March 29, 2020
Stories from our youth from Bill Jackson
We lived at 210 Quincy St. in Clarksburg, WV, one block up from Lynn Ave where Miss Strothers owned a small grocery store. It was probably her former living room. She sold mostly dry goods. My mother took me with her to pay her weekly grocery bill. It was probably 1930 when I was 5. While at the store this nice man (Harris “Harry” Powers) gave me a sack of candy. We never bought candy.
We went on our way and about a week later they arrested Harris Powers for murdering a couple of women at his little farm in Quiet Dell. It became known as the Murder Farm. He seduced them through those lovelorn letters and took what valuables they had then killed them. I knew right then I would never be a good judge of character.
There is another mystery about Strothers Store. Mrs. Strothers had a little ¾” hole in the wall about chest high. And I would see her put little notes or talk through the hole to someone on the other side of the wall, where their living quarters was. I later found out the mystery person was Luella, Harry Powers’ supposed wife.
They had a picture of Harry Powers in the newspaper that showed him with two black eyes. They claimed he fell down the stairs but word leaked out that they beat him with rubber hoses. Harry was electrocuted in 1932 in Moundville, WV. And there was a movie with Robert Mitchum loosely based on Harry Powers’ story.
Submitted by Bill Jackson