William T. Billy Bussey: David Memories

Billy Bussey is my first cousin and someone we all looked up to. We grieved when he left the camp at age 17 to join the Military, but always treasured his visits back home. Below, he writes of growing up in David.



This is a recent photo of Billy and my brother, Rodney Clark Bussey, first cousins who grew up in David and remain close to this day. They both went on to become great citizens. They are the sons of brothers, Dawson E. and Otis T Bussey who were the first miners to come into the new mines and coal camp which was being built on Middle Creek in Floyd County, East Kentucky. The roads hadn't been cut and the tracks hadn't yet been laid when Daddy and Uncle Otis came to work at the David mines. The camp was named for Princess Elkhorn Coal Company president, David L. Francis.

Rod became a headmaster at a private school on Long Island and taught at The Lexington School before spending 30 years with Berea College, retiring as a Vice-President. Rod devoted his life to serving Appalachian students and Berea students from around the world.

Bill is retired from several tours of duty during his 30 years in military service to the USA. He served several tours in Viet Nam , Uganda, Cambodia and other hot spots during very troubled times. He stayed in touch with Uncle Otis and Aunt Ora on a ham radio. We were always glad when someone heard from Billy. He also served in Defense Weapon design before his last retirement. Rod and Bill can correct my information as needed. They are both modest so I held back on their many accomplishments and contributions to us and our country.


Dedication of the David Swimming Pool circa 1949
A first in the hills of East Kentucky, built by the coal miners, company employees, and their sons.

I hope you enjoy the memoirs of David Native, Billy Bussey

Memories of David Kentucky by William T. "Billy" Bussey

In this memoir, I try to capture a few random events from the earliest days of David, Kentucky. I hope to fill in some spaces due to the lapses in time of our individual memories. I invite any of the original David personalities who may still be around to share and continue to fill in the blanks.Several of us old timers might be able to help with some of the early details. I've read the detailed and interesting stories from Kermit Collins and I believe our generations overlap in the early years.

I am Billy Bussey, and our family and others families came to David at the beginning. The first houses were the five houses before the railroad tracks. You might remember these five houses and they were used to house the earlier David workers. These men were the men that built David. During our first trip to David, we visited there with dad and some of the workers and they served us dinner.

Alka Davis and crew were busy cutting trees, sawing them into building materials and building houses in David. The saw mill was in the lower end of the ball field. You might remember the large saw dust pile; it was more like a hill of saw dust. I remember too, the cutting of trees and the men used mules dragging the logs down the hills. They were amazing and the job was extremely dangerous. You can still see the deep paths the logs made as they were pulled down the hill. I would spend long hours watching them work. They men used long whips to keep the mules pulling and the mules were inches away from being run over by the logs.

During our move to David we stayed in one of the houses on the left, I believe the third one, as you pass school house hollow going up toward the ball field. A few days later, we went as a family to select a site for our house in Official Hollow, or cousin Judy tells me many of the children called it "fisher holler", and she wondered why.

My dad, Otis Bussey, had been working at Wayland where the coal company was having a hard time. The workers were paid in company money and could only spend it at the company store. Dad was hired by David and was asked to go back to Wayland and find men to fill key positions at David. These key men became some of the foremen at David. Ed Carver, Dawson Bussey, Tandy Bartley, and several others were important to the company and community. I hope readers supply other names for us. During this time, Mother had taken us to visit relatives in our native Alabama. Dad had started working at David while we were gone and and was hiring men from Wayland. The company at Wayland asked Dad to go ahead and leave the house in Wayland so he had to move all our things to David while we were still in Alabama.


I started school at David, 1st grade and Miss Frankie Best was my teacher. The school was used for all types of gatherings. Movies were shown there, 10 cents, one reel at a time by Glen, I've forgotten his last name, whom I believe was from Auxier. He also showed movies in David by tying a sheet between houses to be used as the screen.

Kermit Collins, who wrote about our school or lack thereof, came a little later than us. We lost the first school. The town was all involved in saving for the war effort, newspapers, lard, clothing, etc. We stored these items in one of the class rooms. Stacks and stacks of newspapers and other items. All packed too close to the coal stove. To keep the dust down the floors were oiled. As described, we used coal and the stove would really get hot. In my 3rd grade, the school caught on fire and we all ran out of the school and I remember hiding in the big creek in front of the school watching it burn. As I remember, it was a great fire, the school was gone in less than 30 minutes.

Kermit wrote about going to school in the church. Miss Allen our 3rd teacher never missed a class and we continued in this mode until the new school and gym were built. The gym was a big thing for most of us. An interesting story is about my dog, Blackie. He was the only dog allowed in the school. When it was time for recess, Blackie would get up and go to the door, recess time. At the end of the year students were recognized for perfect attendance, certificate and a silver dollar were the awards. Blackie was called up the front and received his perfect attendance slip and his silver dollar just like the rest of us.

Boy Scouts leaders were Preacher Durham, the leader for a while, as was my dad, Otis Bussey and R.L. Carver. However, Ray Stambaugh was the long term Scout Leader. I think Ray was also a boxer is his early days, quite a man. His boxing name was "Battling Ray".

Later, the coal company authorized the building of a scout cabin at the head of Official Holler. All the men and boy scouts worked together. They cut trees and gathered materials and built the cabin. David Francis gave the scouts an original Mountain Long Rifle including the pouch and horn. It was really nice and impressive, a real Kentucky long rifle. Later, I believe in the 50’s the cabin and all contents were destroyed in a fire.

