out of a Deep Hole (Polly), 197–98 James Still Learning Center, 188, 190, 191, 193, 194, 263(n37) James Still library, 186, 189 Jenkins, 209 J. Graham Brown Foundation, 190, 198 Joe’s Cafe, 166 John Preece House, 186 Jones, Brereton C., 195, 206 Jones, Loyal, 16, 17, 174, 180, 218 Journal of American Folklore, The, 31 journals: of the summer camps, 30 Katherine Pettit building, 160, 161–62, 166, 168 Keezle, Clara, 128–29 Kelly, Florence, 12 Kendrick, Leatha, 180–81 Kennedy, Barbara, 194

300 Kentucky Appalachian Commission, 206–7, 210, 213 Kentucky Appalachian Development Initiative, 206 Kentucky Arts Commission, 170 Kentucky Arts Council, 178, 201 Kentucky Colonial Dames, 66 Kentucky Department of Adult Education, 196 Kentucky Educational Reform Act, 263(n32) Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, 19, 25, 28 Kentucky Historical Society, 25 Kentucky Literacy Commission, 196, 197 Kentucky Medical Association, 76 “Kentucky Mountain Folk” (Pettit), 17, 22, 28–30 Kentucky Oral History Commission, 202 Kentucky Public Television, 182 Kentucky School of Craft, 211, 212–13, 215, 216, 251(n4) Kentucky Society for Babies, 229 Kentucky Society for the Prevention of Blindness, 75 Kentucky State Board of Education, 191 Kentucky State Board of Health, 79 Kentucky State Department of Education, 193 Kentucky State Department of Health, 76 Kentucky State Regent, 201 Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC), 193, 196, 197 Kentucky White Ribbon, The, 52, 53 Kephart, Horace, 245(n26) kindergarten, 14–15, 48, 72, 85, 158, 169 “kindergartenmobile,” 167 Kinfolks: Kentucky Mountain Rhymes (Cobb), 126 kitchen renovation project, 198–99 Knott, J. Proctor, 50–51 Knott Central High School, 169 Knott County: adult illiteracy levels,

Index 195; assumption of educational responsibilities from Hindman Settlement, 143, 144–46; challenges facing between 1940 and 1980, 173; coal mining and, 94–95; extension program for county schools, 177– 79; Hindman Settlement and, 35, 70, 107, 177–79; history of, 50–51; percentage of high school students attending college, 156; public education in, 20–21, 51; public library services and, 170–71; QRC Corporation report and, 170; state road building and, 96. See also Knott County/Hindman Community Development Initiative Knott County Arts and Crafts Foundation, 211, 217 Knott County Chamber of Commerce, 214, 267(n15) Knott County Fair, 15, 68 Knott County/Hindman Community Development Initiative: awarding of, 206; City Hall-Visitor Center, 215, 217; community involvement in, 213–14; critics of, 212; expanded proposal, 210–13; first proposal, 207–10; future prospects, 218–21; goals of, 205, 223–24; Vaughan Grisham’s evaluation of, 220–21; Hindman Settlement and, 4, 7, 185, 204, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212–13, 214–15, 218, 221, 223–24; implementation and progress of, 215–18; Kentucky School of Craft, 211, 212–13, 215, 216; Opportunity Center, 208–9, 211, 213, 214, 220– 21; role of Mike Mullins in, 215, 218; steering committee, 213 Knott County Industrial Authority, 214 Knott County Literacy Program, 196, 197 Knott County School Board, 144–45, 146, 193 KVEC. See Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative

