To spend a day in the hill "flower picking" was one of the "greastest enjoyments" of girls years ago in Harlan. They didn't need a special occasion to send them to the hill to gather trillium, mountain laurel, blue bonnets or golden rod.

"I recall very well the day the picture was made," said, one of the girls. They were preparing to decorate the stage for the last day of school play. She described the fun of climbing the hill with baskets to fill with ferns and flowers.

Some of the girls sought the delicate violet for a bouquet for Miss Delora B. Osborne, their teacher. Few of them carried back heart leaves and purple gentians.

Long ago the custom originated of expressing one's feelings with flowers. Still, as in days gone by the lily denotes innocence; the for-get-me-not, friendship, and the laurel, fame.

Garlands In Hair

"We've spent many hours gathering clover blooms," one of the girls said. They tied them together for garlands for their hair and dress trimmings. Almost any Saturday a dozen or more girls donned their best dresses and wide brim hats to shade them from the sun, and went up the path to Ivy Hill for an afternoon of flower picking.

Old Presbyterian Academy,h3>The girls attended the old Presbyterian Academy. Many, many years before the Academy was erected, education was rare in the county. If you could read, write, and "figure a little" you were considered pretty well educated.

About the year of 1860 a Gross family lived in North Carolina. The five grown sons decided upon an adventure into other states. Each one chose a different state.

Edmond Gross decided upon Kentucky. Will Turner heard about Gross being here and that he had an education. The first thing he did was to find the Gross man and persuaded him to teach his two children how to read, write, and "figger a little".

Others Become Interested

In payment for the teaching, Turner gave him 150 acres of land at the head of Straight Creek. When the news traveled around that edmond Gross was going to teach the Turner children to "figger", several more children became interested.

The classes were taught under a big sycamore tree across the river near the site of the Capitol Cleaners building. That was said to be the beginning of education in Harlan County.

Sunday February 14, 1954

Volume 53 Number 37

Pages 1 & 5

Click Here to return to Main Harlan County Page