Mamie Toogood and the Burning Boarder

 

Ercildoun, the birthplace of Mamie Toogood

 

Few places in Pennsylvania played as important a role in black history as Chester County. With its large pro-abolition Quaker population and close proximity to the Mason-Dixon Line, Chester County boasted a significant black population in the 19th century, even before the Civil War. Many early black residents of the county were former slaves, but had spent their entire lives north of the Mason-Dixon Line, as the abolition of chattel slavery didn't begin in Pennsylvania until 1780, when the state general assembly passed the Gradual Abolition of Slavery Act.

This act was essentially a compromise. The 1780 Act prohibited the importation of slaves into the commonwealth, but it also pacified those who were already slaveowners by not freeing those who were enslaved before the act's passage. The Gradual Abolition of Slavery Act also changed the legal status of children born into slavery to "indentured servants" until the age of 28, when they were granted their freedom (interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, U.S. congressmen from Pennsylvania and their slaves were exempt from the 1780 Act). 

While the act was by no means perfect, its passage was largely due to pressure from the anti-slavery Quaker community. As a result, many of these communities had sizeable black populations. One such town was Ercildoun in East Fallowfield Township, and one such black family who lived there was the Browns. It was one of the Brown daughters who would rise to notoriety in one of the strangest chapters of West Chester history.

The Early Life of Mamie Toogood

Born on Christmas Day of 1856 to George and Mary Brown, Mary E. Brown spent her youth in the Chester County Quaker community of Ercildoun, an important stop on the Underground Railroad and an early center of the American abolitionist movement. There she lived with her sisters, Ella and Priscilla and a brother, Dennis, until the day she met a laborer named George Toogood and fell in love.

On August 30, 1877, Mary E. Brown and George Washington Toogood were married by Rev. Amos Wilson at the A.M.E. church in West Chester. The Toogoods then settled in Coatesville, but their happy marriage was short lived. George, for whatever reason, abandoned Mary, and so, to make ends meet, Mary rented out rooms the house she and her runaway husband once shared. Unfortunately for Mrs. Toogood, her establishment soon attracted a rough-and-tumble crowd and the locals, tired of the riff-raff that wafted in and out of the boardinghouse, ran her out of town.

Mary next settled in West Chester, operating a boardinghouse situated in Pyle's Alley (the name was changed to West Preston Street in 1932, then to West Prescott Alley). As the years went by, Mary became a well-liked resident, and she was known throughout town as Mamie Toogood-- a kind, jovial woman with a big heart who opened her home to any of the local black population who needed a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. It was said that Mamie accumulated considerable wealth in this manner, and was locally famous for her fine cooking and hospitality.

But as kind-hearted as she may have been, Mamie Toogood had her share of legal troubles. In 1887, Mamie Toogood, along with her long-time boarder, David Bacon, were convicted of selling liquor without a license, selling to minors, and selling on a Sunday (incidentally, George Washington Toogood, the husband who had deserted Mamie years earlier, would be arrested multiple times on similar charges). Years later, in 1901, Mame would be called to testify as a witness to a non-fatal shooting that occurred near her boardinghouse, which local officials had come to refer to as a "disorderly house" because of the numerous liquor and morals violations that took place there. On several occasions, stolen articles were found inside the home, as she was known to open her doors to boarders who had been flagged by local inns and hotels. Slowly her reputation began to tarnish. 

And then, in February of 1906, there occurred an unfortunate event that forever altered her fortunes.

A Mysterious Arrival

On the Sunday morning of February 11, 1906, an attractive young black woman arrived at Pyle's Alley and begged Mamie Toogood for shelter. None of the boarders recognized the woman; evidently, she was from out of town. Although she refused to provide her name, she told Mamie that she had been working as a domestic servant for a prominent family named Catanach and that she was on her way to Wilmington, Delaware. She said that her trunk of belongings had already been sent to the train depot and she just needed a place to stay for a few nights.

