Interview with Mary Huff Stidham, April 15, 1979

Partial Transcript: This is an interview with Mary Stidham for the Frontier Nursing Service Oral History Project by Sadie W. Stidham...

Segment Synopsis: Mary Stidham is introduced. She talks about her childhood, and says that she did not do as many chores as other children due to being ill. She describes her community, including stores and some of the families that lived in the area.

[An interruption in taping occurs during this segment.]

Keywords: Chores; Confluence (Ky.); Hazard (Ky.); Older people; Parents; Sickness; Trading; Wagons

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Social conditions; Childhood; Country life; General stores; Rural children; Rural conditions; Rural roads; Transportation--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: What kind of schools did you attend?

Segment Synopsis: Stidham talks about attending a one-room school for part of her education before going to a school in Stinnett. She talks about walking to school and taking their lunch with them. She names some of the teachers that taught at the school.

Keywords: Board; Churches; Creeks; Distance; High schools; Lunches; One-room schoolhouses; Stinnett (Ky.); Stinnett School; Tuition; Walking

Subjects: Childhood; Country life; Education--Kentucky; Rural children; Rural roads; Rural schools--Kentucky; Teachers--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: Okay, after you, after you quit school what did you do?

Segment Synopsis: Stidham talks about working for the FNS first at the Bowlingtown Clinic, and later at the Hyden Hospital. She talks about her duties, her wages, and some of the nurses she worked with. She talks about her father donating land to build an FNS clinic.

Keywords: Bowlingtown (Ky.); Bowlingtown Clinic; Cooking; Cows; Donations; Duties; Fathers; Horses; Labor; Land; Recreation; Responsibilities; Teaching; Wages; Working

Subjects: Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Health facilities.; Hospitals; Hyden (Ky.); Medical centers--Design and construction; Nurses

Partial Transcript: Did you know Mrs. Breckinridge personally?

Segment Synopsis: Stidham talks about her father's friendship with Mary Breckinridge and his role on an FNS committee.

Keywords: Confluence Center; Confluence Committee; Fathers; Friends; Maids; Mary Breckinridge; Meals; Meetings; Possum Bend Center

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Confluence (Ky.); Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Medical centers--Administration

Partial Transcript: Now after you were married and, and you had your children, were any of those, those children delivered by the Frontier Nurses?

Segment Synopsis: Stidham says that two of her children were delivered by FNS nurses, and talks about the care she received and the fees the FNS charged.

Keywords: Children; Costs; Fees; Helen Browne ("Brownie"); Home births; Peggy Brown

Subjects: Childbirth; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Maternal health services.; Medical care--Appalachian Region; Midwifery--Appalachian Region; Midwives--Appalachian Region; Nurses; Pregnancy; Rural health services

Partial Transcript: Have you changed your opinion of Mrs. Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service through the years?

Segment Synopsis: Stidham talks about the medical care that was available before the FNS came to the area, including the untrained doctor who cured her of her illness as a child. She talks about the "granny women" who assisted in childbirth.

Keywords: "Granny women"; Doctors; Elizabeth Baker; Emma Wooten; Fever; Garrett Begley; Mary Breckinridge; Medical education; Medical training; Medicine; Sickness

Subjects: Childbirth; Country life; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Maternal health services.; Medical care--Appalachian Region; Midwifery--Appalachian Region; Midwives--Appalachian Region; Physicians--Kentucky; Rural health services; Traditional medicine

Partial Transcript: How many churches were there in your community?

Segment Synopsis: Stidham talks about the local church, which she says was mainly Baptist but many other preachers also visited. She talks about the activities of the church, as well as other social activities in the community.

Keywords: "Workings"; Baptist churches; Bean-stringings; Box suppers; Candy; Communion; Corn-hoeings; Fathers; Graveyard meetings; Jim Bowling; Parties; Preachers; Washing feet

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Church history; Appalachian Region--Social conditions; Appalachian Region--Social life and customs; Country life; Rural churches

Partial Transcript: Alright, what, uh, what do you remember about the Depression years?

Segment Synopsis: Stidham says her family did not feel many effects from the Great Depression due to her father farming most of their food, as well as his pension from serving in the Spanish-American War. She talks about the rafting of logs down the river.

[An interruption in taping occurs during this segment.]

Keywords: Boarding; Logs; Money; Payment; Pensions; Spanish-American War veterans

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Economic conditions; Appalachian Region--Social conditions; Canning and preserving; Depressions--1929--Kentucky; Subsistence farming; Timber--Rafting

Partial Transcript: Now Mary you live close to the river. Tell me what, what it was like when there was a, a big flood in the river.

Segment Synopsis: Stidham talks about some of the floods that have occurred in the area. The interview concludes abruptly.

[An interruption in taping occurs during this segment.]

Keywords: Flood damage; Flooding; Houses; Rivers

Subjects: Floods--Kentucky; Leslie County (Ky.); Perry County (Ky.)