xt75hq3rw32v https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt75hq3rw32v/data/mets.xml The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. 1942 bulletins  English The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Frontier Nursing Service Quarterly Bulletins The Quarterly Bulletin of The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., Vol. XVII, No. 3, Winter 1942 text The Quarterly Bulletin of The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., Vol. XVII, No. 3, Winter 1942 1942 2014 true xt75hq3rw32v section xt75hq3rw32v  -———;-·;- 
O
< The Quarterly Bulletm of
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The Fr011t1er Nursmg Serv1ce, Inc.
L VOLUME XVII WINTER, 1942 NUMBER 3
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Five Minutes After the Alarm: Taken by Edith Anderson 1
is on fire". Afterward it developed that he had seen it from the i
road and called to Lee and they had both run up madly. When i
we got to the barn we saw flames coming out of Aggie’s office 3
and upstairs. Mr. Oakley, the preacher, was here for his mail 3
and he and Kermit and Mr. Bowling (Oscar), who was here *
trying to thaw us out, did just wonderful work. There were Q
some other men here whose names we can give you and every- i
one did their best. Also Dr. Kooser came over just as soon 1
as he heard and was perfectly wonderful. Lucile with her usual Q
· singleness of purpose was in her office handing out her books {
and ledgers through black smoke—she stayed till I went in  
and most dragged her out—the smoke was so black I couldn’t g
have stood it the way she did. The couriers got the horses and g
the saddles out of the barn as it looked as though the barn  
would go also. From the time we got there, almost, we knew  
the Garden House would go. The hose worked perfectly and  
the men were splendid but the fire had got too great a start {
before we knew about it. Everyone was at lunch. Lee says l'
he passed by about 5 minutes before and saw no sign of any- W 
r thing wrong. At one point the wind came up and the flames . ,,
leapt towards the barn. Luckily it was only for a minute and  
they didn’t quite make it. As soon as we got there almost  

   raonrnun mmsino smnvxcm s
.  we sent men for the other hose to play on the barn. It was
3 all so quick.
  We concentrated on keeping the iire away from the safe
g and the steel files where the midwifery records are. I do not ‘ 
  think anything at all will be saved but at the moment of writing
" there is still a vague hope something will be left in the Bles-
7,. not in Aggie’s. They are clearly burned inside as Well as out.
 Q" The only actual mishap to persons was that Mr. Oakley
got his hands and feet frost bitten. Dr. Kooser was Wonderful
\ with him and we kept him in bed in the cabin all night. He ·
  ` seems all right now.
  The coal in the cellar is still burning and keeping the fire
  alive. Our biggest trouble in fighting it has been the cold. The
i thermometer was at zero yesterday. There is evidently a freeze
i between the pump and the tank so Kermit hasn’t yet been able
  to get the water up into the tank. They worked on it last night
  but had to wait till daylight to End it. They are at it now. *
A The tanks have held out beautifully though (for hre Hghting V
i only—no baths). The plumber was here from Hazard and he
  and Mr. Bowling worked literally all night on the pipes in the
€ kitchen. We were afraid they would burst—or even the hot
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s  ’ Seven Minutes after the Alarm. "It was this dense yellow
{ smoke that kept us from getting much out. lnside it was im- A
J possible to open your eyes——even wlule crawling on the n00I‘.”
1
i I

 6 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN i
_ water tank. Aggie and Jean and I were up till between 2 and  
3 sometime and that and the fact that I am racing to get the 5
mail may account for some of the literary short—comings of this _  
letter——I am not used to typing and Meta is helping Aggie- 1
Excuse it. g
Of course the Garden House people lost all their personal V` 
property. We have done our best for them and Hyden and
others have come across marvelously.   -
Aggie is in the Staff room and the three couriers in the
guest room. The Service goes on despite the loss of "its most
treasured possessions" (its records). All luck to you!
FROM DOROTHY F. BUCK  
Later Friday, January 9, 1942. é
I hope you could make out some of my letter mailed this ,
morning. I didn’t have time to read it over and haven’t had the  
courage to look at the carbon. I i
’ After writing you I went out to the ex-Garden House and  
found Dr. Kooser already directing the rescue work. Agnes’  
office yielded a blank. Lucile’s did better and I think she got §
out some more stuff she can use. The safe seemed to have   i
most things fairly intact but the insurance papers, for instance, X
are quite in a touch—me-not state of fragileness. The records  
have gone. The 5th thousand midwifery cases—the ones we are  
doing and so far not seen by Dr. Dublin———are a black powder.  
We have rescued the remains of some of the others but I doubt Q
if they are worth much. Unfortunately my tabulated lists were  
over there. I used to keep them in my room till the mice fright-  
ened me into sending them over where I considered them safer.  
For some reason or other they came through the fire better ‘  
and I think we can get valuable data from most. The present  
series and the emergencies were the hardest hit. General rec- {
ords, all gone, though the master file cards were saved. Any-  
way, we have the data [tabulated and privztecl] in the Bulletins! 2,
We are completely thawed and the pump has been going.  
The plumber and Oscar worked steadily from 7 p. m. yesterday  
' to about 3 p. m. today! ~
Just to ease Aggie I’m staying awake tonight with two 5
s
. l i
H l

