Interview with Elizabeth Gawthrop, Edythe Balsley, Mary Hodge, April 17, 1979

Partial Transcript: This is an interview with Ms. Edythe Balsley, Mrs. Mary B. Hodge, and Mrs. Elizabeth Gawthrop for the Frontier Nursing Service Oral History Project by Dale Deaton...

Segment Synopsis: Edythe Balsley talks about her involvement with the Frontier Nursing Service through her membership on the Philadelphia Committee. She talks about meeting Mary Breckinridge and about the speeches Mrs. Breckinridge gave at committee meetings about the local people of Appalachia served by the FNS.

Keywords: "Mountain people"; Appearance; Contributions; Duels; Frontier Nursing Service Quarterly Bulletins; Hair color; Local people; Mary Breckinridge; Meetings; Personality; Philadelphia Committee

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Social conditions; Appalachian Region--Social life and customs; Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Country life; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Rural conditions

Partial Transcript: ------?? awfully young you know.

Segment Synopsis: Hodge talks about the FNS committees and Mrs. Breckinridge as a speaker at the meetings. She tells a story of people attempting to travel to Wendover who were caught in a snowstorm.

[Interviewer Dale Deaton speaks with Mary Hodge while Elizabeth Gawthrop and Edythe Balsley also have a conversation. This overlapping may cause some confusion.]

Keywords: Committees; Funding; Mary Breckinridge; Nurses training; Public speaking; Snowstorms; Wendover (Ky.)

Subjects: Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Roads--Kentucky; Rural conditions; Rural roads; Transportation--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: Are you an American historian?

Segment Synopsis: Hodge speaks with interviewer Dale Deaton about their interest in history, as well as some brief information about the Breckinridge family.

[Interviewer Dale Deaton speaks with Mary Hodge while Elizabeth Gawthrop and Edythe Balsley also have a conversation. This overlapping may cause some confusion.]

Keywords: American history; Books; Congressman William Breckinridge; PhDs

Subjects: Historians.; United States--History.; United States--Trials, litigation, etc.

Partial Transcript: But you know the curious thing is that my grandfather had thirteen children and nine grew up and they scattered to the four winds...

Segment Synopsis: Hodge talks about some of the other members of the Breckinridge family who were involved with the FNS. The interviewees discuss some of the aspects of the FNS that led women to become nurses and couriers.

Keywords: Appeal; Committees; Dr. Scott Breckinridge; Interest; Interviews; Lexington (Ky.); Members; Nursing; Supporters; Traveling; Wendover (Ky.)

Subjects: Breckinridge family; Country life; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Horses--Transportation; Rural conditions; Volunteers

Partial Transcript: W, wa--were you a, uh--are you a namesake of Mrs. Breckinridge?

Segment Synopsis: The interviewees compare some of the various FNS committees and their fundraising efforts.

Keywords: Boston Committee; Carson Breckinridge; Committees; Fundraising; Influence; Mary Breckinridge; New York Committee; Philadelphia Committee; Princeton Committee; Relationships; Rural areas

Subjects: Benefactors; Breckinridge family; Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Charity; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Fund raising; Philanthropists

Partial Transcript: Well if you want to ask me anything ask it to me but I'm not helpful I know.

Segment Synopsis: Mary Hodge, a member of the Breckinridge family, gives information about her family's activities during the Civil War, when the family split between the Union and Confederate armies.

Keywords: Brothers; Confederate Army; Congressman William Breckinridge; John C. Breckinridge; Kentucky; Secession; Union Army; Vietnam War

Subjects: Breckinridge family; United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

Partial Transcript: Did you ever talk with Mrs. Breckinridge about that at all? About the Old South or any of that?

Segment Synopsis: The interviewees discuss Mary Breckinridge's personality and belief in spiritualism. They discuss their own belief in and encounters with ghosts.

Keywords: Liberty Hall (Frankfort, Ky.); Mary Breckinridge; Personality; Persuasiveness; Religious beliefs; Spiritualism

Subjects: Apparitions; Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Ghosts.; Haunted encounters; Haunted houses; Haunted places.; Parapsychology; Religion; Spirits

Partial Transcript: Well you, you first saw Mrs. Breckinridge and first began to support FNS in the early thirties.

