JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
We grew up hearing stories of The Mollie Maguires, the famous/infamous Irish' gang' of reactionaries who played their half in a frequently bloody war between coal mine owners and money interests, on one side, and the workers they really did keep in subjugation ( I grew up around here, nobody yell at me please ) on the other. " No Irish Need Apply? " Or need eat much. Or worry about it when underground pillars of coal needed to hold up a mine's ceiling were ordered scraped too thin by greedy owners and mines caved in. Memorials all over this part of Pennsylvania dedicated to victims of mine disasters. Guess why.
Reading paper, June, 1877. The Ancient Order of the Hibernians is the group supposedly like the Mason- which of course allowed no Irish, accused of being a cover for the Mollie Maguires.
It may seem trivial. Dad's favorite dog was named 'Maguire ', short for M. Maguire. She was not named ' Pinkerton'.
Of necessity, an awfully long thread. It would deserve to be. Over a couple of days. I'm suspecting quite a few of our Civil War veterans, some from our fearsome Irish regiments may have been amongst those prosecuted, found guilty and hung on the charge of murder in June, 1877. They were implicated as being part of the Mollie Maguires. At least one was not guilty of the his direct charges. He was probably a member of the group, who wasn't?
If I sound biased, well, we're also related to one of the Molly's victims, too, besides a few Molly Maguires. Benjamin Yost, the policeman shot as he made a duty stop at a gas light is a quivering leaf on Ancestry. He was part of the flip side, the side which waged the kind of war on citizens we tend to accuse ' savages ' of. The front page of the Reading Times, 1870 through 1877 is dotted with quivering leaves. The towns, Tamaqua, Mauch Chaunk, Port Clinton, Schuylkill Haven- Civil War veterans returned there. Mine did. 50th Pennsylvania, 6th US Cavalry, 93rd Pennsylvania- I could go on but you get the picture. It's a deep history on Dad's side.
Pinkerton was handed the job of infiltrating the Mollie Maguires. That he achieved this with a deep undercover agent who was deeply Irish is either to his credit or he is still explaining the decision to God- who I suspect may be Irish.
And let's remember Gowan, the mine owner? Was kin equal op oppressor of poor people. Google ' The Shamokin Uprising '. Having dispatched the Irish, he did a pretty good job of squishing anyone else who wanted to eat, too- I mean after working.
And it was funny- as in odd, Dad struggled to keep the story straight, that the Molly Maguires were ruthless and on the wrong side of something called The Law. Why? Because he grew up during the Great Depression in a town where he had Irish relatives and the coal mines were a chief source of income. It was also Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, where Benjamen Yost was killed. There were ' shanty ' Irish and ' lace curtain ' Irish. The mine owners never lost control after demoralizing workers in 1877. Cave ins continued until the veins played out. Innocent men had been hung in the town's memory, when Dad was a boy. Gone but not forgotten, The Mollie Maguires had tried.
Also funny- as in odd. Article after article avoids Civil War service on the part of any of the men hung that infamous June day in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, as if this were not post-Civil War America. Maybe there is one. I could not find it. Census after census in 1870, there they are- my ancestors living and working in all these towns scant years after returning home. The Mollie Maguires were making themselves known and in their midsts. Looked up company members, most are there. ( My grgrgrandparents, one set on Dad's side, inexplicably living in the same household with a grgrgrandmother who would marry another grgrgrandfather- no one told us that- the children who would later marry not yet born? Story there somewhere! )
Have not researched it extensively. I have found the names of men hung as Mollie Maguires June, 1877 in Pottsville, PA who served in regiments either mustered in Schuylkill County or a company was. OR for some bizarre reason- that person was, looking at the enlistment papers. One I almost tossed because it is a Phiily regiment. Looked up the handwritten enlistment, there amongst the ' Philadelphias ' is that name with ' Pottsville ' in the correct line. Pottsville would have been the largest town nearby, the town where recruiters would have set up camp- and where a jail would hold public executions over a decade later.
Posting them as I found them, correct or not, they are as correct as I can ascertain via census, age and place.
Bu no means is this ' IT ' for the thread. History, events, more History- yet to come. The war is actually a not inconsiderable player in these terrific towns- yet not a word in the papers of the era OR articles.
Civil War veterans went away to much fanfare, came home hoping to only find jobs, raise families and have Peace. Many had a terrible time making ends meet, My grgrgrandfather worked while fighting effects of a wound received at Spotsylvania. He was a one-armed fireman for the railroads. Little difficult. The pension boards were at the other end, not being helpful. The Mollie Maguires were increasingly inevitable, just an opinion.
Of those who went to the scaffold ( story next ),a few names so far.
Thomas Duffy
abt 1835 26 Oct 1863 Private Infantry 52nd Pennsylvania C ( Philly regiment, found they recruited in Pottsville )
Hugh McGahan
abt 1835 5 May 1863 Private Artillery Independent Light Artillery Pennsylvania Volunteers F
James Boyle
5 Oct 1861 Private Infantry 96th Pennsylvania
James Carroll
abt 1839 13 Sep 1861 Private Infantry 96th Pennsylvania H
Recruited in Schuylkill county, Dauphin county, Berks county, Luzerne County, PA
Out of time. TBC.
