Life in Eastern Kentucky: The Early Years

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LIF E I N E AST ER N K E NT UC K Y: T H E E A R LY Y E A RS

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Views & Scenes

or all its open spaces, people who live on the Cumberland Plateau of Eastern Kentucky are often as close to their neighbors as city dwellers. Houses are cheek to jowl along the ribbons of flat land that line the banks of the region’s many winding creeks and rivers. Groups of those houses often were built at the same time in a coal camp, giving them an architectural uniformity that also seems urban.

The cities and towns, too, were crowded into narrow valleys that required them to be long but not wide.

The scarcity of flat land had its drawbacks. But it guaranteed that if you were an Eastern Kentuckian, you knew your neighbors. And it drew people together. If you lived on Frozen Creek in Breathitt County, for example, you felt a kinship — sometimes figurative and often literal — with your neighbors.

View looking up Gap Branch, Lynch, July 1, 1918. Courtesy of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, Godbey Appalachian Archives

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VIEWS & SCENES

Proctor Coal Company community, Red Ash, circa 1880. Courtesy of Photographic

Hazard, circa 1900. Courtesy of Photographic Archives, Appalachian Learning Laboratory,

Archives, Appalachian Learning Laboratory, Alice Lloyd College

Alice Lloyd College

Main Street in Owingsville, circa 1905. Courtesy

The Knobs at Salt Lick, circa 1905. Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Camden-

of Special Collections & Archives,

Camden-Carroll Library, Morehead State University

Carroll Library, Morehead State University

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LIF E I N E AST ER N K E NT UC K Y: T H E E A R LY Y E A RS

Main street of Jenkins, Sept. 20, 1911. Courtesy of Photographic Archives, Appalachian Learning Laboratory, Alice Lloyd College

Main Street of Hazard looking toward D. Y. Combs’ store, circa 1910. The man in the suit is Matt Cornett; the woman is Clara Cornett. Courtesy of Bobby

View up Little Elkhorn Creek, June 4, 1912. Courtesy

Davis Museum and Park

Appalachian Learning Laboratory, Alice Lloyd College

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of Photographic Archives,

VIEWS & SCENES

Main street of Jenkins looking east, Jan. 1, 1912.  Courtesy of Photographic Archives, Appalachian Learning Laboratory, Alice Lloyd College 8

LIF E I N E AST ER N K E NT UC K Y: T H E E A R LY Y E A RS

Lynch, circa 1918, with the fire station, main office, bathhouse, bank, post office and United Supply Company store. Courtesy of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, Godbey Appalachian Archives

Mouth of Gap Branch, Lynch, Jan. 4, 1919. Courtesy of Southeast Kentucky Community

Building the company store at Lynch, September 1918. Courtesy

and Technical College, Godbey Appalachian Archives

Kentucky Community and Technical College, Godbey Appalachian Archives

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of Southeast

VIEWS & SCENES

Kentucky Jewell Coal Company camp was built in 1917. The layout of neat rows of the camp shaped the future streets of Lothair.  Courtesy of Bobby Davis Museum and Park

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LIF E I N E AST ER N K E NT UC K Y: T H E E A R LY Y E A RS

Hazard in the summer, circa 1916. Courtesy of Bobby Davis Museum and Park

Coal camp of Hardburley, 1918. The company provided free electricity to camp houses. They had their own store, hospital, doctor’s office, dentist, dry cleaning, water, baseball field and tennis court. The houses got fresh paint every two or three years. The work force was around 487. Courtesy of Bobby Davis Museum and Park

People descending from the Lucy Hall Cemetery in McDowell, Floyd County, Aug. 17, 1924. The large home in the center belonged to Ben and Lucy Hopkins Hall. Courtesy of Barry Dean Martin 11

VIEWS & SCENES

View of United Supply Company’s main store, Lynch, circa 1920. The post office, tipple and shop are included in the background. Courtesy of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, Godbey Appalachian Archives

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LIF E I N E AST ER N K E NT UC K Y: T H E E A R LY Y E A RS

Natural Bridge State Park at Slade, circa 1930. Train excursions ran from Louisville to the park. William Swope was the curator of the park with his wife, Sallie, who cooked for the railroad staff. Courtesy of Sue Ann Bell and Peggi Ballard with Barbara Wilson

South Hellier Street, Pikeville, circa 1936. Courtesy Main Street, Hazard, circa 1938. Courtesy of David Ravencraft

Pikeville Public Library

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of Paul B. Mays Collection,