Welcome to The British Are Coming, Y’all! Today through Sunday 20 March are lucky days for you. My blog is participating in the “Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop” along with more than 250 other blogs listed at the end of this post. All blogs in the hop are offering a book related giveaway, and we’re all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. To find out how to qualify for the giveaway on this blog, read through today’s Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then hop to another blog. Enjoy!
Relevant History welcomes author J. R.Lindermuth, a retired newspaper editor. Lindermuth was born and raised in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region. He’s the author of eight novels, and his stories and articles have been published in a variety of magazines, both print and on line. He writes a weekly historical column for two area newspapers and is librarian of his county historical society, where he assists patrons with genealogy and research. For more information, check his web site.
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My historical suspense novel Watch The Hour focuses on the conflict between mine owners and their employees — particularly the Irish — in the 1870s, in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region. My research corroborated the fact that prejudice never goes away, though the identity of the victims may change over time. Race and religion aren’t always the qualifying factors. Mere difference is enough to warrant suspicion.
More than a million Irish refugees flocked to the United States between 1846 and 1855. They worked whatever jobs they could find and were routinely exploited. Many found their way to Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region, where they encountered some of the worst exploitation and hatred. Most of the management and skilled labor positions were held by the English and Welsh — old enemies.
In the 1870s, an expanding economic depression pitted mine owners and their laborers, particularly the Irish, in conflict over wages and working conditions. The situation spawned a wave of violence. The Irish and the Molly Maguires, a secret organization linked to them, soon became a scapegoat for those in authority.
Private police forces were commissioned by the state but paid by the coal companies, sworn to protect property of the mine owners. The miners believed their real purpose was to spy upon targeted agitators and intimidate and break up strikers.
The subject of the Molly Maguires is still controversial today, with many refusing to believe the organization existed or that its members were guilty of the crimes of which they were accused. Others believe they operated secretly and used the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a legitimate benevolent organization, as a front. Probably more atrocities attributed to the Mollies than occurred. But the organization’s existence is documented, and people do have a tendency to strike back at oppression.
The largest owner of coal lands was the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, headed by Franklin B. Gowen. The P&R was a monopoly controlling the rail lines and the coal fields, and it was Gowen’s goal to control the workforce as well. The miners formed a union, the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association (WBA), and Gowen was determined to wipe it out.
Gowen’s opportunity came when a strike led to sabotage and then the murder of ten mine bosses. Gowen accused the WBA of harboring terrorists — the Molly Maguires. He manipulated the press to convince the public that most of the Irish were Mollies and responsible for the murders and sabotage.
The end result was a series of trials, which resulted in the conviction of forty-one people and the hanging of twenty miners. The WBA was crushed, and it was a long time before another union improved mine working conditions. At this late date it’s difficult to separate legitimate from false accusations.
I grew up hearing stories about those days from my grandfather and other older residents who had the stories passed down to them. Of the twenty men hanged, four were from my home area. Peter McManus was hanged in 1879 for the murder of Frederick Hesser. Patrick Hester, Patrick Tully and Peter McHugh were hanged in 1878 for the murder ten years earlier of Alexander Rea, a mine superintendent.
Hester, Tully and McHugh were brought to trial solely on the accusation of Daniel Kelly, an alcoholic known familiarly as Kelly the Bum. While jailed in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Kelly confessed to his own involvement in Rea’s murder and turned state’s evidence on the other three in return for immunity.
Despite protests of innocence, the three were convicted and sentenced to hang on March 25, 1878 at Bloomsburg, Columbia County. The records testify the only ones who behaved properly that day were the Irishmen who accepted their fate calmly and with dignity, not even flinching when three pine coffins were dumped unceremoniously at the foot of the gallows as the nooses were being placed round the men’s necks.
The crowd that gathered to witness the hangings was reported as uncommonly large and unruly. A newspaper account said Sheriff John W. Hoffman was so drunk he was barely able to stand when he pulled the rope on Hester. A dozen spectators clambered onto the roof of a nearby chicken shed to watch, and it collapsed under their weight, smothering to death thirteen-year-old Sunny Williams. Farmer Joseph Engst became drunk and fell from the roof of the Exchange Hotel, crushing his skull. The boisterous crowd upset the buggy of William Yiengst, injuring his wife.
And, to top it off, someone stole Hester’s wedding ring before his body was stiff. The ring was later returned by Abby Engle, a railroader, who apologized that he’d been “carried away by the emotion of the day.”
Into this milieu in Watch the Hour, I introduce a young coal company police officer named Ben Yeager, a decent fellow who does his best to follow orders while trying to be fair to the workers whose lot he sees as little different from his own. Despite his efforts at fairness, his job makes him the enemy of the Irish. I complicate matters by having him fall in love with an Irish lass, Jennie. Like a certain young couple from Verona, these lovers must vie not just with family differences, but also with the society in which they dwell. And Ben faces the additional problem of being pressured by the mine owner to marry his granddaughter, who is also in love with the youth. For their love, Ben and Jennie risk the enmity of family and friends, their religion, their jobs, and their very lives.
Coal mining remains a tough and dangerous occupation. In contrast, the Irish are, for the most part, accepted and valued members of society in the United States today. But the prejudice they endured still exists and can be seen in the plight of other ethnic groups in the land.
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A big thanks to J. R. Lindermuth. He’ll give away a print copy of Watch the Hour to someone who contributes a legitimate comment on my blog this week. I'll choose one winner from among those who comment by Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. Delivery is available within the U.S. only.
