Oral History Interview with Vertie Conley

CASSIE MULLINS: I'm just turning this on, so it will get going. And if you don't mind, just state your name and where you live.

VERTIE CONLEY: My name is Vertie Pigmon Conley. I live in Hindman, Box 17, my address. I live with my sister, Alma Pigmon.

C.M.: And now Miss Conley, where did you grow up?

CONLEY: I grew up right here on this plantation, where we are at the present time, at Alma's home. This is my grandfather's, my grandfather and my grandmother's home. We lost our father when I was just two years old. My mother came back here with us children. We 1:00grew up here, lived here through high school. And of course, then we went away. When we first came back here. This has always been home to us. And of course, Hindman Settlement School is a part of our lives and part of our home.

C.M.: So, it was you and your mother and your sister. Did you have any brothers?

CONLEY: No, no brothers, just the family. Mom had one brother and one sister that were here when she came back. And they were here for years after that. But we didn't have any of our own, any in our family.

C.M.: Now how, I guess, I have the records of when you graduated. You graduated in nineteen twenty-seven.

CONLEY: That's right.

C.M.: So that would have been 2:00that period of high school would have been like after the first World War and things like that.

CONLEY: Yes.

C.M.: What was it like around here then? During that time, growing up during the war?

CONLEY: I don't know. It was just, each student practically that I knew around in the neighborhood. Each family had farms and so the children helped do chores on the farms. And we all went to the little one-room school first and then we, when we got to high school, we went to Hindman Settlement School. Everybody went to Hindman then. I stayed one year in the settlement.

C.M.: Did you?

CONLEY: But most of the time, we just walked from home or stayed with relatives down closer sometimes, down near the school.

C.M.: Now how long would it take you to get from here to school when you weren't living there on campus?

CONLEY: While 3:00school took up at eight o'clock back in those days. We were sure that we were on the road from here by seven. My mom always got us up early. Usually we had a little time to play, a little extra time to catch up on some studying or something when we got down there, before the bell rang. And of course, we had to dodge the mud holes and the wire fences. Sometimes we'd have to climb over and go through a field, rather than through the road, because it was so .... the water was up or the road was muddy. We had obstacles, but we made it to school every day.

C.M.: Now, did your mother go to school?

CONLEY: You mean when she was a young girl?

C.M.: Yeah, when she was young. Did she go to school?

CONLEY: She went to just a country school.

C.M.: Oh, that's fine.

CONLEY: To a one-room school. We could 4:00see it from this house up the road here, just a little ways. And that's where she went before she was married. And then she was married when she was eighteen. And then when she came back home, she was just in her early twenties. She just was a household helper and took care of us children. And sure did watch after us.

C.M.: Did she. [Laughter] CONLEY: Was meticulous with our clothes and how we behaved and where we went. We went to school and Sunday school and up to our grandfather's. We didn't do much visiting in those days. We'd visit cousins. And some neighborhood children that would come here and spend the night with us. And we'd go to their homes once in a while. 5:00And that was the extent of our social life.

C.M.: Yeah, the reason I was just asking questions about you first, is it's interesting to find out about the person and then we'll talk about your years being in high school and things. Now did you, you said you visited with cousins and things like that? Did your other members of your family live real close around here?

CONLEY: Well, we had my mom's sister lived. People in the neighborhood now, know where Doctor Sloane's home is? The uncle and the aunt and their family lived up in that branch there, just above the Sloane residence. And we could walk up there after we were large enough that mom could trust us, eight, nine and ten years old. We could walk up there, the two of us together. If we wanted to go spend Saturday night, or sometimes we'd go home with them from school. 6:00They came to the same school we went to. And once in a while on Friday evenings, we'd go home with them from school. And of course, this was their grandfather and grandmother, and so they were here quite often. We saw a lot of them. And then we had other cousins that lived around and about. They were ones that were the same ages that we were. And then we had some that were younger, that lived in between, just closer neighbors. And of course, we had to kind of play big sister to them when we went to their houses and when they came here.

C.M.: What was, what were the roads like? You were talking about, you had to dodge mud holes. Was there much of a road? I guess, what was it like to have to travel around?

CONLEY: Well, [Laughing] unless 7:00you could see it, it would be hard to explain.

C.M.: Okay.

CONLEY: But it was just, you know how a garden looks after it's been plowed, or a road after it's traveled and traveled? Of course, it was beaten down on the edges usually, because people walked and horses traveled and so on. But in the middle, where the wagons and vehicles traveled it was kind of rutted up and muddy. Sometimes there were mud holes. And you just didn't walk in the middle of the road much, you walked toward the edges. Wagons and horseback riders, the horsemen would go through the middle of the road. It was narrower than our roads now, 8:00most generally. I suppose most all of our roads back in those days had developed from what had formerly been Indian paths.

C.M.: I'd say you're right.

CONLEY: And some of them, the roads would run right into the creek beds. And you'd have to travel through that. Of course, when you walked there was always a little edge around somewhere you could surround it. That's where we had to go up and to climb up the wire fences and go through the fields sometimes.

C.M.: Oh goodness.

CONLEY: To keep out of the creek. If you were in a wagon or on horseback, you could go right on.

C.M.: Well, that's interesting. What was the town of Hindman like then? Or maybe when you were a teenager? When you were in high school?

CONLEY: Well, for me it, I guess it hasn't changed drastically since then. Naturally the streets were just like the roads out in the country. They 9:00were not paved. But somehow, they did keep the streets, I think Hindman had clean streets for a little community back at that time. And we had nice trees along the cement walks. Anyway, there were large trees along, in the summer. I remember it was shady in some places and very nice. And the hotels I remember they weren't elaborate hotels, but people could stay there. And the trees were kind of picturesque, I'd say. I remember that there was a silver maple that I always remember, that was in front of one of the places. And there was large shady, shades. And then of course, there was the bridge across Left Hand Fork, as Left 10:00Hand Fork ran into our main creek. It was a big bridge that was right kind of in the middle of the street of town. Horses would walk across it and you could hear their hooves resounding.

C.M.: Do you remember what sorts of stores were down there then?

