Piney Woods Country Life School Records (Z/2111)
Dates: 1864; 1913-1975.
Original materials in boxes 8, 14, 15, and 16 are restricted; reference photocopies and photographic copy prints must be used instead. Oil paintings in box 9 are restricted; permission of manuscripts curator is required for access.
History:
Piney Woods Country Life School
The Piney Woods Country Life School is located in Rankin County, Mississippi, twenty-one miles from Jackson, and near the Simpson County towns of Braxton and Star. The school was founded in 1909 by Laurence Clifton Jones with the purpose of providing the rural black community with academic, moral, and practical training in agricultural and industrial trades.
Jones began teaching informally under a cedar tree in the fall of 1909. He had twenty-nine students within three months. The practical education Jones offered created support for his school from both the black and white communities. Edward Nelson Taylor, a former slave, donated fifty dollars and forty acres, deeding the property to the trustees of the Piney Woods Industrial School. A sheep shed on Taylors property served as immediate shelter for the school. John Runnels Webster, a white sawmill owner in nearby Comby, Mississippi, then donated ten thousand feet of lumber and extended credit for a school building, which neighboring black farmers helped to build and named after Taylor. The Rankin and Simpson county school superintendents succeeded in obtaining for Piney Woods an appropriation for a teachers salary from Rankin County. Both black and white community members attended the closing exercises at the end of the first school year, which consisted of students demonstrations of the skills they had learned, including harness repair, sewing, and swine raising.
By the start of school in the autumn of 1910, Piney Woods had five teachers and a student body of one hundred that included adults as well as children. Local support for the school continued in the form of individual gifts, such as a piano acquired through the sale of a bale of cotton by farmer Amos Gibson, or donations by communities such as Braxton, which donated funds for the construction of a dormitory for the female students in 1912. On May 17, 1913, with the backing of prominent local white leaders such as Major R. W. Millsaps, of Jackson, and R. F. Everett, president of the Braxton Bank, the school was chartered by the state of Mississippi as the Piney Woods Country Life School. By the 1920s, the school had grown to include three hundred students, eighteen staff members, permanent buildings of masonry and stone, its own water system, and fifteen hundred acres of land.
To accomplish this, Jones solicited financial support from both his out-of-state contacts and from Mississippians. Born on November 21, 1882, in St. Joseph, Missouri, Jones had graduated from Marshalltown High School, Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1903 and from the University of Iowa in 1907. Jones frequently returned to Iowa for fundraising, and he continued to renew and extend his contacts there. In 1911, the president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, Colonel Asa Turner, lectured at Piney Woods. Iowans sent boxes of used clothing, books, and other goods to Piney Woods where these items were traded for money or farm produce. This practice became an institutionalized event at the school and was known as "Lunky Day " in honor of "Aunt Lunky," a former slave of the family of George W. Dulaney of Iowa. The family also gave funds for the construction of Dulaney Hall, a girls dormitory, completed in 1921. W. O. and E. C. Finkbine, two of the members of the fraternity at the University of Iowa where Jones had waited on tables, donated to Jones eight hundred acres of land in Mississippi for the school. In 1912, Jones married Grace Morris Allen, who accompanied him to Piney Woods, taught English, handicrafts, and spearheaded many outreach and extension activities until her death from pneumonia in 1928.
As it grew, Piney Woods continued to create bonds with the surrounding community. In 1911, Jones acquired a printing press, and the school began issuing its newsletter, The Pine Torch, which Jones edited. Still published today, The Pine Torch served to solicit support and inform contributors of the schools activities. During World War I, Laurence C. Jones chaired the black Red Cross for two counties, was the only black executive of the First United War Work Drive, and served as state and county speaker for the Liberty Loans campaigns. Piney Woods sent fifty students to war and offered programs on farming for returning veterans.
From its establishment until the 1950s, the school also provided services for the community that were not yet attainable through county or state organizations. That community included inhabitants of Rankin and Simpson counties. The school offered various formal and informal extension programs. Faculty and students taught neighboring farmers agricultural practices; caroled at their homes at Christmas time; rendered nursing assistance during illnesses such as influenza; or helped with recovery work after disasters, among them a tornado that hit Braxton in 1921. Grace Jones organized activities for women, including a Mothers Club, which taught the women of the area housekeeping methods, sewing, childcare, and nutritional practices. The school hosted farmers conferences and participated in fairs. In 1917, Jones contracted with the Mississippi Department of Education to provide normal-school training for three hundred black teachers. Beginning in 1929, Piney Woods added a school for blind children. The Piney Woods school for the blind was the only one in Mississippi for black blind students; Helen Keller would visit it in 1945. Receiving a state appropriation in its early years, the school remained active until the establishment of the Mississippi School for the Blind in Jackson in 1950, which would be run by the teacher then working at Piney Woods, Martha Morrow. From 1931 until the 1960s, the Piney Woods curriculum also included an additional two years of junior-college training.
