Robert Bailey: Mysterious Death at Thurmond

Thurmond 2025
Picture by Theresa

Last weekend, I investigated West Virginia's most infamous and well-known ghost town---Thurmond. I had been to visit a handful of times, but this was the first opportunity I had to actually do a little ghost hunting (a big thank you to Appalachian Ghost Tours for hosting!) Therefore, I had to do a little digging into some of the history of this fascinating town. 

One thing I noticed is that a lot of people were found deceased in Thurmond. Like, a LOT. And, the majority of them were found in or just outside of Thurmond on the banks (or in some cases IN) the New River. Some went into the water on their own accord, either by accident or by suicide. The bridge pictured in this blog, which connected Thurmond proper to where the Dunglen Hotel was located, was a favorite spot. Others were theorized to have been tossed in, the victims of foul play. A great number of the deceased turned out to be Italian immigrants, which I've addressed in my last blog post (The Mayor Who Fined a Dead Man) and I'll surely address in future blogs. But, there was at least one man who was born and raised here in West Virginia who met his tragic end in 1937. It is unknown just how he ended up in the New River, but his official cause of death was listed as drowning. Here's his story:

Robert Dow Bailey was a thirty year old man from Price Hill, WV. He worked as an electrician for a local mine. On April 17, 1937 (Saturday), he left his wife, Flora, at Mt. Hope, saying that he had $100 and was going to Thurmond. That was the last she ever saw of him. On April 23rd, his body was found along a shallow edge of the New River, across from the C&O Depot, down by the roundhouse. An unnamed African American woman who was out at the river picking greens found the body and alerted authorities. 

Thurmond Bridge, near Round House
Turntable visible to the left
Circa 1900 
Source: WV History on View

The county coroner, E.R. Daniels, ruled the cause of death to be drowning. Local physician, Dr. G.W. Grafton, noted a bruise on Bailey's right side, but pointed out it couldn't have been the cause of death. And, the mortician, C.B. Collins, stated his opinion that the body had been in the water all six days he'd been missing. So what happened to Robert Bailey?

Sam Pugh, the proprietor of a local beer garden, claimed Bailey came into his establishment around 9pm Saturday night. Bailey was drunk and wanting to order beer, but Pugh refused him. Pugh also refused Bailey's request to leave some money with him at the establishment. Bailey then left. 

Others came forward to say they had also seen Bailey Saturday evening as he arrived from Mt. Hope. They said he told several people that he had "been picked in a poker game." Somewhere along the way, Bailey certainly did seem to lose quite a bit of money. He wife claimed he left with $100, but his body was found with only $16---a $10 check and $6 in various other forms of currency. 

During my research, the number one reason given for why so many took their own lives near the Thurmond bridge was cited as losing all their money gambling. It's possible that this is what happened to Bailey, but we also have to take into consideration that he was robbed and tossed into the river, or that he was simply drunk and stumbled and fell. Whichever way he left this mortal world, his memory lives on as one of the many victims of the New River at Thurmond. 

Robert Bailey Death Certificate
WV State Archives

 

Beckley Post-Herald
24 April 1937

The Mayor Who Fined a Dead Man

Illustration by Estelle Lilly
depicting the drowned Italian. 
From Melody Bragg's Window to the Past

As Appalachian Ghost Tours gears up for our public investigation of Thurmond, WV this weekend, I thought I'd share some interesting stories from the Mountain State's most infamous 'ghost town. One of my favorite legends from the town is the tale of the dead man who was fined by the mayor.  

In the story, made popular by the book, Window to the Past, by Melody Bragg, when the body of a foreigner washed up on the shore near Thurmond, there was one detail that made it distinct from the many other bodies that would wash up. The majority of the bodies that washed ashore usually had empty pockets---it was assumed that a lack of money meant that the person, depressed by gambling losses, committed suicide by jumping from the bridge, or that they were robbed and killed and tossed into the rapids to hide evidence of the crime. 

Therefore, it was VERY strange that this person not only had quite a bit of cash on their person, but also a pistol. Leo Schaffer, the mayor of Glen Jean (which extended to include the southside area where the Dunglen Hotel once stood) decided to fine the dead man for illegally carrying a pistol. The amount of the fine---the exact amount of money found in the dead man's pockets. Afterwards, the man was given a pauper's funeral by the county. 

Like all good legends, when you start to examine the documentation surrounding the event, details begin to become even more muddled! 

According to various newspaper articles, linked below, here's a slightly different perspective on what happened:

On Tuesday, May 31st, 1904, two Italian brothers were visiting Thurmond during a work break from their job at nearby Dun Loop on the Loop Creek railway branch. They were drinking heavily and decided to head down toward the river to take a rest. It was about 2 o'clock (am or pm not given). One of the brothers, named J.M. Sariti, told the other he was "going to fly" and then plunged into the swift moving, swollen river. 

Thurmond Bridge
Photo by Theresa

There seems to be some confusion about what happened next. Onlookers may have tried to rescue Sariti, but it appears that his brother either didn't realize what was going on or considered rendering aid a lost cause. At one point, he walked off to get more beer. He did return later but made no effort to recover his brother's body. In fact, he seemed pretty unbothered by the whole affair and went back to work. The brother's attitude has led to speculation that this may have been more than just a drunk man doing drunk man things. Some say the Italian intended to commit suicide, while others threw suspicion on foul play.