Index Laboratory School, University of Chicago, 15 Ladd-Taylor, Molly, 244(n14) laundry, 121 Lawrence, Marcia Smith, 128 Ledford, Lily Mae, 183 Letcher County, 35 Leveridge, Glenn, 202 Lewis, Ronald, 23 Lexington Herald, 20, 50 libraries, traveling, 28. See also public library services Library Services Act, 186 Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, 197 literacy: adult literacy program, 6, 197– 98; in Knott County, 195 Little Boys’ House, 118 Little Girls’ House, 72, 80, 85, 109, 119 Lloyd, Alice Geddes, 99, 103–4, 106, 227, 253(n36), 254(n37) “Log Cabin School, The,” 50 Log Cabin Settlement, 1 Loghouse, 62–63 Loomis, Guy, 131 Lyon, George Ella, 180, 181–82 Madeline C. Stabile Foundation, 194 Maggard, Gertrude, 120 Maggard, Monroe, 32–33 mailing lists, 66 Main Street America Program, 214, 217 manual training, 48, 53 manual training building, 125, 162 Marie Stewart Craft Shop, 185 Marshall, Katherine, 233 Martineau, Claire, 185 Marvel, Mary, 149 Mary and Barry Bingham Fund, 190 “Maternal Government” (Fasteneau), 12–13 maternalism, 16, 244(n14) “Maternalism and the Promotion of Scientific Medicine during the Industrial Transformation of Appalachia” (Barney), 228, 229

301 May Day, 149 Mayo, Mrs. John, 82, 251(n54) May Stone building, 153–54, 156, 158, 166, 198–99, 259(n27) McCartney, Mary, 28, 38, 42, 44 McCauley, Deborah, 17, 18 McKinney, Gordon, 23, 24 McLain, Raymond F. (father), 260(n42) McLain, Raymond K. (son), 6, 87; advice from father, 260(n42); construction projects at Hindman Settlement, 158–63, 185; dance and, 260(n37); directorship of Hindman Settlement, 142, 156–67, 173, 223; Hindman Settlement finances and, 156–57, 166–67; new projects initiated by, 167; reform of Hindman Settlement’s governance structure, 157, 163–64; relationship with students, 164; resignation of, 168; Margaret Sherwood and, 199; Betty Winslow and, 258(n13) McMullen, John, 76 McNab, Rae, 44 meals, 122–24 “Meditation on Pittman Center, A” (Dunn), 227 Mennonite Central Committee, 178, 196, 197 Messer, Tressie Prater, 255(n2) Messer, Twyla Jacobs, 190–91 Miller, Doris, 199 Miller, Jim Wayne, 180–81 Miller, Robert, 163 Miller, William, 163 mineral rights, 24 Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers (Eller), 23 Mitchell, T.J., 28 Modernizing the Mountaineer (Whisnant), 226 Montgomery Creek, 95 Montgomery Creek school, 20–21 Moore, Mason, 124 Morehead College, 97, 152 Mothering on Perilous (Furman), 66, 118

302 Mother’s Club, 90 mountain culture: industrialization and, 23; perceptions of, 21–22; Stone and Pettit’s views of, 17, 22, 223; studies of, 225–27 Mountain Echo, The (student newspaper), 90, 96–97, 150 mountaineers. See mountain people Mountain Folk Festival, 149 Mountain Fund for Needy Eye Sufferers, 75 mountain music. See folk music mountain people: depictions of, 28–30, 55, 245(n26) mountain religion, 17–18 Mullins, Jasper, 38, 42, 58, 59 Mullins, Mike, 6, 7; adult education programs and, 195, 196; Appalachian Writers Workshop, 181, 182; biographical sketch, 174–75; campus modernization and, 185– 86; Community Development Initiative and, 205, 207, 208, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 218; Daughters of the American Revolution and, 201; directorship of Hindman Settlement, 174, 175–76, 177–79, 185–205, 223; dyslexia program and, 188, 189, 190, 191, 193, 194, 195; fund-raising and, 172, 176, 186, 190; Governor’s Award for Arts Education, 178; Hindman Settlement finances and, 201, 202, 203; Hindman Settlement staff and, 204–5; leadership of, 203, 204, 205, 265(n63); May Stone building kitchen renovation project, 198, 199; political activities, 203–4; state positions, 266(n9) Museum of Eastern Kentucky, 217, 266(n8) music, traditional. See folk music “musicmobile,” 167 Nance, Kevin, 182 Napier, Judge, 140

