HOSTILITIES CONTINUED.
It was maintained by some that the Mollies of the coal regions were not
supported or recognized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians throughout
the United States, but there is abundant evidence of this being utterly
false, the Sleepers, or Mollie Maguires, being substantially part and
portion of the society. That this entire organization, from root to
branch, was rotten and corrupt, has been unmistakably shown to the
people of the country. As early as January, 1875, the State and National
branches of the Hibernians were beginning to feel uneasy regarding their
brethren in the mountain country of Pennsylvania. This is exhibited in
the fact that John Kehoe, County Delegate of Schuylkill, issued an order
to the divisions to send their Bodymasters and officers to Girardville,
on the fourth of the month mentioned, to confer with the National
Delegate, the great head of the organization, known as the Ancient Order
of Hibernians, in the United States. This man was named Campbell, and he
met the leaders of the Mollies as stated, Shenandoah Division having for
its representatives McKenna, Frank McAndrew, and others. Campbell is
described as a medium-sized man, with gray hair and chin whiskers; form
rather lightly built, aged about fifty-five years and countenance
wearing a look of intelligence. The National Secretary, Reilley, was
also present, with a band of Bodymasters, as follows:
PAT COLLINS, Palo Alto.
FRANK KEENAN, Forrestville.
NED KEAN, New Philadelphia.
LARRY CREAN, Girardville.
JAMES MURPHY, Loss Creek.
It was found that the object of the meeting at Lafferty’s Hall was
merely to investigate some offending brothers. Barney Dolan was put on
trial for embezzling five hundred dollars of the funds, and, after
hearing the testimony, Reilley and Campbell retired, but in a few
minutes brought in a verdict of “not guilty,” and the big County
Delegate looked well pleased, yet, when the National Delegate and
Secretary announced that Jack Kehoe should retain the position of County
Delegate, Barney’s face elongated, and its owner was not half as well
satisfied as he had appeared just a moment before. The decision was
final, however, and Barney could remain a member of the order, but no
longer act as County Delegate, excepting he should be duly elected at a
State Convention. Of this there was little hope.
When the regular routine of business had been completed Campbell made a
long speech to those assembled, in which he counseled all to behave
well, and so generally conduct themselves as to win the recognition of
good people, and admission to the Church. He hinted that all the Bishops
desired was that the Schuylkill Hibernians should remove the stigma
resting upon them, and thus a return to the fold was attainable. But for
the acts performed there, the obstacle would long since have been
removed. Campbell was given respectful attention, but his words fell on
deaf and unheeding ears.
Then the meeting adjourned and the members returned to their homes.
And this was not all. The era of Conventions seemed to have come. On the
eleventh of January, in the same year, a meeting was held in Pottsville,
again upon Kehoe’s requisition, to prepare for a general celebration of
St. Patrick’s Day. McKenna was in attendance, as Secretary of Shenandoah
Division. The following Bodymasters also put in an appearance:
PAT DOLAN, Big Mine Run.
CHRIS DONNELLY, Mt. Laffee.
FRANK KEENAN, Forrestville.
JAMES KENNEDY, Mt. Carbon.
JOHN REGAN, St. Clair.
PAT COLLINS, Palo Alto.
WM. CALLAGHAN, Mahanoy Plane.
DANIEL KELLY, Connor’s and Patches adjoining.
LAWRENCE CREAN, Girardville.
MIKE O’BRIEN, Mahanoy City.
PETER SHERRY, St. Nicholas.
PETER BURNS, Silver Brook.
JOHN DONAHUE, Tuscarora.
JAMES J. GALLAGHER, Coaldale.
—— BRADLEY, Representing Pat Butler, of Loss Creek.
FRANK MCANDREW, Shenandoah.
JAMES KERRIGAN, Coaldale.
JAMES ROARTY, Tamaqua.
Excepting only Florence Mahanoy Division, of Turkey Run, which was not
represented, almost every lodge had present, on this important occasion,
a full corps of five officers, viz.: President, or Bodymaster,
Vice-President, Secretary and Assistant Secretary, and Treasurer.
After the opening by prayer, Kehoe explained the object of the
gathering, and all the members able to purchase were supplied with
suitable regalia; flags were bought and music engaged, when once more
the meeting of Bodymasters was dissolved.
