Interview with Mary Geneva Chambers, June 11, 1992

Partial Transcript: Okay, here we go--

Segment Synopsis: Geneva Chambers is introduced. She talks about her family and their history in the Cane Creek area of Powell County, Kentucky. She talks about the line of inheritance of her family's land.

Keywords: Ancestry; Brothers; Cane Creek (Ky.); Extended family; Fathers; Grandparents; Land; Menifee County (Ky.); Mothers; Parents; Relatives; Siblings; Sisters

Subjects: Family farms.; Family histories.; Genealogy; Inheritance and succession.; Powell County (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: Okay, uh, let me ask a little bit more about your general life history and then we'll get back to Cane Creek.

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about walking to school, a one-room schoolhouse on Upper Cane Creek. She talks about her parents' attitudes about education and why she ultimately could not attend college.

Keywords: Berea College; Closed; Cooking; Death; High school; Hired hands; Mothers; One-room schoolhouses; Parents; Students; Teachers; Upper Cane Creek (Ky.); Walking; World War I

Subjects: Education--Kentucky; Rural schools--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: You mo, you moved here then when you were sixteen years old to this farm that you're living on now?

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks more about the line of inheritance of her family's farm.

Keywords: Brothers; Cane Creek (Ky.); Death; Heirs; Lease; Property ownership; Relatives; Siblings; Wills

Subjects: Family farms.; Farms, Small.; Inheritance and succession.; Land use, Rural.

Partial Transcript: Okay. Well, let me get back to a little bit more about your, uh, life history.

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about her responsibilities on the family farm, and her outside employment as a postal worker for 28 years.

Keywords: Clubs; Cooking; Duties; Illness; Income; Postal workers; Responsibilities; Strokes; Unmarried; Working

Subjects: Employment--Kentucky; Family farms.; United States Postal Service

Partial Transcript: Well, why don't we go back now to Cane Creek.

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks more about her family and their inheritance of the family farm, and mentions the sharecroppers that lived on their land.

Keywords: Aunts; Cane Creek (Ky.); Extended family; Fathers; Grandmothers; Land; Renters; Sharecroppers; Widows

Subjects: Families.; Family farms.; Farm tenancy; Inheritance and succession.; Sharecropping

Partial Transcript: Could you h--uh, let's start by, if you could, describing the house you lived on in Cane Creek.

Segment Synopsis: Chambers describes the house she grew up in and the additions her father constructed over the years. She talks about the sleeping arrangements in the house.

Keywords: Additions; Bedrooms; Child-rearing; Chimney; Construction; Dining rooms; Farmhouse; Kitchens; Living rooms; Planks; Porches; Rooms; Sleeping arrangements; Upstairs

Subjects: Country life; Families.; Family farms.; Farm life.; Rural children; Rural conditions

Partial Transcript: What other buildings do you recall being around the farmhouse?

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about other buildings on her family's farm including the smokehouse and corn crib.

Keywords: Barns; Corn cribs; Farmhouses; Fires; Food preservation; Hen houses; Outhouses; Outside toilets; Refrigeration; Sheds; Smokehouses; Tobacco; Well water; Workshops

Subjects: Country life; Family farms.; Farm buildings; Farm life.; Food--Preservation--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: Did you have a garden?

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks in detail about the types of food her family raised, how they preserved their food, and other places they occasionally bought food.

Keywords: Apples; Bananas; Chores; Court Days; Drying; Duties; Food preservation; Gardens; Mothers; Mt. Sterling (Ky.); Orchards; Responsibilities; Selling

Subjects: Canning and preserving; Country life; Family farms.; Farm life.; Food--Preservation--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: You said, uh, that your father had a renter or sharecropper, Mr. Turner...

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about the sharecroppers that worked on her father's farm; the crops he grew and where he sold them; the animals he raised; and cutting timber.

Keywords: Bench fields; Buying; Cattle; Corn; Cutting trees; Hired hands; Hired help; Hogs; Land; Lexington (Ky.); Lumber; Markets; Mt. Sterling (Ky.); Oats; Paris (Ky.); Pinhookers; Prices; Selling; Sharecroppers; Timber; Tobacco; Wagons

Subjects: Agriculture.; Crops; Family farms.; Farm tenancy; Farmers.; Sharecropping; Traditional farming

Partial Transcript: So he had some cattle and at one time he had hogs?

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about the animals her father raised on their farm, and talks about selling the various byproducts.

Keywords: Beef; Butchering; Butter; Cane; Cane Creek (Ky.); Chicken house; Cows; Cream; Distilling; Eggs; Food preservation; Hen house; Hides; Hogs; Income; Milking; Molasses; Mush; Peddlers; Selling; Sheep; Turkeys; Woods

Subjects: Cattle.; Family farms.; Farm life.; Food animals.; Food--Preservation--Kentucky; Livestock.

Partial Transcript: Now you've mentioned Mt. Sterling as a place where your father would go to market things--

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about the distance to the nearest stores from the family farm. She talks about ordering things from catalogs, and talks about where her father would buy his farm equipment.

