Hale Family History & Genealogy

There were many dangers for the people living in the Appalatian Mountains of Harlan County, Kentucky. Our house was built on the side of the mountain in the valley of Stretch Neck Holler, Dizney, Kentucky. The end of the dirt road is where my dad's mom and dad lived. Tilman and Leona Presley Cloud. Our house was built just below their house (about one city block away). Going out of the holler from my Papow and Mamow's house, there is an area large enough enough for a car or wagon drawn by horse to turn around just below their house on the hill and their barn next to the creek.
Our house was about half a city block down the road from their house. My dad had built a building into the side of the mountain at the end of our small yard. The purpose was too keep our vegtables from the garden, pears, black walnuts and canned jars of food. My dad had built shelves around the inside of this area of 10 X 10 space. The floor was dirt. The empty jars were kept there too. One day when I was about five or six years old my mother and my older brother Roger were working in the "Derry", which was the name given to the building. Mom had set a box of jars on the top of the derry, which was only about 6 foot tall. You could walk up the hill beside the derry and sit on the roof. Mom had asked Roger to put the box on the porch railing. Our house was against the hill and there was a dirt path that lead past the kitchen windows around the house to the tiny back porch. The oposite side of the house was a good 12 to 15 foot high. The front porch ran across the length of the house from the side of the hill to the highest point of the porch. In the middle of the porch were wide steps built down to the yard. Underneath the house and steps was open.
My dad's sister Pauline Grubbs was visiting my mamow and papow Cloud and about four of our cousins were in our yard and in the road playing and making a lot of noise. My dad was getting ready to go to work in the coal mines. In five minutes he would have been headed down the holler to work. I was in the house when the box of empty canning jars fell off the porch and landed on the ground next to the steps.
At that time I wore a brace that came up to just below my knee. There were no railings on the steps. I usually walked down the steps leading off with my right leg and then bring my weak left leg down to meet the right foot, at all times bearing most of my weight on my stronger right leg. This day for some reason I decided I was going to walk down the steps like every one else. I don't remember how far I got down the steps, maybe two or three steps, but my left knee buckled under me and pitched me over theleft side of the steps. Just at the perfect spot to land head first on the ground where the broken jars were. A sharp piece of the jar was broken in a certain angle pointing up to pierce the side of my head in front of my ear and cut the artery. I don't know how long I lay there crying. My mom thought the cry was from the kids playing but when it didn't stop she came out on the porch to investigate. She heard me crying from the ground beside the steps. I don't remember her picking me up and rushing up the steps screaming for my father. But I do remember her laying me down on the porch and holding my head over a pan of water as she washed the dirt off the side of my face to better see the injury the water in the pan turned red.
My father, as a young man, applied for work in the coal mines, which was the only employment available. He was not hired until he passed the first aid course. One of the things taught was how to stop blood flow from a cut or injury. He took the test three times before he passed the course. Lucky for me he passed because he knew just how to apply his big fingers into my cut on the side of my face to stop the flow of blood before I bled to death.
I don't remember my mom and dad picking me up and carrying me out of the holler. Mom holding my legs so daddy could hold my upper body and keep pressure on the artery. After mom and dad started walkign down the holler, Mamow Cloud camed down to our house to see what all the commotion was about. When she saw all the blood on the ground beside the steps she fainted. mamow's brother Elmer lived in the next house down the holler about four times further than the distance from our house and my daddy's parents. He was sitting on the porch as we passed and came over to see what had happened to me. He did not think I would make it to the doctor alive.
When we came to the end of the holler there must have been someone there with a car.
I remember sitting in the back seat with the door open and vomiting onto the ground. We were driven about five miles to the Black Mountain Hospital.
This hospital was build by the coal company as the closest one was twenty miles away. The bleeding had stopped by then. I remember sitting on a chair or bench with mom. I noticed for the first time that my dress was red with stiff blood and my hair was sticky. I was taken into the surgery
and stitched up. I probably was given a transfusion because I had lost over half of the blood in my body and would have died in just minutes if the bleeding was not stopped by my father. When my parents took me home,
I was put on the couch in the lvingroom by daddy and lay there for a week before I was strong enough to walk around the house. My dad sleep on the floor next to me every night when he came home from work. Mom watched me every moment of the day.
You can't keep a strong willed, hard headed child down for long though. Soon I was out playing with my brothers and cousins and getting into more trouble. That's another story for another day.

Catherine Hale was my grandmother. She was born in Ireland in 1906. She lived on a huge potato farm. It was located in Lismore, County Waterford. She had 5 sisters and 6 brothers. Her fathers name was William and her mothers name was Bridget Begley. We don't know why she left Ireland. The only thing she would ever say was " Who wants to live on a potato farm, not me!" At the age of 16, She boarded a ship and came to America. She lived in NY. After awhile, she took a train to Boston Mass. where she worked for a judge, taking care of his children. It was in Boston that she saved enough money so here younger sister, Mary could also come to America. Later she traveled back to NY where she met and fell in love with and English man who was a police officer in Queens, NY. His name was Victor Cooper. They had first a girl, Lillian, then a son, James, then another son, Victor, who was to be my father.. In 1938, while on duty, grandfather Victor was killed by a speeding car being chased by the police. She was left a widow. Victor Cooper was her life an now her was gone. Victors family all rallyed around Catherine and helped her raise the children. She never married again. When she died in 1998, she had 3 children, 15 grandchildren and appx 20 ggrandchildren. She was a strong and fiercly independent woman who despised weakness in others. She was not always gentle or kind and she had her favorites, but I grew to respect her for all she was and she was magnificant. She had black hair and blue green eyes. Small in stature but now small in character. She never went back to Ireland nor did she ever see any of her family again.