BOARD OF TRUSTEES – FIRST MEETING
\nAT PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL
\n(FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING,\u00a0OCTOBER 1919)<\/p>\n
Eighty years ago this past month, the Board of Trustees of the\u00a0Pine Mountain Settlement School met at the school for the first time. Previously the group had met in Lexington. Darwin D. Martin describes getting to the meeting: we join him in\u00a0Cincinnati on Wednesday, October 8:<\/p>\n
You depart on the Louisville and Nashville \u201cSouthland\u201d at 8:30 A.M. and follow the very beautiful valley of the Licking until nearly noon, later crossing the Kentucky River from whence the train climbs through the foothills of the Appalachians…. At 2:30 you leave the Pullman at Corbin, an unattractive\u00a0junction with large smoky train-yards full of loaded coal-cars from the mountain feeder-lines. At 4:15 P.M. you take the accommodation train on the Cumberland Valley Division to Pineville, thirty-one miles in one-and-a-half hours, upgrade.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Be wise enough to write for reservations at Hotel Continental, Pineville; or if you neglect this as I did, seize a taxi or be diffident enough to be\u00a0last as\u00a0I was to wedge yourself in the crowded bus for the hotel (four short blocks beyond the adjacent bridge over the Cumberland River) and, whispering to the girls to expect no courtesies on alighting, be first at the desk. <\/em><\/p>\n I got the only remaining room with bath for the girls\u00a0[his daughter and one of her friends] and a room for myself. Several men slept that night on the cot in the waiting room.\u00a0You will be gratified to see this strictly modern hotel of tapestry brick, facing the court-house square of this up-to-date little city, headquarters of several coal-mining companies, good pavements and walks, nice residences and stores\u00a0with each street ending in a mountain wall. Every locomotive whistle here is multiplied several times by its reverberations. [At Pineville. the Martin party met a\u00a0fellow Board member, Elizabeth C. Hench<\/a>, and a member of the Advisory Board, Daniel M. Lord<\/a>, who traveled the rest of the way with them.]\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n At 7:45 A.M. Thursday you take the extremely accommodating train which starts from Middlesboro, thirteen\u00a0miles south an hour earlier, comes up to get you at Pineville, retraces two miles to Orby where\u00a0it diverges from the line that runs south ….and continues up the valley of the Cumberland, soon coming to Ponza, another junction. The engineer hesitates, is lost, and goes up to six-mile branch to Colmar, finds railhead at a\u00a0mine in the mountain and\u00a0must needs back up to Ponza. Half an hour is gone and no progress but we are seeing the Appalachians, with occasional veins of coal bared by the excavations for the railroad. <\/em><\/p>\n Reaching Baxter the same temptation is\u00a0set where two forks of the Cumberland meet. As between Poor Fork and the more euphonious Clover Fork, the crew after consultation naturally chooses\u00a0the latter.\u00a0This proves only two miles long and once in the heart of Harlan against a mountain-side, but Harlan is the county seat and interesting. Much is done here. In what is hoped was one of the final feud days, twenty-four men were done to death here in one day.\u00a0[The\u00a0Editor has no idea where\u00a0Mr. Martin got this figure! Not\u00a0even in the\u00a0labor troubles were that many people killed at\u00a0one time.]\u00a0During much exchange of express and parcel post matter, we have time to mingle with the inhabitants, count the Fords and automobiles (and wonder whether they came by foot or by rail) and to admire the “tie that blinds.” These were of white or light tinted sateen ablaze with an enormous brilliant rose, chrysanthemum, sunflower or purple iris….\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n From Baxter whither we soon returned from Harlan along the Poor Fork, there are no more side excursions and we were set off at Dillon on the bank of the Poor Fork, elevation twelve hundred and fifty feet, at II o\u2019clock. Here is a store, perhaps twelve feet\u00a0by sixteen feet of rough boards to which, nevertheless, a wayfreight stopped while we were there, transferring many cases of soft drinks and other goods, and there is one little tumbled down house which one reaches in climbing a low board fence (the gate is nailed up). Into this the ladies went to don divided skirts for the rest of the journey. …\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Chester Lewis from the School, a fine young man, formerly a pupil, but since he returned from enlisted service in the cavalry, a worker (team driver), awaited us with two strong mules saddled and bridled and decked with colored wool