A paid subscriber wanted to more about the seedier side of Susanville.  When it comes to the world’s oldest profession, locally it is divided into two eras–before and after the railroad and logging industry.

Susanville’s best known madam of the late 1800s was Mary Heap Williams.  She was the daughter of George and Mary Heap, pioneer members of the local Catholic community. She learned her survival instincts early in life, as her father died when she was six and her mother when she was seventeen. However, her parents left her a very profitable business, The Pioneer. How quaint, a bar business and brothel combined into one!

Mary’s choice in men was not the best. She first married Frank Haughton, and got rid him. She then turned around married W.E.H. Williams, and tired of him, and they divorced in 1907. At least her husbands did operate the bar.

After Mary disposed of husband two, things were improving when tragedy struck. On November 5, 1908, Mary and her young son, George Williams boarded the stage headed to Prattville. As the stage was going down the grade at Devil’s Corral, the driver, George Long, had a run-away coach on his hands, as the brake leaver had broken. Long yelled at the passengers to jump. Mary did and died from the results. When she landed she, fractured her skull and died from hemorrhage at the base of the cranium. The three other passengers and the driver escaped without injuries.

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