{"id":16225,"date":"2015-10-24T18:42:58","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T22:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitright.pmss.net\/?page_id=16225"},"modified":"2021-06-12T11:09:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T15:09:02","slug":"maude-holbrook","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=16225","title":{"rendered":"MAUDE HOLBROOK Student Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pine Mountain Settlement School
\nSeries 09: Biography – Staff\/Personnel
\nSeries 19: Students<\/h5>\n

MAUDE HOLBROOK Student Staff
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Maude Holbrook: PMSS Student 1934-1936
\nHousemother at Big Log\u00a0&\u00a0Practice House 1936
\nDietitian 1938-1940
\nMember and Officer, Association of Pine Mountain Alumni & Friends 1970s<\/p>\n

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TAGS:\u00a0<\/strong>Maude Holbrook, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Glyn Morris, students, housemothers, Big Log, dietitians, citizenship medals, Mountain Trail Chapter of National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Practice House, homemaking, homemaking literature<\/p>\n

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In the summer of 1936, Maude Holbrook, a Pine Mountain Settlement School worker on vacation leave at her hometown of Gilley, Kentucky, received some exciting news. In a letter dated August 8, Director Glyn Morris<\/a> wrote that she had received a medal for best all-around citizenship among the students. It was awarded to her by the Mountain Trail Chapter of\u00a0National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, located in Harlan, Kentucky.<\/p>\n

She thanked Mr. Morris\u00a0and\u00a0the PMSS staff for the medal in an August 12 letter, adding:<\/p>\n

I would like to say that I feel very highly honored with having received this medal. However, I feel that there were others of the past year who justly deserved this medal as much as I. Had the medal been given to any of the other students I would have taken a friend’s delight in congratulating the one.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

MAUDE HOLBROOK: PMSS Student<\/h3>\n

Glyn Morris wrote in his 1942 study<\/a> of PMSS students that, as a PMSS student from 1934-1936, Maude “excelled in her work assignments.” His quote of the following report, recorded during her senior year, described the admiration that the School workers and students had for her:<\/p>\n

‘Excellent social adjustment…wide participation in several extracurricular activities including chairmanship of the Citizenship Committee, she is liked and admired by all. She is exceptional not only in acceptance of Pine Mountain\u2019s ideals but in the advocacy and personification of them.’<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Maude Holbrook: PMSS Employment<\/h3>\n

After graduating from PMSS in 1936, Miss Holbrook continued her good work as a Housemother at Big Log<\/a>. Such a position involved\u00a0overseeing a\u00a0group of\u00a0about twenty girls who\u00a0boarded\u00a0in Big Log\u00a0while attending Pine Mountain Settlement School. As the name of the position suggests, she would be\u00a0caring for them almost as a mother would: monitoring their cleanliness, their health, their daily tasks, their homework, and seeing to whatever else the children required. (See Marguerite Butler’s letter<\/a> of 1914 for descriptions of Miss Butler’s housemothering experience.)<\/p>\n

At Practice House<\/a>\u00a0(later renamed Country Cottage), her other assigned location, she would have been teaching homemaking to a smaller group of select girls. Evelyn Wells<\/a>, PMSS Secretary from 1916-1931, had\u00a0described Practice House and its activities as follows:<\/p>\n

No attempt is here made to estimate what this building has meant to the groups of girls who three at a time have spent six weeks in the Country Cottage, cooking, living on a carefully worked out budget, caring for the cow and selling its milk, and entertaining, under the guidance of the housemother. The garden was also important, and a summer worker has usually (and with varying degrees of success) canned its produce for the family\u2019s winter consumption.<\/em><\/p>\n

Miss Holbrook’s file of\u00a0correspondence<\/a>\u00a0in the PMSS Archives includes\u00a0a\u00a0list of books and bulletins about homemaking that she most likely had studied in order to\u00a0teach\u00a0the\u00a0proper ways of cooking, cleaning, and hosting\u00a0at Practice House. Among those listed are Foods and Home-making<\/em> by Carlotta C.\u00a0Greer,\u00a0Laundry for Home and Institution<\/em> by Lydia\u00a0Ray Balderston, and\u00a0Meal Planning and Table Service<\/em> by N. Beth Bailey.<\/p>\n

Two years later her position changed to dietitian, which she held for another two years.\u00a0Before her employment\u00a0at Pine Mountain, she had been\u00a0a Pine Mountain student herself, an experience that probably enabled a\u00a0close relationship\u00a0with her students. She graduated in 1936, the same year that she began working at the School.<\/p>\n

Maude Holbrook: Later Years<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Morris’s 1942 study of PMSS students went on to describe her work immediately after leaving PMSS:<\/p>\n

In the fall of 1940 she was employed as a waitress in a private hotel and went from there to a position of increased responsibility in New York during the fall of 1941….Today she is a supervisor of work for one floor of a large metropolitan hotel.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In 1979 Miss Holbrook was elected secretary-treasurer by the Pine Mountain Association of Alumni & Friends. By that time she was living in Frankfort, KY, and working as secretary of the Railroad Commission for the State of Kentucky. Her\u00a0article in the 1979 Homecoming Report indicates her continued appreciation and fondness for the School:<\/p>\n

Reminiscing \u2026 Maude Holbrook<\/strong><\/p>\n

TO PINE MOUNTAIN ALUMNI & FRIENDS<\/em><\/p>\n

Each time I attend the homecoming of our group, I realize more and more what Pine Mountain had and still has to offer students. I really cherish the thought that we had the best of everything during my years at Pine Mountain: namely, the best teachers; food; exercise; even though we called it work, environment; and protection.<\/em><\/p>\n

This trip I really enjoyed our tour of the campus. First was our visit to Old Log<\/a>, where our gracious hosts, Mr. & Mrs. Burton Rogers<\/a>. greeted us and served refreshments of cookies and punch. Of course, I did not miss the opportunity to tell the crowd that I was once housemother at Old Log. I had witnesses present to prove my claim. I even looked to see if the ferns, planted by the students at Boys\u2019 House, were still growing. At Boys\u2019 House<\/a>, we looked through a library of picture albums, trying to find snapshots of ourselves, taken during our respective school years. It is terrible when you cannot find your own picture. I often picked the wrong one.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"MAUDE

002_24 Planting ferns at Boy’s House. Maude Holbrook and (?). [burkhard_peo_002-24.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

Above all of this, what I really enjoyed most was the gathering at the chapel, especially to hear Mr. Arthur Dodd<\/a> play the piano. I could have spent the entire day listening to the beautiful music.<\/em><\/p>\n

I trust that you will all make plans to attend the reunion in 1980, at which time, no doubt, there will be many more activities. Remember, \u201cTogether We Aspire\u201d and \u201cTogether We Achieve.\u201d<\/em>
\nSincerely,<\/em>
\nMaude Holbrook \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

Maude Holbrook was born in Line Fork, Letcher County, KY, on November 5, 1912 (1913?), to Mr. and Mrs. Ben F. Holbrook. Her mother\u2019s maiden name was Cornett. <\/i>Maude died in Fayette County, KY, on April 4, 1990.<\/p>\n

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See also:\u00a0MAUDE HOLBROOK Correspondence<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n
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Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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Maude Holbrook<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Alt. Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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Maude Holbrooke<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Identifier<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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MAUDE HOLBROOK Student Staff<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n