NEWSPAPERS: Aunt Betsy Townsend. 1908. Fayette Co., PA.
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
Contributed by Marilyn Tolentino. Transcribed by Carole Clarke
Originally submitted by Delores Mollohan-Hartman (rhart61650@aol.com) on February 16, 2001
on the Fayette County List. 
___________________________________________________________________

In the Daily News Standard, Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania
Newspaper, July 1, 1908

Her husband went with Dr. Braddee

Aunt Betsy Townsend of Masontown Tells how Things were Many Years Ago.

Nearing the Century Mark.

Pioneer Resident of Klondike was a wanderer in the days of the famous mail
robber - Worked for 25 cents per day.

Masontown, July 1 - One of the oldest residents of the Masontown
neighborhood is "Aunt Betsy" Townsend, who is nearing the century mark.  She
has lived in this section all her life and is well-known by everybody.  She
now lives alone in a little log cabin on the farm of George W. N. Boice
which place has been her residence for the last 21 years.

It is not certain just how old Mrs. Townsend is but she knows that May 11 is
her birthday is it is thought she was 91 years old this year, although she
says she feels a hundred years old.

"Aunt Betsy" did not have any schooling in her early days and cannot read
nor write and has not kept very closely in touch with modern progress, but
in her original, primitive way she can tell many incidents of interest in
regard to the early day of this region.

"There were only two or three houses and no store in Masontown when I was
young, says Mrs. Townsend.  I used to hoe corn for 25 cents a day and get a
bushel of corn for my day's work."  She had to work when a child and had no
chance to go to school - she often washed clothes all day for 25 cents.  She
was very strong and could easily carry a bushel of coal on her back.

For five years of her life "Aunt Betsy" was a wanderer.  At an early age she
married Sam Townsend, a man much older than she and for five years they
traveled about the county.  Townsend going with Dr. Braddee, the quack
doctor, who was sent to prison in 1839 for robbing the United States mails.
"Aunt Betsy" remembers Braddee and his wife and Pennell and tells many
incidents about them.  She says she often wondered what Dr. Braddee and her
husband were doing when they traveled over the country, but that they did
not tell her.

During her travels with Townsend "Aunt Betsy" walked at one time from the
Masontown region to Wooster, O., and traveled to many places in Ohio and
went on the boat to Wheeling and Marietta.  However, these jaunts were the
extent of her travels.  Finally Townsend went away and she never heard any
more about him and she settled down in her native neighborhood and has lived
here ever since.

Only Once on a Train.

Only once was "Aunt Betsy" ever on a train and that was when she made a trip
to Smithfield a few years ago.  She had also been once on a street car at
Uniontown and went out to the old park and the car stopped and "Aunt Betsy"
wondered how they would ever get back to town as there was no place for the
car to turn and great to her surprise when the motorman went to the other
end of the car and the seats were turned and the car was ready to go back.

 
Newspaper smeared and can't read about two whole paragraphs)

"Aunt Betsy" was in Uniontown frequently in her early days and when a girl
she worked at the old White Swan Tavern as a kitchen girl.  She had red hair
when an girl and many people remembered her by this.  Many times she walked
to Uniontown and (sentence smeared, can't read) town to Waynesburg about 20
miles.