   Fnowrimn Nunsmc snnvrcn 7
I
1 night watchmen to keep an eye on the iire. Connally is here as
l well as Gordon. There is inclined to be a wind. I reall don’t
I
· 1 think there’s the slightest danger. The ire 1S m the coal all
_ within the now feeble foundation walls. Hopefully we’ll have I
`, it all put out tomorrow.
Thank you for the wire. You are rather a glorious person.
_ ; I told Aggie she was to get a night’s sleep before starting to
 Q  build! ·
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` Fifteen Minutes After the Alarm. Water Now Played Entirely I
X on Part of Building near the Safe. l
l
g · FROM AGNES LEWIS
§ [Executive Secretary]
\
l Sunday, January 11, 194.2.
l You can never know how we hated to send that telegram.
l This was the week—end ou were to be free of work and anxiet .
* .
. . . We are still at a loss to know what caused the fire. What-
_  ever the cause, it must have burst into flames. When the girls A
. . left for lunch they were not aware of any smoke or odor of
anything burning; and at twelve thirty when the fire was no-
` ; ’ ticed the front oflices and bed rooms—those toward Pig Alley-
 V already in flames. Kermit was over at the Big House

 I
I
a THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN  
. helping Mr. Bowling thaw out frozen pipes. Lee was in Pig Q
Alley but said it had not been long since he had been in the Z
Garden House basement and everything seemed all right. The i
two full water tanks enabled us to keep the iire from spreading i
to the barn. Kermit has been superb——staying night and day
to fill up the tanks. Fortunately, Mr. Bowling was on hand
and he, too, was marvelous. The Couriers have measured up _
to the best Courier traditions. · “
Mr. Oakley, the Camp Creek minister, was here Thursday  
and he had had experience in the Navy putting out fires and  
maneuvered the hose. He really did a splendid job of keeping 3
it away from the barn. We used both hydrants—one to keep ,
the barn soaked and the other putting out the fire. 1
It is fortunate that when we revised our insurance schedule  
last summer we increased the insurance on the Garden House Z
from $3,500.00 to $5,000.00 the maximum we could put on it, i
Mr. McGuire said, because the foundation walls and stone work  
and plumbing would not be destroyed. That may be true in  
cities where they have adequate fire departments, but it doesn’t .  
hold here--The wall almost crumbled on the end where the coal 1
bin was; and the men think the chimney will have to be pulled '
down to prevent its falling. The weather has been zero which i.
has slowed up work. .  
Andy (Edith Anderson, Social Service) iS moving 0V€l‘ to  
Hyden to the Hospital guest room. I am moving into Ruth’s  
room, having a telephone put in, and we are also using it for g
an oiiice. Jean is moving to the lower shelf (two of the maids ‘  
are doubling up) and the two juniors are in the guest room.  
Kay and Jerry are working on the upper shelf in Kay’s room.  
Lucile is working in a corner of the living room. Everyone {
is quite happy with this arrangement until either a temporary 3
or permanent building is put up. Q
That telegram you sent us was so dear and so like you.  
You have had so many things to add to your already stagger- é
ing load. I dare not dwell on that now. Some good must come ii 
_ out of this experience. And I keep thinking how many people -. ,
in the world have suffered far worse than we have. Dr. Kooser  
remarked that he believed that there must be lessons for us  
i

