Life in Eastern Kentucky: The Early Years

Life in Eastern Kentucky A Pictorial History: The Early Years

Presented by the Lexington Herald-Leader

L I F E I N E A S T E R N K E N T U C K Y: T H E E A R LY Y E A R S

Acknowledgments Many thanks to the citizens of Eastern and Central Kentucky, whose sharing of their family photographs made this book possible.

The text was written by Herald-Leader staff writer Andy Mead.

Other photographs in this book were graciously provided by these organizations: Bobby Davis Museum and Park in Hazard The Appalachian Collection of the McGaw Library and Learning Center at Alice Lloyd College Bryan W. Whitfield Jr. Public Library in Harlan Pikeville Public Library Rowan County Public Library Godbey Appalachian Archives at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College Transylvania University Library Archives Special Collections at the Hutchins Library in Berea Camden-Carroll Library Special Collections at Morehead State University

CopyrightŠ 2008 • ISBN: 978-1-59725-171-6 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.

Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. www.pediment.com. Printed in Canada.

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L I F E I N E A S T E R N K E N T U C K Y: T H E E A R LY Y E A R S

Table of Contents Views & Scenes...................................................................5 Mining & Logging..............................................................14 Commerce & Industry.......................................................28 Transportation...................................................................39 Public Service....................................................................52 Education..........................................................................65 Sports & Leisure................................................................93 Religion...........................................................................102 Community & Family......................................................107

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L I F E I N E A S T E R N K E N T U C K Y: T H E E A R LY Y E A R S

Foreword

The first people of Eastern Kentucky were Native Americans, who arrived thousands of years ago. They were later joined by adventurous frontiersmen of European descent who risked and sometimes lost their lives to explore a rich new world.

Many more have followed, including immigrants new to the country and share-croppers from the South.

The land and the work melded them all into something unique: A stubbornly independent group of people with a strong sense of family and place.

Many photos of these people are presented on the following pages and in all, those attributes show through.

There are the innocent faces of children in front of their one-room school houses, the solemn older couples looking straight into the camera, the candid images of people going about an everyday life that has long since faded into memory.

The population of the mountains has ebbed and flowed, but anyone who has spent any time there always carries a part of it with them.

Look carefully through the photos. You might find a great-grandfather, a great-grandmother, or someone who is so much like your ancestor that they might as well be family.

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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

F

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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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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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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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,

MINING & LOGGING

C

Mining & Logging

oal and lumber have poured out of Eastern Kentucky since the last half of the nineteenth century. The two industries have provided honest hard work for generations of mountain men.

During the period covered by the photographs in this book, both were extremely labor intensive. They also were subject to periods of boom and bust. And, whether it was trees or coal, most of the profits went to corporations in faraway states.

The lush hardwood forests of Eastern Kentucky are among the most diverse collection of species found anywhere in the world. The scientists call it “mixed mesophytic.”

The region’s early residents knew just that there was what appeared to be an endless supply of gigantic oaks, chestnuts, hickories and poplars. And, although the trees stood on remote hillsides, there was a network of rivers that could float them to sawmills, where they were turned into lumber to meet the needs of a growing nation.

The coal industry got a later start, but it soon was pulling in laborers from far away, and by 1920 well over half a million miners were wrestling coal from deep in the ground.

Looking up Big Looney Creek, Lynch, May 1, 1919. Courtesy of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, Godbey Appalachian Archives

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Group gathered at Proctor Coal Company store, circa 1885. Courtesy

Early mine opening of the Miller’s Creek Black Seam, circa 1885. Courtesy of Bryan W. Whitfield Jr. Public Library and Photographic Archives, Appalachian Learning Laboratory,

of

Photographic Archives, Appalachian Learning Laboratory, Alice Lloyd College

Alice Lloyd College

Carpenters building a structure at Camp No. 2, probably at Lynch, early in the century. Courtesy of Bryan W. Whitfield Jr. Public Library

Surveying for the Northern Coal & Coke Company, Letcher County, circa 1910. Courtesy of Appalachian Photoarchives, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College 15