Interview with Alva Childers, August 22, 1987

Interview Summary

Alva Childers was born on Pond Creek near Draffin, Kentucky, in 1907. Her parents were Harriet and Grant Hawkins, mountain farmers who were known for their fine apple orchard. Childers remembers peddling apples as a child in the nearby coal camps on Marrowbone Creek for twenty-five cents a peck. Her family stored apples in a cellar and would bring them out to sell on Election Day and Christmas for ten cents. Childers met her husband, Lawrence, a miner, at a box supper, and they had nine children. She describes the fear she had while he was in the mine. They lived in a section of the coal camp called "Titanic." The other section of the camp was called "Noah's Ark." She describes the ordeal of cleaning up each house they moved into. They also made their own paint by digging clay out of the mountains, mixing it with water and adding dye to it. Childers recounts delivering one of her children without a doctor present. She also recalls being a "hired girl," doing housework, ironing, and caring for other people's children. She mentions that they attended the black church in Edgewater because "they had the best singing." She also talks about the mining accident that left her husband's right hand permanently disabled.

Interview Keyword

"Hired girls" Birthing Black church in Edgewater Coal camp life Coal camp row houses Coal miners' wives fears Edgewater coal camp Elkhorn Coal Field Hawkins family Making homemade paint Marrowbone Creek Mine safety Floods--Kentucky Lawrence Childers Children Edgewater Mine Coal camps Company towns Edgewater Camp African Americans--Segregation Physicians--Kentucky Food--Preservation--Kentucky Canning and preserving

Interview LC Subject

Appalachian Region Childers, Alva, 1907- Childers, Alva, 1907- --Interviews Coal miners Coal miners--Kentucky--Elkhorn City Coal miners--Kentucky--Pike County Coal mines and mining--Kentucky--Elkhorn City Coal mines and mining--Kentucky--History Coal mines and mining--Kentucky--Pike County Pike County (Ky.) Pike County (Ky.)--Social life and customs Marriage Married life Appalachian Region--Economic conditions Appalachian Region--Social conditions Appalachian Region--Social life and customs Coal miners' spouses Coal miners--Kentucky Coal mines and mining--Kentucky Country life Mining camps Rural conditions Coal mines and mining--Safety measures Employment--Kentucky Coal mine accidents Childbirth Religion Communities Farm life Subsistence farming Traditional farming Families Occupations

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.