Centralia · Newport · Home and family
Abbott & Laura Townsend
A home on Yew Street, a life of work, and memories passed to the next generation.
Abbott Elmore Townsend · 1868–1958
Laura Elizabeth Maley Townsend · 1877–1935
Growing up with Centralia
Abbott was eleven when his family left California for Washington Territory. Born at Brush Creek on June 17, 1868, he had spent his early childhood there and in Mayfield. School papers still carry his name, including a report from 1878 and an award for improvement in penmanship.
He arrived with his mother, sisters Inez and Carrie, and baby brother Frank in November 1879. Their new town was small enough that he could later remember its households and sketch where people had lived.
His memories reached back to their first Thanksgiving: a little house, a table improvised from planks, and spareribs and potatoes for dinner. The town grew around him, but he kept those early scenes in mind for the rest of his life.
Working with wood—and improving the tools
Abbott’s working life took him among logging crews, saws, and railway workers. Photographs show the large trees and hard physical work of that world. As a saw-filer, he knew the tools closely enough to imagine a better one.
In 1904, he patented a saw handle. The design allowed the handle to be adjusted and secured to the blade, with provision for using one or both hands. His name appeared on the patent issued November 8: Abbott E. Townsend, of Centralia, Washington.
Before his life with Laura, Abbott had married Mary Burkitt in December 1898. The family remembered that Mary died soon afterward; they had no children.
Laura’s connection to the coast
Laura Elizabeth Maley was born on May 3, 1877, in Dodge City, Kansas, and grew up in the household of Silas and Monta Maley. Newport, Oregon, became an important part of her life. Her baptism certificate records Easter Sunday, April 17, 1892, at St. Stephen’s Church there.
The family’s photographs and memories return often to the coast: the Newport house, boats on the water, and visits connected with the Kelly Hotel at Nye Beach. That seaside world remained part of Laura’s family story after she and Abbott made their home in Centralia.
When Silas died in 1922, Laura took responsibility for settling his estate. Letters and papers kept alongside the photographs show that part of her life too—a daughter attending to the affairs her father left behind.
The house on Yew Street
Abbott built the house at 323 Yew Street in 1906. It became the home associated with him and Laura: a wooden house with a porch, a picket fence, and room for a growing family.
Their daughter Aileen Etta was born in 1910, and their son John Lockwood in 1913. The children grew up with family connections stretching between Centralia and Newport. John later married Dorothy Powell, whose writing helped preserve the stories of earlier Townsend generations.
Laura died in 1935. Abbott remained on Yew Street for more than two decades afterward. His garden, workshop, bees, and chickens kept him busy well into old age. Newspaper visitors found him tending vegetables and remembering a town very different from the one around him. He shared produce with neighbors as well as stories with visitors.
Grandpa Ab
For his granddaughter Jayne, one memory was quieter than the newspaper stories: Grandpa Ab patiently teaching her to play cribbage. His board became another link between generations.
Abbott cared about keeping the family’s past together. In a letter written in September 1955, he discussed old photographs and treasured objects, including a church certificate, a decorated whale’s tooth associated with Uncle Gideon, and an agate marble from childhood. He wanted a family photograph album.
He lived to ninety, dying in December 1958. The papers he saved, the stories he told, and the everyday memories of his family let us know him as more than a name on a family tree.
Share a memoryLetters, records & family memories
Photographs, family memories, and papers gathered by Jayne Turner, including her memory of learning cribbage with her grandfather.
- Abbott’s school report and penmanship award; logging and railway photographs.
- Saw-handle patent 774,292, issued November 8, 1904.
- Laura’s baptism certificate, April 17, 1892, and Silas Maley’s estate papers.
- Centralia newspaper interviews and birthday accounts, including the 1954 Thanksgiving recollection.
- Abbott’s letter, September 18, 1955: page 1 and page 2.
The family accounts give different years for Abbott and Laura’s wedding, 1908 and 1909. The date is being checked.