THE MOLLY MAGUIRES IN THE MAHANOY AREA
Story by Terry Rang
Web Layout by Paul Coombe
The Mahanoy City area’s first anthracite mine opened in 1861. As mining flourished in the area, so did the population, as many Irish families and other immigrants came to find work.
Mahanoy City was incorporated as a borough in 1863, and by 1870, its population had grown to 5,500. The borough’s population hit its peak of about 16,000 in 1910.
While the burgeoning anthracite industry made the coal barons rich, the workers toiled for low wages and in dangerous conditions. In the 1870s, tensions mounted between mine bosses and the labor force. Violence erupted between the Irish Catholics and the Protestant English. Mahanoy City became one of Schuylkill County’s sites of alleged Molly Maguire activity.
The Molly Maguires were considered an off-shoot of violent Irish secret societies, such as the Ribbonmen, who rebelled against landlords who treated them harshly and kept them in poverty. In Schuylkill County, Irish miners faced similar hardships. They eventually joined the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association, which had some success in winning better wages and working conditions.
But Franklin B. Gowen, president of Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and its coal land subsidiary, feared the power the union held and believed the Irish controlled it through the secret Molly Maguire society. Determined to break the union, he began accusing Irish miners, who he claimed were Molly Maguires, of murdering mine bosses and other violence.
In 1873, Gowen, a former Schuylkill County district attorney, hired Pinkerton undercover detective James McParlan, using the alias James McKenna, to destroy the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Gowen claimed the AOH was a cover for the Molly Maguires. In 1875, Gowen cut county miners’ wages by 20 percent, triggering “The Long Strike” that lasted five months, devastating the miners and their families. Gowen won that battle as he did his war against the AOH. Gowen and McParlan’s efforts sent 20 men accused of murder as Mollies to the gallows in Schuylkill and Carbon counties. Many of the convictions came on little evidence and McParlan’s testimony.
Alleged Molly events in Mahanoy City included the assassination of Chief Burgess George Major, a St. Patrick’s Day parade led by Kehoe against the Catholic Church’s orders, and the alleged plotting to kill “Bully Bill” Thomas and the Major brothers at Mickey Clarke’s saloon. A monument memorializing the tragic era stands at Centre and Catawissa streets.
More than 150 years later, the debate continues whether the men considered Mollies were murderers or martyred heroes.
While an incomplete history of the Molly Maguire era in Schuylkill County, this presentation highlights the people, places and events in the Mahanoy City area.
We extend a special thank you to Mark T. Major, who granted the Mahanoy Area Historical Society permission to use content from “A Guide to the Molly Maguires,” which he co-wrote with H.T. Crown.
JOHN “BLACK JACK” KEHOE
John Kehoe, alleged king of the Mollies, was charged in the 1862 beating death of mine boss Frank W. Langdon in Audenried, Carbon County, 14 years after the crime, and while serving two seven-year sentences for conspiracy in an alleged plot to kill “Bully Bill” Thomas and Jesse and William Major, all of Mahanoy City.
In January 1877, Kehoe was convicted of first-degree murder in Langdon’s death. His request for a pardon failed. Kehoe, 41, was hanged on Dec. 18, 1878, in Pottsville. He is buried in St. Jerome’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Tamaqua. In 1979, Gov. Shapp pardoned him.
Kehoe and others were accused of conspiring to kill Thomas and the Majors, a plot Pinkerton Detective McParlan claimed was hatched at an AOH meeting at Mickey Clarke’s tavern, 324-326 W. Centre St., Mahanoy City on June 1, 1875.
Born in July 1837 in County Wicklow, Ireland, Kehoe was a son of Joseph and Bridget Kehoe. He grew up in the Middleport and Tuscarora areas, moving to Honeybrook, near McAdoo, in the 1860s. Kehoe moved to Mahanoy City’s West Ward in the mid-1860s, marrying Mary Ann O’Donnell at St. Canicus Church there. Kehoe worked as a miner and operated a saloon in the borough, according to the 1869-1870 Mahanoy City Business Directory. Records show the Kehoes lived in the 300 block of West Centre Street.
John Kehoe left Mahanoy City for Shenandoah and was elected bodymaster of the Shenandoah Ancient Order of Hibernians. In August 1873, he moved to Girardville, where his Hibernian House inn and tavern still exist. Kehoe was elected constable in Girardville and Schuylkill County AOH delegate in August 1874.
Defying local priests, Kehoe led the AOH’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in Mahanoy City in 1875.
