Oral History Interview with Audrey Morrow

Gatewood: This is a tape of a series of tapes sponsored by the Kentucky Folkloric Foundation. I’m talking to Mrs. Audrey Morrow, who had her first three children were delivered by a company doctor. Mrs. Morrow, what was the name of the company doctor that delivered your children?

Morrow: He was called Dr. Floyd, that’s all I remember.

Gatewood: Dr. Floyd

Morrow: Dr. Floyd.

Gatewood: And what mining camp was he−

Morrow: Yamacraw.

Gatewood: That was an actual camp. They had a, what kind of community did they have there? Could you describe it for us? Did they have, they had stores and church?

Morrow: They had one store. One church. And a school. And, of course, I don’t know how, I don’t have any idea how many families were, but there were several families−

Other female: I’d say there were at least fifteen or twenty families right around that area.

Morrow: Yes, right around there. And of course he stayed at a boarding house. And the boarding house was operated by Elmer and Edna Shepherd. And that was back in 1920, I guess about 1927, when I first went there and worked. Because I married in 1928. Then my first boy was born in 1929, and the next girl in 1931, and the next one in 1933. And he delivered all three of them.

Gatewood: Now where did, where did you work?

Morrow: Well, my husband was a miner. Coal miner. Of course, I was just a housewife at that time. After I was married, I didn’t work anymore.

Gatewood: So you all lived there in the coal camp.

Morrow: Lived in the part of the coal camp they called (?). [laughs]

Gatewood: Did, what, how much did the mining company, the Stearns, charge you all for medical care? Do you remember that?

Morrow: No, I don’t remember.

Gatewood: How did they collect the money for medical care? To be eligible?

Morrow: I don’t remember whether they just charged the miners so much a month for medical care, and then they paid the doctor, or not. But the best I remember, we never did have to pay any doctor fee. I might be wrong about it. My mind gets kind of bad. [laughs]

Gatewood: No, you’ve got a good mind. I think they probably did take it out of your husband’s salary.

Morrow: Yes, that’s the way I believe it was done. It was just held out of their salary, you know.

Other female: So much a month. And then they done taken care of your medical part.

Morrow: Because I don’t remember ever paying any doctor bills.

Gatewood: Do you remember about when he came to deliver the babies? Do you remember anything about it that you could tell us? About him as a doctor?

Morrow: Well, that all I can remember. I know when he’d come, he’d always stay with you until everything was over with. And of course, we’d go to his office. He had an office at this boarding house, and he’d go there every so, I mean every so many weeks, you’d have to go in for a checkup and everything.

Gatewood: So you had good prenatal care.

Morrow: Yes, yes, that’s right.

Gatewood: That’s interesting. Now then did he deliver the baby in the home?

Morrow: Yes. Delivered in the home.

Gatewood: How far did you all live from his office? His boarding house?

Morrow: About a mile.

Gatewood: Just a mile.

Morrow: And my first baby weighed twelve pounds and a half when he was born. [laughter]

Gatewood: Whoo! That’s a big−

Morrow: And he was with me a day and a night before it was ever born. They finally called Dr. Smith out of Stearns, and he was on his way on the train down there when the baby was born. Of course, they didn’t have to use him. But they called him. They thought that he was going to have to take−

Gatewood: Thought it was going to be trouble.

Morrow: Floyd stayed right with me all that time. And they had every woman in the camp in there, too, you know, helping. [laughs]

Gatewood: They did.

Morrow: It was hard deliveries back then, to what it is when you go to the hospital now. Because I had my last two children in the hospital. It was quite a bit of difference, being in the home and being in the hospital.

Other female: But back then, you didn’t go to the hospital.

Morrow: No, they didn’t know anything about going to the hospital back then.

Gatewood: Did, were there any other times when your children were sick, or your husband or you was sick? Do you remember that he doctored on you? Dr. Floyd?

Morrow: Oh, yes. We would always go to him to get medicine when we’d have colds or anything. Anytime anybody was sick, why he was always at your side, ready to help. He was a good old doctor. And he’d sit down and talk with you. You know, so many doctors this day and time don’t take time to talk with you or anything. He’d always sit and talk with you. Tell you what he thought about things. And he was just a good old doctor. Good old country doctor.

Gatewood: He’d really get to know you. I guess you didn’t have a drugstore, so you’d have to go to him.

Morrow: No, we’d have to go to him to get the medicine.

Gatewood: You said he lived at the boarding house. Was his family live with him, or−

Morrow: No. No, his family was somewhere else. I don’t know where his family was. He’d go home every once in a while. Maybe every month or every two months, he’d go home for a weekend. I never did see any of his family or anything. I guess I knew him for about ten years, maybe longer than that.

Gatewood: Did your husband, your first husband, he left the mines, did he?

Morrow: He was killed. He weren’t killed in the mines, but he was killed. A man shot him after we moved out here.

Other female: He was still working in the mine.

Morrow: He was still working in the mines at the time of his death.

Gatewood: You know, people say that the mining camps were kind of violent. What do you think? Were they that bad?

Morrow: I thought it was a pretty good life.

Other female: No, back then, that mining camp was quite peaceful. It was just as peaceful as being, like this.

Gatewood: Just like this.

Morrow: Yes. We’d always have church and Sunday school on Sunday. And of course, they had a place down there in the schoolhouse where they would come in and show a picture show every once in a while, you know. And it was just an ordinary life back then, like it is now. Well, better life then, I think. You didn’t hear of all of these drugs and stuff like we’re having now, back then.

Gatewood: You had a close community, didn’t you?

Morrow: Yes.

Gatewood: Did the women visit around?