Jack Kehoe was fast becoming a man of power in Schuylkill County and
gaining supreme control of the dreaded Mollie Maguires. It was policy on
his part to invite these conferences. While the President and officers
of the bodies were together, he could cultivate their acquaintance and
push certain plans, political and otherwise, which, in due season, he
would carry to completion. He desired to see all the leading men _en
masse_, and succeeded. The presence of the national representatives, and
the deference shown to Jack by them, in virtue of his office, at the
first Convention, gave him eminence in the eyes of those possessing an
inferior order of intellect and standing lower in the official scale
than himself. The County Delegate was a scheming, crafty fellow, and
looked far into the future, thinking that he could see for himself and
his family political distinctions and riches in the deft and continued
handling of the Mollies. He did not, however, as the sequel will show,
penetrate quite deep enough into the obscurity of coming events. Had he
pierced the mystic veil a little further, the ghastly spectre that would
have glided before his startled vision might have turned him from his
evil pathway, with terror-stricken face and palsied limbs, to seek the
bloodless and better course.
Kehoe was now the self-crowned king of the Mollies in Schuylkill. They
moved promptly, like so many puppets, at his will, and when he commanded
a halt the mysterious clan paused in its deadly work. Would he order a
cessation of hostilities? Or must the word be “Forward—march”? Nobody
could tell! That the General intended tough work was apparent from the
activity he had inaugurated among the Bodymasters, and they were the men
who acted as the Lieutenants and leaders of corps for the
Commander-in-chief.
At this time one Pat Hester, who had for two months past been in
custody, on a criminal charge, was released and went directly to his
home, not far from Summit Hill. He was a bad and violent man, and
formerly of high standing in the order. More will be heard of him
hereafter.
Immediately following the ball at Pottsville, January 20th, in which
nearly three hundred Mollies and their ladies participated, and a very
brief visit to New Philadelphia and Silver Creek, the operative returned
to Shenandoah.
On the twenty-fifth, the country was visited by a snow-storm of unusual
severity. The same day McKenna learned from a friend that Pat Dormer had
met his wife at a neighbor’s, and they engaged in an animated
conversation that ended in Pat giving the lady a cruel beating, for
which little act of indiscretion he was still suffering in Pottsville
jail, where he would have to remain for three months.
At the end of January the detective had another attack of his old
complaint, chills and fever, and for some days was ordered by the
physicians to remain indoors.
It will be borne in mind that the great strike was still in progress;
work was nearly at an end; some of the stores in the mines were closing
up business and others refusing credit to miners, causing considerable
suffering among those who, during flush times, had improvidently spent
their money, keeping none for this sort of emergency. It was no source
of surprise, then, that the mere announcement, founded upon rumor, that
Col. Cake had been seen at Loss Creek, where he was to sign papers,
agreeing, on the part of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron
Company, to the basis in vogue preceding the strike, should create wild
excitement over the country. In Shenandoah, nearly all the Mollies
entered upon a prolonged debauch on the strength of the story. Frank
McAndrew, the President, was entirely overcome by liquor, and meeting
the young Welshman, Gomer James, engaged in a fight with him and his
companions, during which knives and pistols were freely used, but no
persons seriously wounded. McHugh and Travers were of McAndrew’s party,
and Gomer James and his confederates finally withdrew from the field.
McKenna, from his keeping the house, through the doctor’s commands, was
not a participant in, or present during the time of this little
disturbance. He heard of it the next day, when McHugh went to see him.
That person was terribly in earnest, swearing big oaths without number
that the time must soon come when Gomer James should be made to suffer
for his acts. He thought it bad policy to insist upon immediate revenge,
but stated, when work was fairly commenced and everything would not be
charged upon the society, he and the rest could never be satisfied until
two men were obtained to make way with the murderer of Cosgrove. McHugh
ended by remarking that “it was a shame and a disgrace to all members of
the order that Gomer’s taking off had been so long delayed!”
The starting, a few days subsequently, of several large collieries, made
the emissary think that, if others were as anxious as McHugh, Gomer
James would have to look out for himself. As James had been previously
warned, through the instrumentality of Mr. Franklin, he did not deem it
necessary to do more in this instance than make due report of McHugh’s
words. This he did at once, and Mr. Franklin again had the information
conveyed to James that he stood in imminent danger of losing his life.