Keywords: Bowen (Ky.); Catalogs; Distance; Dresses; Fabric; J. C. Penney; Lumber; Lumberyards; Mail; Mail orders; Montgomery Ward; Mt. Sterling (Ky.); Post offices; Sage (Ky.); Sear; Shopping; Stanton (Ky.)

Subjects: Country life; Farm equipment; General stores; Rural conditions

Partial Transcript: Do you recall any other things, enterprises your father was involved with on his farm that I haven't mentioned?

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about a gas line on her family's property, and how her family heated their home. She talks about where her father learned how to farm, and where her got other information. She talks more about the types of farm equipment he owned.

Keywords: "Farm Life"; Agricultural education; Agricultural extension service; Coal; Cooking; Farm machinery; Fathers; Fertilizer; Gas lines; Gas wells; Hay baling; Hay rakes; Heat; Hired hands; Hired help; Horses; Income; Information; Journals; Learning; Manure; Ovens; Periodicals; Plows; Ranges; Stoves; Tobacco setters; Wood

Subjects: Agricultural extension work; Country life; Farm equipment; Farm life.; Farmers.; Newspapers--Kentucky.; Traditional farming

Partial Transcript: Um, thinking back to the time when you were living on Cane Creek, who were your neighbors?

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about the other families that lived on or near her family's farm. She talks briefly about local churches. She mentions an African American family who lived on Cane Creek.

Keywords: Baptist churches; Barnes family; Cane Creek (Ky.); Cane Ridge Church; Church of God; Cookies; Door family; Dunn family; Gillum Cemetery; Menifee Count (Ky.); Neff family; Powell family; Prayer meetings; Ray family; Salem (Ky.); Williams family

Subjects: African Americans--Social conditions; Churches--Kentucky; Families.; Neighbors; Rural churches

Partial Transcript: Well, you, you said they were invited to all the to dos; what, what did people do for recreation?

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about the types of recreation available on Cane Creek during her childhood, including dances, spelling bees, and childhood games.

Keywords: Bean shellings; Children; Cousins; Dances; Entertainment; Fathers; Fun; Games; Grandfathers; Grandmothers; Hide and seek; Spelling bees; Visiting

Subjects: Cane Creek (Ky.)--Social life and customs; Recreation--Kentucky; Rural schools--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: I--uh, if someone, uh, got ill, how, how were they taken care of?

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about the distance to the nearest doctor, and talks about various home remedies and the ailments they were used for.

Keywords: Ailments; Aunts; Care-taking; Childbirth; Delivery; Distance; Doctors; Home remedies; Illness; Medicine; Midwives; Operations; Plants; Sickness; Stanton (Ky.); Surgery; Teas

Subjects: Country life; Health; Medical care--Kentucky; Rural conditions; Rural health--Kentucky; Traditional medicine

Partial Transcript: Something I wanted to ask earlier and, and, and forgot while we were talking about butchering and that sort of thing...

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about the process of rendering lard. She describes typical summer and winter meals on the farm. She talks briefly about her aunt who had the gift of healing burns.

Keywords: Aunts; Bellamy; Biscuits; Blind; Breakfast; Burn victims; Butchering; Cobbler; Cornbread; Dinner; Gifts; Hog killing; Kettle; Lunch; Mills; Mothers; Oatmeal; Preserving food; Rendering lard; Sally Jane Barnes; Sausage; Summers; Supper; Talents; Winters; World War I

Subjects: Canning and preserving; Country life; Crops; Family farms.; Farm life.; Food--Preservation--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: You know--I'm, I'm changing the subject here a little bit.

Segment Synopsis: Chambers talks about how Cane Creek was affected by World War I, including rationing and school closings. She talks about some of her friends from school. She talks about how her family learned of the end of the war.

Keywords: Buying; Cemetery; Classmates; Closed; Closing; End of the war; Fathers; Flour; Friends; Halsey family; Killed in action; Military draft; Military service; News; Pelfrey family; Radio; Ration books; Rationing; School years; Shut down; Stores; Sugar; World War I

Subjects: Country life; Rural conditions; Rural schools--Kentucky; Teachers; World War, 1914-1918

Partial Transcript: Well I think, uh, I don't have any more questions unless there's something you'd like to tell me about that I haven't asked about.

Segment Synopsis: Chambers says that her childhood on Cane Creek was "close to heaven." She talks about moving away, but returning for family reunions. She talks about the people who lived on the land her family once owned. She talks about breaking rules as a child and the punishments she would receive. The interview is concluded.

Keywords: Adoption; Aunts; Bill Williams; Boys; Brothers; Cane Creek (Ky.); Child-rearing; Family reunions; Fathers; Gender differences; Gender roles; Girls; Hogs; Jim Harris; Lease; Leaving; Misbehavior; Moving; Playing hooky; Punishments; Raising children; Sharecroppers; Skipping school; Switches; Tenant farmers; Visiting; Whipping

Subjects: Childhood; Discipline of children; Families.; Family farms.; Farm tenancy; Rural children; School discipline; Sharecropping