Index National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), 201 National Federation of Women’s Clubs, 12, 244(n22) National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR), 19, 26, 91, 163, 199, 201 Neighborhood House, 49, 230 Neville, Linda, 75, 250(n42) “New Christmas,” 58 newsletters, 54–56, 97–98, 248(n12) New South movement, 22–23 newspapers. See student newspapers “New Towns” project, 206. See also Community Development Initiative Night Comes to the Cumberlands (Caudill), 225 Norman, Gurney, 180, 182 Norris, Cari, 183 Norris, Mike, 183–84 NSDAR. See National Society Daughters of the American Revolution nurses, 58, 77, 89, 134, 158 Oak Ledge, 118, 259(n16) “Objective Value of Settlements, The” (Addams), 10 “Old Christmas,” 58 Old Regular Baptists, 17 Opportunity Center, 208–9, 211, 213, 214, 220–21 oral history project, 202 Orchard House, 72, 113, 119, 149, 158, 162 O’Rear, Edward, 229 orphan students, 112 Osborne, Mrs. Fred, 163 Owens Branch School, 96 Parker, Emma, 252(n17) Parkhurst, Caroline, 233 Patton, Paul, 201, 204, 209, 210, 211, 212, 215, 217 Paul Earp ball field, 162 Payne, Marlene, 203 Peggy, Aunt, 41

Index Penn, Ron, 183–84 Perkins, Bevie, 97 Perkins, Carl, 52, 94, 135, 186–87, 216, 222, 266(n8) Perkins, James, 52, 54 Perkins, Verna, 186 Perry County, 35 Pettit, Katherine: biographical sketch of, 27–28; Buckner Academy and, 34– 35; Cedar Grove summer camp, 30; changing expectations of women and, 18–19; crafts program and, 230–31; death of, 147; departure from Hindman Settlement, 70–71, 77–78; educational reform and, 14– 15; on Uncle Solomon Everidge, 34; family and social networks supporting, 19–20; folk music and, 86–87; founding of Hindman Settlement, 1, 46–47; Lucy Furman and, 65; Home Missionary Movement and, 17; influence of print media on, 11; interest in women’s clothing, 33; “Kentucky Mountain Folk” essay, 17, 22, 28–30; Kentucky Society for Babies and, 229; leadership and, 4, 12, 222; missionary movement and, 17; Pine Mountain School and, 78; preparations for opening Hindman Settlement, 49–50, 230; rebuilding of Hindman Settlement and, 70; rural reform and, 13; Sassafras summer camp, 35–46; social settlement movement and, 2; May Stone and, 4; studies of, 227–29; summer camp journals, 30; Teachers’ Institute, 21; views of mountain culture and people, 17, 18, 22, 55, 223; visit to Montgomery Creek school, 20–21; Elizabeth Watts and, 127, 147 Pettit, Minnie, 64, 65 Phelps, James, 204 Pickow, Jean Ritchie. See Ritchie Pickow, Jean

303 Pigmon, Alma, 97, 135, 141, 231 Pine Mountain, 35 Pine Mountain Settlement School, 183, 249(n37); coal industry and, 78, 95; curriculum at, 78; goals of, 1–2, 78; Pettit’s move to, 70–71, 77–78; railroads and, 23; studies of, 226 Pleasant Hill, 167 Pole House, 162 Polly, Connell, 197–98 Populist Party, 14 Powell, Naoma, 167, 185 Practice House, 85, 119, 124 Pratt, Bevie Perkins, 127, 153 Pratt, Clarke, 94, 97, 233 Pratt, Jasper (“Doc”), 108, 116, 131, 158 Preece, John, 178, 186, 202 printing shops, 90 print media: impact on reform, 11 “Progressives in the Kentucky Mountains” (Greene), 226 Progressivism: education reform and, 13–15; Hindman Settlement and, 9; influence of women in, 228; overview of, 9; Social Gospel Movement and, 11, 16–17; social settlement movement and, 1, 2, 9– 11; southern reformers and, 13–14 Prohibition, 82 Protestant churches: Home Missionary Movement, 16, 17; Social Gospel Movement, 11, 16–17 public education. See education public library services, 90, 143, 145, 150–51, 152, 169, 170–71, 172. See also James Still Library Quare Women, The (Furman), 118 QRC Corporation: report on Hindman Settlement, 170–71 Quicksand, 96 Quicksand Craft Cooperative, 185 railroads, 23, 77 Recreation House, 143, 149, 150, 186 recreation program, 143, 149

