Irish Ghosts of Duffy's Cut - Murdered

Pennsylvania Magazine, March/April 2013:  These workers were paid 25 cents a day.  Burying railroad workers who died on the job in the fill foundation that would lie under the track they were laying was a commonplace practice in the 19th century.  An estimated 50,000 workers died building our nation's railroads.  There's a saying that under every mile of track there's a dead Irishman.  The Duffy's Cut Irishmen were here for only 8 weeks before they died.  They were strong, young, familiar with poverty, could work long hours, knew hard work, and they were willing to cross the Atlantic penniless in the hopes of a better life in America.

Wall Street Journal:

• U.S. NEWS
• April 14, 2011

REPORTER'S JOURNAL

The Mystery of Duffy's Cut

Historians Dig for Truth About What—or Who—Killed Early Rail Workers

By PETER LOFTUS

Mustafah Abdulaziz for the Wall Street Journal

Frank Watson and his twin brother Bill at Duffy's Cut.

MALVERN, Pa.—Frank and Bill Watson recently led a group hoisting shovels and pick axes into a wooded hollow here in Philadelphia's suburbs.

"Let's find some bodies," said Bill Watson, a professor of history at nearby Immaculata University.

Two children playing nearby scampered away before the men led by the Watsons—twin brothers and historians—started chipping away at a hillside hemmed in by two housing developments and busy railroad tracks.

The Watsons are on a macabre mission that began with a file of railroad company documents left behind by a grandfather and curiosity about what exactly happened at this spot—known as Duffy's Cut—nearly 180 years ago.

Nearly 60 Irish railroad workers died at Duffy's Cut outside Philadelphia in 1832. Some researchers believe cholera was to blame, but historians Frank and Bill Watson have another theory: It was murder. WSJ's Peter Loftus explains.

This much is clear: Nearly 60 Irish laborers died here in 1832 as they built a land bridge for what became the thriving railroad that lent its name to Philadelphia's affluent Main Line suburbs.

Their bodies were believed to be buried in a mass grave next to the railroad line, used today by Amtrak and local commuter trains. Tales of ghost sightings nearby were passed down through generations of area residents.

Cholera seemed the most likely culprit. Newspaper reports from the time reported that the disease killed several of the laborers at Duffy's Cut. And an 1833 letter written by a superintendent of a precursor of the Pennsylvania Railroad said the contractor who hired the workers, Philip Duffy, lost "nearly one half of his men" to cholera. But early in their research, the Watsons began to suspect there might be more to the story.

Aided by the railroad documents, the brothers and colleagues found the site of the laborer's encampment. As trains roared by, they dug up artifacts including clay smoking pipes bearing the names of Irish locales such as Derry, helping to paint a picture of daily life in the camp.

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Mustafah Abdulaziz for the Wall Street Journal

A skull with a bullet hole recovered there.

In 2009, they began finding skeletal remains of at least four people. While many questions linger, the Watsons have become convinced at least three of them didn't die of cholera.

One skull has holes with traces of lead on the edges, indicating a bullet's entry and exit wounds, as well as a narrow slit that appeared to be delivered by an axe or hatchet. Another has a compression fracture suggesting it was caused by a blunt object. The third had dents in the skull indicating violence.

"Personally, I was shocked by the level and enormity of the violence," said Frank Watson, a Lutheran pastor in New Jersey who specializes in religious history.

The Watson twins' theory: While most of the laborers may indeed have died of cholera, some may have been killed by local vigilantes—such as members of a local horse company that organized posses—who wanted to prevent them from spreading disease in the community.

The Watsons cite contemporary newspaper accounts of vigilante murders of immigrant families believed to have cholera in the region, though none cite Duffy's Cut. The Watson brothers believe the railroad owners and local residents tried to cover up what happened there. They also cite historical records of anti-immigrant sentiment in Philadelphia at the time.

Unraveling the Mystery of Duffy's Cut

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Mustafah Abdulaziz for The Wall Street Journal

Bill Watson scratched his back with a pick ax.

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"No other theories beyond murder to control cholera and fear of the spread of the disease fit the evidence," said Frank Watson.

Janet Monge, a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania who analyzed the bones, said the extent of the trauma suggests "some significant level of violence." She concluded the injuries occurred around the time of death. But, she said, it's difficult to know more from the bones.

Martin Burke, a professor of history at City University of New York who specializes in Irish-American history, said it was a leap to assume the laborers were killed by vigilantes who then covered it up.

"If there had been vigilante groups who in fact had attacked and killed workers, I'd be extremely surprised that wouldn't have surfaced in local newspapers," said Dr. Burke. "The Philadelphia Irish Catholic press at that point was robust enough."

Still, Dr. Burke sees value in what the Watson brothers have unearthed: a physical link to the story of an immigrant group that endured hazardous work conditions upon their arrival in America, but which soon "established itself and began to work its way into integrating culturally and economically within the U.S."

The work at Duffy's Cut has received media attention in Ireland, and the Watsons have told the story to Irish heritage groups here. Michael Collins, the Irish ambassador to the U.S., has visited Duffy's Cut twice.

"I was really struck by the human tragedy of all these young people dying so soon after coming here, and family back in Ireland never knowing what happened to them, or even knowing that they were dead," he said. "Their story needs to be told."

The team continues to dig at the site in hopes of uncovering the remains of the rest of the labor crew. Some of the remains may be sent back to Ireland for burial, but most will probably be reinterred in a cemetery outside Philadelphia. The brothers are raising money for a Celtic cross marker to memorialize them.

"Those men died building something important," said Bill Watson. "They died like anonymous cannon fodder of the Industrial Revolution."

Write to Peter Loftus at peter.loftus@dowjones.com