Interview with Shiloh Gay, September 8, 1978

Interview Summary

Shiloh Gay was born around 1890 and recalls some early settlers on Big Bullskin Creek as well as details of daily life in the late 1800s. He tells about salt wells at Oneida, and explains how people lived off the land. Most people farmed in the summer and worked in the coal mines during the winter. Gay discusses the end of the century, when people began to run timber down the rivers on rafts. He remembers Mary Breckinridge signing up men to work and wagons and teams to haul supplies when she was setting up the outpost center at Brutus, and he tells of the nurses' work in the area. Gay's family weathered the Depression better than most because his daughter worked for the FNS and his wife did laundry for the nurses.

Interview Keyword

Children--Health and hygiene--Kentucky Clay County (Ky.) Coal mines and mining Depressions--1929--Kentucky Early settlers Farmers Kentucky River (Ky.) Medical centers--Design and construction Nursing Oneida (Ky.) Pioneers Timber

Interview LC Subject

Big Bullskin Creek (Ky.) Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. General stores Logging Medical centers--Planning Roads--Design and construction

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.