Summer Break! Pennsylvania Oddities will return on September 1!

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 until the day she met a laborer named George Toogood and fell in love. They were soon married.

After being deserted by her husband, Mary settled in West Chester, operating a boardinghouse situated in Pyle's Alley. Known throughout town as Mamie Toogood, Mary was a 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.

Unfortunately for Mamie, her kindness began to attract the wrong sort of characters and gradually her reputation began to tarnish. And then, in February of 1906, there occurred an unfortunate event that forever altered her fortunes. This is the story of Mamie Toogood, a Foundational Black American woman who played a role in one of the strangest mysteries in West Chester history.

During the Great Depression, millions of Pennsylvanians found themselves facing an uncertain financial future, and many sought enterprising ways to keep the dark shadows of poverty at bay. Some risked jail time manufacturing moonshine, others traded labor for food and other necessities, and still others foraged for berries, bottles and scrap metal-- anything that could be sold, even if the reward was mere pennies. One woman from Allegheny County had a completely different strategy-- she jumped out of airplanes.

A house on North Eleventh Street in Philadelphia was once the home of Jimmy Logue, who rose to notoriety as one of America's most infamous criminals, earning the nickname, "The King of Sneak-Thieves". In this house Jimmy lived with his wife, Johanna, and their young son, Percy.

But, in February of 1879, Johanna Logue vanished under mysterious circumstances. She had planned to go to New York by train, leaving her diamonds, jewelry and other valuables with her sister for safekeeping. She never arrived-- and Johanna Logue was never heard from again.