CONLEY: Well, they were just kind of what you'd call general stores. We had the Hicks Lodge. Lodge Hicks, as we called him. He had been our grandparent's neighbor when he was a young fellow. He had the store right on the comer, just as you start down the main street, coming down from the settlement. On the comer there was the Hicks store. And it had, oh, the little case up in front had notions in it, like ribbons and needles and threads and doings like that. And further back was a shelf with some dry goods, 11:00bolts of materials that people .... mothers all made their children's clothes back in those days. So, you could buy your materials there. And there was another shelf on the other side of the store that had shelves that had shoes. And then there was a back room, where the, any kind of grocery things were kept. And I suppose maybe a few canned goods in a shelf somewhere. And then on down .... at the comer then just after you went on across the bridge, there was, we called him, Uncle Bob Amburgey. His store, and it was practically the same as Hicks. And then you went on down further. I don't know how to tell you where it was, kind of opposite, well not opposite 12:00.... the Duke property. That was the hotel there, the major hotel. And then there was a store on past that. And that was .... yeah, Uncle Bill Sturgill's. Everybody was uncle to us, you know, back in those days. [Laughing] They were older people. The Sturgills, I can remember going to that store. I don't remember too much what was there, except I remember the dry goods part. Buying materials to make dresses. But I'm sure it was similar to the others. On the other side of course, there was the Doctor Duke home and there was the Courthouse. And then there was what we called, we used to call it The Company Store. It had been put in, started as a company store. A lot of different men owned it. It wasn't owned 13:00by an individual.

C.M.: Okay.

CONLEY: But I think it was where Young's store later, everybody, if ones who can remember Young's Department Store there, that outfit. That's where this, as we called it, The Company Store, was. And it had more, you know, you could always go there and find things you wouldn't find at the other stores maybe. It was an interesting little place to go to. And then there was, let's see a drugstore in the back of it, I think, named in connection with somebody.

C.M.: So, there was several little stores down there then.

CONLEY: Yeah. Then of course, the churches were all just, a little further on down, just a little ways on down. On the hills, Methodist and down. [Doorbell rings] C.M.: Here let me...

C.M.: Okay, we were 14:00just talking about town, and you described what it looked like down there to me. Was town usually a pretty busy place to go? In general, during the week, or was it more of like a weekend ....

CONLEY: No, you just, it would be just like going over around Alice Lloyd or something like that, you know. Because you wouldn't see many people. You'd see people riding their horses and there was a place down in back of the Amburgey store where people hitched, from out of the county. There was kind of a hitching post down there. That people went, I guess it was under the back of the big building, where the horses would be out of the weather. Of course, the saddles would keep dry and the horses would be safe. And people who rode into town, that's where they usually left their horses. 15:00They might come out and go over to the Courthouse or to the doctor's. Oh, and we had Doctor Kelly down on .... where the ... .it was the parsonage, yeah, where the parsonage is. Baptist, the parsonage was Doctor Kelly's home. Now, you see, I'm not I don't know Hindman now. Because I don't go down there and look around. I just kind of have a general idea of what happens there.

C.M.: It doesn't sound like it's much different, really the way it's laid out.

CONLEY: To me, it doesn't look different. When I go down there. I don't see it so different at all.

C.M.: It doesn't sound like it, not to me. [Laughing] Let's see, I guess we can talk about your years in school a little bit. And did you just go to, you went to Hindman in high school, right?

CONLEY: Well, I went when I was in seventh grade.

C.M.: Seventh grade, okay. 16:00CONLEY: Do you want to know the teachers I had then?

C.M.: Yeah, the ones, yeah. Tell me about some teachers that you remember from your grade school years.

CONLEY: Well, that year I had, the same ones I had again in eighth grade the next year. Seventh and eighth grade we had Lula Hale and Mrs. Rose Craft and Elizabeth Watts. And I guess that's about, I know I had .... we had a music teacher I guess, but I've forgotten ....

C.M.: That's all right. What did Miss Watts teach? Do you remember?

CONLEY: She taught Arithmetic. That was what I had in her class, both 17:00in the seventh and eighth grade. And Miss Hale taught History and Geography. And Mrs. Craft taught English. I don't know. I guess that's all we had, Arithmetic, English and Math. What else did I have? I don't remember what all else we had in seventh and eighth grade. That was it mainly.

C.M.: Yeah, I was going to say that sounds like the main subjects that you take.

CONLEY: There were people that lived over in the settlement that we had extra things occasionally. Like going out for, on the ball field for exercises or play or something like that. Somebody had visitors in the settlement, we'd take care of things like that. We often had that kind of thing done for us, but we didn't have a regular teacher for gym then, at that time. 18:00Seems like I had sewing that year. I'm not sure, I believe I did. In the eighth grade I had a little class in sewing. And Mrs. Craft let us have a room up at her house and Miss Johnson, I think, from out in, near Lexington. A lady that was our teacher at that time.

C.M.: Did you like that class pretty well?

CONLEY: Yes, I liked it. I wasn't so good at sewing [Laughing] I liked the class. It was interesting. C.M.: Well, that's neat. So, at that time you just walked from home to school? CONLEY: Uh hmm. Well, sometimes, see our uncle lived down, up Tadpole hollow.

C.M.: Okay.

CONLEY: And if it was a real bad evening, we didn't come home. Sometimes we knew it was going to be real bad 19:00and sometimes we'd stay down there, oh, for a whole week. Momma would let us go down like on Sunday evening maybe. If it was really bad weather, we'd stay there through the whole week, and then go home on Friday evenings.

C.M.: That's good. So, you had a place that you could stay.

CONLEY: Sure, sure, yeah. An old couple lived up on the hill, just this side of where, is it the library? Where the library is, I guess. As you're coming up the road in this direction. And not everybody had telephones back then. We didn't have one up the hollow, up to Auntie's place. So, we'd stop up there at Uncle Rob's and call and tell Mom we wouldn't be home. If it was going to be a bad day, I mean bad evening. If it was raining.

C.M.: So, you had one at your house? Or you would call someone?

CONLEY: Yes, they had one here. 20:00And then they had one there. So, we'd stop by there and call.

C.M.: [Laughter] That was probably good though, so then you wouldn't get rained on or snowed on.

CONLEY: Yeah, we didn't have to travel so far if it rained. That was quite a little walk from school out, from the school and up that hollow. But it was better than coming all the way home, up here.

C.M.: Now, let's see, then in high school did you, you said you lived for one year at the settlement school?

CONLEY: I stayed one year there.

C.M.: Where did you live at? Do you remember?

CONLEY: I lived at the Little Girl's House. They kept, had a room for a high school girl, you know. Just an extra room for the girls, who were to help with the little children. And they always had two high school girls stay there. That () room was for the big girls. I wasn't a big girl, but I stayed there anyway. I was in high school, at least. And my roommate and 21:00I helped the house mother with the little children, with the little girls. They weren't so little. They were big enough to stay away from their mommas, of course. And stay there.

C.M.: What was it like living there?

CONLEY: Oh, it was interesting. We had such a, our house mother was, she was just such a motherly type of person. She was watchful and kind and gentle and, but she'd tell us what to do. But she'd speak very sternly to the little girls if they got out of place. She'd tell us what to do for them. And we'd tell her if we needed help. We didn't need help much, but it was just incidental. Our work was incidental. We didn't have certain things to do especially, except to watch if something came up. And some little girl needed something, then we helped take care of them.

