Person:Mary Hall (291)

Mary Elizabeth Hall married James B. Warner, February 28, 1894. Mary Elizabeth “Liz” was a midwife for Estill County, Kentucky until World War I. James Warner was a farmer at Hargett., Kentucky. Aunt Liz Warner never let styles of clothing bother her and wore ankle length dresses all her life.
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From a (Estill?) newspaper by an unknown author about Aunt Liz - Because of a singular incident, I’ll never forget “Aunt Liz” Warner as long as I live. I was working in the “wet-dry” election here several years ago on one of the few times my side won and because there was snow on the ground and “Aunt Liz” lived on a hillside, I went up to her home to make arrangements for haulding the elderly lady and her family to the polls. She informed me that, “Yes, sir, honey - I’ll be ready at one o’clock. But that pore chile of mine . . . I don’t know whether she’ll be able to make it or not. She’s just 63 but she’s in mighty pore health.” Incidentally the “pore chile” did make it, carried off the hill in a chair to a waiting vehicle.
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Unknown Newspaper clipping: “Aunt Liz” Warner, 93, Passes here Tuesday (March 5, 1963)
Mrs. Mary Elizabeth “Aunt Liz” Warner, 93, died Tuesday, March 5, in the Estill County Hospital. A native of Estill County, Mrs. Warner was a former midwife and served in that capacity for many years here. She was a member of the Church of God. Survivors are four daughters, Mrs. Zelma Clark, Mrs. Elmer Tackett and Mrs. Ora Rothwell, all of Ohio; Mrs. Ada Tipton, Lexington; two sons, Early Warner, Ohio, and Ed Warner, Irvine; two brothers, Wesley Hall, Fox, and Louis Hall, Dayton, Ohio; ten grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Thursday (today), at the Lewis Funeral Home by the Rev. Roy Dennis. Burial will be in the Winburn Cemetery near Fox.

Aunt Liz Has Rafted Logs, Plowed And Delivered Babies
EXCERPTS (midwife and pioneer heritage):
Althought 91 years of age come October, Aunt Liz Warmer of EstillCounty still engages in the ancient profession of midwifery. The trusty lantern which she is holding has lighted the way for many a stormy midnight trip on foot or muleback to “wait on some woman” who had “come to her time”.

IRVINE, Ky.-Spry and loquacious as a young catbird, Aunt Liz Warner lives on the side of a mountain here and describes herself as being “half English and half Irish”. And it is extremely doubful that in all the world there is another woman like her. At 91, she still practices her profession of midwifery and during her long lifetime has followed more trades than Old Man Jack himself. “I’ve never had any time for play,” she declared, “for ever since I can remember I’ve worked like a man. I’ve been every thing from a stone mason to a school teacher and in between, married and raised a family of eight children.

“I’ve rafted logs, split rails, worked as a millwright, shod oxen, plowed roots out of new grounds, done carpentry work and walked enough miles borning enough children to circle the earth twice.” Aunt Liz said she became a “granny woman” in 1924 and has “borned” more children than she can count. With a coal oil lantern in hand, she scaled mountains, forded creeks and trudged the bottomlands in all kinds of weather hurrying to “wait on women”. “It’s funny how so many younguns come at night,” she said, “when it’s dark as pitch and thundering and lightning to boot.” She said that she almost got killed one night when a storm blew a big limb out of a spotted oak and barely missed her. This “scared me up some” but she went on and delivered the baby anyway.

Remembers Pioneer Ancestors
Aunt Liz comes from an illustrious clan of pioneer ancestors. Her grandfather Hall came from England to help settle America and her grandfather Walters, a full-blooded Irishman, came to Kentucky with Daniel Boone and “helped him kill Indians”. From these two men, whom she remembers, she heard hair-rasing, first-hand accounts of pioneer adventure and with remarkable fidelity, can recount these tales, some of which are recorded in Kentucky history.

Aunt Liz had had such a long and varied career, it is impossible to tell her story in one short article. She’s been a member of the Christian Church and “walked with the Lord” for 76 years. Her religious experience by itself is a story. Then there’s her five years of schoolteaching; her marriage at a “slim and slender 22” to the late James B. Warner; her squirrel shooting, and her standing off a couple of badmen with a shotgun would each make an interesting full-length yarn.