Grace Nettleton Home Papers

The Grace Nettleton Home for Girls was established in 1900 and remained in operation under the aegis of Lincoln Memorial University until 1956. The Home was founded by Mr. and Mrs. Franklin E. Nettleton of Scranton, Pennsylvania and named in memory of their daughter, Grace, who passed away when she was twelve years old. Officially opened in 1900 with six girls under the administrative and caring guidance of Miss Emily Winters of Springfield, Massachussetts, the Home was located in Harrogate, Tennessee, The Grace Nettleton Memorial was incorporated in 1904 and became the "Girls' Industrial Home and School". As it expanded its' service to the community, the school ministered to the needs of hundreds of young girls who were homeless, motherless, and friendless in the mountains of the Cumberlands.

The home began as a vision of Rev. Arthur Aaron Myers, a Congregationalist Minister who had settled at Cumberland Gap around the year 1890 with his wife Ellen (nee Green Myers), in their fulfillment of missionary work to advance the spirit, education, and qualities of life for the mountaineer children. Mr. Myers' vision led to the establishment of Lincoln Memorial University in 1897 and the Grace Nettleton Home three years later.

Rev. Myers went to the churches in New England, in New York and Pennsylvania, wherever he could secure a hearing, telling his story of the needs of the mountain youth of the Cumberland Gap region. As a result of the Nettleton's benevolence, Myers was able to purchase the vacant Harrogate Inn, which perched on a hill, and 19 acres of property overlooking the Lincoln Memorial University campus to the west. The Home could accommodate approximately 40 girls each year.

From 1900, when the Home was started until her death in 1914, Miss Winters was a very courageous and unselfish Superintendent who advanced and served the noble service of the Grace Nettleton Home. Miss Winters had been highly recommended by Theodore Roosevelt, as she had been a former governess to the Roosevelt family. Later, Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt sent books to expand the library at the Home. In 1904 the Home was incorporated, and was nondenominational, its object being "The Glory of God, in the Industrial, Secular, and Religious Education and care of needy and deserving girls, emphasizing the daily teaching of the 'Word,' and to aid in maintaining religious services in the neighborhood."

Upon the death of Miss Winters in 1914, the Home was administered by Miss Elizabeth Jackson. Later superintendents included Miss Corinne Taylor, Mrs. Leone Ragland, Miss Catherine Smith, and Mrs, Roger Smith, Miss Mossie Overton of Cumberland Gap served for several years as secretary and treasurer of the Home, and chairman of the House Committee. Mrs, D. G. Hinks and others served ably as presidents of the board; and such University administrators as Stewart W, McClelland, W. L Jones, and Robert L. Kincaid would give it their whole-hearted support. In 1904 the Home was incorporated as a separate institution, and remained, technically, as such, except for a brief period before World War I when LMU's Board of Trustees was called upon to administer it.

The 1933 Reverend Avery Address to the LMU Alumni Assocation states that the home was taken over by LMU in 1917 under the guarantee that all the home's funds and endowment would be kept separate and distinct and be remitted to the home's superintendent to be used at that individual's discretion.

The Home functioned in part as a girls' industrial school. Many of these girls left the home at age fourteen to complete their education through high school, and even college. Over a thousand active citizens received their training at the Home, becoming teachers, nurses, and sound and resourceful homemakers.