 I
  FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE 9 ‘
z
l to learn from this experience. He offered to give up his den
  for an office, and one of their upstairs bedrooms.
i Mrs. Wilson telephoned from Lexington this morning. I
  don’t know how she had learned the news. She asked if she `
} could help by coming up—The message had to be relayed as
we couldn’t talk direct. She would be a godsend to take over
the housekeeping. Wasn’t she dear?
$ #4
i FROM AGNES LEWIS TO MRS. E. WARING WILSON
  IN LEXINGTON KENTUCKY
3 Saturday, January 10, 1942. __
i Your telegram came this evening. I think my thoughts
l must have reached you because I had been wishing for you.
é We shall welcome you with tears of joy. This is an emergency
2 when I feel that you could really organize the housekeeping for ,
l us. The maids’ schedules have to be changed since one house ·
l is gone and you could do it so perfectly. Then, perhaps, we
  could later carry on, when you had to leave, and keep to your
l organization.
l Besides, I feel that your wise counsel would be invaluable I
p on many things. Of course we are all heartsick. This was to
, have been Mrs. Breckinridge’s quiet week-end of rest. Instead
l we had to telegraph the tragic news to her.
Z We are completely baiiied as to the cause. It must have  
  literally burst into flames. We were at lunch at the Big House
  and the Garden House had not been emptied more than thirty
ji minutes, for we were just leaving the dog trot, when a man
l came running and said the Garden House was on fire. We .
i ran over and already my office was a mass of flames and the
§ back offices so full of smoke that one could not see. Lucile
{ got out her books and ledgers. We saved a typewriter and
, two adding machines. The washwomen and Belle and some of
j the staff got some clothes out of the laundry. The record de-
li partment got out some of their current records and the master '
L,   tile and then the whole house was aflame. The fire extinguishers
were emptied in an effort to control it while the hose was being
  pulled out but they made no impression. All of the wood in
  that house was dry and the wall board, too, so once it got
AI
l
Q €
  i

 10 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN E
. started it went like a flash. We had two full tanks of water
and got the fire all out except the coal in the bins and even  
tonight that is still burning and we have to keep putting it out. I 
While the loss is simply terrible so far as records and files l
and the building is concerned, we can’t help beingtremendously l
grateful that it didn’t break out in the middle of the night.
If one of the Couriers had been injured, I don’t think we could
have stood it. And with only J ahugh and Gordon here a11d the  ‘
hose freezing almost before we could get it "unkinked" after
pulling it out they would have been unable to keep it from .
spreading to the barn, I fear. And if the barn had caught, `
with a loft full of hay, one hates to think where the fire would {
have gone. And so we have much to be thankful for. One  
thing, it didn’t start from lamps or candles or a faulty furnace
and the iiues were tile-lined and we have no oil rags. I wish  
we knew what did happen.  
FROM AGNES LEWIS TO MARY BRECKINRIDGE .  
Tuesday, January 13, 1942.  
Just a wee note this morning to say we received your dear  
letter yesterday and I will get a long letter off to you in to-  
morrow’s mail, enclosing a tentative plan for a new Garden Q
House. I will get in touch with heating firms at once, but can-  
not order until they see plans. I can give them an idea of what l
will be wanted and find out what possibility there will be of _ {
our getting priorities and I will hear promptly I am sure. i
We hope you will think the present arrangement of bed- . ‘
rooms and offices all right until we can make a permanent R
, arrangement. Everyone seems quite happy about it. But on ]
more careful thought we may find it won’t work. We shall . 
know better when things are a little better straightened out. 1
You would think Of ——— (treasured personal possessions),  
They were of course lost but even that cannot compare to the  
loss of records and files which affects the whole Service; and .
his picture, my mother’s miniature and other things dear to  ,_
me are a loss only to me. And so many millions have lost all _ _
that was dear to them. I can’t but think of them. The Couriers V 1
and I would no more think of letting the Service replace our  

 i
 _ Fnomsimn NURSING sizzavica 11
personal things than we would think of jumping into the river.
They have been grand and are good stuff and can take it.
Just the same we do thank you for even thinking of it. Friends
j have generously supplied me with clothes temporarily. I shall `I
lj not need much and would rather not have more than just
enough now. It is the loss to the Service that matters and
the burden that loss will put on you whom God knows didn’t
 4 need a {ire in addition to what you already had to shoulder.
The furnace man was here yesterday and we checked the
furnace and it just doesn’t look like that could have caused
the fire. The basement was the last to catch. It must have
been spontaneous combustion of something. I can’t think what.
One can’t help trying to arrive at a cause. Smoke poured out
j the top underneath the eaves.
j Time for the mail. Mrs. Wilson is coming Thursday for
f two weeks. Bless her.
Q , ··V;j .  y _v.~.   ’ . Y . ·‘ V · -  
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Fifty Minutes After the Alarm
 I FROM DOROTHY F. BUCK
n i . January 13, 1942.
‘ Q Friday we spent salvaging—dipping records into water,
V. covering them with sawdust—and pressing the smoldering nre