304 Red Cross, 89 reforestation, 87 regional craft center proposal, 185, 205, 211 religion: Home Missionary Movement, 17; Social Gospel Movement, 11, 16–17. See also mountain religion “Republican Motherhood” concept, 12 Rest House, 93, 113 Rhoda (mountain girl), 36–37 Riddle, Freddie, 145 Rider, Grace, 233 Ritchie, Cordelia Hughes (“Aunt Cord”), 62 Ritchie, Flora, 113–14, 234 Ritchie Pickow, Jean, 148, 163, 183, 184–85 Ritchie, Una, 155 River of Earth (Still), 132, 257(n36) River of Earth amphitheater, 215, 217 road building projects, 95–96 Roark, Della, 41 Roark, Dr., 38 Roberts, Elizabeth, 234 Roberts (manual training teacher), 107 Roberts, Ruben, 123 Rogers, Edith, 234 Romancing the Folk (Filene), 86 Ross, Elizabeth, 234 Russell Sage Foundation, 22, 70, 100–102 Sanitary Commission, 12 sanitation, 79–80, 154 Sassafras summer camp: activities at, 35– 36, 41–42; children’s education and, 42; descriptions of mountain people, 36–41; health work and, 43– 44; injuries to Pettit and Stone, 44– 45; living conditions for Pettit and Stone, 44; return journey to Jackson, 45–46; size and location of, 35 Sayre Institution, 28 scholarships, 56, 98, 199 School Lunch program, 186 “School Work and Mother Work” (Tice), 228, 229

Index Science Hill preparatory school, 132 Scott, Anne Firor, 18–19 Searles, P. David, 103–4, 227, 253(n36) Semple, Ellen, 248(n2) “Settlement Sheet,” 112 “Settlement students,” 111–12, 137. See also boarding program; students sewage system, 79–80, 154 sewing instruction, 89, 129 Sexton, Lee, 183 Shade (mountain boy), 68–69 Shaker Village, 167 Shapiro, Henry, 225–26 Sharp, Cecil J., 87 Shawn Coal Company, 202 Shedd, Charles, 191 Shepherd, Dennis, 160, 164–65, 166 Sherwood, Margaret, 167, 199, 260(n41) Skocpol, Theda, 223 Slone, Verna Mae, 180 Slone, Virgil, 94, 104 Smith, Albert, 62–63, 64, 65, 69, 204 Smith, Almo, 119, 121, 136–37, 141 Smith, Barbara, 180 Smith Branch, 202 Smith, Carew, 115 Smith, Eda Kay, 130 Smith, Hilliard, 70, 259(n19) Smith, J.F. (“Prof ”), 97, 103, 107, 135, 233 Smith, Lee, 197 Smith, May, 233 Smith College, 132 Smothers, Frieda, 174 Social Christianity, 11. See also Social Gospel Movement Social Gospel Movement, 11, 16–17 “Social Motherhood,” 16 Social Security, 154 social settlement movement: Hindman Settlement and, 1, 2; overview of, 9–11; Progressive movement and, 1, 2; rural reform and, 13; studies of, 226, 227–31, 267(n27); women’s leadership in, 11–12 South-East Coal Company, 202