Piney Woods grew during the early twentieth century through a combination of self-sufficiency and effective public relations. The students and faculty built the first buildings at Piney Woods, quarrying limestone and making bricks. The school ran its own infirmary, fire department, and post office. The family of Albert Alexander Hyde, founder of the Mentholatum company, donated a herd of Ayrshire cattle to the Piney Woods farm in 1920. Through the students efforts, the crops grown provided half of the food required by the school. To raise money in the early 1920s, Grace Jones established the Cotton Blossom Singers. Primarily performing spirituals, the singers split into different groups and toured the country, traveling in "house-cars"; Jones himself designed an early version of this vehicle. In 1927, more elaborate "house-cars" with bunk beds and cooking facilities were donated by Albert Alexander Hyde and named in his honor. After the death of Grace Jones, the Cotton Blossom Singers continued to function under the leadership of Eula Kelly Moman. They had regular programs on a number of radio stations into the 1970s. The Cotton Blossom Singers continue to exist at the school today; they received the Heritage Award in 1998, one of the Mississippi Governors Awards for Excellence in the Arts.
The promotional efforts of this group were joined by those of other student groups. These included the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, an all-girl jazz band that was active at Piney Woods from 1938 through 1948. They played such venues as the Apollo theatre in Harlem and toured Europe with the USO in 1945. Further publicity was gained by the school in the 1930s and early 1940s through the development of a semi-professional baseball team.
During this period, members of the Jones family, Iowans, and returning students helped make up the faculty and staff. Among them were a cousin of Jones, Clarence E. Dishman, who started work as office manager and secretary to the board of trustees of Piney Woods in 1929, and his wife, Bertha Dishman, who directed the choir. Zilpha E. Chandler, the only resident white teacher in 1943, had come from Iowa where she had earned her doctorate, chaired the English department, and raised $100,000 for the library which was completed in 1948. Eula Kelly Moman, manager of the Cotton Blossom Singers, was a former Piney Woods student, as was Singleton Bender, who entered the school in 1925. Bender was first a Cotton Blossom singer, and then the groups manager. After serving in the United States Army during World War II, Bender earned a masters degree at Southern Illinois University. He became vice-principal at Piney Woods in 1954 and served in that capacity until his death in 1970.
From the 1920s through the 1940s, Piney Woods survived on the revenue of its touring singers, private donations, and endowment money that Jones had raised. The schools financial situation was improved substantially in the 1950s, however. On December 15, 1954, friends of Laurence C. Jones arranged a surprise appearance for him on the popular national television program, This is Your Life. The host, Ralph Edwards, asked his viewing audience to send in a dollar per person to support the efforts of Jones. Funds raised from this request totaled $700,000 and formed the basis of the Laurence C. Jones Foundation. In 2001, over half of the annual budget of Piney Woods was covered by funds earned from that endowment, with the rest by donations.
Laurence C. Jones continued to serve as president until 1974, and died the next year. During his life, he accumulated honorary doctoral and masters degrees from such institutions as Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, Cornell College in Iowa, and the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In 1955, he was honored with a special state celebration in Mississippi during which Governor Hugh White declared him "Mississippis First Citizen." In 1981, Jones became the first black to be admitted to the Mississippi Hall of Fame. Jones was succeeded as president by James Squire Wade in 1974. He served until Charles H. Beady, Jr., was named president in 1985.
Physically, the school continued to grow. In 2001, the schools property included two thousand acres, five hundred of which are made up of a working farm and woodlands. These include a nature trail whose development was supported by the United States Bureau of Land Management, which awarded the school its Health of the Land Award in 1996.
The structure of classes at Piney Woods has changed from its beginnings. In 1909, the first students at Piney Woods were a mixture of adults and children, and there was no organized class system. By 1918, the school was divided into grades, and at first included an elementary school. From 1923 through the early 1950s, the elementary students were taught at the Rosenwald Elementary School on the Piney Woods campus. The elementary school was discontinued in the early 1980s, revived with a pre-kindergarten program, and discontinued again in 1995. By 2001, the school consisted of a boarding school for grades seven through twelve, with an enrollment that numbered over three hundred students in 2000.
