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a biography of the day-katherine pettit (settlement worker, kentucky)
Katherine Pettit
Settlement Worker
About Katherine Pettit:
Dates: February 23, 1868 - September 3, 1936
Occupation: settlement worker - Kentucky mountains
Katherine Pettit Biography
Through her work with the Kentucky State Federation of Women's Clubs, this Lexington native became inspired to make a difference in the hard lives of women in the Kentucky mountains of Knott and Harlan County.
Together with Wellesley College graduate May Stone of Louisville, Pettit began with summer schools in Hindman, and in 1901-1902, inspired by stories of Hull House, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr in Chicago, they set out to raise enough money to establish a permanent settlement in the mountains.
. . . .
In 1913, Pettit and a woman who had worked at the Hindman school for two years, Ethel de Long, and began a new project on Pine Mountain in Harlan County. From working to clear land to planting fruit trees and constructing buildings, the two worked with a local mountaineer who had contributed the 250 acre site for the new school, the Pine Mountain Settlement School.
Here, they also worked to enrich educational opportunities for children, to help educate mothers on health and cooking and home care, to raise interest in local crafts and folk music.
When the Depression hit the Kentucky mountains, it was especially severe in communities where many families had sold their land and the men had gone to work in the coal mines. Now, with little paid employment, the Settlement Schools helped families return to working the land and produce and distriute local handicrafts to gift shops.
. . . .
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/settlementhouses/a/pettit.htm
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The Pine Mountain Settlement School is still active - it does a lot of environmental education stuff and some craft and heritage classes (http://www.pinemountainsettlementschool.com/). I haven't visited yet but have heard many good things about it. Nice to hear a little about the way it was formed.
One of the recurring programs it holds is called "In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun Forest Study workshop" which is a great program inspired by another great woman in history - the conservationist/botanist E. Lucy Braun. 
