By John W. McCauley, Lexington
William H. “Bill” Townsend was an author, historian, lawyer and a nationally known Abraham Lincoln authority and collector. He owned the largest privately held collection of Lincoln memorabilia in the United States. His collection, with more 2,500 items, included books, paintings, papers, law books, signatures of the former president, a shawl worn by Mary Todd Lincoln, and Lincoln’s prized pocket watch. The collection even included a check written and signed by Lincoln to his third son, Willie, who lay ill in the White House, which was to be cashed by Willie upon his return to health. Unfortunately, Willie died on Feb. 20, 1862, of typhoid fever, and the check was never cashed.
Our Commonwealth has seen several gifted and colorful storytellers through its history but perhaps none like Bill Townsend. In 1890, Simon Bolivar Buckner was governor of Kentucky, hemp and tobacco were set in the fields, and a country doctor and his wife had a baby boy. William Henry Townsend was born on May 31 in Glensboro in Anderson County. This was a time in our Commonwealth when Civil War veterans and Lincoln kinsmen alike were telling stories, and residents of the Salt River Valley were no exception. This was a rural area that had limited rail service from Lexington and Louisville.
Bill, as he was known, was a curious lad and was fascinated by the Civil War. His parents, Oliver L. and Susan Mary Brown Townsend, were important influences on Bill, particularly his father. As a youngster, Bill made the rounds with his physician father in a horse-drawn buggy, while Dr. Townsend made house calls. The time spent with his father was an invaluable part of his development and education. In between stops, they discussed agriculture, history, literature and politics. One day, Dr. Townsend stopped to visit with a farmer friend who had just dug up a Civil War cannonball. The farmer had no interest in his find, but Bill was intrigued and offered to purchase the cannonball for a dime. The deal was done, and a collector was born.
Townsend, like many boys in those days, romanticized the Confederacy, and his hero at the time was Gen. Robert E. Lee. Townsend grew up listening to family, friends and neighbors—mostly Confederate veterans—tell stories about the war. He also loved to hunt, trap and search for arrowheads.
Much like Lincoln, Townsend began his education in a one-room school in rural Kentucky. His first teacher was Professor Ezra L. Gillis, who later became the first registrar at the University of Kentucky. After graduating from high school, Townsend eventually made his way to Lexington to attend State College (now the University of Kentucky). Upon graduation, he attended law school at UK, eventually earning an bachelor of laws degree. He graduated in 1912.
While in college, Townsend met Genevieve Johnson from Missouri. Johnson graduated in early June 1915, and on the 16th of that month, she became Mrs. William H. Townsend.
Bill was devoted to Genevieve. Shortly after the birth of their only child, Mary Genevieve, the young mother became ill with typhoid fever, and her recovery took several years. Per doctor’s orders, it was decided that she should live in a climate that would be more conducive to fostering her back to health. While Bill remained in Lexington, Genevieve, Mary and Genevieve’s mother relocated to a cottage near the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. Bill had joined the law firm of Stoll and Bush, where he was doing well as a young lawyer, and he traveled by train every weekend to Asheville to visit Genevieve and Mary. This routine continued until Genevieve’s recovery and return home to 28 Mentelle Park in Lexington.
In 1919, during one of Townsend’s trips to Asheville, he visited an old bookstore and purchased Portrait Life of Lincoln by Francis T. Miller. He later purchased The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln by Dr. William E. Barton, a congregational minister from Chicago. The book purchases became the start of the largest privately held Lincoln collection in the U.S.
Townsend was so impressed with The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln that he mailed his copy to Barton requesting a personal inscription. This opened the door to a friendship and many miles of Lincoln research together.
Townsend and Barton were close, even to the extent that in 1930, when Barton became serously ill, he asked Townsend to complete his book President Lincoln should he not regain health and be able to finish the project. Barton died on Dec. 7 of that year, and Townsend fulfilled his promise to complete the book. Townsend received excellent reviews for his contribution.
In 1921, Barton introduced Townsend to Emilie “Emily” Todd Helm, who was in her mid-80s at the time. Mrs. Helm was the younger sister of Mary Todd Lincoln and lived about six miles southwest of Lexington on Bowman Mill Road in a Greek Revival mansion purchased by her son, Benjamin Hardin Helm Jr., in 1912. It was the beginning of a great friendship among Emily, Bill and their families.