Father McFadden was now visited by a committee of Mollies, asking
permission to take part in the general celebration of St. Patrick’s Day,
for which extended preparations were being made, but he refused, cursing
the Mollies and their committee with the heaviest maledictions. He
charged them with being murderers and assassins, and commanded them to
leave the order. They would do nothing of the kind.
McKenna was one of the committee, by the request of Jack Kehoe, but had
no hope, at the time, of being successful in the mission. Kehoe and
others determined to take part in the celebration if they had to walk
over the priest’s dead body. The detective was apparently as anxious as
the rest, and managed to raise nine dollars—“from where,” he said his
friends “could guess”—with which to purchase himself regalia for the
seventeenth of March. They naturally supposed he had disposed of more
counterfeit money.
The early part of March a riot occurred at Jeddo and Buck Mountain,
during which three men were shot. The Mollies, being largely in force
there, were accused of bringing on hostilities.
At about this date three hundred men gathered in the same vicinity to
prevent the collieries from working, and extinguished the fires under
the pumping boilers, the intention being to drown out the mines and bar
their owners from operating them for a long time. The country was
overspread with snow to the depth of a foot, on the level, and travel
upon the mountains was again greatly impeded, making the work of the
Mollies easy of accomplishment and their escape almost certain.
About the fourth of March a so-called Anti-Monopoly Convention was
appointed to take place at Harrisburg, having for its principal purpose
a movement against the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company,
by individual and other large operators. The laboring man, excepting he
might be far removed from, and a great consumer of the product of the
coal fields, could have but small interest in the result of the meeting,
yet many of this class attended as delegates and took part in the
proceedings. Among them was Muff Lawler, who reported, on his return,
that there were nearly three hundred representatives present, and it was
decided to ask the Legislature, by resolution, to cause an investigation
to be made, by committee, of the officers of the company, and say why
their charter should not be abrogated. Lawler further said that the
committee would be appointed and the investigation set on foot. All of
which did not prove that there was anything wrong in the organization to
be investigated.
Had the Mollies been aware of the full extent of Mr. F. B. Gowen’s
proceedings in the coal fields—as President of the Philadelphia and
Reading Railway and of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron
Company—and the work he had instituted years before, to punish the
guilty, and clear their confederates from the land, wresting from them
by the strong hand of the law the great power they held over the
inhabitants, it is believed that his life would have been taken—at
least, attempts would have been made upon it. But the President calmly
waited his time, which he knew must come, and relaxed no effort,
withdrew no force—on the contrary, kept himself more closely down to his
work—through all these mutterings and threatenings. His head was clear,
his nerves unshaken.
Charles Hayes, who was just from Summit, where he had gone to secure
work and see some relatives, reported that the Laborers’ Union and the
Mollies had made common cause in the fight on Summit Hill, headed by Tom
Fisher, County Delegate, Pat McKenna, Bodymaster, and a prominent Mollie
named Boyle. They were determined that, unless the collieries submitted
to the general demand, they should not have men to do their work.
Sunday, the fourteenth of March, the Mollies of Shenandoah were startled
by the reported finding of the dead body of Edward Coyle, one of their
number, in the slip of Plank Ridge Colliery, belonging to the Coal and
Iron Company. Several weeks before—in fact, some time in January—Coyle
had been on a spree and was heard to say that in a few days he would
leave the locality and go to Pittsburg, where he was promised
employment. He was never seen again alive. When the water had been drawn
off, his remains were discovered, the rats having mutilated his flesh
horribly. Parts of his fingers were entirely eaten away. His hands were
clasped over his head, and there were other evidences that, while going
to his boarding-house at night, he had fallen into the shaft and been
killed. There was a coroner’s inquest, but nothing more than here
related elicited. The Mollies held a meeting and resolved to take no
action in Coyle’s case, not even to reveal that he was a Mollie, as,
should they let the secret out, Father O’Reilly would never allow his
remains burial in a Catholic cemetery. This was the course pursued. It
was also reported, in this connection, that the priest said he was glad
the society was to parade as a body, on the seventeenth, as he would be
the better able to judge who were and who were not Mollies. He already
knew them in the dark, as cut-throats, robbers, and incendiaries, and
concluded his denunciation by observing that the curse of God was sure
to fall upon them. Father Bridgeman, of Girardville, expressed similarly
forcible opinions of the society and all who had anything to do with it.