MARY ANN (O’DONNELL) KEHOE
Mary Ann O’Donnell was born in 1849 in Pennsylvania and lived with her parents, Manus and Margaret O’Donnell, in Tamaqua. When she and John Kehoe married in 1866, they lived in Mahanoy City. Two of the Kehoes’ six children – Margaret (1869) and Bridget (1870) -- were born in Mahanoy City. Their other children were Joseph (1867), Ellen (1872), Mary Ann (1873) and Elizabeth (1875) who died in infancy.
Mary Ann’s brother, John O’Donnell, died in the Civil War. Her sister, Ellen McAlister, and brother, Charles O’Donnell, died in the Wiggans Patch Massacre. After John’s execution, Mary Ann ran the Hibernian House in Girardville with her mother. In 1885, she died at age 37. She is buried in St. Jerome’s Cemetery.
JOSEPH AND BRIDGET KEHOE
John Kehoe’s parents, Joseph and Bridget Kehoe moved to Mahanoy City from the Tuscarora and Middleport areas. A miner, Joseph was elected a borough magistrate. He visited his son, John, in prison before his execution. A month after John’s execution, Joseph died in Mahanoy City. His wife, Bridget, survived him and was living in Mahanoy City at age 70 as of the 1880 census. The date of her death could not be determined. According to the 1860 census, the Kehoes had eight children: Michael, John, Sarah, Joseph, Ann, Edward, Bridget and Mary.
GEORGE MAJOR
George Major, Mahanoy City’s chief burgess, was shot and killed during a riot following a fire in the borough on Oct. 31, 1874. Major, a Coal & Iron policeman, attempted to restore order when two rival fire companies responded to the blaze. Daniel Dougherty was charged in Major’s death but was acquitted. The incident led to events that culminated in the arrest of several alleged Molly Maguires in 1876.
JAMES MCPARLAN
Pinkerton detective James McParlan came to Schuylkill County under the alias of James McKenna to investigate alleged Molly Maguire crimes at Franklin B. Gowen’s behest. He gained the confidence of AOH members, and the Shenandoah Division initiated him in April 1874. McParlan’s exploits brought him to Mahanoy City, including the Trier’s Corner incident and the meeting at Mickey Clarke’s tavern, where he said AOH members plotted to kill “Bully Bill” Thomas and the Major brothers. His 1876 testimony about that meeting put several AOH leaders, including John Kehoe, in jail. Whether McParlan participated in any Molly crimes as an accessory will never be fully known. Most of his testimony against alleged Mollies was unsubstantiated by other testimony.
FRANKLIN B. GOWEN
Franklin B. Gowen won election in 1862 to become Schuylkill County district attorney. He resigned in 1864 to serve as Philadelphia and Reading Railroad counsel and became acting president in 1869. He formed the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. as a subsidiary, which acquired small anthracite operations and railroads throughout the Southern and Middle Coal Fields. He led the company during the wage battles with the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association, later the Miners and Laborers Benevolent Association, from 1868 to 1875. He is most known for destroying the local Ancient Order of Hibernians. He hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1873 to infiltrate the alleged secret society of criminals, the Molly Maguires. Together, their efforts led to the hanging of 20 members of the AOH, all alleged Mollies. On Dec. 13, 1889, Gowen shot and killed himself in a Washington, D.C., hotel.
DANIEL DOUGHERTY
Daniel Dougherty, a Mahanoy City AOH member, was charged in Chief Burgess George Major’s assassination. He was acquitted in April 1875 on testimony that John McCann fired the fatal shot. A month later, he was shot in Mahanoy City allegedly by Major’s friends. According to Detective McParlan, the attack led to an AOH meeting on June 1, 1875, at Mickey Clarke’s saloon in Mahanoy City, in which killing William “Bully Bill” Thomas and Major’s brothers, William and Jesse, was planned.
WILLIAM “BULLY BILL” THOMAS
William “Bully Bill” Thomas, a Mahanoy City tough guy and a Civil War veteran, was a Welshman and a Molly Maguire antagonist. He was known to fight and pull his gun on anyone who opposed him. His obituary noted he had two knife and 17 bullet wounds from the war and skirmishes on Mahanoy City’s streets.
Detective McParlan claimed Daniel Dougherty told fellow AOH members that Bully Bill shot at him in Mahanoy City on May 22, 1875, and that a plan was set to go after Bully Bill and the Major brothers. Thomas was shot several times in a subsequent attack at Shoemaker’s Patch north of Mahanoy City. Several AOH members were convicted in the attempted murder of Thomas and the Majors in 1876. Thomas died in 1916 in Shamokin.
In 1995, a gun that Bully Bill left for collateral at the Davenport Saloon in Mahanoy City became part of the Schuylkill County Historical Society’s Molly Maguire collection, according to The Pottsville Republican.
