Afterword

In the heart of the Kentucky mountains, that romantic and little-known region popularly regarded as the “home of feuds and moonshine,” a rural social settlement, the first in the world, was begun fifteen years ago under the auspices of the State Federation of Women’s Clubs of Kentucky.

Half a dozen young women from the prosperous Blue-Grass section, headed by Miss Katherine Pettit and Miss May Stone, went up into the mountains, several days’ journey from a railroad, and, pitching their tents, spent three successive summers holding singing, sewing, cooking and kindergarten classes, giving entertainments, visiting homes, and generally establishing friendly relations with the men, women, and children of three counties.

One of the many surprises was to find the mountains so thickly populated,—­the regulation family boasting a dozen children,—­and the most inadequate provision made by the State for the education of these young sons and daughters of heroes.  For it is well known that much of this section was settled originally by men who received land-grants for their services in the Revolution, and who, with their families, disappeared into these fastnesses to emerge later only at their country’s call,—­the War of 1812, the Mexican, the Civil, and the Spanish Wars bringing them out in full force, to display astonishing valor always.

Aware of this ancestry, the visiting women were not surprised to find much personal dignity, native intelligence, and gentleness of manner, even among men who conceived it their duty to “kill off” family enemies, and women who had never had the first chance at “book-l’arning.”

One of the three summers was spent on Troublesome Creek, at the small village of Hindman, the seat of Knott County.  Here the “citizens” so appreciated the “quare, foreign women” as to be unwilling to let them depart.  “Stay with us and do something for our young ones, that mostly run wild now, drinking and shooting,” they said.  “We will give you the land to build a school on.”

Touched to the heart, seeing the great need, and asking nothing better than to spend their lives in such a service, Miss Stone and Miss Pettit went “out into the world” that winter and gave talks in various cities, by spring raising enough money to start the desired Settlement School at Hindman.

During a dozen years this remarkable school has grown and prospered, until more than a hundred children now live in it, and two hundred more attend day-school.

While its academic work is excellent, special stress is laid upon the industrial courses, the aim being to fit the children for successful lives in their own beloved mountains.  To this end the boys are taught agriculture, carpentry, wood and metal work, and the rudiments of mechanics; the girls cooking, home-nursing, sewing, laundry work, and weaving, these subjects being learned not only in classes, but by doing the actual labor of school and farm.