Still the Mollies would parade, and did parade.
Before the middle of the month arrived a man named Dixon was shot by
another, called Bradley, at Mine Hill Gap. The two had for some time
been on bad terms, and, taking advantage of a spree which he was on at
the time, Dixon went to and fired upon Bradley’s house in the night,
but, fortunately, hurting none of the inmates. Bradley, who was an
engineer and a man of nerve and resolution, arose, seized his revolver,
went out and shot Dixon through the heart, killing him almost instantly.
The engineer at once reported Dixon’s death to the authorities, gave
himself up, had a trial, and was discharged as having acted purely in
self-defense, a verdict which was generally commended, excepting by
Dixon’s intimate relatives and companions. Even the Mollies in
Shenandoah said Bradley was justified by the circumstances.
The great day—the seventeenth of March—came at last, and ended without
any great disturbance. The members of Shenandoah Division combined with
those from Loss Creek, and mustered nearly one hundred men for the
procession. There were four hundred Mollies in line at Mahanoy City.
After organizing at a hall in that place, Jack Kehoe made an extempore
oration, in the course of which he said that the parade was looked upon
by some of the inhabitants of the town as a direct and open threat to
overpower them, or a signal for the resumption of a reign of carnage;
and, if any of the Mollies got drunk while in the neighborhood, he
would, in person, strip off their regalia, then, if necessary, get an
officer, have them arrested and sent to prison.
“Let us show the clergy,” he concluded, “that, although we bear a bad
name, we are very far from deserving it! There is no truth in what they
say, exceptin’ when we meet a party opposed to us—then we do as well as
we can. Let us all act as men—not as boys!”
Kehoe’s remarks were loudly applauded. He was followed by a man named
Love, who spoke in a similar vein, but without the County Delegate’s
vehemence.
As before stated, the day passed off quietly, and the Mollies returned
to their homes in their usual condition.
[Illustration: “_They shot a young girl, named McHale, sending a bullet
through her arm, narrowly missing a vital part._”]
The same remark does not apply to Number Three Hill, where, at 10 P.M.,
there was a savage battle fought between John Thompson and Martin Deane,
on the part of the Mollies, and a crowd of Sheet Irons, headed by a man
named Welch. The Iron Clads, in trying to kill Thompson, shot a young
girl named McHale, sending a bullet through her arm, narrowly missing a
vital part. Some of the Shenandoah men, when they heard this news,
promptly started to find Welch, who wisely kept out of their way. Had
the crowd encountered him, doubtless his blood would have been shed.
McKenna was so ill as to be confined to the house after the procession,
hence did not join in the search.
[Illustration: “_The scene at Number Three Hill._”]
Sunday, the twenty-first of March, Father O’Reilly read out in church,
almost complete, a list of the Mollie Maguires who had attended the
parade, McKenna among the rest, asking the prayers of the congregation
for the salvation of their souls. The Mollies merely laughed at the
proceeding, when outside the church, where some still persisted in
going, and said such exhibitions of spleen would do them no harm.
At the close of the month, a number of strange men arrived at
Frackville, to work in the mines, from Philadelphia, with a few
engineers for the railway company, the railroaders having long before
submitted to a reduction of ten per cent., refusing longer to hold out
with the miners and other laborers, but the imported workmen had to be
sent home, and dare not go to their employment, so hostile were the
demonstrations made against them by the Mollies and members of the
Laborers’ Union.
Then came the news that the telegraph office at Summit Station had been
fired and burnt to the ground. It was supposed to have resulted from the
act of an incendiary. Not long after, a railway train, loaded with coal,
was thrown from the track and the cars badly smashed up. Many Mollies
lived in the neighborhood, and these deeds were probably performed by
members brought from a distance.
In view of the frequency of these occurrences in the mining country,
McKenna now suggested that Mr. Franklin send policemen to different
places, with orders to openly make investigations, and also act as a
preventive of further difficulties. It was impossible for the operative
to do more than he was doing. The magistrates were powerless, and other
county officials in the same predicament.
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