A College For Appalachia: Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek

A College For Appalachia: Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek by Searles, P. David. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780813118833.

Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd was a New England woman with a mission in life. In 1916 she settled on Caney Creek in Eastern Kentucky, determined to bring higher education to this remote corner of Appalachia. The school she founded, now Alice Lloyd College, continues to serve the area and its people and to stand as a tribute to Lloyds remarkable energy, determination, and vision. Lloyds program combined a rigorous academic curriculum with an intense effort to instill a sense of service in the schools graduates. This education was provided free and required only that the students abide by Lloyds strict rules of conduct and pledge to remain in the mountains after graduating. In the first full-scale study of Lloyds life and work and the institution she founded, David Searles shows how this courageous and complex woman struggled throughout her long life against seemingly insurmountable odds to create an institution dedicated to improving life in Appalachia. But, as he acknowledges, Lloyds fundraising activities relied on harmful stereotypes that caused resentment among her mountain neighbors, and she often angered others working in the mountains. Despite the negative aspects of Lloyds activities, Searles casts serious doubt on the now fashionable conclusion that the women who came to the mountains to do good created more problems than they solved. Lloyds story, he argues, demonstrates that much good was indeed accomplished and that the people of the mountains recognized and appreciated her achievement.