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Accession Number: 11
The Katherine Pettit Collection
Papers and Sound Recordings 1899-1937
2 ms. Boxes
8 Linear Ft.
Online Catalog
Record (BANC)
Overview
History
Series I - Correspondence (1899-1935)
Series II- Diary Excerpts
Series III - Biography-Obituary
Series IV - Miscellaneous
Series V - Summer Program Reports
Related Berea College Archives
Hindman
Settlement School Papers, SAA 9
Hindman Settlement School Records, 1899-1979, SAA 41
Pine Mountain
Settlement School Records, 1913-1984, SAA 42
Pine Mountain Settlement School Collection, 1913-1975, SAA 10
J.A. Stucky Papers, 1903-1956, SAA 23
Overview
These are business and personal correspondence, narrative program reports, and
diary transcriptions of Katherine Pettit, cofounder with May Stone of the Hindman
Settlement School in Knott County, Kentucky.
History
Katherine Pettit was born in 1868 near Lexington, Kentucky, the
child of Benjamin Pettit, a prosperous farmer. She went to schools
in Lexington and Louisville and early, developed an interest in
the social and educational problems of eastern Kentucky. Work in
summer educational programs 1899-1901, conducted in Knott and Perry
counties by the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, led
to her developing a strong desire to make a permanent contribution
to the area.
With financing from the Women's Christian Temperance Union, she and May Stone
founded the WCTU Settlement School at Hindman in 1902. Its purpose was to “found,
establish, carry on and maintain a school or schools for industrial, intellectual
and moral training; to educate the youth of both sexes in habits of sobriety
in the mountainous, destitute or needy portions of the State of Kentucky.” The
school remained under the sponsorship of the Kentucky WCTU until 1915, when
it was formally incorporated as a private, non-profit, non-sectarian, and non-denominational
corporation and became known simply as the Hindman Settlement School.
In 1913 Pettit left Hindman for Harlan County, Kentucky where, with Ethel de
Long, she established Pine Mountain Settlement School. She served there as
co-director until retirement in 1930. For the next five years she employed
herself in what she termed “free lance work,” travelling throughout
Harlan County urging men to leave welfare and return to farming. She died in
Lexington of cancer in 1936 at the age of sixty-eight.
Series Description
2 Manuscript Boxes
| Series I |
Correspondence (1899-1935) |
Box 1 |
This series consists of both business and personal correspondence. Subjects
include Hindman and Pine Mountain Settlement Schools, students recommended
for admission to Berea College, and an account of a 1932 trip to South America.
Box 1
- Correspondence - schools 1899-1923
- Correspondence - schools 1924-1929
- Correspondence - personal 1930-1935
- Correspondence - personal 1932
| Series II |
Diary Excerpts |
Box 1, cont. |
This series consists twenty-two, undated, typewritten pages transcribed from
a Pettit diary.
Box 1, Cont.
- Diary Entry Transcriptions n.d.
| Series III |
Biography-Obituary |
Box 1, cont. |
This series consists of correspondence and published tributes relating to
Pettit’s death in 1936.
Box 1, Cont.
- Biography / Obituary 1936-1937
| Series IV |
Miscellaneous |
Box 1, cont. |
This series consists of miscellaneous correspondence, news clippings, a Pettit
photograph, membership certificate, and an anonymous manuscript entitled “A
Mountain Funeralizing.” (The style of writing and attention to detail,
especially in the description of speech patterns, suggest Josiah Combs as a
likely author.)
Box 1, Cont.
- Miscellaneous material and photograph 1899-1936
- Louisville Commercial article (transcript) July 8, 1885 Re: creation
of Knott County, KY
- “A Mountain Funeralizing” - Anonymous Manuscript [1928]
| Series V |
Summer Program Reports |
Boxes 1-2 |
This series consists of Pettit and May Stone’s accounts of their 1899-1901
work experiences in Knott and Perry counties that led to the establishment
of the WCTU Settlement School. The Camp Industrial report includes a long list
of program participants and transcriptions of letters from them to Pettit and
Stone.
Box 1, Cont.
- Camp Cedar Grove, Hazard, KY, Summer 1899
- Camp Industrial, pp. 10-31, June-August 1900
- Camp Industrial, pp. 32-45, June-August 1900
- Camp Industrial, pp. 46-74, June-August 1900
- Camp Industrial, pp. 75-88, June-August 1900
Box 2
- Sassafras, KY, pp. 1-20, July-October 1901
- Sassafras, KY, pp. 21-40, July-October 1901
- Sassafras, KY, pp. 41-70, July-October 1901
- Sassafras, KY, pp. 71-100, July-October 1901
- Sassafras, KY, pp. 101-130, July-October 1901
- Sassafras, KY, pp. 131-157, July-October 1901
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