Index Southern Association of Secondary Schools, 5, 84, 86 Southern Handicrafts Guild, 25, 146 Southern Highlanders and Their Homeland, The (Campbell), 225 Southern Mountain Republicans (McKinney), 23 southern reformers, 13–14 Southworth, Annie, 61 Stabile, Madeline, 199 Stabile, Toni, 199 Stabile, Vincent, 199 Stacy, Mary, 30, 35, 36–37, 43, 59, 95 Stacy, Robert, 246–47(n67) Stacy, Simon, 36–37 Stacy, Uncle Jim, 45 staff: listing of, 234; under Mike Mullins, 204–5; reductions in, 158 Stammer, Julia, 201 Stamper, Oliver, 94, 163 Standish, Clara Miles, 128 State Agricultural Extension Service, 15 Steele-Reese Foundation, 198, 201 Stepp, Joe, 213 Stewart, Albert, 112, 117–18, 122–23, 132, 137, 141, 179, 180 Stewart, Marie, 253(n29) Stiles, Dorothy Hancock, 92–94, 123– 24, 252(n18) Still, James: Appalachian Writers Workshop, 180; arrival at Hindman Settlement, 108; at Eastover dormitory, 120; “Epitaph for Uncle Ira Combs, Mountain Preacher,” 40; library services and, 150–51, 152; literary career, 132, 152; residence at Oak Ledge, 259(n16); revival of literary interest concerning, 181, 262(n15); River of Earth, 132, 257(n36); River of Earth amphitheater and, 215; service at Hindman Settlement, 131–32; Southern Author’s Award, 257(n36); Elizabeth Watts and, 254(n37); words honoring May Stone, 141 Stone, Henry, 25, 67, 99, 245(n34)

305 Stone, May: after Pettit’s departure from Hindman Settlement, 79; biographical sketch of, 25–27; Buckner Academy and, 34–35; Harriet Butler and, 249(n37); at Cedar Grove summer camp, 30; changing expectations of women and, 18–19; crafts program and, 230–31; curtailment of Hindman Settlement’s services, 109, 110; Daughters of the American Revolution and, 199; death of, 152; dedication to education, 153; donation of land to Hindman Settlement, 86; educational reform and, 14–15; eulogy for, 153; expansion of Hindman Settlement and, 83; family and social networks supporting, 19–20, 245(n34); folk music and, 86–87; founding of Hindman Settlement, 1, 46–47; Hindman Settlement teachers and, 92; Home Missionary Movement and, 17; incorporation of Hindman Settlement and, 81–82; Kentucky Society for Babies and, 229; leadership and, 4, 12, 222; management of Hindman Settlement and, 99–103; memorial to, 153–54; missionary movement and, 17; at Montgomery Creek school, 20–21; nickname of, 25; opening day of school in August, 114, 115; Owens Branch School and, 96; Katherine Pettit and, 4; preparations for opening Hindman Settlement, 49– 50, 230; rebuilding of Hindman Settlement and, 70; recreation program and, 149; rural reform and, 13; at Sassafras summer camp, 35– 46; selection of Hindman Settlement students, 113; social life at Hindman Settlement and, 140; social settlement movement and, 2; Albert Stewart and, 117–18; James Still’s words honoring, 141; studies

