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![\"GLADYS](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/hill_g_bio_086_xx-221x300.jpg\")
Gladys Hill, C. 1929. [hill_g_bio_086_xx]<\/p><\/div>Gladys Ranson Hill\u00a0joined the Pine Mountain Settlement School staff at the age of 23 in 1929, a year after earning an A.B. at Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College (later Eastern Kentucky University) in Richmond. It is unlikely that she could\u00a0imagine that her teaching position\u00a0with the School would last for the next 23 years.<\/p>\n
Hill’s longtime relationship with the School began in the spring of\u00a01929 when\u00a0she sent\u00a0the School the required documents: a completed application form, a photograph, and letters of recommendation. Her college major\u00a0in English and history, practice teaching, and then experience in teaching high school students at\u00a0Herndon, West Virginia, and as a current\u00a0teacher and principal at Campton, Kentucky, made her an excellent candidate. She was offered a teaching position at a salary of $50.00 a month “and home” by Angela Melville<\/a>, Associate Director, who described what to expect at the School in her\u00a0acceptance letter to Hill, dated April 9, 1929:<\/p>\n This work means teaching boys and girls, some of whom are quite old in years. We hope next year to regrade our children and have them more nearly where they belong in both intellect and achievement<\/em>. …. Life here is out-of-door country life in all weather, and is in the winter somewhat rigorous. You would, however, be comfortably housed and our food is excellent.<\/em><\/p>\n Hill was indeed “comfortably housed” at\u00a0Big Log<\/a> when she arrived in August, although Director Hubert\u00a0H. Hadley<\/a>‘s letter of August 12\u00a0warned her, “…I am sure since Big Log has been closed all summer that you will find many cobwebs hanging about….”<\/p>\n Another letter, dated May 31, 1929, provided Hill with these directions:<\/p>\n You write a week ahead to Mr. Wilson Lewis of Nolansburg, KY, asking him to meet you on the train coming up the valley on such and such a date and you get off at our station stop of Laden where he will be with a mule.<\/em><\/p>\n Thus\u00a0was the start\u00a0of Miss Hill’s many years at Pine Mountain as a teacher of science, economics, history, and mathematics and at one time a housemother in Big Log. In the summers of 1949,\u00a01950, and 1951, she\u00a0furthered her studies by attending classes in\u00a0child development and psychology,\u00a0reading, audio-visual methods,\u00a0nutrition, elementary school measurement and evaluation,\u00a0art education,\u00a0and language arts\u00a0at Radford (VA) College and Eastern State College.<\/p>\n Although Hill was beset all her life\u00a0by\u00a0a sideways curve to her\u00a0spine,\u00a0possibly scoliosis, this condition did not prevent her from becoming a reliable, conscientious and tireless employee of the School. At one point, in 1942, she had to leave the School for a short period of time to recuperate from back pain. In a letter to Morris in early March, she reported\u00a0that during a\u00a0visit to Bradenton\u00a0Beach, Florida,\u00a0“I am feeling much better. I am taking treatments this week and will get two weeks of sunshine.” A week later, she wrote to Morris:<\/p>\n I am spending every possible minute in the sunshine. All the pain and soreness is gone from my back and my legs are working remarkably well these days….\u00a0<\/em>Mr. Morris, I do want you to know that I appreciate everything you have done. I\u00a0remember how you carried me all over creation and then gave me a chance to get away for a while.<\/em><\/p>\n Co-op Store, 1946. (left to right)\u00a0Oma Jackson, Margaret Bleir, Don Freeman;\u00a0Owen Lewis, Roy Crase, ____, Harold Cox, Ida Mae Lewis. [pmss_photo_coop-store_dodd_db.jpg]<\/p><\/div>GLADYS HILL: THE COOPERATIVE STORE YEARS<\/strong><\/p>\n From 1936 until 1949, In addition to Miss Hill’s other teaching assignments, she also taught courses in cooperation and managing\u00a0cooperative stores.\u00a0As described in the March 1953 issue<\/a> of\u00a0Notes\u00a0from the Pine Mountain Settlement School<\/em>,<\/p>\n During the administration of Glyn Morris<\/a> she was in charge of selling school supplies and candy to the students. Mr. Morris suggested that [Miss Hill] develop this into a student-operated cooperative store. She replied that she wasn\u2019t interested and knew nothing of cooperatives, but compelled by his enthusiasm she read books and articles, visited cooperatives, and invited Pine Mountain people active in the movement who could inform and inspire the children.\u00a0In the thirteen years that the cooperative was in operation it developed into a basic part of the curriculum [for sophomore students]…. [All the classes] related to the responsibility of organizing the student-owned cooperative store….<\/em><\/p>\n Gladys Hill (right) with co-op students, 1941. (Source: Harmon Foundation Stills)<\/p><\/div>\n Books on cooperatives have carried accounts of what was done at Pine Mountain. Also, in 1941 the Harmon Foundation<\/a> filmed the story under the title, \u201cLet\u2019s Cooperate.\u201d Miss Hill submitted an article to the May 1946 issue<\/a> of Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School,<\/em> describing the cooperative program’s beginnings, its ups and downs through the years since the Harmon Foundation filming, and finally the success of the cooperative program.<\/p>\n During the 1940s Miss Hill joined with an English teacher at PMSS, Vera R. Hackman, to write several articles and pamphlets about Cooperatives, including\u00a0Experiences in Consumer Cooperation<\/em>\u00a0at Pine Mountain Settlement School, which could be ordered from the School. The editor of\u00a0Consumers\u2019 Cooperation,<\/em>\u00a0the official publication of the Consumers\u2019 Cooperative Movement in the U. S. A., wrote of the booklet and the School\u2019s work:<\/p>\n The chapters in the booklet describe cooperation in the store, cooperation in the classroom, spreading the cooperative idea, basic materials for cooperative study. We cannot refrain from moralizing to the effect that every child in every public and private school in America ought to have the opportunity of engaging in cooperative business activities as well as of studying, writing and speaking about cooperation in other school courses as the children who attend this Settlement School are having.