Augustine A. Mazzei, owner of Augie’s Pure Oil Service Station

The photos I share on this blog post are part of Ralph Murphy’s slide collection given to my husband by his Aunt Jean in 2012. The collection consists of 15 boxes of slides (thousands) taken by Uncle Ralph, spanning the years 1947 to 1984. Many are scenic shots from their travels across the United States, some are family members, and others friends and co-workers. I converted the majority of the slides to digital several years ago and have been enjoying them ever since. 

My thanks to Marilyn Blake, a volunteer board member of the Clarksburg History Museum, for providing additional information and corrections to this post. After doing a bit more research, I made several updates on February 11, 2024, which you will see in italics. 

If you lived in the vicinity of Nutter Fort or Clarksburg, West Virginia in the mid-to late-1950s and needed gas or a mechanic, you might have stopped at Augie’s Pure Oil Service Station in Stonewood. Stonewood is located “approximately one mile southeast of Nutter Fort, West Virginia” and “three miles southeast of Clarksburg, West Virginia” according to West Virginia Explorer. According to Wikipedia, "Officially, the name Stonewood has no special meaning, and was invented for the place. Locally, the name is said to be a portmanteau of Stonewall and Norwood; two former unincorporated villages that used to neighbor each other where Stonewood exists today."

This “Pure Oil” service station was owned and operated by Augustine “Augie” A. Mazzei and located at 315 Buckhannon Pike in the Town of Nutter Fort, Harrison County, West Virginia. (According to Microsoft Bing's Copilot, "the 911 locator service played a role in renumbering roads and eliminating the old rural route (RR) and box number system in the late 1990s." It is believed that at that time, 315 Buckhannon Pike was renumbered to 1700, the current location of Jim's Service Center.) Two volunteers from the Clarksburg History Museum remember the service station and said it was located across from Dave’s Restaurant in Nutter Fort. 

Augustine (Augie) A. Mazzei

Augie, the name he apparently went by, most likely would have greeted you when you pulled up and pumped your gas, cleaned your windows, checked the fluids (oil, brake, and water), and checked the air in your tires. 

The son of Italian immigrants Felice Antonio “Tony” Mazzei and Philomena “Flora” Lopez, Augie was born in Shinnston, Harrison County, West Virginia on May 5, 1912. He was the third child of seven born to this union—Paul Tony Mazzei, Mary Mazzei, Augustine (Augie) A. Mazzei, Constance (Cora or Connie) Florence Mazzei, Jean (Jane) Frances Mazzei, Forlando (Orlando) Mazzei, and Frank John Mazzei.

In 1920, Augie and his family lived at Mudlick Run in the coal mining town of Willard, located in the Clay District of Harrison County, West Virginia. (According to Marilyn, Mudlick Run lies between Willard and Owings (both coal camps)). Obviously, his father worked as a miner. When Augie was 15, his father died at the Ellwood City Hospital from a brain hemorrhage following an automobile accident that occurred on March 31, 1927 in Ellwood City, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania while visiting the Rochella family with his wife and daughter. 

In 1930, Augie, his widowed mother, and six siblings lived in the Norwood community, located in the Clark District of Harrison County, West Virginia. His mother was the proprietor of a restaurant, getting help from Augie who was enumerated as a restaurant helper. The 1930 Clarksburg city directory, however, recorded Augie as a pottery worker. When you check the Clarksburg City Directories in the early 1930s, you see Augie's mother, Flora, listed with Mazzei's Restaurant on Water Street. Other Mazzei family member entries show them as waitresses or waiters. Flora's does not list a specific title. The same city directory also shows Mazzei Apartments on Water Street, probably another family-owned business. A good possibility would be that Augie worked at the pottery factory during the day and in the restaurant at night. According to Marilyn, as a pottery worker, he would have “worked at McNicol China, McNicol Pottery Company, which was located at the northwest end of Stonewood. They made restaurant ware, not “fine” china, and it was called 'The Pottery.'” The pottery factory was located near the restaurant so Augie would not have had to travel far to get from one to the other. Augie’s sisters Mary and Jean (or Jane as she was enumerated) both worked as waitresses at the restaurant. Augie’s oldest brother Paul worked as a postman at the post office. Their home was valued at $7000 and they had a radio. 

Augie married Anna Jean “Tillie” Fazio, daughter of Patsy Fazio and Mary Rose Oliverio, in Harrison County, West Virginia on June 9, 1934. The ceremony was performed by a Catholic priest named Benjamin Francis Farrell at the St. John-the-Baptist Church in Clarksburg. At the time, both Augie and Anna lived in the Norwood community of Clarksburg.

Augie and Anna's marriage license/certificate

Augie and Anna had three children together—Delores A. Mazzei, Augustine Mazzei Jr., and David Michael Mazzei. When the 1935 Clarksburg city directory was published, Augie was still employed as a pottery worker. By 1937, they had settled in a home located at 112 Hazelwood Avenue in Stonewood and he still worked as a pottery worker.

When Augie registered for the World War II draft on October 16, 1940, he still lived in the Hazelwood Avenue house. Augie was employed by the McNicol Pottery Company in Clarksburg. He listed his wife Anna as the person who would always know his address. 

