A letter from Ohio reveals an unlikely success story

Leave a Comment / Mamie Thurman, Uncategorized / / Dwight Williamson
Drivers of the Haislip Bakery delivery trucks on Water Street of Logan about 1935.
Drivers of the Haislip Bakery delivery trucks on Water Street in Logan about 1935.

By Dwight Williamson

It is sometimes hard for me to believe that it has been nearly 40 years since the name of Mamie Thurman started becoming almost a household name throughout the region.

Since those early days of the stories of Mamie’s gruesome murder and the details of the trial of Clarence Stephenson, the accused African-American who was found guilty of the crime, Mamie has been featured in various ways — from books to television news, various school social studies projects, and even YouTube episodes. In a bizarre way of thinking, one might say that Mamie still lives, at least in name.

Despite numerous pleas to do so, I have never written about all of the details that have been uncovered over the years, but it may now be time to produce a book that will entail many avenues not yet traveled. I will have more to say about this later, but the following information which has been graciously supplied to me is from a son of one of the witnesses in Mamie’s murder trial.

For those folks who have in the past enveloped themselves into the trial of Clarence Stephenson, you may recall the name of Oscar Townsend, a renter who lived in the house owned by Harry Robertson. According to court transcripts, it was Townsend’s .38 revolver that was taken during a search of the Robertson home. Oddly, the gun was taken from Robertson, not Townsend, according to the testimony.

Townsend was employed as a teller of the National Bank of Logan, which had merged with Guyan Valley Bank. Like Mamie, who was formerly employed at the Guyan Valley Bank, Townsend paid rent to Robertson. Mamie’s husband, Jack, a nighttime police officer in Logan, also paid rent to Robertson, who was a prominent City Council member.

In reality, Robertson had all three of them employed and therefore, virtually guaranteed himself a rental income in the midst of the Great Depression. Stephenson lived in the attic of the Robertson home and was the handyman for Robertson, also taking care of the banker’s many coon hunting dogs. He was not allowed to use any of the restrooms at the Robertson home and utilized the bathrooms of the Logan County Courthouse, per court testimony. He shaved in the basement garage below the apartment Mamie and her husband made their home.

I recently received an email from Ron Townsend, the son of Oscar Townsend. Now 71 years-old and a resident of Huntington, Ron writes:

“Dwight, thank you for all the hard work and many hours you have put into preserving the rich history of Logan. Upon reading your segment about the “Buildings of Logan” I thought you might like to hear the story of one business that has been lost in time. Let me begin by providing a little history of my family.”

Townsend wrote that his father was James Oscar Townsend, who was the 12th of 12 children who had lived in a small cabin at Sharp’s Creek just outside of Ironton, Ohio. At age 3, his father’s parents died of cholera, leaving himself and several of his brothers and sisters without parents. The oldest child, Sina, and her husband, Burke Russell, raised him and the remaining children.

As a teenager, Mr. Townsend came to Logan in 1917 during a summer break from school when Burke Russell had found work managing the Aracoma Coal Co. store.

“During that summer,” he explained, “Dad carried mail between the store and the main post office in Logan by crossing the coal conveyor that spanned the Guyandotte River at Aracoma. (Note: The piers to the bridge can still be seen behind Gino’s Pizza at Aracoma). The following summer he shoveled sand into a wood-fired dryer at his job on ‘Backbone Ridge’ between Aracoma and Logan. The sand was used in mine locomotives at the time.

“While attending church one summer day, a man approached him and introduced himself to Oscar Townsend, stating, ‘You look like a fine young man’ and inquired as to Oscar’s status. The man was Harry Robertson.

“Dad explained that he would be returning to Ohio to finish his senior year and didn’t have any future plans,” said Ron Townsend., “and the gentleman then offered him a job as a teller in the bank, if he would return to Logan after graduating. He accepted the offer and thus became a 60-year resident of Logan.”

Around 1932, Oscar Townsend met a fellow named Fred Haislip, who had owned a commercial bakery in Virginia. The man explained to Townsend that he closed the bakery, likely due to economic conditions at the time. Townsend provided the capital to start up the business, and Fred Haislip’s bakery was born.

According to the West Virginia secretary of state archives, the bakery was incorporated in April 1933. The incorporators are listed as Oscar Townsend and John Gibbs. By 1937, according to Ron Townsend, the stock value of the business had tripled. Although it has not been determined how many employees worked at the bakery, it is known that there were five delivery truck drivers.

While there are few people living today who can remember the Haislip Bakery, it is interesting to note that the once-thriving business was located on Water Street where Wendy’s restaurant is now. The bakery building later would in 1948 become the home of Consolidated Bus Lines, following the closing of the original bus station that is now known as Chopper’s barber shop in Logan.

The bus station, according to Ron Townsend, was used by Trailways buses and included a pool hall in the basement and a “teen club” on the second floor. (Note: My mother and I rode those buses to Logan and back when I was very young.).

Oscar Townsend, despite in 1932 just renting a single room in the Robertson home, went on to build the Townsend Hotel at West Logan, which later became the Justice Hotel, owned by Alvie and Thelma Justice. In addition, Townsend opened an accounting firm in Logan that he later sold to Carl Austin.

What some may be surprised to know, including Ron Townsend, is that Oscar Townsend — in his capacity as trustee for the Logan Coal Operators Association — is who in 1960 signed the deed to the Gunther-McNeely-Nolan Post 19 American Legion property, which is located in the basement of Plaza Lanes bowling alley in Logan. Almost 40 separate Logan County coal company representatives met and voted in 1948 to name Townsend as their trustee, according to Logan County clerk records.

I just find it interesting to realize that after all of this time a guy who got his start as a teller and rented just a single room from one of Logan’s most prominent citizens went on to become a local success, which affected the lives of so many others. Therefore, I appreciate Ron Townsend contacting me and allowing the information he provided to be used in this writing.

On a side note, Ron wrote, “Dad was a good friend of Harry Robertson and lived in an apartment above his garage. Dad was a very kind man and the only thing he ever told me about the story was that he believed Clarence was not guilty of the crime, that he felt sorry for him, and that he would send cigarettes to the prison for him. Clarence in turn would make shirts in prison and send them to Dad. So it seems the mystery never ends.”

From that statement, I will conclude that Oscar Townsend must have moved into the apartment that Mamie and her husband lived in, after Jack Thurman moved away from Logan and married a very young Boone County girl shortly before the one-year anniversary of Mamie’s demise.

Also, it seems that Clarence Stephenson apparently smoked cigarettes. Some real Mamie enthusiasts may also remember that one of the items found along with her body that was dumped over an embankment at Trace Mountain of Holden was a package of Lucky Strike brand cigarettes.

From my own conclusions, I will tell you that Oscar Townsend had nothing to do with Mamie Thurman’s murder. However, he was one of the last people to see her alive the night of her disappearance.

In court testimony, Townsend said he had been living at the Robertson house “for about 11 years.”

Stay tuned.

Dwight Williamson is a former writer for the Logan Banner and a retired magistrate for Logan County.

*Published with the author’s permission.

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