Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Pledge card for L.L. Scroggs and Family

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Item
  • As a means of supporting the idea of locating the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, members of near-by communities pledged labor, building materials, time, and money. These community-initiated donations were recorded on uniform pledge cards in 1925 which identify the school as "the Danish Folk School, being located somewhere near the mouth of Little Brasstown Creek." Local storekeeper Fred O. Scroggs collected and witnessed the pledges. The concept of a folk school was introduced to the Brasstown community by Olive Dame Campbell and Marguerite Butler, who spent over a year in Scandinavia studying alternative rural education and several months in search of a receptive Appalachian community. It was important to Campbell and Butler that their ideas were not imposed on the community, but rather that they cooperated with the people to achieve the goal of uplifting the rural community. These pledges represent the community's investment in the school.
Object
  • As a means of supporting the idea of locating the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, members of near-by communities pledged labor, building materials, time, and money. These community-initiated donations were recorded on uniform pledge cards in 1925 which identify the school as "the Danish Folk School, being located somewhere near the mouth of Little Brasstown Creek." Local storekeeper Fred O. Scroggs collected and witnessed the pledges. The concept of a folk school was introduced to the Brasstown community by Olive Dame Campbell and Marguerite Butler, who spent over a year in Scandinavia studying alternative rural education and several months in search of a receptive Appalachian community. It was important to Campbell and Butler that their ideas were not imposed on the community, but rather that they cooperated with the people to achieve the goal of uplifting the rural community. These pledges represent the community's investment in the school.