Emily was the widow of Benjamin Hardin Helm, a Confederate brigadier general who was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga leading the Kentucky volunteers known as the Orphan Brigade. Helm was the son of Kentucky Gov. John LaRue Helm of Elizabethtown. Though a daughter of the South, Emily became an outspoken proponent of reconciliation in the years following the war.
Townsend made frequent trips to Helm Place to visit with Emily and her family. It was during these visits that Emily became more comfortable with Bill and let him read from the diary that she had kept during the war. The diary revealed details about the war and her time in the White House following her husband’s death. Bill was able to obtain a great deal of Lincoln and Civil War history from the diary. Unfortunately, Emily made good on a promise that she would burn the diary before her death because it had too much bitterness. The once dark-haired, dark-eyed pretty young girl whom Lincoln affectionately nicknamed “Little Sister” died on Feb. 20, 1930, at the age of 93. Her funeral at Helm Place was attended by family, the Townsends and staff. She was laid to rest in the Todd family plot in the Lexington Cemetery.
Prior to her mother’s passing and with the assistance of Townsend, Emily’s daughter Katherine published her only book, The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln. Katherine was a well-known artist who painted the portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln that hangs in the White House today. Katherine died in 1937 and was laid to rest next to her mother at the Lexington Cemetery.
Following the death of Ben Jr. in 1946, Townsend purchased Helm Place and its contents but with no intent of leaving his home at 28 Mentelle Park. Helm Place became the residence of his daughter Mary Genevieve, her first husband Tom and their daughter Elodie.
An attorney by profession and lifelong Democrat, Townsend was better known and recognized as a leading expert on Lincoln. In 1953, Townsend founded the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable and served as the group’s president until his death 11 years later. His books included Abraham Lincoln, Defendant: Lincoln’s Most Interesting Lawsuit (1923), Lincoln the Litigant (1925), Lincoln and His Wife’s Home Town (1929), Lincoln and Liquor (1934), Famous Speeches of Abraham Lincoln (1935), The Boarding School of M.T. Lincoln (1941), Lincoln’s Rebel Niece, Katherine Helm: Artist and Author (1945), Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky (1955), Hundred Proof, Salt River Sketches & Memoirs of the Bluegrass (1964) and The Lion of Whitehall: Cassius Clay (1967).
During this period, Bill and Genevieve continued to frequent Helm Place, where Bill enjoyed having his fellow writers and Civil War Roundtable colleagues visit the mansion to talk history and sip Kentucky bourbon. Some of the more famous visitors included Carl Sandburg, J. Winston Coleman and Dr. Thomas D. Clark.
In the Townsend collection, the Lincoln pocket watch was the most prized item. This rare timepiece was passed to Robert Todd Lincoln upon his father’s death on April 15, 1865. When Robert passed on July 26, 1926, he willed the watch to his first cousin, Benjamin Hardin Helm Jr. On May 31, 1943, Helm gave the Lincoln pocket watch to Townsend as a birthday gift. Today, the watch is on display at the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort.
On July 25, 1964, Townsend passed at the age of 74. He received tributes from The New York Times and many other publications. The headline of a Lexington Herald editorial read, “Townsend, Man of Great Talents.” The article stated, Kentucky has produced many notable men, but few were blessed with many abilities that were combined in William H. Townsend … Kentucky has lost its outstanding citizen, a writer and speaker of great ability, and the nation perhaps the greatest authority on Abraham Lincoln in the passing of William H. Townsend. He became not only a successful corporation and trial attorney by avocation, but one of the nation’s authorities on Abraham Lincoln and collectors of Lincolniana, an author whose works are respected for sound historical content and literary style and a public speaker and raconteur of rare talent.
Townsend was laid to rest in the Lexington Cemetery.
In closing, it is notable to mention that Townsend’s home at 28 Mentelle Park, in Lexington, was once the site of Madame Charlotte LeClerc Mentelle’s Mentelle’s for Young Ladies, a finishing school attended by Mary and Emily Todd.