tassels, but said that Wilson\u00a0Lewis (no kin) whom the school had engaged to supply the remaining necessary animals could not report with them until the mill \u2018blew off\u2019. The mill was a mile back on the railroad and the whistle would not blow until 12 o\u2019clock. Wilson Lewis evidently wisely ate his dinner before he reported\u00a0at one o’clock with four mules and two small boys when we started with the luggage stowed fearfully and wonderfully on the sixth animal, the men and boys walking. <\/em><\/p>\n After a mile along the river and railroad, passing the good camp for the convicts employed on the new road\u00a0[Laden Trail], we began the mountain climb. We soon could see, at a little distance, the mile of newly graded road and the steam shovel at work and hear the crashing of the rocks and debris dropped down the mountainside\u00a0from the shovel. It is hoped, we learned later, that the road will be completed in 1920, but at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars instead of fifty-thousand dollars, originally estimated, if the supply of Kentucky\u00a0convicts holds out. Along with everything else, there is a \u2018shortage\u2019 of convicts, white and colored, a\u00a0first fruit of prohibition….\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In an hour we had ascended to the summit, twenty-six hundred and five feet\u00a0at Shell Gap…and by 2:30 we heard Mrs. <\/a>Zande<\/a>‘s\u00a0<\/span><\/span>eerie call<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>of the School. We soon found her with Miss\u00a0Butler\u00a0at the spring not far below the Gap, with a fire, hot coffee and bacon…. The uncounted\u00a0sandwiches of rolls, hot bacon and fried eggs with hot coffee, cream and sugar, besides cookies,\u00a0disappeared rapidly. Part of the trail down the<\/em> north side of the mountain is too steep to ride… So we\u00a0walked the next half mile.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Soon after we had mounted and while yet over a mile and a half from the\u00a0School and a half mile up the mountain, came again the call of the School, this time from a large group\u00a0of the children in charge of Miss Brewster, <\/span>one of the teachers. No words\u00a0<\/span>of mine can picture the elfin\u00a0beauty of this scene. Groups of beaming round-faced barefoot boys and girls, some in bloomers, some in\u00a0skirts, hair trimmed Buster Brown-wise, ranged upon mossy <\/span>hummocks beside the trail with brilliant\u00a0sunlight filtering thru the foliage, playing around their heads. Can you see it? In <\/span>their eagerness they\u00a0had come two miles o<\/span>ver a road and trail rougher than you can imagine and now they trooped back\u00a0again, ahead, behind and on both sides of the riders….\u00a0At Laurel House we dismounted and received the\u00a0<\/span>cordial greeting of Miss\u00a0Pettit<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and were made to feel thoroughly at home.<\/em><\/p>\n Arabella de Long, Mrs. Zande<\/a>\u2019s mother, was spending the fall\u00a0the school. In letters to her daughter\u00a0Helen, she describes the activities of the \u201cBoarders\u201d as the children called them.<\/p>\n I told you that\u00a0the workers were to hold a reception to-night [October 9] <\/span>on the Laurel House porch\u2014Ethel, baby and I\u00a0went down to supper. I held baby during the supper hour and while the school, led by<\/span> Ethel, sang four\u00a0ballads and the round \u201cDing, Dong, Ding, Dong\u201d and after that the reception\u2014just a gathering of the\u00a0workers and the guests. it was a lovely night. The moon came up over the mountain, while we were on\u00a0the porch. Oh, but it is good to see and hear Mr. Martin a<\/span>nd Father Lord\u2014they surely are delightful\u00a0gentlemen…. The two gentlemen are at the Pole <\/span>House<\/a>, Miss Hench is in Evelyn\u2019s room, Mr.<\/span>\u00a0Wilson,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>who comes to-morrow, will be at Big Log<\/a> (he is a minister, I think\u00a0from<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Cleveland.),,.. How I wish you\u00a0could see Mr. Martin\u2014Evelyn has fallen in love with him and so would you.<\/em><\/p>\n The next day, Friday, October 10, the Trustees went on a tour of the campus. At Far House,<\/a> they got to\u00a0see samples of homespun wool dyed with traditional vegetable dyes. They visited the school coal\u00a0mine escorted by Luigi Zande<\/a> and “the single miner on duty, who,”\u00a0wrote Martin, “with his miner\u2019s cap\u00a0and lamp off his head looks exactly like King George V.”<\/span> The agricultural work of the school\u00a0impressed them as did the condition <\/span>of the dairy barns and poultry yards. The second Mary Sinclair\u00a0Burkham School<\/a> was still under construction, and classes were being held in the House in the Woods (an\u00a0open pavilion) and in the <\/span>not quite finished Office<\/a>. They visited Big Log, the planing mill and\u00a0carpentry shop, and concluded with lunch at Laurel House.