 12 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN _ l
_ out. It took all day and was nearly as back-breaking as it was  
heart-breaking. By Saturday everything was established and I
everyone was working full steam ahead to try to catch up with
the last sixteen years. Today we finally managed to get the A
ruins cleared enough to knock down the chimney which every-  ,
one said was unsafe. Also Aggie and Kay Doggett got tele-
` phones in their rooms. It is warmer so perhaps we won’t have
more frozen pipes. ~ 
I am afraid I had better stop and do a spot of reading.  
I have found I have to before going to sleep or the flames  
haunt me._  
FROM EDITH ANDERSON  
[Social Service Secretary] *
"Hit’s a pity, but I reckon the Service and the world will n
go on!" Thus spoke one of the men hauling the pitiful remains  
of twisted files out of the Garden House.  
But this is just a chatty letter with no particular incentive °
and I do not wish to dwell on what you already know about ._
the fire. Agnes has probably told you everything, except how U
fine she was. And she really was grand. She never once men-  
tioned the loss of all her personal belongings and little gadgets A
that mean so much to a person, but only could think of _
her years of work going up in a mass of yellow clouds-—ugly .
clouds, too. ij
I watched her face and would have given anything if I  
had been the sympathetic type that could have offered conso-  
lation without seeming artificial. But instead, your hobby-bitten y
social worker, appeared not to notice, as she was very busy
taking pictures.
It is too bad that you had not time to know the junior
couriers better before you left, for they are charming girls. .
They took their losses with a grin—particularly after putting  
. on some of the "grab" that Hyden sent over. , Q;
As for Jean—well a person would not know if she was sit-
ting on a pin if she did not choose to say so. The Hospital sent  é
over a bathing suit labeled for her exclusively! Thursday she  
j .
l

 Q Fnoivrinn Nunsiuc smzvicn is {
  went to Lexington to get Mrs. Wilson and wore—a pair of
” my shoes. But yes.
5 Charlie Fields has been offering to work six days or more , 
free of charge and said the same thing held for his family. I
 , could have hugged him.
I have moved myself and my office over to the Hospital
A guest room. There is a shiny new typewriter and many clean
..  new folders—but, alas, empty ones. A social worker without
? any case histories is a pitiful object.
Q FROM MRS. E. WARING WILSON
  AT WENDOVER, KENTUCKY
“ - January 17, 1942.
  Only a good long talk would satisfy after all that has hap-
' pened since we parted in Lexington two Weeks ago, and I know
5 you have had full reports from here but I must thank you for {
.7 your telegram and gracious welcome to Wendover in absentia l
  and give you a few impressions of conditions here. I came up
{ to Wendover with Jean and Ruth (who went to Lexington for
new glasses to replace burned ones!) in Jean’s car as far as .
3 Hyden. Walter B. met us at Hyden in his truck and brought
A us and all our bags and boxes (clothes for burned out ones)
  to Wendover where I was welcomed rapturously by my dear I
Aggie and by the rest at dinner-table. All cheerful and inter-
» ested and morale excellent. The burned out ones are settled in  
_· other rooms which consoled me for occupying the small staff
  one in state alone. I am uplifted by the spirit shown here, in-
  dividually and collectively;—and so glad for the lovely gifts ·
  coming in from so many friends. ‘
l Yesterday I viewed the ruins where Jahugh, Kermit and
Oscar Bowling were working and though overwhelmed by the p
loss of records and personal belongings really feel it rises to
miracle that the rest of the place was saved only by heroic
. and very efficient work. Buck is working daily on some scorched ,
  records, retrieving something perhaps but it is quite pathetic.
,   Of course my heart aches for Aggie whose personal losses are .
really complete. She does not dwell much on the loss of her
 * ·own possessions and when she does considers them as nothing
  compared with the sorrows of the world.
Q .
i

 ¤
14 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN 3
· My main job here now is readjusting domestic situation 1
a bit as, with no Garden House to clean, the maids’ duties L
change. I had a delightful conference with them. All are
inspired to do their best and be in good order for your return.
Aggie was worrying about household affairs with no time to 1
attend to them. Alice is off for a week at home and Audrey is
in the Wendover post office. Alice left a pile of notes for me J
to write at my leisure. Also I am fixing clothes for Aggie with I 
Irene’s help today. So I am busy and interested and enjoying .
being here but miss you very much specially in late afternoon
for radio news hour. I am giving a party at 5:30 today with T
Muscatel and salted nuts.   ·
FROM LUCILE HODGES  
[Bookkeeper] l
January 21, 1942. _
It hurts me for you to say that I risked my life to save I
the books and ledgers. There was such a powerful stream of .
water being played on the building that the idea of the whole ji
house going up in flames was far from my thoughts. The ·
smoke was very thick and I had thrown up two windows (to 1
throw the books and ledgers out). I didn’t get stified—only V
frightened. I think it might have passed through my head
that with so much confusion I might have been forgotten ....  
FI
FROM AGNES LEWIS  
January 18, 1942.
There are no words in which to tell you what your letter  
p of Thursday the fifteenth meant to us. You always say the
thing