18 May Working Under the Star – Part V
Part V: Aunt Margaret
In 2019, I received information from a niece and nephew about their aunt who had attended an American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) summer workcamp at the John C. Campbell Folk School in 1946. They had just read the three-part post “Working Under the Star” on the Folk School website that described the workcamp. The new information they provided was added to the post as Part IV: Aunt Cophine. Primarily it provided a keen insight into the character of the individual campers. All previously available material was project-focused, with little personal insight. The update was a valuable addition to the post and well received.
Time and COVID passed…in the fall of 2025, Lin Riffle of Columbus, Ohio, found papers and photographs that her aunt Margaret Hollingsworth had left about her summer in the 1945 AFSC workcamp at the Folk School. Lin then contacted the School to offer the material, and it was readily accepted by the archives. Lin and her husband brought the package down to the school and attended Fall Festival in October 2025. The material was just what we hoped for – about the personality and character of the individual campers through letters and many photographs. So, here we go again…the best way to document the new additions was decided to be Part V: Aunt Margaret.
Margaret Hollingsworth applied for the Brasstown AFSC workcamp in May 1945 and had an encouraging phone conversation with Louise Pitman, who was head of the Craft Department at the Folk School. Margaret left by bus on July 3, 1945, and arrived 29 hours later on July 4. The fare was $11.00 one way. The AFSC chaperone picked her up at the bus station in Murphy and brought her to the Folk School, where she met Olive Dame Campbell at a reception. The eight participating girls were housed on the second floor of Rock House. Their eight-week workcamp ran through August 20.
1945 AFSC workcamp staff and participants
(back row) Eleanor Frey, Sue Harwig, Toni Johnson, Maylon Hepp, Margaret Hollingsworth
(front row) Ann Hepp, Barbara Hepp, Hildegard Koch, Betsy Olson, Bunny Wight, Hannah Kenmore
Mrs. Campbell had requested AFSC assistance because the Folk School’s woodworking shop had burned in December 1944. The building was a total loss, and in the depressed wartimes she did not have the funds to hire enough labor to rebuild. The first phase was cleanup from the fire and laying out foundations for the new shop, which was built of stone and larger than the old one. In a letter, one of the campers remarked that this was what was happening all over Europe to clean up and rebuild after the war.
Cement was mixed on site and placed using wheelbarrows.
Wooden forms were built for both the inside and the outside walls. Stone for the outer face came from nearby fields and streams. It was hauled by wagon and fitted by hand.
(right) Margaret Hollingsworth using a saw.
Work progressed well under the direction of the Folk School staff. One camper required attention when she stepped on a nail and was taken to Murphy for a tetanus shot. Another girl came down with mumps, requiring isolation for two weeks. She recovered, and no one else was affected. The AFSC chaperone couple is pictured to the right, with Maylon Hepp receiving a haircut from Ann Hepp, his wife, while reading Life Magazine in the yard of Rock House.
(below left) AFSC workcampers enjoyed eating outdoors on the grass between Little Rock and Rock House.
(below right) This picture best illustrates the saying “happy camper”!
The outer walls, frame, and floor of the studio were completed by camp’s end, and an informal dedication was held by staff and campers. The staff reviewed the progress and how everything was all set for another workcamp to finish the building the next year, in 1946. The 1945 workcamp had produced a substantial monument to their efforts. The camp closed with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.”
Margaret brought home this cherished walnut goose as an example of the Folk School’s commercial production. It was carved by Glenn Brown, one of the Brasstown Carvers. Margaret also had kept her version of a goose that she carved from a walnut blank she obtained at the school.
Margaret never married. After her time in AFSC, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University. Margaret painted, made charcoal sketches, and had a ceramic business. She passed away in July 2006 at the age of 80. Margaret left her collection of material from the 1945 workcamp in her home, where Lin Riffle now lives.
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