WILLIAM MAJOR
William Major, a Mahanoy City miner, shot Daniel Dougherty in the neck during the October 1875 riot in Mahanoy City. He was a brother of Chief Burgess George Major and Jesse, a Kaska area miner.
CHARLES McALLISTER
Charles McAllister of Wiggans Patch was arrested in the murders of Thomas Sanger, a colliery foreman, and William Uren, a mine worker, in Raven Run on Sept. 1, 1875. However, Detective McParlan, who was at the scene, said James McAllister, not his brother Charles, was the one involved. In November 1876, Charles was convicted in the shooting of James Riles of Shenandoah but was acquitted in a new trial. Charles’ wife and John Kehoe’s sister-in-law, Ellen O’Donnell McAllister, was killed Dec. 10, 1875, in the Wiggans Patch massacre.
ELLEN O’DONNELL McALLISTER
Ellen O’Donnell McAllister, sister of Mary Ann Kehoe, was murdered in the Wiggans Patch massacre. She was 18 and pregnant. She is buried in St. Jerome’s Catholic Cemetery, Tamaqua.
JAMES McALLISTER
According to Detective McParlan, James McAllister of Wiggans Patch accompanied Thomas Munley, Charles and James O’Donnell and Michael Doyle to Raven Run, where Thomas Sanger and William Uren were murdered on Sept. 1, 1875. He fled the area and became a fugitive.
CHARLES O’DONNELL
Detective McParlan accused Charles O’Donnell, a Wiggans Patch miner, of being involved in the Sanger-Uren murders. O’Donnell was killed in the Wiggans massacre. He is buried in St. Jerome’s Cemetery, Tamaqua.
MARGARET O’DONNELL
Margaret O’Donnell, a County Donegal, Ireland, native, survived the Wiggans Patch massacre at her home. She claimed Mahanoy City butcher Frank Wenrich struck her during the attack. He was charged, but O’Donnell later recanted that claim. Her daughter, Mary Ann, was married to John Kehoe. She died in 1902.
JAMES “FRIDAY’’ O’DONNELL
Detective McParlan accused James O’Donnell of participating in the Sanger-Uren murders. O’Donnell escaped the deadly attack in Wiggans and became a fugitive.
FRANK WENRICH
Frank Wenrich operated a butcher shop at 7 W. Centre St., Mahanoy City. He testified in the Daniel Dougherty trial in the George Major assassination. He was accused in the Wiggans Patch attack on the O’Donnell home but was acquitted. Wenrich was elected Mahanoy City’s chief burgess in 1872. A Civil War veteran, he became a lieutenant in the newly formed National Guard Unit, the Silliman Guards, in Mahanoy City in 1875.
ARTHUR H. LEWIS
Arthur H. Lewis, a Mahanoy City native and Philadelphia police reporter, wrote “Lament for the Molly Maguires,” a 1964 novel that told the story of the violence and drew vivid descriptions of the people involved based on stories he had heard growing up in the area. The book became the basis for the 1970 movie, “The Molly Maguires,” featuring Sean Connery and Richard Harris.
CHRISTIAN BRENHOWER
Innocent bystander Christian Brenhower of Mahanoy City died during a shoot-out with “Bully Bill” Thomas in the borough on Aug. 14, 1875.
EDWARD “NED” BURKE
Edward Burke of Mahanoy City was involved in an 1873 fight at Davenport’s Saloon. Two shots were fired at him outside the Merchants Hotel on Sept. 8, 1873. On Sept. 20 that year, he was involved in an argument with James Dugan. A local newspaper tagged Burke as a defender of Father McFadden and St. Canicus Church, Mahanoy City, but the Daily Miners Journal of Pottsville denounced the claim. Later that year, Phil Nash planned for Burke to be shot. That attack plan came up during the Thomas-Major brothers conspiracy trial in 1876.
WILLIAM CALLAHAN
A Mahanoy Plane AOH member, William Callahan was arrested on a perjury charge by the Coal and Iron Police in June 1876.
MARTIN DOOLEY
Detective McParlan accused Martin Dooley, a Mahanoy Plane AOH member, of listening in on his conversation with Father O’Connor in March 1876. That conversation exposed McParlan’s status as a detective.
JOHN DUFFY
A Mahanoy City AOH member, John Duffy was acquitted in 1869 in Bloomsburg in colliery superintendent Alexander Rea’s murder.
JAMES DUGAN
James Dugan, Mahanoy City, was a notorious foe of “Bully Bill” Thomas. The pair often fought on the borough streets.