C.M.: Do you remember your house mother's name?

CONLEY: She was Miss Barton.

C.M.: Barton, okay.

CONLEY: But I've 22:00forgotten, I used to know her first name.

C.M.: Oh, that last name is just good to have, Barton. And what was she like, kind of—I. What was her personality like?

CONLEY: Well, as I said a while ago, she was just a gentle, matter of fact. And she was organized, very much so. She was very considerate of us two girls. We liked it. We liked being her helper. Considering, if I was choosing in the settlement, I would have stayed with Miss Barton. [Laughter] C.M.: Would you?

CONLEY: Well, I didn't know the others that much, of course. I mean I liked her.

C.M.: So, what were your duties as her helper? What were 23:00some of the things you had to do, or were expected to do?

CONLEY: As I said, there was nothing special. We did not have -getting our lessons was the biggest thing we had to do at night. Anyway, we had to keep the premises clean. We'd go out with the little girls and help sweep the pathways. And place the chairs on the little verandah, the little front there. And if some of them were sick, we would go into their room and stay with them for a while. And the weekends they were going home, we helped them get packed to go home. If they needed help, little girls are always calling for help for something. So, we didn't have to hunt for work. But they would call and tell Miss Barton they needed something or other. Or she would see 24:00something they needed to have done. And then I had some other work besides that. I worked over at the high school every morning. And after the, I guess the boys swept the place, but it was left dusty. And two of us girls. I took one of the little girls with me. And we went over and dusted desks at the high school. The high school was a little log building at that time. It wasn't a big high school in those days. I don't know how many we had in the whole school, but I can remember the building wasn't too big. Anyway, we dusted the desks and things round about.

C.M.: Was there any other work that you did when you lived there? That you remember, like a specific job maybe 25:00that you did. Did you ever have to work in the gardens or the flowers or anything?

CONLEY: No, not that, not that kind of thing. The boys did the flowers and the gardens.

C.M.: Did you ever do any work in the kitchen?

CONLEY: Not then. I was there once for just a little while later and I did work in the kitchen, washing dishes. And washing pots and pans, that was just a regular routine. [Laughing] C.M.: I'd say there was always work to do.

CONLEY: Oh yes, yes. They found work for everybody.

C.M.: Let's see.

CONLEY: Oh, one thing we had a big, open fireplace, you see. The other girl and I took care of that. We knew about that from our homes, how to keep the cinders in place and how to keep the coal and the wood on the fire. 26:00Keep the buckets filled and the fire materials and what, things like that.

C.M.: Now, let's see. Do you have any memories of like different crafts that people worked on? I know that like they had the Fireside Industries at one point. Were you around that much? Like maybe the weaving or maybe basket making?

CONLEY: Well, I had, I was in a little class of weaving when I was a junior. We just, the looms were all threaded up, ready to go. I don't think we even threaded them up. But we'd just do a little weaving. And each of us was given the chance to learn how to follow the pattern and put a few threads in and weave. I learned, well, I knew that before I went because my grandma had a loom 27:00 here.

C.M.: Oh, she did?

CONLEY: And she wove. I was used to seeing that, but anyway, it's interesting to me to have it with the girls. Because I liked ....I can remember standing back and letting the other girls go, because I had the chance to do this at home. I remember the teacher says, now you're supposed to have your turn the same as anybody. She saw I wasn't going forward, you know, to take my place in line. I did weave a little bit on the thing we were supposed to be making at that time. I think it was just fifteen inches, seems like, something like that, runners. They used them over at the settlement in the living rooms of the dorms. Runners that were made there. The patterns, you know, we wove in patterns.

C.M.: So, there was a lot of weaving and things 28:00that were just used for everyday use? Did they, do you know much about them selling that stuff?

CONLEY: Well, I do know that they, see they got orders from different people in the settlement. And of course, Mrs. Stone, the Fireside, had orders from all over for particular items to be made. And they had these women that, community women that worked there.

C.M.: Oh, okay.

CONLEY: And wove coverlets and wove rugs and runners and pillow tops and things of that kind.

C.M.: So, it's mainly women in the community that worked to do that.

CONLEY: Community, yeah, that did that.

C.M.: Okay. Did you ever hear of some places that ordered things?

CONLEY: Well, I know that in Cleveland they ordered quite a bit. And naturally New York City, Boston, Massachusetts. That was Miss Cobb's home. She had friends that ordered from the settlement, of course. 29:00And oh, just lots of places. Mostly up east area, I guess was the better customers of the Fireside. But I know they didn't have any trouble to sell anything, I think. They had orders, there were orders ahead always, waiting for something to be made.

C.M.: Did they do much basket making?

CONLEY: Well, that was another thing that was done by people out around in the country. I'd say over on Bald Creek, was where the basket weaving mostly came from that I knew about at that time. And then we had one neighbor just up the road here, that did some basketry. But I don't know that she did so much for the settlement. 30:00But these people back over in the country were involved. I remember we all talked about Aunt Cora bringing her baskets, Aunt Cora Ritchie.

C.M.: Yeah, I've heard of her before.

CONLEY: And some people that she, her acquaintances and neighbors, I think, kind of did some. They sure had the nice baskets there. And I don't think they had much trouble to get rid of them when they got them in either.

C.M.: I'd say not. Was quilting a very popular thing to do? Did people quilt much?

CONLEY: Well, everybody everywhere quilted back in those days. And that wasn't such an item down there. It was, it was just some, but not that much. I know one thing they did, was the tufting, for making tufted spreads.

C.M.: What's that? I don't know.

CONLEY: You just kind of knotted design, you know, make a flower out of, kind of like knots 31:00of the colors.

C.M.: Oh, okay.

CONLEY: They did some of that. And used double, what we called double width sheeting, used unbleached sheeting. And they would, of course.

END OF TAPE 20 A 17a, VERTIE CONLEY, SIDE A BEGINNING OF TAPE 20 A 17a, VERTIE CONLEY, SIDE B CONLEY: A little bit tendency to have wavy hair and it was white. Well, it was red, when I can first remember. I can remember maybe when it was beginning to get a few little streaks of grey. But then the last I remember was her white hair. Is stood just a little bit touchy around her face, you know, gave her a frame, pretty. And she had a very delicate complexion, 32:00blue eyes. And she was Irish. And she was proud of it. She's always telling little jokes, well I'm Irish, you know. She was a humorous person, but yet she was a Christian lady.

C.M.: Was she?