Segment Synopsis: The interviewees discuss more of the aspects of the FNS that led women to become nurses and couriers, mentioning the possibility that Mary Breckinridge's association with Anne Morgan made the FNS more "fashionable."

Keywords: American Committee for Devastated France (C.A.R.D.); Anne Morgan; Appeal; Chairman; Couriers; Fannie McIlvain; Fashionable; Mary Breckinridge; Philadelphia Committee

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Volunteers

Partial Transcript: The, the Brackens in Canada, an island in, in Muskoka Lake, Canada, are you familiar with that at all?

Segment Synopsis: Mary Hodge, a member of the Breckinridge family, talks about her family's split during the Civil War, and discusses how this affected the family's views of Mary Breckinridge. She briefly discusses Mrs. Breckinridge's divorce from Richard Thompson, and the death of her first husband Henry Ruffner Morrison.

Keywords: Admiration; Antagonism; Attitudes; Canada; Confederate Army; Death; Divorce; Generations; Henry Ruffner Morrison; Mary Breckinridge; Personality; Remarried; Richard Thompson; Theatrical; Union Army; Victorian

Subjects: Breckinridge family; Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Marriage; Politics and government; United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

Partial Transcript: Well the, uh, uh, the people who, whose daughters went there as couriers, uh, you said earlier it was, uh, sort of a means of teaching their daugh--

Segment Synopsis: The interviewees discuss more of the aspects of the FNS that led women to become nurses and couriers. They talk about parents sending their young girls to the FNS to learn about reproduction. The discuss how the change from horses to jeeps as the main form of transportation at the FNS has affected its appeal.

Keywords: Afternoon teas; Appeal; Couriers; Daughters; Experiences; Four-wheel drive; Jeeps; Manners; Mary Breckinridge; Reproductive education

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Horses--Transportation; Volunteers

Partial Transcript: I've got to go home. Is that bad?

Segment Synopsis: The interviewees talk more about the Philadelphia Committee of the FNS. Mary Hodge, a member of the Breckinridge family, gives information about her family's genealogy and their relation to the Goodrich family.

Keywords: Chairman; Detroit (Mich.); John Breckinridge; Mary Breckinridge; Meetings; Mrs. Isabelle Goodrich; Personality; Philadelphia Committee; Quality

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Families.; Family histories.; Family--history; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Genealogy

Partial Transcript: When Mrs. Breckinridge talked to, to, uh, meetings or groups, uh, and she talked about the local area, what was the--do you recall the impression that you got of, of the Leslie County area, Perry County, and Clay Counties where FNS provides its service?

Segment Synopsis: The interviewees discuss the impressions of Leslie County which they formed through the information given in Mrs. Breckinridge's talks to the FNS committees. They talk about articles written about Leslie County, and about how the FNS was affected by a negative article written during a mining disaster.

Keywords: Affection; Dynamic; Growth; Hyden (Ky.); Impressions; Kinship; Mary Breckinridge; Media; Mining accidents; Mining disasters; News people; Personality; Public relations; Publicity; Respect; Restaurants

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Social conditions; Appalachian Region--Social life and customs; Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Coal mine accidents; Country life; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Journalists--Kentucky; Leslie County (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: Well n--w, you were, uh, talking earlier about sort of the romanticism attached with the horses and the rural area and yet the safety available to the couriers.

Segment Synopsis: The interviewees discuss how support for the FNS has been affected by the declining importance of social standing in America. They talk about how the FNS has been affected by the decreased reliance on horses, and new government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The interview is concluded.

Keywords: American Committee for Devastated France (C.A.R.D.); Anne Morgan; Appalachians; Appeal; Changes; Government programs; Leadership; Mary Breckinridge; Romanticism; Service; Social contacts; Social standing; Society; Spirituality

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Social conditions; Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Horses--Transportation; Social classes--United States