Duffy’s Cut, Revisited

By Wayne A. Conaway

It has been eight years since The Chester County Day paper has noted the activities at Duffy’s Cut. Any historical event which can inspire a tele­vision documentary, two books and several songs is worth noting!

In railroad parlance, a “cut” is a grading, dug out of elevated land, which allows railroad engines to traverse more smoothly or directly. In America in the 1830s, railroads had begun to compete with canals as the primary means of mass transportation in the USA. Both canals and railroads were constructed by hand, using large gangs of unskilled labor­ers. Few native-born Americans wanted to work at such hard labor, so the work went to immigrants. In the Western USA, Chi­nese immigrants would man the railroad gangs. Here in the East, the laborers were largely Irish immigrants, although later workers in­cluded Italians and African- Americans.

The work was difficult and dangerous. Typically, such unskilled workers were paid only 50 cents per day, plus lodging, food and whiskey. Medical care was primitive, and the mortality rate high - hence the contemporary expression: There’s an Irishman buried under every railroad tie.

The workers commemorated by the Pennsylvania historical marker were working on Mile 59 of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. The men were all Irish immigrants, fleeing starvation in Tyrone, Donegal, and Derry. They were hired at the Philadelphia docks by a Willistown contrac­tor named Phillip Duffy (hence the name “Duffy’s Cut”).

Six weeks after they began work, the laborers were stricken by dis­ease. The exact ailment that struck them is unknown. At the time it was described as “black diphtheria.” Modern medical knowledge leads us to believe it was cholera.

Prejudice against the Roman Catholic Irish was strong among na­tive-born Protestant Americans. Only a decade later, the anti-immigrant political party commonly referred to as the “Know Nothing party” elected national representatives. (The party began as a secret society, so members who were questioned by the au­thorities were advised to respond “I know nothing” – hence the popular name for the movement.)

Appar­ently, the citizens of Malvern had similar attitudes toward the Irish laborers. Few people in Malvern were willing to give them medical assistance. Work on this stretch of railroad stopped as dozens of work­ers fell ill. The Bishop of Philadel­phia secured the help of two Sisters of Charity, but their nursing skills were unable to save many of the men. It is believed that 57 Irish laborers died and are buried in an unmarked grave near this historical marker. Work on the rail line re­sumed in the fall, after the outbreak died down.

But the story grew that not all the workers died of illness. It is rumored that, to prevent the disease from spreading, vigilantes from Malvern slew the surviving workers!

Now that some of the bodies have been recovered, there is indeed evi­dence of blunt-force trauma on some of the skulls. In a story reported in the Wall Street Journal, historians Frank and William Watson found evidence of trauma on three out of four recovered skulls. One of the skulls even had entry and exit wounds consistent with gunfire!

Whatever truly happened to the laborers, no one from Malvern want­ed to remember the incident. The Philadelphia and Columbia was pur­chased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857. No marker commemorated the mass grave until 1870, when some local railroad workers built a wood­en fence around the presumed site of the unmarked grave. Today, SEPTA’s R-5 line uses the railroad tracks.

Archaeological work on Duffy’s Cut, led by a team from Immaculata University, has now finished. The only likely unexamined sites would require digging too close to the railroad tracks. William E. Watson, J. Francis Watson, and two colleagues at Immaculate have written a book on the subject titled “The Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut.” The Watson brothers also wrote the popular book, “Massacre at Duffy’s Cut.”

A documentary also called “The Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut,” has been filmed, and was nominated for Best Documentary in Ireland. Interest in the incident remains high in Ireland, as evidenced by multiple songs about Duffy’s Cut.

You can visit the Pennsylvania state historical marker near the corner of King and Sugartown Roads in Malvern. It commemorates the 57 railroad workers who died in August 1832, and were buried in a mass grave at Duffy’s Cut.

For more information, visit duffyscutproject.com.