Accession Number: 20
Records, 1922-1987
29.2 Linear Feet
Online Catalog Record (BANC)

Overview & Series Description
History
Series I - Minutes of the Board of Trustees
Series II - Financial Records
      Subseries 1 - Trust Agreements
      Subseries 2 - Finacncial Summaries and Audits
      Subseries 3- Income and Disbursement Statements
      Subseries 4- Citizen's Fidelity Transaction Statements
      Subseries 5- Journal / Account Sheets
Series III - Chairmen and Trustees Files
      Subseries 1 - Edward O' Rear
      Subseries 2 - Ross Sloniker
      Subseries 3 - Francis S. Hutchins
      Subseries 4 - J. Farra Van Meter
      Subseries 5 - Henry H. Loomis
Series IV - West Correspondence
Series V - Lexington Subject Files
Series VI - Projects and Grants
Series VII - Homeplace General Correspondence
   1920s 1930s1940s 1950s1960s 1970s1980s undated
Series VIII - Homeplace Subject Files
Series IX - Photographs
Series X - Homeplace Rural Health Association
     Subseries 1 - Service Reports
     Subseries 2 - Personnel Records
     Subseries 3 - Miscellany
Series XI - Perry County Rural Telephone Company
     Subseries 1 - Record Book
     Subseries 2 - Correspondence
     Subseries 3 - Financial Records
Series XII - Oversize and Miscellany

Overview

These are the board meeting minutes, financial records, correspondence, and photographs documenting the founding of the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund and its role in southeastern Kentucky agricultural, educational, health, and economic improvement efforts during the years 1922-1987.

Related Berea College Archives

Buckhorn Children's Center Records, SAA 45

Related References

Purcell, L. Edward, Good Neighbor to the Mountains: The Story of the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund 1922-1987. E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund, 1988.

This series consists of administrative and operational files, which provide documentation of the Perry County Rural Telephone Company (PCRTC) from its establishment in 1953 until its sale to L.D. Gorman in 1968.

The PCRTC was established as a result of state Board of Health standards requiring all Kentucky hospitals to have telephone service. Fund chairman O'Rear attempted to have service extended to Homeplace from Hazard by General Telephone Company. However, the company's price for extending the line to Homeplace was judged too high. From O'Rear's consultations with Homeplace assistant director, Victor Spurlock, it was proposed that local residents form a local telephone corporation, a portion of whose stock the Mountain Fund would purchase. By late 1952 Mr. Spurlock had gotten a number of local residents interested in the proposed company and on May 15, 1953, the PCRTC was incorporated. Spurlock became its president and Lula Hale was elected secretary-treasurer. Of the four hundred and five shares, at $50 a share, the Mountain Fund purchased one hundred and ninety-three.

It then fell to Spurlock to construct a working telephone system virtually from nothing. Having borrowed an additional $6,000 from the Fund and having sought and obtained advice on what equipment was needed, Spurlock slowly built up a line which was connected to the General Telephone System in Nov. 1955. Income from the system, which at its peak comprised around one hundred and fifty installed telephones, was sufficient for the company to pay back its $6,000 debt to the Mountain Fund (at 5% interest), as well as to pay its stockholders small dividends in each year from 1954-1963.

Although the phone-company was being run with some efficiency, by the late 1960's Mountain Fund trustees had become uncomfortable with maintaining ownership in a venture making a profit, however small. General Telephone's 1965 offer of $40,000 for the system was rejected. However, by 1968 the trustees, along with Lula Hale, Victor Spurlock, and other local shareholders were more willing to sell, accepting L.D. Gorman's offer of $125 a share on Dec. 12

This record book maintained by corporation secretary-treasurer, Lula Hale, consists of minutes, drafts of articles, and financial reports, all of which detail the establishment of the PCRTC, its operation, growth, and eventual sale. Included are stockholder meeting minutes, records of stock purchases by local residents, materials relating to the planning and construction of the phone system, and agreements between the PCRTC, Kentucky Public Service Commission, and General Telephone Company. Records detail the roles of Victor Spurlock and Lula Hale in the establishment of the system, as well as that of the Mountain Fund as its principal stockholder.

Box 65, cont'd.

5. PCRTC: Record Book 1953-1955 (pt.one)
6. PCRTC: Record Book 1956-1968 (pt.two)

This subseries consists of correspondence maintained by Lula Hale as secretary-treasurer of the PCRTCP. Principal correspondents include Hale, Victor Spurlock, employees of Kentucky Public Service Commission and General Telephone Company, representatives of the North Electric Company, and various local phone customers or stockholders. Correspondence details the growth of the phone lines along Troublesome Creek and frequently relates to requests for extension of the company's service area.

Box 65, cont'd.

7. PCRTC: Correspondence concerning operations 1953-1971
8. PCRTC: General Correspondence 1956
9. PCRTC: General Correspondence 1957-1958; 1960-1963
10. PCRTC: General Correspondence 1964
11. PCRTC: General Correspondence 1965
12. PCRTC: General Correspondence 1966
13. PCRTC: General Correspondence 1967-1969
14. PCRTC: General Correspondence not dated

Materials consist of audit reports conducted on PCRTC operations annually from 1961-1967, along with miscellaneous account sheets, and fragmentary records relating to insurance coverage. The audits were done by Rouse, Rankin and Company, a Cincinnati firm with a branch office in Hazard. They provide details of the phone company's income and investments during these years. The account sheets provide fragmentary documentation of the company's fiscal operation during the period proceeding that of the audits (i.e., 1954-1960). Other financial records are included in the company record book.

Box 65, cont'd.

15. PCRTC: Articles of Incorporation, List of Stockholders
16. PCRTC: Directory Listings, n.d.

Box 66

1. PCRTC: Directories
2. PCRTC: Directories
3. PCRTC: Invoices 1954-1969
4. PCRTC: Faith Gospel Church Lease 1954
5. PCRTC: Agreement Concerning Traffic
6. PCRTC: History
7. PCRTC: Public Service Commission Application 1952
8. PCRTC: Kentucky Public Service Commission-Annual Reports 1953-1954
9. PCRTC: Construction Instructions
10. PCRTC: Recording of Calls and Bills, 1963-1968
11. PCRTC: Line Assignment for Ary, Kentucky
12. PCRTC: Petition
13. PCRTC: Waiting Lists
14. PCRTC: Audits 1961
15. PCRTC: Audits 1962
16. PCRTC: Audits 1963
17. PCRTC: Audits 1964
18. PCRTC: Audits 1965
19. PCRTC: Audits 1966
20. PCRTC: Audits 1967
21. PCRTC: Accounting Sheets 1954-1968
22. PCRTC: Employee Withholding Statements 1954-1962
23. PCRTC: Insurance, Liability 1954-1957; 1969
24. PCRTC: Unemployment Insurance 1956-1969
25. PCRTC: Internal Revenue Reports 1954-1968

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