CONLEY: She was very much so. You got that more from her than .... She spilled more of it out than the average teacher does. But naturally I had Social Sciences and things in her classes. And maybe that lead to reasons for finding it out.

C.M.: How did she get along with other people?

CONLEY: I never heard anybody that didn't like Miss Cobb.

C.M.: I haven't either.

CONLEY: I don't know anybody that ever said anything about her. Miss Watts had () [Whispered] [Laughing] That 33:00was her criticism of people. Some people were just all right to her and some people she just didn't care about, but -you know.

C.M.: Some people are like that.

CONLEY: Yeah. But she didn't hurt them, but she just didn't take them on. Miss Cobb just about took on everybody, but if she had to dismiss somebody, it was very, you wouldn't notice it that she was leaving them out.

C.M.: Let's see, maybe some other important, I guess, I mean, everybody's important. But other people you remember that were teachers there or that worked there. Maybe not teachers, maybe somebody that worked in the kitchen or just somebody that had a lasting effect on you.

CONLEY: Well, I don't know.

C.M.: Did you know Miss Furman? Was 34:00she there?

CONLEY: Miss Furman, Miss Furman, oh yes. I was going to tell you about the first time I met, where I got acquainted with Albert.

C.M.: Oh yeah, you need to .... Well tell me about that.

CONLEY: He was staying at the Little Boys' House with Miss Furman. And in the evenings when the bell would ring, the supper bell would ring. Miss Furman would bring her little boys. I told you, you know where Miss Furman's house used to be there, about where the library is, right beside the road. And anyway, she'd bring all those boys, march them down that walkway. And across, clear down there and across that bridge and over to the Orchard House, as we called it then. And up the steps and into the dining room. They almost marched in formation; you know. She'd keep them all together. And I can remember Albert coming skipping along in front of her. He was the smallest one in the outfit there. And he'd come skipping along in front of her, then he'd run back. And he'd get a hold of Miss Furman's hand. [Laughing] See I was, his two sisters were there, and I was 35:00pretty good friends with them. That's why I watched their little brother. And I'd see him come skipping, that's why I remembered Albert, because I knew it was their little brother. And I'd stand there over on that porch and watch them come. You'd could see them come marching. We'd have to stand on the porch until the doors were opened to go into the dining room. From all over the campus, and us from the Little Girls' House, and so on. We'd go and stand on the porch until the dining room doors opened. And while we were standing there, I can remember seeing Miss Furman and her boys come marching. But she was, I don't know, I just don't know how she did it. But she just kept those boys together and they were, they were just super. When they were in Miss Furman's care there was nothing went wrong, as far as anybody else ever knew. She had them well under guard. And they respected her. And she respected them, but she respected them with a little paddle if they needed it, I think. 36:00[Laughter] Being boys, she'd have to, I guess.

C.M.: Had to keep them in line, I guess.

CONLEY: Keep them in line, yeah. She was a highly, highly respected lady in our community. There's a book, you know, Miss Furman's book.

C.M.: Uh huh.

CONLEY: Maybe one book that I read, I don't know. Open Window, Open Window, was that it?

C.M.: Glass Window.

CONLEY: Glass, glass, that's it, yeah. Yeah, sure, Glass Window. They hadn't had glass windows. She was describing the homes before they had glass windows, that's right.

C.M.: I was trying to think if there were any other teachers or people around. Were you in contact with James Still any?

CONLEY: I wasn't there, after he was there.

C.M.: Okay, yeah, that's what I thought. You graduated before he came.

CONLEY: Yeah. I remember though, 37:00when he came. I remember I was working in the store down there in Hindman. He came into the store. And he, I think he brought me a book. He had one maybe. Anyway, we were looking at a book, I remember that. Something, one of the new books out, or something like that. He was telling people in town. He was dropping in at all the stores and getting acquainted with people. And I remember thinking, well now the settlement's never had menfolks much, but I think it's a good thing. Thinking, and the library's a good place to start, I thought. I remember I was kind of happy to know that he was there. And when I met him, I thought he had something that would be of help to the settlement, to the boys. I thought the boys need some boys on campus.

C.M.: Because, I guess, were there any men really around?

CONLEY: Not on the campus anyway. Well, we had our 38:00high school principal, Jeb Smith. But he lived up there in the Craft House. See, he wasn't in the settlement, wasn't connected to the settlement, really. But he was with the high school. And then we had Clark Pratt, who was one of our teachers. And I don't remember anyway, nobody that stayed in the settlement. But there were boys in the settlement. And I thought, well now, this is just what they need. Somebody in the library. And I thought, there, the library, well that's a good place to have a man. That will lead the boys into the library. I kind of connected the thought there, you know. And that's good.

C.M.: That is true. I hadn't thought of that. Do you remember any of the, or have memories of maybe, people that worked in the kitchen or cooks from the year that you were there? Or anybody? Just other workers, maybe not teachers 39:00or administrators, but people that worked there.

CONLEY: Yeah, let's see. Who did work there? I remember -can't think of her name. What was her name? She was Combs, before she was ever married. Cora, Cora Johnson, she was Cora Combs, when she was a young girl. She was a... .I don't know if you knew the Bray's, Molly Bray?

C.M.: No.

CONLEY: Lived right across, right up from the kindergarten building. She lived on the hill there. Cora was her sister. Cora lived down 40:00Montgomery, or somewhere that direction, I think, at that time. She worked in the kitchen. And Martha Adams, Martha Fields. To me she was always Martha Adams. She lived up here, when I was a child, you know, and she was a younger person. She was a young person back then. At the time I was at the settlement, she had a family, but she would still come down there and work. Cora and Martha and Ellen Maggurd. But Ellen had, I guess at the time I was staying there, Ellen had moved away before that. But I remember Ellen walking down with us, when we walked to school. And she worked down there. She lived there where Knott Central is, and she walked down to the settlement to work, down to the kitchen.

C.M.: Oh, okay. She worked in the kitchen, too.

CONLEY: She worked in the kitchen. And I remember she walked 41:00down the road with us sometimes. Oh, I know I should remember.. .. Well, did you ever know, Elizabeth Wadell? They live right there at the mouth of Tadpole Hollow, is where the Wadell family lived. But she was Elizabeth Hammond, and she was from over Litcar way. But she was, she had gone, when she was a student, she worked in the kitchen. And then she went back and was supervisor of the kitchen of ours after she was older.

C.M.: So, several people in the community had jobs up there.

CONLEY: Oh yes, oh yes.

C.M.: Well, that's good.

CONLEY: Oh yes, they always had a crew there. And sometimes somebody worked six weeks, sometimes they'd work a month, sometimes they'd work a whole year. 42:00And I know there were different ones .. Surely if I could just think of the people, but right now I don't know. They don't come to mind.

