Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Series 14: MEDICAL
Mary Skidmore, Nurse, 1925
Line Fork Settlement
Old ‘Cabin’ at Line Fork. [107_line_fork_002b1.jpg]
TAGS: Mary Skidmore, nurse, public health nursing, industrial training, Line Fork Settlement, Harlan County KY, Bluefield WVA, Bear Branch School, education, rural education, Coyle [Coil] Branch School, schools, medicine, rural health programs
MARY SKIDMORE Staff
Public Health Nurse, Line Fork Settlement 1925
Mary Skidmore was assigned the job as the Public Health Nurse at the Line Fork Settlement in 1925 and worked with Miss Catherine Hoague and with the head worker, Miss Helen F. Little in 1925. Very little information is available about the personal life of Miss Mary Skidmore, Nurse. Newspaper accounts in the Bluefield, West Virginia, Daily Telegraph of August 2, 1925, on the “Women’s Page,” notes that she held a place as the City Health Nurse in Bluefield and had accepted “a place as health nurse at the Pine Mountain Settlement School, Harlan County, Ky.” The brief entry also notes that “She is a capable and Industrious young woman, and her departure will be a source of genuine regret in the community.”
All workers at the settlement at Line Fork were required to write a monthly report of their work and to send this to their head worker at the site or to the co-director, Miss Katherine Pettit, who was responsible for the oversight of the Line Fork Settlement, a satellite of the Pine Mountain Settlement School. The following is Miss Skidmore’s report for September of 1925.
Unfortunately, not all of Miss Skidmore’s reports have survived. This one example of her work, is, however, instructive of the nursing duties of the medical staff at the Line Fork Settlement. It represents her first month on the job at Line Fork.
MARY SKIDMORE: Transcription of Her Report
LINE FORK SETTLEMENT
GILLEY, LETCHER COUNTY, KENTUCKY
REPORT OF PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE
— SEPTEMBER, 1925.
The writer has spent almost the entire month of September getting acquainted and making home contacts. This has been easy, as there are so many new babies.
Only four persons have felt it necessary to call me to their homes on account of illness, but many have come to the cabin to get medicine for burns, toothache, “risins”, poison ivy, and sore toes. Also, there has been much diarrhea. These cases come to my attention only when I happen to be visiting at the home of persons who are suffering from it. They do not seem in the least alarmed about such conditions. It is something they have every summer. This gives many opportunities of telling them that diarrhea is just as catching as typhoid fever, how to prevent the spread of it, and how to care for the patient.
The most discouraging thing has been trying to make school contacts. I thought perhaps the best way to start would be to continue the sewing classes which were started by Miss [Catherine] Hoague. They were held after school hours. But the days were getting so short and some of the children live so far from the schools the attendance at these classes was very small. The teacher at Bear Branch School gave me an hour each week of the school time for sewing, but the teacher at Coil Branch who succeeded Mr. Hogg (the young man who was teaching that school) refuses to give any time for sewing classes and keeps the children there until it is too late for those who live far from the school to do anything but get home before dark. It has been announced that there will be sewing classes at Coil [Coyle] Branch School every Saturday afternoon. This will afford a good opportunity to teach health to the girls. A way to reach the boys has not as yet been found.
Mary Skidmore
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Title |
Mary Skidmore |
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Alt. Title |
Miss Skidmore |
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Identifier |
Permalink: https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=6365 |
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Creator |
Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY |
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Alt. Creator |
Ann Angel Eberhardt, Helen Hayes Wykle ; |
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Subject Keyword |
Mary Skidmore ; Pine Mountain Settlement School, nursing, Line Fork Settlement ; health ; health literacy ; eastern Kentucky ; Letcher County ; |
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Subject LCSH |
Skidmore, Mary. |
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Date digital |
2014-01-24 HW |
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Publisher |
Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY |
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Contributor |
n/a |
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Type |
Collections ; text ; image ; |
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Format |
Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet with Line Fork or with Medical and Skidmore, Mary. |
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Source |
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY ; Series 14: MEDICAL |
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Language |
English |
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Relation |
Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09: BIOGRAPHY ; Series 14: MEDICAL. |
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Coverage Temporal |
1925 |
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Coverage Spatial |
Line Fork, Letcher County, KY ; Gilley, Kentucky ; Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY |
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Rights |
Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. |
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Donor |
n/a |
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Description |
Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of Mary Skidmore, nurse at Line Fork, Gilley, Ky ; |
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Acquisition |
n/d |
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Citation |
Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY |
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Processed By |
Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ; |
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Last Updated |
2014-01-24 hw ; 2023-10-05 aae ; |
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Sources Bluefield, West Virginia Daily Telegraph of August 2, 1925, on the “Women’s Page”, p. 8. Internet resource. Accessed January 24, 2014. Bluefield, West Virginia Daily Telegraph of January 23, 1925, “p. 11. Internet resource. Accessed January 24, 2014. |
See Also:
LINE FORK Settlement
LINE FORK SETTLEMENT WORKERS Reports Publications Guide 1920-1941
MEDICAL – Introduction
Return To:
BIOGRAPHY – A-Z
MEDICAL Guide
MEDICAL Staff Lists
