Granny women / Midwives

Granny women

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Above photo: Known as ‘Granny Shores,’ Nancy Mullins Shores (1867-1945) of Pound, VA was a midwife said to have delivered over 1,000 babies.


Granny women. Appalachia’s midwives. They are usually elder women in the community, the ones people come to with their problems. They do not wear any special garb or have any physical attributes, other than being elderly, that a person can identify them by. The Granny women are recognized throughout the community by their actions. For example, Granny women do not expect to be paid for their services. Furthermore, they are expected to be ethical, and never do harm to another human being. Many Granny women are fundamentalist Christians and are looked to as religious leaders in their communities. Yet they are not in control over anyone. Instead, they are just looked at as wise, good women who unselfishly help the community.

The wisdom of a granny woman is passed down to a family member. Traditionally the arts are given to one female per generation. One belief is that the magical power of a woman is increased during her menstrual cycle; thus, during a woman’s period is the best time for her to learn the ways of a granny woman. Most of the teachings consist of potions from herbs.

Orlean Puckett and her husband, and their cabin (preserved at Milepost 189.1 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in southern Virginia.)
Orlean Puckett and her husband, and their cabin (preserved at Milepost 189.1 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in southern Virginia.)

Orlean Hawks Puckett’s story exemplifies the fortitude and goodwill of Appalachian granny women in the 1800s and the early 1900s.

Born in North Carolina, Puckett received little formal education before she married John Puckett at about age sixteen. They settled close to his family near Groundhog Mountain in Patrick County, VA. Her first child was born in 1862 but died a few months later of diphtheria. Of her 23 subsequent pregnancies, none of the children born living survived more than a few days, possibly as a result of Rh hemolytic disease.

Orlean Puckett and her husband moved in 1875 to a nearby farm in Carroll County, where he built a two-story log house. She first served as a midwife in 1889, when no doctor or other midwife could be found for a neighbor. Puckett soon began traveling around the region, sometimes up to twenty miles distant, to deliver babies. She never charged for her services and became known throughout the area for her compassion and skill, having never lost a mother or baby during the many hundreds of deliveries she attended.

“At that time around the `20s and on up through the `30s and all, they had what they called the “midwife,” and they’d go and get her and she’d stay around the home until the . . . with the mother till the kid was born. She was just a woman from the country around here at that time. [The granny women] were just trained by experience. Had several kids theirselves and then they’d help someone else to have it, as far as I know. I don’t think [babies died in childbirth] any more then than they do now, but might have been more. A lot of time a woman would have a kid by herself right at home. Her man would be away and nobody close and had . . . I know of a few cases like that. They didn’t know anything about a nurse at that time, I don’t imagine. I never heared much talk about it.”

John Caldwell
b. 1901 Harlan County, KY

Source:

Interview with John Caldwell, July 6, 1978

Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History,

University of Kentucky Libraries

Dale Deaton, Interviewer | 1978OH142 FNS 002
Frontier Nursing Service Oral History Project

More articles on midwives:

She had enough faith in the nurses, that if she had the nurses(Opens in a new browser tab)

Somebody ought to give the true picture of them(Opens in a new browser tab)

Theirs was a hardy race(Opens in a new browser tab)

‘Granny Dollar’: a poignant tale of passion, betrayal, theft, and death.(Opens in a new browser tab)

13 comments

  1. Granny women are interesting characters. I wonder what she’s going to make with that cabbage? Black vinegar stew? We forget how important the elderly are to help us remember where we’ll all be one day. The give us, the young ‘uns, who are running around all day doing nothing much important a sense of perspective that we all need in life.
    Cheers for the good posts.

  2. There is one service the granny women performed that is not mentioned in the articles I have been reading. After a person in the community died, the granny woman would do what was known as laying out the corpse, preparing it for burial. After this was done, it was customary to sit up all night with the body. I was told that this was done for two reasons. One reason was in case the person revived before the corpse was buried. Since there was no air conditioning at that time, doors and windows had to be left open. Sitting up with the body was a way of making sure no animals got in the house.

  3. I am curious if anybody knows who this lady might be? She looks exactly like my Aunt Phyllis Craft Pace

  4. My great-grandmother Montgomery was a “granny” and during her life, delivered an estimated four to five hundred babies in the rural community of Camden, S.C. She had remedies and healing ways that made her much beloved in the community. I still miss her angelic presence even today.

  6. James Watkins’s reply reminded me of the last “settin’ up” with a corpse I participated in, or heard of. My dad and I joined a couple of other neighbors and sat all night with a neighbor’s corpse. He was laid out in his living room, which was the custom. This was in S. C. in the late 1980s or early ’90s. We drank coffee, talked in low voices, and greeted the widow and other family members the next morning before leaving. I wonder if this old custom is still observed anywhere? I’d guess the answer is yes, somewhere in Appalachia.

  7. Pingback: Orthodox Granny Women – Appalachian Orthodox

  8. For Gene, who wonders if sitting up with the corpse is still observed…why YES ! I, myself, have sat up and it seemed as natural as taking flowers to a grave, or stopping traffic for a funeral procession. For some family, I think the idea of a (fly) stopping by is a revolting thought. For others it may represent something more spiritual, accompanying a loved one through a stage of leaving. I still see this all the time in Eastern Kentucky. I think it is touching and…I hope someone cares that much about me someday. Death is still a mystery and who can prove what we know or don’t know immediately after that last heartbeat ?

  9. Amen to that ! Miss Mullins…I am a Mullins too. I never thought there was anything unusual to sit up with a deceased loved one. I hope I am cared for that way when it it’s time.

  10. Pingback: Orthodox Granny Women

  11. I come from a distinct line of GrannyWomen…my Collins, Gipson, Mullins, Webb and Cole females before me. I feel blessed to have been born with some of their wisdom …..

  12. When attending my Uncle’s wake an elderly woman came in. She told me she knew my grandmother and my grandmother was a “Walker”. She explained that she would walk through the mountains of Tennessee to help deliver babies and to wash the dead. Sometimes she would ride a mule but not in the dark as they didn’t want the mule to step in a hole and break a leg. So they walked this the name “Walker”.

  13. My grandmother was, what I believe to be a KY Granny. She passed in mid 1970’s. She delivered countless babies and dressed the dead. Even made coffins and lined with fabric. As a child we would play with her baby weighing scales and her books of births. Some people claimed she was a witch. I think she was an amazing human at have always wished that she had passed her knowledge to me.

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