Monday, September 15, 2008

Midwives: Bradford Loveday's daughters


When Civil War veteran Bradford Loveday's orphaned younger children came under the guardianship of fellow veteran Matthew Breeden, Bradford's three oldest children, Greeneville, Lucy Ann, and Arnettie, were already 16 or older. During their adulthood, Lucy Ann (left) and Arnettie (right) served the community as midwives.

From what I understand, they probably helped deliver the majority of babies born in the early 1900s in that area off of Jones Cove Road in Sevier County. Lucy Ann was described to me as always wearing an apron and always keeping a biscuit in her apron pocket. She is buried at Howard's View Cemetery.

I stumbled across my father's 1924 birth certificate, and sure enough, there was Lucy Ann Loveday's name as the attending midwife, stating that he was "borned alive."

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