Reading paper, June, 1877. The Ancient Order of the Hibernians is the group supposedly like the Mason- which of course allowed no Irish, accused of being a cover for the Mollie Maguires.
It may seem trivial. Dad's favorite dog was named 'Maguire ', short for M. Maguire. She was not named ' Pinkerton'.
Of necessity, an awfully long thread. It would deserve to be. Over a couple of days. I'm suspecting quite a few of our Civil War veterans, some from our fearsome Irish regiments may have been amongst those prosecuted, found guilty and hung on the charge of murder in June, 1877. They were implicated as being part of the Mollie Maguires. At least one was not guilty of the his direct charges. He was probably a member of the group, who wasn't?
If I sound biased, well, we're also related to one of the Molly's victims, too, besides a few Molly Maguires. Benjamin Yost, the policeman shot as he made a duty stop at a gas light is a quivering leaf on Ancestry. He was part of the flip side, the side which waged the kind of war on citizens we tend to accuse ' savages ' of. The front page of the Reading Times, 1870 through 1877 is dotted with quivering leaves. The towns, Tamaqua, Mauch Chaunk, Port Clinton, Schuylkill Haven- Civil War veterans returned there. Mine did. 50th Pennsylvania, 6th US Cavalry, 93rd Pennsylvania- I could go on but you get the picture. It's a deep history on Dad's side.
Pinkerton was handed the job of infiltrating the Mollie Maguires. That he achieved this with a deep undercover agent who was deeply Irish is either to his credit or he is still explaining the decision to God- who I suspect may be Irish.
And let's remember Gowan, the mine owner? Was kin equal op oppressor of poor people. Google ' The Shamokin Uprising '. Having dispatched the Irish, he did a pretty good job of squishing anyone else who wanted to eat, too- I mean after working.
And it was funny- as in odd, Dad struggled to keep the story straight, that the Molly Maguires were ruthless and on the wrong side of something called The Law. Why? Because he grew up during the Great Depression in a town where he had Irish relatives and the coal mines were a chief source of income. It was also Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, where Benjamen Yost was killed. There were ' shanty ' Irish and ' lace curtain ' Irish. The mine owners never lost control after demoralizing workers in 1877. Cave ins continued until the veins played out. Innocent men had been hung in the town's memory, when Dad was a boy. Gone but not forgotten, The Mollie Maguires had tried.
Also funny- as in odd. Article after article avoids Civil War service on the part of any of the men hung that infamous June day in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, as if this were not post-Civil War America. Maybe there is one. I could not find it. Census after census in 1870, there they are- my ancestors living and working in all these towns scant years after returning home. The Mollie Maguires were making themselves known and in their midsts. Looked up company members, most are there. ( My grgrgrandparents, one set on Dad's side, inexplicably living in the same household with a grgrgrandmother who would marry another grgrgrandfather- no one told us that- the children who would later marry not yet born? Story there somewhere! )
Have not researched it extensively. I have found the names of men hung as Mollie Maguires June, 1877 in Pottsville, PA who served in regiments either mustered in Schuylkill County or a company was. OR for some bizarre reason- that person was, looking at the enlistment papers. One I almost tossed because it is a Phiily regiment. Looked up the handwritten enlistment, there amongst the ' Philadelphias ' is that name with ' Pottsville ' in the correct line. Pottsville would have been the largest town nearby, the town where recruiters would have set up camp- and where a jail would hold public executions over a decade later.
Posting them as I found them, correct or not, they are as correct as I can ascertain via census, age and place.
Bu no means is this ' IT ' for the thread. History, events, more History- yet to come. The war is actually a not inconsiderable player in these terrific towns- yet not a word in the papers of the era OR articles.
Civil War veterans went away to much fanfare, came home hoping to only find jobs, raise families and have Peace. Many had a terrible time making ends meet, My grgrgrandfather worked while fighting effects of a wound received at Spotsylvania. He was a one-armed fireman for the railroads. Little difficult. The pension boards were at the other end, not being helpful. The Mollie Maguires were increasingly inevitable, just an opinion.
Of those who went to the scaffold ( story next ),a few names so far.
Thomas Duffy
abt 1835 26 Oct 1863 Private Infantry 52nd Pennsylvania C ( Philly regiment, found they recruited in Pottsville )
Hugh McGahan
abt 1835 5 May 1863 Private Artillery Independent Light Artillery Pennsylvania Volunteers F
James Boyle
5 Oct 1861 Private Infantry 96th Pennsylvania
James Carroll
abt 1839 13 Sep 1861 Private Infantry 96th Pennsylvania H
Recruited in Schuylkill county, Dauphin county, Berks county, Luzerne County, PA
Out of time. TBC.