Interview with Ford Barger, December 7, 1978

Partial Transcript: This is an interview with Mr. Ford Barger for the Frontier Nursing Service oral history project by Dale Deaton at approximately 2:30PM on December 7, 1978 at Waco, Kentucky.

Segment Synopsis: Ford Barger is introduced. He discusses his family history, including his father's work history. He talks about his father selling land to the Frontier Nursing Service. He mentions driving people to Hyden for medical emergencies.

Keywords: Ailments; Appendicitis; Dams; Deliver babies; Delivery; Donations; F.N.S.; FNS; Farming; Helping; Hughes Lumber Company; Jobs; Labor; Land; Mothers; Transportation; Wolf Branch (Ky.); Work

Subjects: Childbirth; Clay County (Ky.); Families.; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Hyden (Ky.); Leslie County (Ky.); Logging; Medical care--Appalachian Region; Medical care--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: You ran a--a store at--

Segment Synopsis: Barger discusses his grocery store. He talks about serving on the Bowlingtown Committee for the Frontier Nursing Service. He talks about how much services from the FNS cost and where the money came from if people could not afford them.

Keywords: "Granny women"; Bills; Bowlingtown Committee; Chairman; Clinics; Deliver babies; Delivery; Donations; Expenses; F.N.S.; FNS; Fees; Groceries; Hauling; Help; Helping; Money; Pay; Postmaster; Pregnancy; Prices; Stores; Treatment; Trucks

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Childbirth; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Medical care, Cost of; Medical care--Appalachian Region; Medical care--Kentucky; Midwifery--Appalachian Region; Midwives--Appalachian Region; Nurses

Partial Transcript: Could you--uh--sort of give me a description of the--uh-- Bowlingtown Committee meetings that were held when Mrs. Breckinridge came out?

Segment Synopsis: Barger talks more about the Frontier Nursing Service committee meetings. He discusses how the Great Depression affected the area and where people received aid.

Keywords: Bowlingtown Committee; Business; Dinners; Drought; F.N.S.; FNS; Families; Flour; Food; Great Depression; Groundhogs; Hunting; Jokes; Meetings; Starving; Voting precincts; Vouchers

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Depressions--1929--Kentucky; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Red Cross; Subsistence farming

Partial Transcript: Well, since--uh--what year did the federal government come in and begin to buy up the land in the Bowlingtown area for Buckhorn dam?

Segment Synopsis: Barger talks about how the government bought land from the people in Bowlingtown to create a dam. He discusses the people who lived in Bowlingtown at the time as well as the history of the area.

Keywords: Bowlingtown (Ky.); Buckhorn Lake Dam (Ky.); Communities; Families; Federal government; Land; Mountains; Post offices; Postmaster; Property; Water lines

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Rural schools--Appalachian Region; Rural schools--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: What was the names of some of the other families that--that lived in the area that--that the government bought out?

Segment Synopsis: Barger discusses people in the local area, the land they owned, and what they sold to the government to build a dam.

Keywords: Buckhorn Lake Dam (Ky.); Buying; Clinics; F.N.S.; FNS; Government; Land; Money; Ownership; Property; Purchase; Selling

Subjects: Families.; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Property--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: W--W--When you first opened your store--uh--what was the company that you bought for? What was its name?

Segment Synopsis: Barger discusses running his grocery store and buying goods to sell.

Keywords: Business; Buying; Canned goods; Crackers; Groceries; Mark-up; Money; Mules; Prices; Property; Rent; Selling; Stores; Sugar; Wagons

Subjects: Small business--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: I remember one time, I was--before I began for myself. Hauling for my daddy then. Coming from Chavez with a load of goods and I had a barrel of sugar in the back end of the wagon.

Segment Synopsis: Barger talks about hauling goods and logs in a wagon, including a story about a time when a barrel of sugar fell out of the wagon and he had to put it back in himself. He talks about logging and transporting logs down a river on rafts.

Keywords: Army; Barrels; Bellefonte Lumber Company; Bootleg alcohol; Brakes; Equipment; Gear; Hauling; Hughes Lumber Company; Jobs; Logs; Moonshine; Mowbrie & Robinson Company; Mules; Oxen; Rafts; Rivers; Sugar; Swan Day Lumber Company; Timber; Tools; Trees; Trucks; Wagons; Working; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Distilling, illicit; Logging; Transportation--Kentucky; World War, 1939-1945

Partial Transcript: Do you remember things as the--as the first car or the first radio and the first television and so forth that were in Bowlingtown area?

Segment Synopsis: Barger talks about the first radio in the area and the radio stations and programs they listened to. He also discusses the availability of television and local newspapers.

Keywords: Antennas; Books; Bowlingtown (Ky.); Cars; Entertainment; Listening; Reading; Televisions

Subjects: Newspapers--Kentucky.; Radio; Radio programs.; Radio stations.

Partial Transcript: How--how did--how'd the people there feel about having to sell their property to the government for Buckhorn Dam?

Segment Synopsis: Barger discusses how people in the area felt about selling their land to the government to create a dam. He talks about Hazard and several of its features.

Keywords: Baker Water Company; Bowlingtown (Ky.); Buckhorn Lake Dam (Ky.); Building; Construction; Courthouses; Homes; Kentucky River (Ky.); L & N Railroad; Land; Money; Ownership; Property; Selling; Taxis; Towns; Trains

Subjects: Hazard (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: Talk a little bit more about the FNS. Did--did the people around Bowlingtown know that Mary Breckinridge's grandfather had been a vice president of the United States and--

Segment Synopsis: Barger talks about Mary Breckinridge and how the local people felt about the Frontier Nursing Service. He also discusses the school in the area.

Keywords: Bowlingtown (Ky.); Buying; Churches; F.N.S.; FNS; Help; John C. Breckinridge; Land; Preaching; Problems; Property; Reluctance; Schoolhouses; Stores

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Families.; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Nurses; Rural schools--Appalachian Region; Rural schools--Kentucky; Vice-Presidents--United States

Partial Transcript: [Cut off]--town in that area?

Segment Synopsis: Barger discusses the schoolhouse that was built in the area. He tells the story of a flood of ice that occurred in 1918.

Keywords: Buckhorn Coal & Lumber Company; Building; Churches; Construction; Creeks; Frozen; Grade school; Harvey S. Murdoch; Hughes Lumber Company; Ice; Ice tides; Money; Mules; Preaching; Railroad ties; School buildings; Schoolhouses; Teaching; Witherspoon College

Subjects: Logging; Rural schools--Appalachian Region; Rural schools--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: I've been told that--that during those years, the nineteen teens and twenties, that there were fish in--in those, in the Middle Fork River...

Segment Synopsis: Barger discusses fishing and hunting. He talks about social activities in the area including square dances. He talks about local weddings. The interview is concluded.

Keywords: Alcohol; Bootlegging; Fish; Fun; Justice of the peace; Kentucky River (Ky.); Law enforcement; Marriage; Marriage licenses; Middle Fork River (Ky.); Moonshine; Parties; Social life; Socializing; Square dances; Squirrels; Weddings; Whiskey; Work

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Social life and customs; Distilling, illicit; Fishing; Hunting