306 of, 227–29; survey of Hindman graduates by, 94; Teachers’ Institute and, 21; transfer of educational responsibilities to Knott County and, 144; typhoid epidemic and, 79–80; views of mountain culture and people, 17, 18, 22, 55, 223; Elizabeth Watts and, 147 Stone, Patricia Bourne, 25 Stout, Edith: on Ann Cobb, 126; description of Hindman’s crisis in student behavior and discipline, 106–7; food at Hindman Settlement and, 123; on Hindman Settlement’s financial difficulties, 107–8; letters to her mother, 106; on Alice Geddes Lloyd, 103; Cordelia Hughes Ritchie and, 62; as secretary at Hindman Settlement, 98, 245(n33); social life at Hindman Settlement and, 139; on student selection, 112 Stout, Jane Halstead, 245(n33) strip mining, 202 Stucky, James, 169 Stucky, Joseph, 75, 250(n42) Stucky building, 169 student newspapers, 90, 96–97 students: after-school recreation, 136– 37; agricultural extension program and, 73–74, 88–89; alcohol and, 136–37; campus building projects and, 62–63, 64; campus grounds and, 113–14; campus life under Raymond McLain, 164–66; Christmas celebrations, 58–62; commencement exercises, 138; crisis in behavior and discipline, 106–7; daily schedule, 116–17; following the January 1910 fire, 71–72; Lucy Furman and, 48, 65–66, 118; graduates, 53, 74, 91, 94, 104, 130; groups of, 111–12; health clinics, 133–34; in Hindman Settlement’s early years, 53, 54, 55–56; housemothers and dormitories, 118–20;

Index impact of Hindman Settlement on, 141; meals and dining room memories, 122–24; numbers enrolled at Hindman Settlement, 56, 62, 67, 69, 86, 111, 144; reasons for living on campus, 111–12; relations between day and boarding students, 137; school rules, 135–37, 166, 257(n43); selection and entry into Hindman Settlement, 69, 112– 13; teachers’ support of, 132–33; weekly baths, 117; work assignments, 56, 115–16, 120–22, 164. See also high school students Stumbo, Grady, 203, 266(n9) Stumbo, Jan, 218 “Subjective Necessity for Social Settlement, The” (Addams), 10 summer camps: Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs and, 28; kindergarten program, 15; Pettit’s journals of, 30; Teachers’ Institute at, 21. See also Cedar Grove summer camp; Hindman summer camp; Sassafras summer camp Summers, Ellie, 41 Sutherland, Catherine, 233 teachers, 91–92; Ann Cobb, 125–26; Betty Burroughs Combs, 129; Pearl Combs, 129–30; crisis in student behavior and discipline, 107; former graduates as, 130; Hindman Settlement’s finances and, 106, 107–8; impact of Hindman Settlement on, 140–41; Clara Keezle, 128–29; listing of, 233–34; social life at Hindman Settlement, 139–40; Clara Miles Standish, 128; James Still, 131–32; support for students, 132–33; Elizabeth Watts, 126–27 Teachers’ Institute, 21 Terhune, Joy Sturgill, 128–29 Tice, Karen, 18, 19, 54–55, 228, 229, 248(n12) Tignor, Charlie, 126, 135

Index timber industry, 23–25, 87 Titsworth, Ann, 264(n47) Toni Stabile Scholarship Endowment for Children with Reading Difficulties, 263(n45) tonsillectomies, 75, 133 Toynbee Hall, 10 trachoma, 5, 16, 75, 76–77 Transylvanians, 25 Treadway, Mrs. Givens, 233 Troublesome Creek, 209, 210 “Troublesome Creek” (Still), 152 Troublesome Creek Times, 209, 213, 217, 220 tuition and fees, 56, 116 typhoid, 79, 80 Underwood, Judy, 132 “Using Our Heritage to Build Tomorrow’s Community,” 209 U.S. Steel Corporation, 98 U.S. Supreme Court, 193 vaccinations, 16, 80 Van Meter, Anna, 88–89, 233, 251(n10) Virginia Historical Society, 25 Vocational and Adult Basic Education Act, 186 “Voices from the History of Teaching” (England), 227–28 volunteers: adult education program and, 196; at Hindman Settlement, 92– 94; Mennonite, 178, 196, 197 Wald, Lillian, 2, 12, 243(n2) Ward, Mrs. Montgomery, 98, 108 Ware, Michael, 178 Ware, Rebecca, 204–205 War on Poverty program, 167 Washington, Mrs. Booker T., 1 water system, 80, 154 Watts, Elizabeth, 112; arrival at Hindman Settlement, 68–69; children named after, 133; correspondence with mother, 250(n44); death of, 176–77; description of student with trachoma, 77; destruc-