Morrow: Oh, yes. You knew everybody. And everybody associated with everybody. Not like it is now. You don’t even know your next door neighbor now. [laughs] They were the good old days. I’d just like to see people get back together again like they was then. Close communication and everything.

Gatewood: How were your homes? Were they right nice?

Morrow: Well, we just had ordinary homes. They was paper. They weren’t sealed or anything. You know, we just papered, back then, we papered the houses with newspapers. Sears Roebuck catalogues. [laughs]

Gatewood: Kept the wind out.

Morrow: Sure did. And in spring, you’d always go to the store and buy newspapers. Some people, some that was better off, would buy what they call building paper, you know, and they’d paper their houses with it. It was just a colored, heavier paper. But most everybody would just go to the store and buy the leftover newspaper. They’d keep, the ones left over a day, they’d keep them. You’d go over and buy a big armful of newspapers, go home and paper your house, and that’s your spring cleaning. And most of the houses just had four rooms. You had a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms.

Gatewood: It’s very simple.

Other female: You didn’t have no bathrooms.

Morrow: No. No bathrooms. The superintendent, he had a house that had a bathroom. And it was a little bigger house, little better house, than the ordinary people had. But everybody was equal. I mean, everybody’s house was just about alike, you know.

Gatewood: Did you say you had a grocery store there?

Morrow: Yes, they had a store. They called it a company store. And every mining town had a company store.

Gatewood: Did the farmers come in, kind of peddle food, too? Sometimes fresh vegetables and things?

Morrow: Oh, yes. We had a man, and he’d come in every week with a horse, and have saddle pockets, and have it full of eggs. He’d bring in eggs, and we’d always buy our eggs from him. And of course, they’d bring in beans and (?) and stuff off their farm back in there.

Gatewood: Did you all have any garden spots?

Morrow: Yes.

Gatewood: You did. So you could raise some things.

Morrow: Yes. We had a garden here every year. Some did.

Other female: And the beehives.

Morrow: Yes, we even had bees.

Gatewood: Is that right? Yes?

Other female: Come right on in!

Morrow: You about ready to head out, huh?

Yet another female: Just stay a little longer.

Gatewood: Where did you live before you went to the camp?

Morrow: (?)

Gatewood: In (Pine Knot?) Your husband, what type of work was he in before he started mining?

Morrow: I think he started out a miner when he was about eighteen years old. He was raised back in somewhere. He was a miner all the time, all my life I ever knew him, he was a coal miner. And he died in December. And they were just signing up for social security. He had his card, but he’d never made a payment on social security. So when he was killed, I couldn’t draw social security. It’s not like it is now, you know. There I was left with four little children. So I come back to live with my daddy over here. (?) she’s talking about. I lived with him for eight years. And I met Mr. Morrow then, married him, went to .

Gatewood: I see. That’s really an interesting life story. Can you think of anything else about the company life, small town life, that might be helpful, as you remember back? Or about Dr. Floyd? How did he get around? Did he have a−

Morrow: He walked.

Gatewood: He walked. That’s right. Did he have, did he have a horse when he’d go out−

Morrow: I don’t, no, I don’t think he ever went out on a horse. Now, somebody might come in like that. Some of the coal miners you’d see would live out of the camp. And some of them might have brought a horse in if they was (?). But I believe they did. I believe some of them might have brought a horse in. Ordinarily, he just walked. Or maybe if he was going to go to (Pine Cliff?) or something, he’d ride the train. See, they had these passenger trains all the time going up and down the (river?). Well, not all the time. They’d make two or three trips a day.

Gatewood: How far out of Stearns was the camp?

Morrow: (?)

Gatewood: Just approximately.

Morrow: I’d say, I’m a bad judge of miles. But it wouldn’t take you over thirty minutes to drive it. In a car, I mean.

Gatewood: You could drive it in a car?

Morrow: Oh, yes. They had a car rolled out. Went out through , and back down in there.

Gatewood: You mean by car, a train car? Or an automobile?

Morrow: No, I mean an automobile. Automobile. Yes, there was automobiles.

Gatewood: So it wasn’t as isolated as some of the other camps was.

Morrow: No.

Gatewood: I know some of them, the only way you could get there was on the train.

Morrow: But now all those houses have been torn down and moved away or burned or something. Anyway, they’ve been made away with. And they’ve got a good blacktop road all the way down through there now. You can drive an automobile and go on through to (?) farm. And it’s going on back into this national forest over there.

Gatewood: Yes. (?)

Morrow: You know, what they’re trying to get developed right now. That’s back in that part of the country.

Gatewood: Hopefully they might restore some of those old towns. See how it was, the way they lived.

Morrow: Oh, yes, there is just a few of the houses left, but not many. But most of these little mining camps are all, they’ve all been made away with. Even the stores and everything. It’s like going out in the wilderness now. I was back down there a few years ago. And it’s just like coming back up here, it don’t look like the same country when I lived here.

Gatewood: I was just going to ask you, how does it feel to go back to a place you lived for ten years, and it disappeared?

Morrow: Well, you feel like being in another country. [laughs] In most cases, it does. You just feel like you’re in another country. Every once in a while, you’ll see a little something to remind you, you know.

Gatewood: Well, I thank you very much for helping us. I think that will be helpful about Dr. Floyd. You don’t remember any of the other doctors. You did mention a Dr. Smith, but he was in another−

Morrow: Yes, Dr. Smith. He was over here at Stearns, yes. His son, if you want any information on him, you can go right down this street here in the cemetery. Right down this old 27. And his son could probably give you a lot of information down here.

Gatewood: Okay. That’s fine. I sure appreciate you very much helping

Morrow: Okay. I hope it will be a lot of help to you. I hope you can just get all kind of information.

Gatewood: Thank you.

[End Interview.]