The Campbell’s Influence on the Appalachia’s

During the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s, the Appalachia’s were in changing times. As industry and railroads started to come through, the people needed change. The change would come in the form of a foundation and two important people. The Russell Sage Foundation and the Campbell’s were important to the Appalachia’s because of the work they did socially to change and help the society.
Starting with some background information about the Russell Sage Foundation. Russell Sage began his career in the grocery business and went on to make a fortune in the railroad and telegraph industries and as a Wall Street financier. Upon his death he left his large fortune to his wife Margaret Olivia Sage. (Russellsage.org) Margaret Olivia Sage (1828–1918) established the Russell Sage Foundation as the nation’s first general purpose foundation with an initial gift of $10 million, part of the fortune she inherited upon the death of her husband, Russell Sage, in 1906. Mrs. Sage directed the new foundation to pursue research and programs for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States of America.” (Russellsage.org) The setting up of the Russell Sage Foundation paved the way for the John C. and Olive Dame Campbell to embark upon the research that they were destined to do.
John C. Campbell was born in Indiana in 1867. He graduated from Williams College in 1892. After receiving a bachelor of divinity degree, Campbell accepted a position as an administrator of an academy in North Alabama. This was his first introduction to mountain culture. The passions for the region John developed that first year remained with him for the rest of his life.
In 1901 John was appointed to a superintendent’s post at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia. He soon was elevated to dean and eventually became president of the college. After the death of his wife, He met Olive Dame on a cruise to Europe. The two were married in 1907 and began a lifetime partnership dedicated to social research, charity, preservation, and educational outreach in Appalachia.
In 1908 John was selected to conduct a survey to determine social needs and their remedies within the Appalachian region. He and Olive set out in a covered wagon trekking the wilderness and back roads from Georgia to West Virginia. On occasion they were able to travel by rail; at other times the remoteness of their destinations required they walk into deep hollows and isolated coves to make contact with their inhabitants.
Along the way, John interviewed rural farmers about the culture and practical matters of Appalachian life while his wife collected and learned the traditional handiwork and folklore of the region. They shared the same idealism found in many young professionals of the era and were determined to provide aid through a combination of education and humanitarian endeavors. During their travels, John became one of the first to distinguish and map Southern Appalachia as a distinct region. He popularized the name Southern Highlands, after concluding that the Scotch-Irish were the dominant ethnic strain within the local population. He formed the term from “American South” and “Scottish Highlands.”
In 1912, the survey’s efforts were given a more formal existence when the Russell Sage Foundation created a Southern Highland Division. It established an office in Asheville, with John as its director. From that time on, John and the Southern Highland Division became virtually synonymous, working tirelessly to facilitate social cooperation and improve the quality of mountain life.
For the Campbell’s, the years after 1912 were busy. One of their greatest dilemmas was identifying a way to modernize life in the Southern mountains. Campbell realized that the “Americanizing” of the region also threatened its native traditions. Campbell determined to preserve Appalachian culture through education.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States was a country of forward progress. The idea of the persistence and preservation of traditional culture was out of step with most thinking. The Campbell’s were years ahead of their time. They adapted a unique European education model for Appalachia, the “folk-school or people’s college which combines the cultural – the mountaineers’ want – with the cooperative spirit – the mountaineers’ need – while giving training through cooperation [in order to] better the economic conditions.”
The Campbell’s efforts were religious as well as instructional. They championed the spirit of the emerging Social Gospel, a movement that insisted spiritual benevolence be accompanied by social aid. They were not overly zealous in their personal beliefs but believed in the creed of service and charitable sacrifice as a part of the individual’s connection with both a heavenly God and an earthly community. They encouraged the establishment of a Synod of Appalachia within the Presbyterian Church in order to focus the denomination’s national attention on the peculiar problems of the mountain region.
With the financial support of the Russell Sage Foundation, John C. Campbell was instrumental in organizing the annual Conference of Southern Mountain Workers. The Conference brought together regional agencies in order to facilitate cooperation, bridge differences, and create opportunities. With John as director, the group was successful in developing and implementing social service techniques appropriate for rural mountain conditions. After John’s death in 1919, Olive chaired the conference for almost ten years. (Osment, 2008) In 1925, Olive set out to found a “folk school” that her and John had always talked about. With the help of Marguerite Butler, Olive looked for a location for the new school. After searching around the Appalachia’s, a fellow by the name of “Uncle Luce” Scroggs came to beg her for a school. (Whisnant, 1983) He begged for a school “which will help the county, not just make preachers and teachers.” After visiting the community, Olive found a warm response and decided to locate the school at Brasstown, NC. The curriculum was broad based to include forestry instruction, travel, history, public health, mechanical drawing, and a wide variety of agricultural subjects. (Stahl, 2007)
To say that the Campbell’s and the Russell Sage Foundation weren’t important to the Appalachia’s and Western North Carolina would be a grand understatement. The work that John C. Campbell did in his lifetime was far greater than one could imagine. From surveying to setting up the Southern Highland Division is work is still present today. The John C. Campbell Folk School set up Olive Dame Campbell is still in operation in Brasstown, NC. Their feats and work are still around our everyday lives.

Osment, T. (2008). John C. Campbell. Retrieved from http://digitalheritage.org/2010/08/john-c-campbell/
Stahl, B. (2007). The people: Olive dame campbell. Retrieved from http://www.wcu.edu/library/DigitalCollections/CraftRevival/people/olivec ampbell.html
Celebrating 100 years of social science research. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.russellsage.org/sites/all/files/u4/Brief HistoryofRSF.pdf
Whisnant, D. (1983). All that is native & fine. (p. 139). Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.