C.M.: Oh, well that's okay. That's all right.

CONLEY: That's a few of them.

C.M.: Yeah, no, that's good to just get a few. It's nice to know their names, so we can have that.

CONLEY: Yeah, of course I can tell you where they lived. [Laughter] C.M.: Well, I think that's pretty good to remember all that. I don't know if I'd be able to do that. One thing I was curious about. We were talking about, I've talked to different people, you know, that lived at the settlement. I know that everyone ate their meals together. What was that like, kind of, having a big dining room and sitting down to supper?

CONLEY: Well, it was just great for me. I don't know. I had talked to other students that had stayed there and they'd tell me what they felt and what it was like. And how they served the things and so on. It was different from 43:00what we did in our homes, understand that. But I liked it. Because I can remember Mrs. Keezle at one table. Mrs. Keezle was our high school principal. And she sat at the head of the table. And I just happened to sit at the comer right next to her. And there were other students down this way. There were eight of us, ten of us, I guess. Was it eight? Right now I can't think what it was. I believe there were ten of us at the table, four on each side and then the host and hostess. Mrs. Keezle sat at the head of the table and Miss Priest, I remember at that time, sat at the other end. She was the other hostess. And then we had, I don't know if you've ever heard of Virgil Sloane. He used to be a person concerned about the settlement.

C.M.: No.

CONLEY: He was a very popular 44:00young man that stayed in the settlement at that time. And we had, at the table that I sat, and Beckham Miller, Gladys Triplet and Malcolm Sloane. Malcolm was from over at Pippa Passes way. And the ones that were down my line, I don't remember. But the ones I could see across the table, why I remember.

C.M.: Well, that makes sense.

CONLEY: Mrs. Keezle and Miss Priest. Miss Priest is from western Kentucky. She was from Henderson County. I guess it was Henderson. Henderson was the thing anyway, that she wore on her sweater, anyhow. I 45:00mentioned Gladys, didn't I?

C.M.: Uhhmm.

CONLEY: Because Virgil teased Gladys so much. He's like a big brother, you know.

C.M.: He teased her?

CONLEY: He teased her. She was about twelve years, I guess. She was the little girl at our table. [Laughing] And he aggravated her. They fussed and it was just fun for the rest of us to hear it. But Mrs. Keezle would help them out. She'd straighten it out, you know. She got a kick out of them. And I believe Elsie Bollen was down that side, on my side. I don't remember.

C.M.: Did you sit with those same people usually?

CONLEY: Hmmm?

C.M.: Did the same group sit together?

CONLEY: The same group sat together a whole semester, I guess. Yeah. Well, now on Sundays, Sunday nights, 46:00we had lined up the chairs. The tables were moved back, and the chairs were lined up, straight lines. Like two, I think it was two lines over here and two lines over there.

C.M.: Okay.

CONLEY: Facing each other. And then we had the girls that worked in the kitchen. They had girls that helped in the kitchen. I think were the ones that served the supper, brought the sandwiches around. I guess we took our big napkins and got a chair and sat down, and then they'd come around. And so we had our little snack on Sunday night. And of course, we'd always sing some little, you know, appropriate song. Now the day is over, Night is drawing nigh. Shadows of the evening, Steal across the sky. 47:00That was the one that we sang. [Laughing] And just something like that. Of course, I forgot, naturally we had blessing at each meal. I think we... .I remember one lady, a Miss Morrison, that was there. I remember that she gave the .... she said the blessing most of the time. And I'm trying to think who else was there at that time, 48:00that would have been remembered. In my class, there was my cousin, Bert Pigmon and there was Sheldon Mayard. Let's see, Beecher Allen was from over Hueyville, that's where Beecher was from.

C.M.: These were people in your class?

CONLEY: In my class, yeah.

C.M.: Oh, okay.

CONLEY: I think it was the boys, and then the girls, Siba Stamper and Grace Ritchie, May Bailey, Docia Fugate. And I'm leaving out somebody.

C.M.: Do 49:00you remember? About how big was your graduating class? Do you remember?

CONLEY: There were eighteen.

C.M.: Eighteen people.

CONLEY: We had a big class. That was a big class then.

C.M.: Was it?

CONLEY: Just before us, there were twelve. And in Alma's class there were seven. Then of course, there were other numbers all in between, in all those years. But that's the ones I happen to remember. There was eighteen of us.

C.M.: What was graduation like? The ceremony.

CONLEY: Well, we all sat on the stage and I guess the girls sat on the front row and the boys sat on the back row. Then different ones gave their little speeches. And then the girls all wore .... we were supposed to make our own dresses. But I didn't make mine. [Laughing] But anyway, I had a white dress. And 50:00then we had a speaker from town, usually Mr. Smith, I guess. I'm pretty sure he spoke at our graduation. He did most of them.

C.M.: Okay.

CONLEY: Mr. Hillard Smith. He was a lawyer and a father and a citizen and an active person in the town. He usually spoke at the graduation exercises. And then of course, all the seniors. I think we didn't all -I didn't give a speech at the final. We had to give our speeches at different times. But they picked out special ones to do at the finals, appropriate more for the services, I guess. I wrote about Knott County. What I know about Knott County. [Laughing] C.M.: That's what you gave your speech on?

CONLEY: Pardon?

C.M.: That's what you gave your speech on?

CONLEY: Yeah. 51:00And Alma was showing somebody the other day, a picture of Uncle George and Aunt Jane Childers. Two older people that, older, oldest citizens of the town, of course. They lived back of, well back of Beckham Comb's place, up in that territory. Anyhow, I went over to their place and got pointers on the history of the county. And Alma was showing somebody Aunt Jane's picture the other day. And I said, "Well she gave me my pointers for my· senior speech." Anyway, there was maybe four or five of them that gave their speeches at the real graduation.

C.M.: At the graduation?

CONLEY: And of course, we marched in. [Hums] Kind of like a bridal march. What is it that they use at....what do they call that?

C.M.: Pomp and Circumstance. 52:00CONLEY: Pomp and Circumstance, yeah, I'd even forgotten the name.

C.M.: I don't know why I remembered it, probably because I've been to so many graduations this year.

CONLEY: Anyway, we marched in twos and twos. And we came up, we always had graduation exercises in that old elementary building. And we came up the stairs in different lines and then you'd come together just before you'd get to the little three steps up to the final platform. Then you'd come in through the big doors, and march across and up the main aisle and separate and then go up on the stage. And sit in your chairs.

C.M.: Well, that sounds neat.