Augie's WWII draft registration card (front)

Augie was 5’7” tall, weighed 165 pounds, had brown eyes, black hair, and a light complexion. You can clearly see his black hair in the pictures.

Augie's WWII draft registration card (back)

The 1946 and 1948 Clarksburg city directory again recorded Augie’s employment as a pottery worker.

When the 1950 census was taken, Augie and his family were still living in the Hazelwood Avenue house and as far as I can tell, they remained there through the end of the decade. The census record does show that Augie had changed jobs however, now working as a plant superintendent for a china manufacturing company. It wasn’t until 1954 that I finally see that Augie is working at Augie’s Pure Oil Service Station. It is possible he opened the service station in 1953, however, ancestry.com does not have the 1953 Clarksburg city directory in their catalog so I am unable to confirm that. The last Clarksburg city directory on ancestry.com is 1959 so I am also unable to confirm how long the service station was in business after that year.

Augie

According to Wikipedia, the “Pure Oil Company was an American petroleum company founded in 1914 and sold to what is now Union Oil Company of California in 1965. The Pure Oil name returned in 1993 as a cooperative (based in Rock Hill, South Carolina since 2008) which has grown to supply 350 members in 10 Southern states.” You can see the “Pure” name and logo throughout the photos. The sign above the door shows Augie used/sold “Pure Products.”

Augie on the left; other man unknown, probably an employee

 

Augie standing in front of two service bays

The man in the photo below is Charles, one of the service station attendants. Unfortunately, his last name was not stitched into his shirt but one possibility is a man named Charles Henderson. I searched the Clarksburg city directory for men named Charles and only found one that worked as a mechanic. The directory did not list the name of the service station like it did in Augie’s entry. Of course, Charles Henderson may not be the correct person at all. Whatever the case, according to the patch on his shirt, Charles would have given you Pure Royal Welcome Service! 

Note the slogan on the truck that reads “Don’t Cuss, Call Us” in the photo below.

Charles and Augie

The Social Security Death Index on ancestry.com tells me that Augie died April 1979 in Clarksburg, the location of his last residence. But the electronic paper trail runs dry for me at that point so his story will have to end here. Update on February 11, 2024: Anna's obituary (Augie's wife who died on January 23, 1997) states they were married on May 5, 1934, a different date than what was recorded on their marriage license, and that he "preceded her in death in 1978."

I estimate these photos were taken in the late 1950s. If that is the case, and I have no way to confirm this, my guess is Ralph, who lived in Nutter Fort at the time, frequently stopped at this service station on his way to work. At some point in the 1950s, Ralph worked at Warner’s Skyline Drive-In Theater in Clarksburg. We also know he worked for the Addressograph Multigraph Corporation which I believe was located in Bridgeport. He may have had a friendly relationship with Augie and his employees and snapped their pictures just for the heck of it one day.

The Mazzei family detailed in this post are not related to our Murphy family. To see more photos from Ralph’s collection, click here.

References

• Anna Jean “Tillie” Mazzei death notice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 25, 1997.
• Antonio Mazzei, West Virginia, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1844–1943.
• Antonio Mazzi, Certificate of Death 27700, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Pennsylvania, 1927.
• Augustine Mazzei, Clarksburg City Directory, Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, 1930, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1948, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1959.
• Augustine Mazzei, Social Security Death Index.
• Augustine Mazzei, U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940–1947.
• Augustine Mazzei, West Virginia, Marriage Index, 1931–1970.
• Augustine Mazzei, West Virginia, Marriages Index, 1785–1971.
• Felice Antonio Mazzei, New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820–1957.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/174092731/frank-john-mazzei: accessed 26 January 2024), memorial page for Frank John Mazzei (22 Apr 1919–29 Jun 2004), Find a Grave Memorial ID 174092731, citing Floral Hills Memorial Gardens, Mount Clare, Harrison County, West Virginia, USA; maintained by Anna (contributor 47477171).
• Flora Mazzei, Clarksburg City Director, Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, 1931.
• Forlando Mazzei, United States Obituary Collection.
• Frank J. Mazzei and Mary E. Means, Certificate of Marriage no. 66 032252, Commonwealth of Virginia, 1966.
• Jean Frances Ellis, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007.
• Microsoft Copilot, a generative AI chatbot powered by Bing.
• Mrs. Anna Jean "Tillie" Mazzei obituary, newspaper unknown, January 1997.
• Paul Tony Mazzei, U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940–1947.
• Polk’s Clarksburg (Harrison County, W.Va.) City Directory, p. 117, 1959.
• Pure Oil; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Oil.
• Stonewood, West Virginia - West Virginia Explorer; wvexplorer.com/communities/cities-towns/stonewood-west-virginia/.
• U.S. Federal Census, Clay, Harrison County, West Virginia, 1920.
• U.S. Federal Census, Norwood, Clark District, Harrison County, West Virginia, 1930.
• U.S. Federal Census, Stonewood, Harrison County, West Virginia, 1950.
• U.S. Federal Census, Stonewood, Harrison County, West Virginia, 1950.