A reward of $50 was offered up (some say by the brother, but one newspaper said by officers) to recover the body. That reward was indeed collected that Friday when Captain A.A. Hartford/Harford was coming east on his train through Thurmond and spotted the body floating in the river. Hartford alerted authorities, who were in no rush to do anything. The body was tied to the shore to prevent it from washing away but wasn't removed until Saturday evening.

That's when it was discovered that the dead man had a staggering $130.50 in his pockets! No pistol was mentioned, however, in contemporary news reports. 

$50 of the dead man's cash was used to pay Hartford his reward and the remaining $80.50 WAS used to pay a fine...not for carrying a pistol, but for 'suiciding.' Mayor Schaffer definitely wasn't playing around. Sariti was then buried shortly after in Thurmond. 

However, the next day, either a friend or the father of Sariti showed up in town from Pittsburgh, bringing with him a metal coffin in which to bring the body back home. By this time, the body was much too, uh, bloated, to even fit in the metal coffin and had to be reburied in Thurmond. This caused even further legal trouble. The cost of reburial was charged to the friend/father of the victim, and when a disagreement over payment was had with Mayor Schaffer, the friend/father was locked up by Marshall Harrison Ash until an agreement could be made. 

Pardon my language, but fining the dead man the amount he had in his pockets for allegedly committing suicide (many sources say he didn't) THEN locking up a relative over a pauper's burial payment is quite frankly, a dick move. And, I'm not the only one who thought that. In the June 18th, 1904 edition of the Hinton Daily News, there was an editorial letter ran, written by J.S. Thurmond, who was the mayor of Thurmond proper. (Due to some disagreements over the selling of alcohol, the depot side of the river was actually the town of Thurmond, and right across the river, while generally considered a part of Thurmond, was actually annexed into the town of Glen Jean so that alcohol could be served at the Dunglen Hotel.)

Mayor Thurmond wrote about how Mayor Schaffer's actions in fining a dead man did not reflect the views of those in Thurmond, and that Schaffer was in no way affiliated with that town. Further, as the body was found outside of either city's limits, Schaffer had no right in doing what he did. Mayor Thurmond was pretty upset that local newspapers kept attributing the bad stuff happening on the south side (in Glen Jean), including criminal behavior and the misdeeds of the mayor, to the dry town of Thurmond. 

Sources and Further Reading:

Window to the Past, by Melody Bragg. Edited and Designed by George Bragg. Illustrations by Estelle Lilly. Published 1990 by Gem Publications. 

Hinton Daily News
01 June 1904

Hinton Daily News
06 June 1904

Hinton Daily News
18 June 1904

Hungarian Woman Sought Murder Clue From Spirits

Today's blog post is another interesting newspaper article I stumbled across during my research.  It comes from the January 23, 1914 edition of the Huntington Herald Dispatch and is of interest to tri-state residents of both West Virginia AND Ohio!

HUNGARIAN WOMAN SOUGHT MURDER CLUE FROM SPIRITS

Widow of Thurmond Miner calls on Coreyville Spiritualist but Mrs. Blake is ill---instructed to return in February to communicate with unseen world.

Coming from a little mining camp near Thurmond, W.Va. to talk to her dead husband through Mrs. Blake, the far famed spiritualist of Coreyville, O., Mrs. Frankie Ravis, a Hungarian woman who cannot talk English, was forced to return last night when the mysterious woman of Coreyville was unable to talk with the spirit world.

Mrs. Blake told Mrs. Ravis that she was ill, but instructed her to come back without fail late in February, at which time she might hear her husband's voice.

When Mrs. Ravis came to Huntington, she was taken to police station by a business man to whom she appealed. The man could not understand the language she spoke and therefore asked the police to find an interpreter. The woman had a paper in her hand on which was written, "Mrs. Blair."

Sergeant Lee Wilson called Harry Ziegler, who speaks the Hungarian language, and in a short time Mr. Ziegler learned the Hungarian woman's story.

Late in last autumn her husband had fallen from a bridge near Thurmond and was killed. The wife suspected that he had been a victim of foul play, telling Mr. Ziegler that he had been struck on the head by a robber or assassin.

She desired to communicate with him in the spirit world through Mrs. Blake, of whom she had heard.  One of Mrs. Ravis' friends whose husband had been mysteriously murdered in a black-smithing shop had gone to Coreyville and talked with her dead husband through the spiritualist, according to the story given Mr. Ziegler by the foreign woman.

"How is Mrs. Blake going to communicate with the spirits when she probably can't talk Hungarian?" suggested a bystander.

When this thought was conveyed to the foreign woman she was perplexed not at all but declared that she couldn't talk to her husband in English because he didn't know that language any better than she did.  She thought that Mrs. Blake would have no difficulty in summoning the spirit.

Mrs. Ravis said after returning from Coreyville last night that she would return in February to communicate with her husband. She was greatly disappointed at not having the opportunity of hearing his voice again.

"The woman has some property in Thurmond, according to her statement to Mr. Ziegler yesterday afternoon.  Her husband had been a successful miner and saved most of what he made.

Mrs. Ravis is a picturesque character and in her younger days must have been a beautiful Hungarian woman. She gave the impression of being a woman of considerable education and her manner was one of culture. 

She wore a black dress, hat, and veil of foreign appearance.  Although having been in the country for a number of years she had associated practically none with Americans.