John Jacob Niles

He became a serious student of Appalachian folk music by transcribing traditional songs from oral sources while an itinerant employee of the Burroughs Corporation in eastern Kentucky, from 1910 to 1917.

After serving in the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I, in which he was injured, he studied music in France, first in Lyon, then in Paris at the Schola Cantorum, also meeting Gertrude Stein.

He made four extended trips into the southern Appalachians as an assistant to photographer Doris Ulmann, again transcribing traditional songs from oral sources, including the ballads "Pretty Polly", "Barbara Allen", and "He's Goin' Away".

On other occasions, he transcribed songs he heard sung by African Americans and by fellow soldiers in World War I. Niles was also a noted songwriter.

They settled on the Boot Hill farm in Clark County, Kentucky, with two sons, Thomas Michael Tolliver and John Edward, where they spent the rest of their lives.