CONLEY: And Alma said the other day, she said, "I haven't seen a graduation in forever." She'd like to see one like we used to have, you know, with the dignity and performance of everything. And 53:00kind of a reverence for everything, like there used to be. It was so quiet you couldn't hear a pin drop. Everybody just step and step, and the music. You'd sit down and nobody moved, nobody-you'd better not have to clear your throat. [Laughing] C.M.: Well, I guess you were expected to be on your best behavior then.

CONLEY: Oh, you surely were. Let's see, Mrs. Keezle and Miss Watts and Miss Cobb and all those were from up there in the elegant country, around in Massachusetts, up that way. They led the show and so everybody went along with them.

C.M.: So, they're the ones who implemented all that.

CONLEY: Implemented, yes.

C.M.: Oh, okay. I didn't know that.

CONLEY: We had Miss Parker there, back when I was in the seventh and eighth grade. She 54:00died the year I was in the eighth grade. She got sick at vacation time, Christmas vacation. And she died. And they had to get another. That's how come Mrs. Keezle was there. Mrs. Keezle was teaching a little, kind of a community outfit up in Lebum. And she came in to take Miss Parker's classes, that year. It was just all of a sudden, and she couldn't make any plans. Mrs. Keezle was certainly a great help to be able to stop in and take over. She was a large woman and she had kind of a bearing. But she was, you know. She could make friends with anybody, but she could put them in their place, too.

C.M.: That was Mrs. Keezle?

CONLEY: Mrs. Keezle. Yeah. Miss Parker was quite an elegant lady. She sure had things in hand. 55:00And everybody in town stepped to Miss Parker's voice. She was respected very much. She roomed up at the hospital, you know. Where...is the hospital there now?

C.M.: Uhhmmm.

CONLEY: Yeah. That's where she had her room, up at the hospital. And I don't know what happened to her. I've forgotten just what it was. I think it was, just something, kind of a hemorrhage.

C.M.: That's awful.

CONLEY: And of course, in the middle of, in the winter here, and before the day of automobiles. There wasn't any way of getting her out to a doctor at that time. But she didn't last long enough, 56:00I think, after they found out she was sick, to get to a doctor.

C.M.: It sounds like it. That's awful. Let's see, I've asked you about graduation and people you remember. One thing that we were, that I've been interested in, is what was Christmas like? Was that a pretty big deal at the settlement school?

CONLEY: Well, I wasn't there at the Christmas season, seems like. But I know of course, when you went to school there, you talked to all the students, you heard a lot about what went on at the settlement. And they had their Christmas ... . I know they were always given lots of gifts, before they were let go home at Christmas. Nice things that people, friends of the school sent in, bunches of stuff, of course. The children were given nice things. We 57:00always had the Christmas program that was for the town, and for the school, generally.

C.M.: What was that like?

CONLEY: Well, it was certainly, good Christmasy stories that we had. People had practiced and were so concerned and had special people in special parts. And they had a Christmas tree on the big stage and all the decorations, tinsel and this, that and the other, the star and what have you. It was really interesting. To us it was breathtaking [Laughing] that time. It was very good.

C.M.: So that was for everyone to come to.

CONLEY: Everyone, yeah. And we always had programs at Easter. And I remember I was there at Easter, and we had the service in the Sunday afternoon, at the settlement, being part of the school. And we gave a program 58:00 then.

C.M.: What sorts of things would you all do during an Easter program?

CONLEY: Mostly singing.

C.M.: Singing?

CONLEY: And I suppose, I'm sure there were other things. But that's the part I remember. Because that's what I remember having to practice with the Glee Club, for the Easter program.

C.M.: Were you part of that?

CONLEY: The Glee Club?

C.M.: Uh huh.

CONLEY: Oh yes.

C.M.: What sorts of things did you all do in the Glee Club?

CONLEY: Well, we just sang. Sometimes we'd have programs, and we'd get on, we'd sing from the stage. Sometimes we'd just get in a group in front of the audience and so on. I guess we gave special programs for like, at Thanksgiving. We plow the field, Let's see scatter the good seed on the ground But 59:00it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand. [Laughter] Is that the Thanksgiving one?

C.M.: It sounds like it to me.

CONLEY: Well, I remember that, singing that one. And then at Easter we sang-What do you sing at Easter? My goodness sakes. I can't think now.

C.M.: I'm not sure. Sounds like you all kept busy though.

CONLEY: Oh yeah, there was something all the time that we had. Of course, the Home Ee classes for seventh and eighth grade and high school. All different classes in high school. The boys had their woodwork. And then after graduation exercises were over .... at the kindergarten. The boys, what the boys, well -yes, 60:00all the things that had been made by the students were on display at the kindergarten. I can remember the folks in Hindman and around the neighborhood, were especially interested in what the boys had made at the workshop. Pieces of furniture, like little end tables and sometimes really tables and even some made beds, the whole bedstead. Some made bureaus, at times. Different things, that I remember at different times. I don't know, just rocking chairs, anything you'd build at a workshop, carpentry shop. And Drew Morgan, one of the Morgan boys, was for a long, for a long time, was the shop director. And then 61:00Jethro Amburgey was there for a long time. His wife, by the way, was my weaving teacher. Mrs. Amburgey was my weaving teacher, and he was teaching shop work at that time. So, when we had demonstrations, had exhibits at the kindergarten, we had both of their products there. These things were on display, you know.

C.M.: What sorts of things did you learn to do in that Home Ee class that you were talking about?

CONLEY: Oh, we just learned to cook mainly. And we learned, we had to serve. Learn the proper way to serve. And then we had to be a guest at a dinner. We played a guest at a dinner. And then we had to be the hostess at a dinner and invite someone there.

C.M.: That's neat.

CONLEY: I 62:00remember once we had, were going to have the dinner and I was hostess and I had asked Gertrude Smith. You know Elizabeth's sister? Older one, Gertrude? I was going down that morning and her mother just happen to come out on the porch or something, as I was going by. She says, "Now, I want you to watch Gert today. And don't let her eat too much." Gert had told her mother that she was going to be my guest that day. I thought, well I'm getting around. [Laughter] C.M.: They were talking about you.

CONLEY: They were. Talking about me.

C.M.: Okay, let me stop this.

END OF TAPE 20 A 17a, VERTIE CONLEY, SIDE B 30 BEGINNING OF TAPE 20 A 17b, VERTIE CONLEY, 63:00SIDE A C.M.: All 64:00right, we got all that worked out. I had a few more questions. Tell me about some of the, maybe some of your friends or people that you remember from your time at the settlement school. Like a best friend or somebody that you spent a lot of time with when you were a girl.

CONLEY: You mean, when I was at the settlement school or just when I was just in the school?

C.M.: Just when you were in school.

