Collection Title: Jackson Purchase Oral History Project - Lifestyles
Series Number: OH114
Interviewee: Humphreys, Edna
Interviewer: Murray, Nicolette
Date interviewed: October 1, 1980
Processed by: Tara Marcum
Date processed: June 20, 2011
Description: 2 sound disc (90 minutes)
Abstract: Edna Humphreys describes her life in rural Graves County, Kentucky. She describes the process of growing tobacco and the numerous chores associated with sharecropping. She recalled that school was only in session for six months because many of the children worked during planting and harvest season. She remembered her family singing and playing music as a means of entertainment. She discusses childhood plying games, attending parties and dances, making feather beds and sewing quilts with patterns passed down from generation to generation. She tells of a family storm shelter that contained canned goods and other items needed in case of a tornado or other emergency. She remembers a cow and a small patch of land to grow tobacco were given to her father by the owner of the farm to assist with family expenses. Humphreys also recalls how the United States government contracted her husband to grow hemp during the period between First and Second World War for the use of making rope. She mentions how the Great Depression greatly affected her family and when the government introduced DDT to farms in the county.
Biographical / Historical note: Edna Humphreys was born on February 23, 1907 to Robert Walter Henderson and Tammy B. Campbell Henderson of Graves County, Kentucky. She had six siblings and her father died before the last child was born. Her father was a sharecropper that grew tobacco.
General information: No user access to original recordings. Use audio user copies, digital derivatives, transcripts, and/or tape indexes. This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code). Permission for reproduction must be requested from Murray State University.
Subject Headings / Descriptors:
Humphreys, Edna, 1907-
Graves County (Ky.) – History.
Sharecroppers – Kentucky – Graves County.
Tobacco farmers – Kentucky – Graves County.
Farm life – Kentucky – Graves County.