307 tion of letters and materials, 254(n37); directorship of Hindman Settlement, 6, 142, 146–56, 173, 223; Rhonda England’s study of, 227–28; expansion of Hindman Settlement and, 83; food at Hindman Settlement and, 123; fund-raising and, 108–9; as grade school principal, 102; on Hindman Settlement’s health work, 134; honors and awards, 259(n23); as housemother, 120; on Alice Geddes Lloyd, 103; Mike Mullins and, 176; opposition to strip mining, 202; Katherine Pettit and, 27, 147; retirement from Hindman Settlement, 155–56; Cordelia Hughes Ritchie and, 62; Almo Smith and, 121, 136–37; social life at Hindman Settlement and, 139–40; James Still and, 131, 132, 152, 254(n37); May Stone and, 26, 147, 152; as May Stone’s assistant, 92, 102, 103, 108–9, 110; on student health clinics, 133; as teacher, 126–27; on World War I, 81 Watts, Harold, 134, 135 WCTU School. See Women’s Christian Temperance Union School Weatherford, Anne, 175, 176 weaving, 31–32, 231 Weinberg, Bill, 174, 188, 203, 206, 212, 219–20 Weinberg, Lois Combs, 6; dyslexia program and, 6, 188–89, 190, 191, 194, 195, 263(n40); father of, 263(n32); honors for and service to education, 263–64(n47); on Kentucky State Board of Education, 266(n9); Mike Mullins and, 174 Weise, Robert, 24 Weller, Jack, 225 Wellesley College, 92, 132 Wells, Mae Bell, 182 Whisnant, David, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230–31, 247(n71), 267(n27) Wildsmith, Dana, 180

308 Wilhelm, Gene, Jr., 23 Williams, Cratis, 180 Williams, Shirley, 180 Wilson, Clara, 234 Winslow, Betty, 157, 258(n13) winter extension program, 89 Wolfpen Notebooks, The (Still), 132 Wolfpen Poems, The (Still), 132 women reformers: changing expectations of women and, 18–19; increased involvement in public life, 12–13; leadership roles in social settlement movement, 11–12; studies of, 227–31 Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), 12, 19, 248(n1); in Hindman, 53; WCTU School and, 4, 20, 56, 81–82 Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) School, 4, 20; agricultural extension program, 68, 73–74; annual newsletters, 54–56, 248(n12); boarding program, 49, 56; Christmas celebrations, 58–62; community settlement work and, 57, 67; early history and accounts of, 52–56; educational goals of, 56– 57; educational outreach program, 66; endowment campaign, 70; executive board, 67–68; finances, 56, 67, 70, 80–82; fires and, 63–64, 69–70, 71–72, 80; Fireside Indus-

Index tries Department, 32, 50, 62; founding of, 1, 46–47, 49–50, 51– 52; fund-raising, 49, 50, 54, 57–58, 70, 79; health work, 58, 75–77; high school students, 57, 74–75; incorporation as an independent institution, 81–82; industrial education, 48–49; kindergarten at, 48, 72; number of students at, 56, 62, 67, 69; opening of, 50; Pettit and Stone’s preparations for opening, 49–50; Pettit’s departure from, 70–71, 77–78; physical plant and building projects, 49, 62–63, 64–65, 72–73; selection of students, 69; typhoid epidemic and sanitation problems, 79–80; yearly school schedule, 57. See also Hindman Settlement School women’s health, 16 women’s studies, 227–29 Woods, Robert, 11–12 World War I, 81, 100 Writers and Folk Arts Workshop, 179 Yeiser, Rena, 233 Yellow Creek, 95 Yesterday’s People (Weller), 225 Young, Bob, 124 Zande, Ethel de Long, 78