SETTLEMENT, mission, and sponsored schools
IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS

This digital overview of settlement, mission, and sponsored schools in the Southern Appalachians draws heavily from the material in the Berea collection, but expands the scope of settlement schools and attempts to bring into focus many of the mission schools and social service institutions associated in many ways with the settlement movement. A starting point for this study were the many mission statements associated with the various institutions represented in this web-exhibit. Many of the institutions included in this overview are not settlement institutions in the pure sense of the idea, but they often share common mission statements or have similar ideological origins.  While many of these similar institutions are not to be considered a "settlement school" in the strict sense of the term, it is believed that this aggregated institutional material will provide scholars the opportunity to look with a fresh eye on the Appalachian region and on the many institutions that sought to provide religious, social, and political guidance to the people of the area.

By providing many auxiliary materials and by including institutions that are only marginally related to the settlement school processes, it is believed that much can be learned about the geographic region, its history, evolution and devolution. Clearly many of the mission and social service institutions, and the sponsored schools share similar missions and objectives as did the core Settlement Schools included in the Berea National Endowment for the Humanities project. As the majority of the institutions are rurally based, it is believed that the idea of a "rural" settlement school may be better understood and more clearly defined and that rural social services may be explored broadly against the "settlement" idea.

When placed against missions of the traditional urban settlement school and settlement house found in such well-known institutions as Hull House in Chicago and Henry Street Settlement in New York, or the College Settlement Movement locations, or the literature of the Federation of Settlement Schools, the rural settlement school stands as a unique interpretation of human need and societal reform.  The rural iteration of this movement was not so unique, as it was geographically challenged and defined.

In 1970 an effort was made to incorporate a selected group of independent institutions into an organized coalition of members.  The Settlement Institutions of Appalachia was created largely through the efforts of Loren Kramer, Jim Stokely (son of the North Carolina author Wilma Dykeman)and other staff of Berea's Appalachian Center.  The non-profit Settlement Institutions of Appalachia organization was intended to "help finance and coordinate the programs of its members." It was believed that the incorporation of the member institutions would provide a "regional forum for conferences, workshops, and seminar leaders" and other joint efforts.  This noble mission did not sustain in its original form,  but did serve to spawn a variety of like-minded efforts. The organization worked to gather together information on the many independent schools and centers in the Southern Appalachians and to bring these institutions into dialogue with one another. This project owes much to the data and information that was gathered by the Settlement Institutions of Appalachia organization.

While the materials in this digital collection cover a broad range of institutions and owes much to earlier studies and efforts, the focus of this project is largely on Pine Mountain Settlement School in Kentucky, as it arguably reflects most accurately the rural  aspects of the settlement movement and its evolution.  Hindman Settlement School has also been cited as one of the most representative schools of the rural settlement movement. The extensive records available through the Berea College archives and the archive collection at Pine Mountain provide a remarkably intimate window into the evolution of both the settlement workers and the community they served. Through letters, publications, newspaper clippings, and photographs, life at the  Pine Mountain Settlement School can be studied in its full extension. It can be fully detailed and may be compared and contrasted to the many similar institutions in the Southern Appalachian region.  Most of these other institutions await in-depth analysis and careful historical exploration. The work of this digital resource is intended to prime the research pump and to invite a renewed interest in this rich social and historical subject.

Understanding human need and the many responses to those needs in the small rural context, may be a first step to learning how and why civic responsibility is so very important to the sustainability of our communities, our nation and our world.   

"Andrew Jackson Ritchie, a Rabun County native, and his wife, Addie Corn Ritchie, founded the Rabun Gap Industrial School in 1905 to serve the children of the isolated and poverty-stricken community. With $1 and a personal note, Ritchie bought a five-acre hilltop for the school."

Map of each state with location of Settlement, Mission, or Sponsored School.

The list of counties is derived from the Appalachian Regional Commission designation of Appalachian counties within the state.  For a comprehensive map of all counties included in the Appalachian Regional Commission area, see the Commission's  Map of Appalachian Counties.