The emphasis of the curriculum offered at Piney Woods has similarly shifted. Certain elements remain the same. Uniforms remain mandatory. In 2001, the board of trustees continued to mandate that sixty percent of the student population be drawn from low-income families. But while the tripartite division of non-denominational religious, academic, and practical training persists, the balance of emphasis of these elements has shifted. Under Laurence C. Jones, who stressed the dignity of labor, Piney Woods focused on academic subjects that could be applied practically to agriculture and the mastery of two or three trades. In the early 1920s, boarding students worked hours that extended from half to full days. By the 1970s, the work requirement had decreased to fifteen hours a week; it was ten hours a week by 2001. Under the leadership of James Squire Wade, the Piney Woods Schools emphasis on academics as well as vocational training grew, and new buildings were added, including ones for chemistry and computer laboratories. Under Wade, the school received the highest accreditation (AA) awarded by the Mississippi Department of Education and had its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools confirmed. Charles H. Beady, Jr.s administration has seen new programs added to the curriculum, such as Junior ROTC, but it has also promoted a focus on academics and college preparation in the school curriculum. In 2001, academic achievement was considered a primary goal of the school, and students were required to maintain a C-average weekly. This goal appears to have been met successfully. Since 1995, Piney Woods has won recognition nationally and has had repeated success in placing its graduates in institutions of higher learning. In 2001, all of the graduates of Piney Woods were accepted into colleges or universities.
Scope and Content Note:
This collection consists of Piney Woods Country Life School administrative records; financial records; school grounds and equipment files; public relations and outreach materials; photographs; paintings; publications; and newsclippings.
The administrative records are composed of minutes of board of trustees and committee meetings; correspondence of school principals; business correspondence; records concerning fundraising activities, the recruitment and training of faculty and staff, the admission of students and the recruitment of prospective students, the evaluation of faculty and students, and the administration of specific school programs; and student compositions.
The financial records include forms, receipts, and reports related to annual budgets and expenditures. Many of these files contain accounting and purchasing statements, appropriations, budgets, insurance records, and tax information. The financial records also include copies of legal documents relating to endowments.
The school grounds and equipment files concern buildings, equipment, and supplies, as well as farm administration. The public relations and outreach materials are related to alumni and student activities; graduate placement; and promotional publications. Additional materials include newsclippings, paintings, photographs, and publications.
Series Identification:
Series 1: Administrative Records. 1921-1975; n.d. 135 folders.
Subseries 1.1: Minutes (Board of Trustees and Committees). 1940-1957; 1965-1973; n.d. 13 folders.
This subseries includes minutes of board of trustees, executive committee, and finance committee meetings of Piney Woods.
Box 1, folders 1-7 (1965-1973; n.d.)
Box 2, folders 1-6 (1940-1957; n.d.)
Subseries 1.2: Correspondence (Jones, Bender, and Dishman). 1921-1973; n.d. 12 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence and other documents of Piney Woods founder and principal Laurence C. Jones; vice-president Singleton Bender; and board of trustees secretary Clarence E. Dishman. The files cover the day-to-day business of the school, as well as the personal business of Jones, Bender, and Dishman. Broad topics include campus activities, current and former employees, prospective and former students, and letters to several contemporary writers discussing articles they had written. Of particular interest are letters from Pearl S. Buck and J. Edgar Hoover. Also included are letters and memoranda of Jones, Bender, and Dishman regarding such matters as committee appointments and the duties and shifts of night watchmen.
Box 1, folders 8-13 (1940-1973; n.d.)
Box 2, folders 7-12 (1921-1946; n.d.)
Subseries 1.3: Correspondence (Business). 1921-1974; n.d. 67 folders.
This subseries contains letters, receipts, and forms concerning the daily business of Piney Woods and its relations with other schools and businesses in surrounding communities. There are letters, brochures, and invoices regarding the purchase of such items as stationery, programs, and postcards for the school, as well as letters of inquiry to various newspapers about advertising rates. Highlights of this subseries include correspondence between Jones and other leaders of historically black colleges and schools sharing information and encouragement. Arrangement is both alphabetical and chronological.
Box 1, folders 14-46 (1921-1974; n.d.)
Box 2, folders 13-23 (1924-1960; n.d.)
Box 3, folders 1-9 (1944-1955; n.d.)
Box 4, folders 1-11 (1937-1959; n.d.)
Box 10, folders 1-2 (n.d.)
Box 11, folder 1 (n.d.)
