Interview with Cecil Morgan, July 25, 1979

Interview Summary

Cecil Morgan was born on Camp Creek near Wendover in 1910 and has lived on the same farm all his life. At the age of ten Morgan helped his brother saw all the logs for the Big House at Wendover. His father helped to build the house, raising logs by means of pulleys and mules. Morgan's parents worked for the FNS for eighteen years and had a small cabin at Wendover. His brother became the blacksmith. After a year of high school, Morgan left school and worked at various jobs until he began logging. His sister and a brother went to the University of Kentucky, and Morgan mentions that many people from Leslie County went to college. He tells of working on the highway during the Great Depression and taking a big lunch that might consist of meat, eggs, vegetables, apples, peaches, and cake. His family canned a great deal and always had enough to eat. Morgan and his son sawed lumber and sold it for shipbuilding during World War Two. He presently logs his own land and explains how logging with horses preserves the land and logging with bulldozers destroys it. He describes Mary Breckinridge Day as it was first celebrated, with horse shows and parades as well as demonstrations of woodcraft, quilting, canning and preserving.

Interview Keyword

Medical care--Appalachian Region Medical centers--Design and construction Rural health services Transportation--Kentucky

Interview LC Subject

Appalachian Region--Economic conditions Appalachian Region--Social conditions Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965 Coal mines and mining--Kentucky--Leslie County Depressions--1929--Kentucky Education--Kentucky Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. Leslie County (Ky.) Leslie County (Ky.)--Politics and government Logging Political corruption--Kentucky Rural conditions Rural schools--Kentucky Wendover (Ky.)

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Interview Usage

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