CONLEY: Well, my best friend, the one I was closest with was Lake Nature. And they had the Nature Hotel just off the hill from the Methodist Church. I don't know what's there now. That's where I went to visit. That's the one home in Hindman that I did spend some time. When I'd go to, into the store or into town for something, 65:00or I'd have a, have a lapse between times or something. I'd go out there to their house. Anyway, Lake, she was in my class the first year I was in the seventh grade. And we kind of got acquainted. And so, we studied together some. She was my special friend all through high school, from the seventh grade on. But then I knew other people. There were so many of them in town. Lena Sturgill was a large girl. And see, I was the smallest girl in the class. They called us Mutt and Jeff. And just for fun we would march, like when we had to come from the high school up to the chapel, grade school. On Fridays, when we had our joint meetings. We'd be marched together a lot of times 66:00from down at the high school like that. Of course, somebody was always hollering Mutt and Jeff. But anyway, we enjoyed that. We studied together, we could get along good, studying, working out our Arithmetic, studying our English and what have you, at recess time. Or sometimes mornings when we'd first go for school. I just liked everybody in my class. And then the year that I stayed at the settlement, I roomed with .... My roommate was Docia Fugate. She was in that class, too.

C.M.: Did you get along with her pretty well?

CONLEY: Oh yeah, we got along good. Of course, she couldn't come out in town. And we, I couldn't see her, except the year that I roomed with her. Other times I'd go to town, like evenings after school I'd be seeing ....they called, 67:00Lena was called "Moose". I'd see "Moose” sometimes down in town. But anyway, I just knew everybody, and I liked all of them. Siba Stamper, she was a sweetie. She was outgoing. She was a very pretty, little girl. She was from over Dwarf.

C.M.: So, what sorts of things, maybe would you all do together? When you were with your friends in town. Or just things that girls would do then.

CONLEY: Well, Lake's mother had the hotel. So, we washed dishes. We baked pies. We did things like that. Sometimes we'd have a little spare time. She played the piano. And she'd play and I'd sing with her and things like that. She'd come up here, we'd go to the hills, see what we could gather, mountain tea, chestnuts, beech nuts, hickory nuts, 68:00whatever. When Granny's turkeys got lost, we went to hunt them and bring them in. [Laughter] Things of that kind, what we do here on the farm. She'd come up here and stay some time. I think, now the Day family. I don't know if you've ever heard of them before. Kell Day and Katherine Ritchie Day? Kell and Katherine?

C.M.: No.

CONLEY: They lived down there, just across ....l don't know Hindman now. Just across the creek, oh, I guess you know where Carlie Hall's home was? Mabel and Carlie?

C.M.: No.

CONLEY: On down the road, just past, going down Main Street. Hindman. And it was across the creek 69:00on the left, across over that way is where Kell and Katherine lived. And they let Lake, my friend, have a senior party at their house one time. Katherine see, Lake's mother was one of the Ritchie's related to Jean Ritchie's family, you know. And Katherine was one of them, Kell's wife.

C.M.: Okay.

CONLEY: So that way they told Lake she could have a party at their house. Of course, her mother couldn't have it there over at the hotel. And we had a good time. We made, oh pu1led candy and moved the things back in the dining room and had a square dance, just had a lot of fun. That was our senior. That was our big doings for our Senior Class that year, I think. [Laughing] C.M.: Did you all go to many square dances or have square dances a lot in town? 70:00CONLEY: No, no. Not much, not really, not often. Just now and then, we did that. That got going when Top of the Hill came in fashion. You know, they called it, Top of the Hill, Jones Fork Hill. That was the, what did they call it, Blue Moon, Blue Moon Cafe.

C.M.: Was up there? CONLEY: That was what was on top of the hill. That was the dancing of Hindman area. That part took place out there. Of course, us girls didn't get to go there.

C.M.: Right, right. Well, let's see, we've talked, I've probably about talked your ear off. But, trying to see if I've left anything out. 71:00Do you think there were many changes in the settlement school from the time you started going there until the time you graduated, maybe, changes?

CONLEY: I would say not too much. Whatever changes happened to the settlement was slow and gradual, because you'd hardly be aware of it. Because they had very strict rules. And now I think it's very good that they kept them that way. Back then we thought that some of the children that stayed there were under very strict supervision. But that's all right, they had to be. You take that many youngsters from .... other people's children from all over the territory around. I can see why the authorities would want to make sure that things were kept in order. 72:00And straight doings. They didn't, they didn't vie for changes too much. They just accepted things as they were and built on what they had in a constructive way. And just kept going on. As I see it, I don't remember particular changes.

C.M.: Well, now, what did you do after you graduated? What did you do after that?

CONLEY: Well, I went to Berea the first year after I graduated. And then that year when I came home, I stayed out the next year and taught the little school right up here. Where I started school. I started my teaching career. And I taught that year there. And then after that, I went over to Alice Lloyd. Alice Lloyd had come on the map at that time. And they were accredited, so 73:00I went over there then after my school was out here. I went to Alice Lloyd next year then, I went to a little school over, back over in the county. Some of the other students in the community had been needing jobs, so I kind of stepped aside. I didn't go back for this one up here again. I went over there.

C.M.: Oh, okay.

CONLEY: Near the lake. It was called the Spider school at that time. Spider was the post office. Then another time I went up to, back to Alice Lloyd. I went back over there. After school was out, I could go for the next semester and Spring term over there. And then I went to, up over at Mallet, that school there. I taught that one, one year. 74:00That's when I went back to Berea, and I stayed. I just stayed at Berea until I had finished then. It was about a year and a half, I guess, that I went there and stayed. I went for the second semester in that year. I stayed that semester, went to summer school, the whole next year and the whole next summer at Berea before, before I took off anymore. I'd saved my money, so that I could stay there that long.

C.M.: So, it was important to you to, I guess, keep going.

CONLEY: Oh yes, to keep going. And then after that went back to, no -First I went down in Bell County. This classmate of mine had started a school, so she had, 75:00was expecting and she had to stop teaching. So, she called me that year. And I went about five or six months of her school, that I taught down there, down in Bell County. That was my first year back from Berea.

C.M.: Sounds like you stayed busy.

CONLEY: I did. [Laughter] In the meantime, when I first got back from Berea that Fall, Mrs. Lloyd hollered for me right at the start and I went over there. But then measles broke out and she had to close the school down. So, I was here at home with not a thing to do. And then this classmate from Bell County called me down there. So, I went down there. And then I just around and about. I was teaching on the head of Salt Lick and let's 76:00see, a friend of my husband's. I got married in the time .... [Laughter] A nephew of my husband's came up there one day in a big truck. Said they want a teacher down to Garrett. I didn't know what, I didn't know what to do with it. I just wasn't expecting it. I just up and made the decision. High school, teaching high school and so I got down there. And I stayed there for five years, at Garrett High School. And then we came back up to Mousie. We built a house up at Mousie. We thought that was kind of the center of going and coming. [Laughter] C.M.: Right. You'd been to so many different places.