Every year some of us went to spend a week at Camp Arrow Head. Some of us were selected into the Order of The Arrow. At the David camp, we built a small dam and an outside area similar to the Order of The Arrow. Members of the Order of the Arrow were Dan Carver, Richard Dixon, Pete Everly and several others I don’t remember, and me. We performed a ceremony like the Order. We developed a system and we wore Indian outfits and one of us, Sonny Carver, would kneel before the stack of wood and was careful not to touch it. After three bows the fire would erupt. We still keep our secret; Sonny Carver and I came up with the magic.

Early, there was a lot of excitement about the reservoir being built for David’s water. When it was completed, for some of us boys, it became our swimming hole, rock skipping, picnics, cook outs a much needed hangout place. This is where many of us learned to swim. We had a big party dedicating the dam. People of David showed up and a good time was had by all. I remember one of the ugliest things I ever saw at the dam was a big fat water moccasin. He went his way and we went our way.

Tony Rainer was contracted to build the theater and fountain. My dad, Otis, and family ran the theater and fountain. Dot Crauswel, my 1st cousin, my sister Wonnell, Dad and mother ran the fountain. I cleaned the floor and did odd jobs. I also was the second at running the projectors in the theater. Cleaned up, and anything else needed to be done. We had a county news paper, The Floyd County Times; I sold these papers for several years. Bobby Rainer was selling the Times around David while his dad worked building the Theater. I called the Editor, Mr. Norman Allen and asked him to stop Bobby from selling papers in David, because it was my town. He did. Mr. Norman Allen was a good source of reference for many years. I also delivered the Lexington Courier Journal and sold subscriptions to all published magazines.

Later, several of us were hired to dig a ditch from the water plant through town. At the end of the day we would head for the pool, nice clean cold water. Later, I became one of the life guards at the pool along with Ann Everly, and James Lloyd Hale.

Several of us boys started the First Aid Team. The members were Lowell Hager, Donald Puckett, Gordon Ratliff, Wallen, and me. Over the years some members came and went but Lowell and I stayed with the team. We practiced in the back of the church. We didn’t fool around; we worked hard and won every Tri-State event we entered. The prize of 12 silver dollars was good but learning and being the best was important.

One day at the pool I saw James Lloyd Hale working hard to pull someone out of the pool. I helped and immediately began giving artificial respiration. The person was not breathing but after several minutes he seemed OK. Someone called Prestonsburg for help, 10 plus miles away. I also asked someone to get Lowell Hager to come and assist me. We had a big crowd, however I didn’t trust anyone else, just my friends and partner from the First Aid team. Lowell arrived and we would switch off administrating the artificial respiration and never losing a stroke. Help arrived and took control and I believe we were all pleased the first aid team training had paid off.


I thought the blackberry patch behind number one tipple was secret only a few of us knew about. Many berries were picked there were always perfect for that black berry cobbler, jams and jelly. One year Dad bought ten little pigs and we kept them at the tipple pen in front of the black berry patch. Dad raised those ten little pigs and we dressed out them out in the fall. It was like a big party, many in the town joined in the work and shared in the meat, lard and other parts. My grandmother Lurid Nevada Clark Bussey, from Dora, Alabama, used the head to make some kind of loaf. (Judy tells me it was souse meat and that Uncle Dawson brought a hog's head home every Christmas for Aunt Nova to make him some souse meat. I hear Aunt Nova always dreaded this job, but it was a Bussey tradition that she kept going)

Another time dad won the raffle for a pig called Big Red. He ran wild in the hills, pens couldn’t hold him. After a lot of effort we were able to house Big Red in his new home, a strong reinforced pen at the tipple. That fall Big Red dressed out at over 800 pounds. In any case, he was big.


Very important people in David were Harry and Betty Fiedler. Harry was an engineer and Betty was Betty. She organized the Patsy Teenagers and we traveled all over the Eastern part of the country. Shirley Hager, peggy Bussey, Peggy Bartley, Judy, Toby, Karen, Rod Bussey, Betty June Honeycutt, the Hammond girls, Pattie Clark, me and many more over the years were in the Teenagers. More joined, and some of us moved away. Later, the teenagers were led by by Mrs. Kathryn Frasier, who developed the group even further.

Betty taught us to sing, saw that we visited interesting places, White Sulfur Springs, Blowing Rock NC, TV in Huntington and the list goes on. A book could be written about The Patsy Teenagers in White Sulfur Spring WVA. I remember the first couple of meals and we were ordering from the menus. Use your imagination. I have a picture of the group, Christmas of 1951.

We can go on about David, but I believe it provided the basis for learning the necessary skills that have helped us through our lives. We played sports and refereed our own games. We may not have been the biggest or best or the strongest, but this made us try harder and we learned what it took to make it in life.

I hope some of what I have written will help fill in that early time space and add a few details from my perspective. I think it might be good if we could identify what all the young people of David became. I know Judy is trying to showcase a few of us of facebook, but there are so many more David kids, and I'd love to know the people they became.


Kermit wrote briefly about Taylor Stumbo, the sheriff. He shot my dog, later I heard he thought it was sick or dangerous. I didn’t believe that. She was a nice, friendly little dog and she was not sick or dangerous. I was not fan of the sheriff Taylor’s.

I now live in Clermont, Florida.

Bill Bussey