Mamie, of course, immediately took care of the new arrival, even though she had her suspicions that there were sizable chunks of the young woman's story which she had omitted. The woman appeared highly anxious about something, and so Mamie took her for a long walk on Monday afternoon. But, instead of pouring out her troubles, as so many of her lodgers had done over the years, all she would admit was that her man had left her and that she was on her way to Wilmington to accept a position with a new family. Though she hadn't revealed much personal information, the stranger's spirits seemed elevated after her walk with Mamie.

When they returned, things progressed normally and uneventfully. That evening, Mamie and her favorite boarder, David Bacon, retired to bed at around ten o'clock, leaving the mysterious woman alone in the kitchen, where she had been sitting in a rocking chair beside a bureau. It was about twenty minutes later when Mamie was awakened by the smell of smoke. She leaped out of bed and rushed downstairs. In the kitchen her eyes beheld a horrifying sight: The mystery woman was standing in the middle of the room, engulfed in flames, with her arms outstretched. At no point did the young woman make a sound. Not an anguished scream, nor a frightened whimper or groan. There was only the silence of the night and crackling flames. 

Mamie's screams attracted David Bacon, who sprinted downstairs. He grabbed an old overcoat and threw it over the blazing woman, but the fire refused to be extinguished. He ran to his room and returned with a quilt, which he threw over the silent human torch, who swayed for a brief moment before falling dead at his feet.

By now the commotion had attracted neighbors, who rushed into the house and into a cloud of acrid, bitter smoke. The West Chester Village Record described the scene: On the floor with a few blazing rags and charred skin clinging to her lay the blackened corpse of the woman. The smell of the roasted flesh was sickening and some turned with horror from the gruesome spectacle and left the place.

East Gay Street, just a few blocks from Mamie's house, circa 1890 (credit: Chester Co. Historical Society)

 
Murder or Suicide? 

The tragedy gave rise to all sorts of rumors. Some thought that the stranger had been followed to the boardinghouse by an angry lover, who waited until the woman was alone before dousing her with oil or kerosene before setting her ablaze. Others insisted that it was a clear case of suicide, while others believed it had been a terrible accident, as there had been an oil lamp atop the bureau beside the rocking chair. The chief of police, R.O. Jefferis, soon arrived, along with Deputy Coroner S.B. Russell, and they began their investigation.

The theory of suicide was supported by the fact that the victim had arrived at Mrs. Toogood's place in a state of high anxiety, and the fact that the victim had not so much as uttered a cry as she was devoured by the flames; yet Mamie Toogood and David Bacon both claimed that the lamp was extinguished before they went upstairs to bed. A search of her body and room, however, turned up $1.10 and a half-burned match, and since Mary had been seen smoking a cigar earlier that day, it raised the possibility of an accidental death.  

Conversely, the murder theory was supported by the fact that the victim had hastily fled the Catanach residence after an unexpected separation from a person she described only as her "man", which could've meant either a husband or a boyfriend. Although the deputy coroner had empaneled a jury at the scene of the death to hold an inquest, the lateness of the hour made it impossible obtain answers from the Catanachs, who resided in Devault, a few miles away. The inquest would have to be put on hold-- at least until the victim's trunk could be found.

An Identification is Made

On Tuesday, February 13, the woman's trunk was located in the baggage room of the train station after authorities were able to locate a partially-burned baggage check among the ashes. Unfortunately for investigators, the trunk was empty and the victim hadn't provided the baggage agent with a name.
A break came later that afternoon, when Adam Archibald Catanach arrived from Devault to view the remains. He identified the burned woman as his 25-year-old  housekeeper, Mary Warner. Mary, who had come from Philadelphia, worked at the Catanach home with her husband, and, according to Catanach, their marriage was not a happy one-- on account of Mary's actions. According to Catanach, the husband left town several weeks before Mary. This, however, did not rule out the possibility of murder, as the "man" who had supposedly abandoned Mary might've been a different lover altogether. Was Mary being stalked by her estranged husband, or by a different man entirely?

As a result of this new information, when the coroner's jury reconvened on Tuesday evening the only verdict that could be rendered was that Mary Warner died from burns suffered in an unknown manner, and her death was thus ruled accidental in nature. Sadly, although Mary's family was easily located and notified, none of her friends or relatives claimed the body, and her remains were buried at the county almshouse potter's field.