<\/p>\n That afternoon at 2:00 P.M., the new school\u00a0house was dedicated in a ceremony in the reception hall “transformed …into an orderly auditorium\u00a0with plank seats and a platform decorated with flags and foliage with a great bank of rhododendrons\u00a0thru the open windows beyond.” The ceremony consisted of scripture reading and prayer<\/span> by the\u00a0Reverend A.L. Wilson<\/strong><\/a> and inspirational talks by Elizabeth C. Hench<\/strong><\/a> and Darwin D. Martin<\/strong><\/a>. This was\u00a0followed by a \u201cPageant of Pine Mountain [History]\u201d<\/em> presented at the foot of Pole House Hill. It included the\u00a0Native Americans who first lived in the valley, the Metcalfs\u00a0<\/span>who built the house that became Old\u00a0Log<\/a>, Uncle William<\/a> and Aunt Sal<\/a>, and ended with characters representing Work and Play, the<\/span> Boy\u00a0Scouts, and Good Citizenship.<\/p>\n That evening, the Trustees had a picnic at the Perfect Acre,<\/a> a forestry\u00a0demonstration site developed by Leon Deschamps<\/a>.\u00a0Arabella de Long describes the outing:<\/p>\n It was a\u00a0most excellent supper and I am sure everyone enjoyed it and the good talk afterward. There were three fires\u2014Luigi cooked the chicken, Evelyn [Wells<\/a>] and Miss Martin <\/span>the sweet potatoes, Ethel the\u00a0pancakes and Leon the coffee<\/span>…. Things were a bit smokey at times (I mean <\/span>tastey) and the sweet\u00a0potatoes were pretty brown… The two men and Evelyn helped to serve: we all ate bountifully. The\u00a0cooks, save Dorothy, had their supper after the others, and when they had finished Luigi and Leon\u00a0made a big fire and we waited until we could see the moon ‘over the top.’<\/em><\/p>\n Saturday morning, October 11, the Trustees had breakfast at Big Log<\/a>. Writes Arabella,<\/p>\n The breakfast\u00a0hour was set for 7.30. I think it was about 8 <\/span>when we sat down. The table was laid on the edge of the\u00a0lawn by Isaac\u2019s Run. Besides the Board members the invited guests were Leon, Henry Creech, Miss\u00a0Larsen and one other, I can\u2019t remember who. We had shredded wheat and strawberries and cream, ham\u00a0and eggs, coffee, biscuit, gritted corn pones <\/span>and sorghum…. Miss Pettit was wise to invite Henry and she\u00a0got him to tell us stories. After breakfast the meeting was called, but before that Ethel and Berto had\u00a0come… and Ethel had nursed him and laid him on the high poster <\/span>in the guest room.<\/em><\/p>\n In addition to the Executive Committee (Miss Pettit and Mrs. Zande), four other members of the Board\u00a0and the Advisory Board were in attendance: Mr. Martin [Darwin D. Martin<\/strong>] who was from Buffalo, New York, and an\u00a0executive of the Larkin <\/span>Company, a major mail order house, and a friend of Frank Lloyd Wright;\u00a0Elizabeth <\/strong>Hench<\/strong>, from I<\/span>ndianapolis, a colleague of Mrs. Zande\u2019s from her teaching days at Manual\u00a0Training High School; A.L. <\/span>Wilson<\/strong>, a minister from Cleveland, and Daniel <\/strong>Minor\u00a0Lord<\/strong>,<\/span><\/span> head of the\u00a0advertising agency, Lord & Thomas (a pioneer in the field), and, at seventy-five, the oldest visitor.\u00a0Trustees Mary Morton<\/strong>, a prominent civic leader from Lexington, and a lifelong friend of Miss Pettit;\u00a0Charles N. Manning<\/a><\/strong>, a Lexington banker; and Viola Sullivan\u00a0<\/span>Stiles<\/strong><\/a> of Massachusetts were unable to\u00a0attend as were several Advisory Board members.<\/p>\n Mr. [Darwin D.] Martin<\/strong> left this account of the meeting: <\/span><\/p>\n The fifth annual meeting of the Trustees and General\u00a0Advisory Board of the Pine Mountain Settlement School had convened in the<\/span> living room of the Big Log\u00a0House at nine o\u2019clock. In advance of the meeting Mrs. Zande announced that Mrs. Morton was resigning\u00a0as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and they intended to have me\u00a0<\/span>elected Mrs. Morton’s successor.\u00a0And if any of you think you can alter Mrs. Zande\u2019s will, just try it.\u00a0<\/span>In due course I was elected a trustee\u00a0and chairman. The business meeting lasted until dinner and resumed for a time thereafter.<\/em><\/p>\n In\u00a0addition to Martin, Mary Morton<\/strong> was elected vice-president; Elizabeth Hench<\/strong>, re-elected secretary;\u00a0and C.N. Manning<\/strong>, of Lexington, re-elected treasurer. Calvin Kendall<\/strong>, New Jersey Commissioner of\u00a0Education; Mary Rockwell,<\/a> architect; Lorraine<\/span> Wyman<\/strong>, singer and ballad collector; Celia Cathcart\u00a0Holton<\/a>, who had been chief fundraiser\u00a0for<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the road; Margaret McCutcheon,<\/span><\/strong> a friend of Mrs. Zande\u2019s,\u00a0and D.M.