Subseries 1.4: Correspondence (Fundraising). 1930-1937; 1947-1957; 1965; n.d. 14 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence related to Piney Woods fundraising, and although some letters were personalized by Jones, most followed a basic formula, especially during the 1956 campaign to construct a new building, probably Ralph Smith Hall, the boys dormitory. Five files contain correspondence with Albert A. and George A. Hyde of the Mentholatum Company. The Hydes, through their company and the Hyde Benevolent Society, were large supporters of the school. The correspondence is primarily concerned with the Hydes sale of a "house-car" to the school for the use of the Cotton Blossom Singers; their monetary gifts and loans to the school; and their help in establishing the schools Ayrshire dairy cattle herd.
Box 3, folders 10-18 (1956-1957; 1965; n.d.)
Box 4, folders 12-16 (1930-1937; 1947-1953; n.d.)
Subseries 1.5: Correspondence (Recruitment and Training of Faculty and Staff). 1941-1943; 1949-1975; n.d. 13 folders.
This subseries primarily consists of correspondence with Piney Woods job candidates, but some of it is also concerned with searches for faculty and staff members. Several of the files are for specific positions such as a band director, matron, and science teacher.
Box 3, folders 19-29 (1949-1975; n.d.)
Box 4, folder 17 (1941-1943)
Box 6, folder 1 (1967; n.d.)
Subseries 1.6: Admission of Students and Recruitment of Prospective Students. 1926-1945; 1953; n.d. 2 folders.
This subseries concerns the admission of Piney Woods students and the recruitment of prospective students. One of the files concerns the enrollment of Hawaiian girls who were actively recruited by the school.
Box 4, folder 18 (1953)
Box 6, folder 2 (1926-1945; n.d.)
Subseries 1.7: Evaluation of Faculty and Students. 1965-1973; n.d. 5 folders.
This subseries regarding the evaluation of Piney Woods faculty and students is composed of a few ratings of faculty from the late 1960s and a number of student ratings from the 1960s and 1970s. Unspecified assessors rated faculty and student performance levels, and appropriate remedial measures were recommended for students with poor grades.
Box 6, folders 3-7
Subseries 1.8: Administration of Specific Programs. 1942-1958; n.d. 3 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence and documents concerned with the administration of specific Piney Woods programs, such as the school for the blind and vocational rehabilitation.
Box 4, folders 19-21
Subseries 1.9: Student Compositions. 1943-1974; n.d. 6 folders.
This subseries contains student compositions, including poetry and prose honoring Jones or Piney Woods. Several of the essays merited cash awards.
Box 4, folders 22-23 (1943-1973; n.d.)
Box 6, folders 8-11 (1944; 1968-1974; n.d.)
Series 2: Financial Records. 1864; 1913-1972; n.d. 30 folders.
Subseries 2.1: Accounting and Purchasing Statements, Appropriations, Budgets, Insurance Records, and Tax Information. 1929-1972; n.d. 12 folders.
This subseries includes Piney Woods accounting and purchasing statements, appropriations, budgets, insurance records, and tax information. Independent auditors apparently reviewed the school budget periodically, and several of their reports provide detailed information about school expenditures in various departments. A few of the financial reports are damaged, but most of the information is still present. Financial needs and fundraising efforts are represented in several files, and there are several general financial statements. Only a few files record specific purchases of equipment and supplies.
Box 4, folders 24-29 (1929-1958; n.d.)
Box 6, folders 12-17 (1943-1972; n.d.)
Subseries 2.2: Legal Documents and Endowments. 1864; 1913-1959; n.d. 18 folders.
This subseries includes legal documents and endowments relating to the finances of Piney Woods. Although a few files bear donors names, most endowment files are arranged chronologically. Items of interest include a trust agreement for the Laurence C. Jones Foundation.
Box 5, folders 1-18 (1864; 1913-1959; n.d.)
Series 3: School Grounds and Equipment. 1926-1973; n.d. 36 folders.
Subseries 3.1: Buildings, Equipment, and Supplies. 1926-1973; n.d. 31 folders.
This subseries contains files concerning Piney Woods school buildings, equipment, and supplies. Included are correspondence, catalogs, receipts, and other papers concerning a number of specific buildings such as the boys dormitory, dairy barn, and library, as well as more general correspondence and brochures for kitchen, laundry, and office equipment. Several files concern school utilities such as air-conditioning systems and the waterworks. There are also files documenting the food and gas rations allotted to the school during World War II. An undated township plat is highlighted to indicate the schools property in Rankin County.
Box 5, folders 19-22 (1926-1948; n.d.)
Box 6, folders 18-23 (1956-1973; n.d.)
Box 7, folders 1-15 (1935-1954; n.d.)
Box 10, folders 3-5 (n.d.)
Box 11, folders 2-4 (1944; 1957; n.d.)
Subseries 3.2: Farm Administration. 1934-1946; n.d. 5 folders.
