Volume VI
Number 38
February 18
1939
THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
Knl.r *4 monil I'm
■»!!«.
Jure I. 1933. »t the Po.toBrt .1
КаМкЬ.
North u*d.r tl.r Art of M.rch 3. !*J9
Lost Families
So
ни*
of I hem have been iso¬
lated for general! ions, but
they're *»r;i<liuillv bciiij* dug
out aind are now receiving
sonic of the aidvainlaiges of
€*diicailion and conlaict with
the* outside uorl«l.
By J. IS. IIK KI IN
In secluded sections in the mountains, you’ll see a num¬
ber of schoolhouses of the type shown in the above pic¬
ture. But they’re gradually being done away with.
F.\ M 1 1,1 MS und communities, "lost”
for general ioue in the folds of the
mountain ranges of Western North
Carolina, are rapidly being ro-dis-
covered and extended those education¬
al advantages that have lieen beyond
their grasp.
During the past decade, especially
during the last several years, these
“lost provinces” have been reclaimed
оно
by one, and belief is held that their
number has been largely diminish) d.
if not entirely eliminated.
Impetus was given this reclamation
work in 1933 when Frances Morgan,
19-year-old daughter of Dr. Arthur
E. Morgan, then chairman of the Ten-
пе.ч*-е
Valley Authority, made her way
into the -mall community of Bro.id-
way, isolated on a plateau
near Highlands in Macon County, in
opon an elementary school. She •<•-
locted this work t<> comploti' her prne-
tieal course required by Anlioeb t!ol-
lege, ill Ohio, and also to contribute
her hit towards offering this com¬
munity a small measure of "hook
Га
rilin'."
When surrounding school, were
consolidated with the Highland.’
school system, these mountain people
declined to send their children there
and, unable to support their school
longer, abandoned education entirely.
‘Miss Morgan succeeded in gathering
I I youngsters in her school and man¬
aged to get them interested in ab¬
sorbing some degree of education.
While her time and resources forbade
her continuing the work over a very
long period, her venture attracted
considerable publicity and served to
awaken public-spirited lenders to sim¬
ilar conditions in other regions of
Western North Carolina.
“They really need education a great
deal.” said Miss Morgan, after a stay
at Broadway. "My hopo is to teach
them common sense, for
'«■
thing.
They are tine, ill ted I ire lit, friendly,
good people, hilt they do uc-d In use,
or to develop, iimre
«чип
limn -eii.se in
every-day living.
“And I think they should have a
chance to know more aliniit the coun¬
try they live in," she lidded. “And tin
knowledge and the bciiofii of the cx-
periences of other people will make
their lives fuller, easier and lietter.”
Trial of "Big Bob" Anderson, a
leader of the Black Andenou elan of
Anderson Cove, high up in a bottled
neck of ibi’ Black Mountains in Bun
coin I-- County, revealed that the fourth
generation of this community was
growing up in complete ignorance so
far as book learning was concerned.
An
ар|н-а1
by grizzled old Meade An*
der-on, brother of T-onzo Anderson,
who was killed in a family feud by
"Big Bob" resulted in a school Is-ing
established there in
193».
Reclaiming the Big Bend
Likewise, the Big Bend commu¬
nity of northern Haywood County was
reclaimed after Robert II. Hibson,
а
case worker of Haywood County Do¬
Enter
geney Relief, vi.it-
II to
invi-sligale up|M-al.
lor a*si*tnnrr. lie found condition*
deplorable, lie re|K>rtod, ami nil ex¬
cellent breeding groiiml for the crime,
committed in the area that had shocked
I be sen -dhili ties of the "oiilsiilo world."
A. a lir.t step, bo secured the coop¬
eration of Homer Henry, county re¬
lief administrator, who enlisted tin-
sympathy of the countv department
of education and the Boyce Harwood
Lumlior Co., which operated in th»
(Continual
„и
w lurntwis)
