The Last Soul of Witherspoon
Life in a Kentucky Mountain Settlement School
by
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"Mrs. Strode frequently used an expression to describe any student she perceived to be hopeless. 'That one is not to the manor born.'"
She had three major duties: teaching Latin, protecting the books in the library, and remembering where she was at any given minute. . . . My time in her class lasted less than one of those minutes. . . ."
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About the Book
THE LAST SOUL OF WITHERSPOON takes a “global” approach in its history of the school.
Readers will find this book to be autobiographical as well as a social history told on three levels.
Herein is a story of a person from Long Shoal in Lee County, Kentucky, whose childhood innocence collides head-on with adolescence while a student in the mountain settlement school of Witherspoon. Readers will find at the end of the story a battle-scarred but still standing youth, heading off to the next stage in his life, having gained much in the way of character development, one who “gave as much as he got.”
The second level of the story traces four generations of families from the Civil War to the 1950s, including their pedigrees, feuds, and religion.
Also included is a history of Witherspoon College itself, with an emphasis on benefactors from Brooklyn, New York. The story here provides a personal contrast of “old-time religion” versus what one writer has termed “denominational imperialism.” Religion is referenced a great deal, but this is not a religious book.
About the Author
Alex Browning is one of the last students to attend a settlement school in the Kentucky mountains, first named Witherspoon College.
Since his years at the school, he completed college and a master's degree program at Morehead State University. He also completed post-graduate work in psychology at The Ohio State University and in school administration at Wright State University.
Alex's career covered forty-three years in several areas of education, from teacher to counselor to school psychologist to school superintendent. He now is retired and living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also spends time each year restoring a historic home built in 1843 near Lebanon, Ohio.
Photo reprinted with permission from Charles Bertram/Lexington Herald-Leader