This subseries includes correspondence and informational brochures relating to agriculture, the dairy, and irrigation on the Piney Woods farm from 1934 to 1946.
Box 6, folders 24-25 (1944; n.d.)
Box 7, folders 16-18 (1934-1946; n.d.)
Series 4: Public Relations and Outreach. 1922-1975; n.d. 38 folders.
Subseries 4.1: Student Activities. 1928-1955; 1972; n.d. 13 folders.
This subseries consists of Cotton Blossom Singers and Piney Woods Singers/Campus Chorus materials; two oversize Cotton Blossom Singers posters; Little Brown Cubs baseball team fundraising correspondence with potential donors and the American Legion; and seven road maps of various states.
Box 6, folders 26-27 (1933-1939; 1972; n.d.)
Box 7, folders 19-26 (1928-1955; n.d.)
Box 11, folders 5, 6, and 9 (1940-1950; n.d.)
Subseries 4.2: Correspondence (Alumni Activities and Graduate Placement). 1930; 1963-1974; n.d. 6 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence between Piney Woods personnel and alumni from 1963 to 1974. Jones wrote a number of letters to the alumni. There is also a 1930 mailing list and form letter and a 1970 program honoring Piney Woods alumnus and assemblyman Woodrow Wilson of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Box 6, folders 28-32 (1963-1974; n.d.)
Box 7, folder 27 (1930; n.d.)
Subseries 4.3: Piney Woods Promotional Publications. 1922-1975; n.d. 19 folders.
This subseries contains Piney Woods promotional publications, including The Pine Torch newsletters and various circulars. The collection includes scattered Pine Torch issues from 1922 to 1953, but most Pine Torch issues are present from 1954 to 1975. There are also several newsclippings, publications, and speeches relating to Piney Woods, such as A Pictorial History of the Piney Woods Country Life School.
Box 6, folders 33-49 (1922-1975; n.d.)
Box 10, folders 6-7 (1958-1959; n.d.)
Series 5: Photographs. 1912-1931; n.d. 0.79 cubic ft.
This series includes Piney Woods photographs, panoramas, scrapbooks of photographs, contact sheets, and negatives. They are all black-and-white in format except for one color photograph of an unidentified woman. Most of the photographs depict faculty and students or buildings at the school. There are numerous depictions of the construction of various campus buildings. Other photographs of interest include those of the graduating class of 1931 that identify each student. Noteworthy events such as graduations are often represented in addition to the candid shots of everyday life around the school. The annotated photographs and the annotations in the scrapbook reveal a number of historical facts about the school from 1954 to 1975,. There is an index to slides taken between 1961 and 1971, but these slides are not in the collection. However, this index includes detailed descriptions of the slides and focuses on the progress of the school during that decade. There are two photocopies of the scrapbook entitled "Twenty One Years of Progress at Piney Woods School" that were made before the photographs were removed for preservation reasons. The scrapbook devotes some attention to the growth of the school, especially to the differences between old and new facilities. The photographs that were once part of the scrapbook are now filed in separate folders in box 12. Boxes 14 and 15 contain fragile original photographs that are restricted, but copy prints of these photographs are present in boxes 12 and 13. Box 16 contains fragile original negatives that are restricted.
Box 6, folder 50 (n.d.)
Boxes 12-13: See Appendices 1 and 2
Boxes 14-16 (restricted)
Series 6: Paintings. n.d. 3 folders.
There are three undated oil paintings of unidentified buildings, perhaps located at Piney Woods.
Box 9
Series 7: Publications. 1923-1973; n.d. 8 folders.
The publications include catalogs, pamphlets, reports, and other printed materials. There is a 1928 Report of the Survey of Negro Business conducted by the National Negro Business League. Also included is a typescript of a 1972 interview of Jones conducted by Dr. Ray Skates of the University of Southern Mississippi for the Mississippi Oral History Program. There are also several catalogs from technical colleges and schools, a publication from Puerto Rico, and miscellaneous publications.
Box 6, folders 51-54 (n.d.)
Box 7, folders 28-30 (1923-1973; n.d.)
Box 10, folder 8 (1947; n.d.).
Series 8: Newsclippings. 1929-1945; n.d. 6 folders.
There are a number of newsclippings and a few newspapers concerning Piney Woods. Some of the publicized events include articles related to the founding or history of the school; political events such as the indictment of Bura Hilbun, former state supervisor of black schools; and local agricultural activities.
Box 7, folders 31-33 (1929-1943; n.d.)
Box 10, folder 9 (1943-1945)
Box 11, folders 7-8 (1944)