CONLEY: Then I taught at Mousie a year or two. I don't remember exactly how long. 77:00I lived there and lived among the people, spent more time than at the schoolhouse, which is why I don't remember exactly. Then one year they had a loss of a teacher over at Vest. They wanted an English teacher. So, I thought, well now, I need to renew my English and they need a teacher. So, I went over there that year.

C.M.: So, you've taught all over.

CONLEY: All over the county.

C.M.: Well, that's pretty neat.

CONLEY: But I liked every place. I don't know, the people were just. I guess living here with my grandparents. See, I lived here with my grandparents and my old-timey uncles and aunts and so on. And then my other grandparents, my dad’s parents lived next farm up here, you know. So, I had them and their old-timey doings. And you go out over this county, I found the same thing everywhere I went. It wasn't such a big problem for me, as little as I was, to handle it. I liked it. People treated me good. [Laughing] C.M.: Well, that's good. 78:00CONLEY: All I'd ask for. I still have a lot of feelings and a lot of thoughts for all those communities. When I hear tell of some of the people, I sit up and listen.

C.M.: Well, I don't blame you, that's interesting, to have that many experiences.

CONLEY: It is. I say the Lord has surely been good to me, and to Alma and me both. Because it looked like things were against our mother, twenty years old, left with two babies, you might say. But she brought us here and our grandparents and the folks just took us on. And we just grew, like Topsy we grew. We just grew, but we enjoyed it all. They had a good Sunday school up here, one thing. And had good mission work in our community here for a while. It was here before the 79:00First World War. It had always been good Sunday schools since my grandma had, had her family here. I don't know how good of a Sunday school. Well, if it's Sunday school at all, it's good. It's better than not having one, of course. They'd always had that kind of help for raising children. Now I look back and I think, what would this community have been if we hadn't had that Sunday school? We went to school, but then you didn't get contact with the neighbors like you did when the mothers and daddies were all together at the church. And we had that up there.

C.M.: Right. Yeah, that is good that you had that opportunity.

CONLEY: It certainly, certainly it helped me when I went to Berea. Because that is a Christian 80:00oriented school, of course. And we had to study Bible and so on. If I hadn't had those little Sunday school classes and stories and all that, I'd have been in real bad shape studying old Dr. Walker's, History of Religion. [Laughing] C.M.: That's hard stuff to remember, I know. Well, I guess I just have one more question for you, unless there's .... If there's anything you feel I've left out, you can tell me. My final question is, how important was, I guess, how important has it been to you, your education and your opportunities that you got from going to school up at Hindman? And living, even, just you lived there for a year. Just the education that you got from there. What has that meant to you?

CONLEY: Well, the book learning was one thing. It was good. I'd say we did have some superior teachers, 81:00I think, at that time. Not that I learned all that I was supposed to, but I certainly couldn't criticize the teachers, knowing teachers over the years, as I do. And what I did as a teacher and how hard it is to do that for individuals. I think we had some wonderful teachers. And naturally that was a great help. It's day by day by day by day, you find that those things are helpful and great to have in your background. And then the association and the type of leadership that we had was just beyond imagination in this territory, as it might have been without it, is how I see it. I think it was great. I guess I heard it 82:00commended by my mom and my granny and granddad and all my folks. They were all appreciative of what was being done. And now and then you got somebody down there that was way offkey. But you know, they'd be handled in some way or another. You didn't worry about it. Somebody in town would handle, take care of it. Most of the time I'd say, such a, such a, for that many people was unbelievable to have the results that we had. And I think it was just the good Lord's mercy and his helping hand that got us those people. Well, it started out as the WCTU, Women's 83:00Christian Temperance Union. And of course, the Christian theory still was held on to all through it.

C.M.: Right.

CONLEY: One thing that I do remember that I appreciated a lot, was the fact that we did go to Sunday school down there, as a group from our house. All the students went. You went to whichever Sunday school you liked. You went to the Baptist or the Methodist, whichever you wanted to go to. And we did have our Bible study at the settlement. Sunday nights was Bible class. What little children of this territory around didn't have. Most of us didn't know how to even find the scriptures. We wanted to find it, we wouldn't know how to go about finding 84:00it, until we had some help like that. I had my stories and things in the little Sunday school classes in the church. But I didn't really have Sunday school scripture study like we had there. It helped. That and numbers and numbers of things. I guess if I started mentioning, I'd just keep on. But the advantages, there are lots. The togetherness of the community, it helped about that, a great deal. rm sure now, looking back, I can see that. Our community was together on things. And something we needed to have done, they could push forward and accomplish what it was.

C.M.: Well, is there anything that I've left out maybe, 85:00or haven't asked you, that you think would be important about the settlement school?

CONLEY: Well one thing, if you couldn't pay your tuition, you could go back in the summer and work and pay your tuition.

C.M.: Oh, okay. How did you pay to go there? That one year when you lived there?

CONLEY: I stayed in the summer.

C.M.: You stayed in the summer.

CONLEY: We washed down walls, did whatever. I worked at the hospital. We cleaned the hospital. A bunch of us girls. They had girls out of town mainly, came in to work. Docia and I, both stayed. My roommate at the Little Girls' House. We both stayed that summer.

C.M.: So, that's how you paid your way through.

CONLEY: That's how I paid my tuition. Of course, my other expenses, my mom and them had furnished other things, my clothes, my books, what have you. But tuition that I owed, I stayed and paid that. That 86:00was an advantage for country children. And for mothers that didn't have any way to pay for their children's tuition. Lots of single mothers, well now for instance, Al Stewart's family. See their mother passed away and left them children with nobody to really look after at home. And their dad brought them over to the settlement. Of course, he was just an old, farmer, country man, but anyway he, I don't know what his occupation was now. He managed to kind of support the children. And then some of the older members of their family, one daughter lived in Cleveland. I mean Detroit, I believe, at the time, Chicago, somewhere anyway.

C.M.: Yeah, I think you're right.

CONLEY: She helped with the children, I'm sure. But all in all, 87:00it was helpful that they could stay and be given chores to help on the campus through the summer.

C.M.: So, even if you didn't have money.

CONLEY: If you didn't have money.

C.M.: You could still come.

CONLEY: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

C.M.: That's interesting.

CONLEY: I'd better quit thinking.

C.M.: I'll turn this off too.

END OF INTERVIEW