<\/span> Lord<\/strong> were re-elected to the General Advisory Board for another year. One Trustee and one\u00a0Advisory Board member [Samuel M. Wilson and\u00a0H.H. Barrows<\/a>]<\/em> who had not been active were not re-elected. The distinction between Trustees and Advisory Board members was clarified.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The treasurer\u2019s report showed a total of 1,342 annual subscriptions to the school which had brought in<\/span>\u00a0$12,896.50 d<\/span>uring the past year. The auditor\u2019s report showed the school\u2019s net worth to be<\/span> $ 85,380.02.\u00a0<\/span>Some members found the cost of operating the school \u201ctremendous.\u201d “This of course is true,”\u00a0<\/span>state the\u00a0Minutes, \u201c<\/span>but we consider that every worker is a teacher and every department a branch of the school\u00a0life of a child.\u201d The Board grappled with how best to present <\/span>and justify<\/span>\u00a0the cost to the giving public\u00a0and set the value of a scholarship at $150 per year (this figure being used in fund-raising).<\/span><\/p>\n Several members of the staff gave reports including Marguerite Butler<\/a> who described the extension\u00a0work she was doing as rural school supervisor, cooperating with the county school district in working to\u00a0improve outlying one <\/span>room schools. As they heard these reports and as they observed the school at\u00a0work, Board members could find much to celebrate. The Medical Settlement at Big Laurel<\/a>, staffed by\u00a0Dr. Grace Huse<\/a> and Nurse Harriet Butler<\/a>, had recently opened. Two buildings, the school house and\u00a0the office, were nearing completion, and J.S.<\/span>\u00a0Duncan, inventor of the Addressograph, had recently\u00a0contributed funds for a boys\u2019 house<\/a> (known to us as the Library). The school had also started a<\/span> fund for a\u00a0girls\u2019 house. The first dental clinic ever held in the valley had taken place in August at which time\u00a0135 people were examined. The road over the mountain was off to a good start, and they hoped it would\u00a0be completed during 1920 (unfortunately they would run out of money before that happened).<\/p>\n Saturday evening, the Good Citizens Club, made up of the\u00a0<\/span>older students, held a meeting on the Laurel\u00a0House porch with other members of the school community present as guests. Mr. Lord and Mr. Wilson\u00a0spoke, and Mr. Lord awarded prizes to those members of the Boy Scouts, who had reached the highest rank. This was\u00a0<\/span>followed by a set running which intrigued Mr. Martin:<\/p>\n A dozen couples quickly took the floor\u00a0an<\/span>d for half <\/span>an hour with no music whatever, these big boys and their partners of fourteen to\u00a0sixteen, some barefoot, with hair streaming<\/span> down their backs were lost in the mazes of the constantly changing figures of the rhythmic running set…. I believe there are forty figures in this running set and\u00a0half an hour sufficed for a dozen of them. Something like three hours is required for the full s<\/span>et. Mrs. Zande assured us that she had danced the full <\/span>three hours and that nothing after a very hard day\u2019s\u00a0work or hike was so relaxing and restful.<\/em><\/p>\n And so, in the best Pine Mountain tradition, the great weekend finished with a party. The next day\u00a0most of the guests headed home\u2014Mr. Wilson going first to Big Laurel to preach and Mr. Lord lingering\u00a0a little longer with the Zande household. It was, the editor of the [March 1920]\u00a0<\/span>Pine Mountain Notes<\/em><\/a> reports, “a\u00a0great pleasure to us who live at Pine Mountain to view the school through the eyes of our visitors, and\u00a0to hear their suggestive comments,” <\/span>but despite her comment that<\/span>\u00a0“it is the present policy of the Board\u00a0of Trustees to make the Board a more closely organized group than it has been in the past,” it would be\u00a0two years before they would meet again.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Board of Trustees – First Meeting<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Alt. Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n BOARD OF TRUSTEES –\u00a0FIRST MEETING<\/p>\n AT PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL Identifier<\/p>\n<\/td>\n \n GOVERNANCE BOT 1919 – First Meeting Held at the School<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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\n(FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING,\u00a0OCTOBER 1919)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n \n \n