<\/em><\/p>\n In 1944, Miss Hill was asked to write an article about the cooperative experience for the 1944 Pine Mountain Family Album<\/em><\/a>, a booklet about PMSS students, staff, and community.\u00a0Her narrative is transcribed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of her students\u00a0wrote this account of Miss Hill\u00a0<\/span>in the student newsletter, the <\/span>Conifer,<\/em>\u00a0in 1948\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CHARACTER SKETCH OF A WORKER<\/p>\n The worker I am going to write about is very understanding. Anytime we co-ops want to know anything, we feel free to ask her and she gives us the answers. During the tie of the rumors about the school’s closing, she would say, “If I were free to do so, I would tell you all I know, but we aren’t sure of anything yet.”<\/em><\/p>\n She is always kind and sweet. The minute she walks into the classroom I can tell whether she is in the mood for gaiety and laughte<\/em>r or if she is serious. I don’t believe anyone can tell a story as amusingly as she can. She makes her dullest classes interesting by being a cheerful friend to us instead of being a dull, strict teacher all of the time, as some of the teac<\/em>hers are whom I have had in my lifetime.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n She is reliable at all times. If she promises one of us something, we can depend on its b<\/em>eing done. And I know she expects the same of us. Anytime you want to go <\/em>into the Co-op Store on Monday, We<\/em>dnesday, or Saturday, y<\/em>ou will find her sitting at her little table, ready to greet you with a friendly smile.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I guarantee that any Co-op who has ever had Miss\u00a0Hill for a teacher will agree that she is the most understanding and patient teacher he has ever known. To be frank, I think she is a great woman,\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Lois Collins, Co-op.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Gladys Hill. [pmss_photo_hill_gladys.jpg]<\/p><\/div>Miss Hill became a member of the PMSS Board of Trustees in 1949. Three years later, she died as the result of a heart attack in her sleep on March 26. Six former students acted as pallbearers, including Bill [Hayes] <\/a>and Paul Hayes<\/a>, Alonzo Turner<\/a>, and Hayes Bunch. She was buried \u201cunder the cedar trees east of the new Laurel House<\/a> and northeast of the old Laurel House,\u201d a spot selected by Bill Hayes, farm manager for the School, and marked by a bronze plaque on a rough-hewn limestone boulder.<\/p>\n According to Glyn Morris, a PMSS director in the 1930s who flew in from New York State to conduct the service in the Chapel, Miss Hill was beloved for her \u201chumor, her earnest work, and the achievements she made while a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n According to a tribute to her in the March 1953 issue<\/a> of\u00a0Notes From the Pine Mountain Settlement School,<\/em><\/p>\n Her period of service…longer than any other staff member including the founders…began under Miss Kath[e]rine Pettit<\/a>…and encompassed every administrative era. Because of this unique experience and her rare memory and perception we have all of us enjoyed her wonderful tales of the past.\u00a0…Miss Hill was born to teach. She had a personal, compassionate interest in all children [that] brought from them the best they were capable of.<\/em><\/p>\n Fred J. Burkhard<\/a>, former PMSS worker and then editor and owner of\u00a0The Casey County News<\/em>\u00a0(Liberty, KY) wrote an article to PMSS alumni describing Miss Hill\u2019s life and her funeral which he had attended:<\/p>\n Pine Mountain was her home. She gave it everything she had, and it was more than most people knew. She never entered into campus politics, no matter who came or went. She had a job to do, and politics was not a part of it. She got along with all the students who were bright and who were poor and who could not learn fast…. She knew the whereabouts and the doings of all former students and workings of the people of the community. She worked through several administrations and got along with all of them. She was quite a woman.<\/em><\/p>\n Gladys Ranson Hill\u00a0was the\u00a0daughter of Dr. Julius Wesley Hill, a physician, and Nellie (Regenstein) Hill, who assisted in her husband’s private practice as a secretary. Miss Hill was\u00a0born in approximately 1906 in West Virginia, her father’s home state.\u00a0A year later her\u00a0younger sister, Lucille Hill, was born. Her brother, Don W., was born in 1914. Her siblings, like her mother, were all born in Kentucky. As of 1920, the family was living in Sardis (Mason County), Kentucky, and by the time of Miss Hill’s move to PMSS in 1929, they were living in Richmond, Kentucky.<\/p>\n Gladys Hill (far left) at staff meeting in Director H.R.S Benjamin’s home (Zande House<\/a>), late 1940s. (left to right) Gladys Hill, Arwillie Lewis, Fern Hayes, Ruth Smith, Margaret Motter, Mr. Benjamin, Mrs. Benjamin<\/a>. [X_100_workers_2593_mod.jpg]<\/p><\/div> Mr. and Mrs. LaRue, Miss Hill, Miss Goodnow. October\u00a01946. [nace_1_035a.jpg]<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n See Also\u00a0GLADYS HILL CORRESPONDENCE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Co-op](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/pmss_photo_coop-store_dodd_db-1024x820.jpg\" "\\"Co-op")
![\"Gladys](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/pmss_photo_coop_harm_091DB-1024x990.jpg\")
![\"Gladys](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/pmss_photo_hill_gladys.jpg\")
\n![\"Gladys](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/X_100_workers_2593_mod-1024x768.jpg\")
\n![\"Mr.](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/nace_1_035a-1024x590.jpg\")