Chester County Almshouse Potter's Field and Cemetery (from Findagrave.com)

 

Too Bad for Toogood

Unfortunately, whatever goodwill existed between the residents of West Chester and Mamie Toogood came to an end after the strange death of Mary Warner in 1906. Her boardinghouse fell further into disrepute and was the target of numerous raids by law enforcement. Meanwhile, Mamie fell deeper into debt. By 1909 she had relocated to a small house in Patton Alley, behind West Chestnut Street, but found only more trouble there. Her property was described by the West Chester Daily Local News as "a rendezvous for drunken and disorderly characters of all nationalities and color." As for the proprietress, the same paper described her thusly: Mrs. Toogood, who was at one time a very large and corpulent woman of some means, is now quite thin, old and seedy-looking. 

In fact, at the time that was written about her, Mamie was only 52 years old. Undoubtedly, Mary Warner's death, along with years of hard living, heavy drinking and frequent raids by the police caused her to age prematurely.

On September 10, 1909 Chief of Police R.O. Jefferis, assisted by officers William Martin, James Dooley and Joseph Batting, conducted a midnight raid of Mamie Toogood's home, which culminated in the arrests of thirteen men and women, both white and black. After the chief of police broke down the door, his men encountered an entanglement of bodies in various stages of undress amid dozens of empty liquor bottles strewn about the floor. All the women who were arrested were black (Laura Irons, Bertha Irons, Ella Evans and Martha Venie), and it was apparent that Mamie was a madam. As for Mamie, she was found upstairs in bed with a white man. Both were drunk. Some of the young white men who were nabbed turned out to be sons of prominent West Chester businessmen and civic leaders.

Mamie Toogood and the unlucky thirteen were given a hearing before Magistrate S.M. Paxon on September 13. "I suppose you all know what you are here for, as you were all arrested on the premises of this woman, Mamie Toogood," declared the magistrate. "There will be no ceremony about this matter. I will have to fine you ten dollars apiece... except Mrs. Toogood, whom we will look after later."

Those who were able paid their fine and were released, and those who couldn't were taken to jail. The magistrate then escorted Mamie and District Attorney Robert Gawthrop back to his office for a closed-door hearing on the more serious charges, much to the disappointment of the throng of spectators who had flocked to the building eager to hear the salacious and sordid details of what took place inside the tiny house in Patton's Alley. Ultimately, Mamie was convicted of keeping a bawdy house and "furnishing liquor to persons of known intemperate habits". She was sentenced to ten months in prison and fined fifty dollars.

Mamie Toogood kept a low profile after her release. She remained in her home in Patton Alley until 1916, when the roof of her home caught on fire. Her money spent and her home gone, she moved in with her sister, Mrs. Ella Williams, at 647 Merchant Street in Coatesville. She remained there until her death from a stroke on June 15, 1919. Strangely, a spare bedroom in the Williams home was partially destroyed by a fire in 1928. Firemen were stumped by the cause of the blaze, until it was determined that a boarder had fallen asleep with a lit cigarette in a second-floor bedroom-- the same room that had once been occupied by Mamie Toogood.


Sources:

West Chester Jeffersonian, Aug. 13, 1887.
West Chester Jeffersonian, Feb. 2, 1901.
West Chester Daily Local News, Feb. 13, 1906.
West Chester Daily Local News, Feb. 14, 1906.
West Chester Village Record, Feb. 15, 1906.
West Chester Daily Local News, Feb. 17, 1906.
West Chester Village Record, Feb. 22, 1906.
West Chester Daily Local News, Sept. 11, 1909.
West Chester Daily Local News, Sept. 14, 1909.
Coatesville Record, Sept. 21, 1909.
Coatesville Record, April 28, 1916.
West Chester Daily Local News, Aug. 4, 1916.
West Chester Daily Local News, June 19, 1919.
Coatesville Record, Jan. 30, 1928.
West Chester Daily Local News, Jan. 30, 1928.