BARNEY HAYES
Cole’s Patch resident Barney Hayes was charged with perjury after testifying in the October 1876 Alexander Campbell trial about detective McParlan leading a mob that attacked the Mahanoy City lockup on June 3, 1875. He was sentenced to 10 months in the Carbon County jail.
BRIDGET HYLAND
A Jackson’s Patch resident, Bridget Hyland was convicted of perjury in 1876 after testifying for the defense in the Thomas Munley murder trial. She said she had seen Munley at home the morning of Sept. 1, but other testimony disputed her claim.
FATHER CHARLES McFADDEN
The Rev. Charles McFadden, the St. Canicus Church priest, refused to reveal the names of the men who fired shots at the church to local Irish firemen who came to the church’s aid in November 1874, according to Detective McParlan. McFadden reportedly maintained some control over the borough’s Irish community. He denied John Kehoe’s request for the AOH to attend Mass at St. Canicus on St. Patrick’s Day 1875. McFadden also was a character witness in the Daniel Dougherty trial. He deferred to Archbishop Wood, who “did not approve of the Molly Maguires.”
FRANK McHUGH
Mahanoy City AOH secretary Frank McHugh was charged with complicity in the June 1875 Thomas-Major brothers murder conspiracy. He turned state’s evidence and served limited jail time. He testified that the group who met at Clark’s decided to shoot “Bully Bill” and the Major brothers because of the attack on Daniel Dougherty.
MICHAEL O’BRIEN
A Mahanoy City AOH bodymaster, Michael O’Brien was convicted in the conspiracy to reward Tom Hurley for the murder of Gomer James and the “Bully Bill” and Major brothers conspiracies. He was granted an early release from prison in 1885.
FATHER DANIEL O’CONNOR
The Rev. Daniel O’Connor, a priest at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, Mahanoy Plane, warned John Kehoe of Detective McParlan’s infiltration of the AOH. At the Alexander Campbell trial in Mauch Chunk, he testified that he met McParlan on March 4, 1876, just before the detective left the area. O’Connor assisted Kehoe in his petition for a pardon.
1. GEORGE MAJOR MURDER
The site where Mahanoy City Chief Burgess George Major and Daniel Dougherty, a member of the Mahanoy City Ancient Order of Hibernians, were shot during a shootout that erupted at the scene of a stable fire, five doors east of Main on Railroad in 1874. Major died from his wounds. Dougherty survived, was charged in Major’s murder, but acquitted.
2. CITIZENS FIRE COMPANY
Original location of Citizens Fire Company before it moved to 212 W. Centre St. Citizens, organized in 1870 and chartered in 1873, responded to the fire that led to the assassination of George Major, who was a member of the company.
3. HUMANE FIRE COMPANY
Original location of the Humane Fire Company before it moved to 320 W. Centre St. Humane was the borough’s first fire department, founded in 1868. Humane also responded to the fire that led to the shooting of George Major.
4. TRIER’S CORNER
The home of tailor Simon Trier, who was said to keep a large amount of gold in the house. Detective James McParlan, claiming to have learned that from Jimmy Kerrigan, allegedly watched Trier’s home on suspicions of an impending robbery. He claimed he found John “The Cat” Mahoney of Gilberton there one night. McParlan, whose alias was James McKenna, said he took care of Mahoney, who spent the rest of his life selling pencils on an Allentown street corner.
5. WENRICH’S BUTCHER SHOP
Location of Frank Wenrich’s butcher shop. Wenrich reputedly played a role in the Wiggans Patch Massacre but was acquitted.
6. MICKEY CLARK’S TAVERN
The site of a June 1, 1875, meeting to settle Daniel Dougherty’s problems with the Major brothers and William “Bully Bill” Thomas, according to Detective McParlan, whose testimony about the gathering led to conspiracy convictions for several AOH members, including John Kehoe.
7. JOHN KEHOE’S HOME AND TAVERN
John “Black Jack” Kehoe, the alleged king of the Molly Maguires, was a hotel/saloon keeper in this block. He and Mary Ann O’Donnell wed at the old St. Canicus Church on Catawissa Street. The business directories and census show it was next to the Jennings grocery. The Kehoes later moved to Shenandoah and then Girardville.
8. MOLLY MAGUIRE MONUMENT
Site of the memorial dedicated in 2010 to the Molly Maguire era miners. It features a haunting sculpture by renowned artist Zenos Frudakis of a hooded man on the gallows and granite panels detailing events that led up to the 20 men being hanged as Molly Maguires between 1877 and 1879.
9. ST. CANICUS CHURCH
The original church was dedicated in July 1866. A new church would later be erected across the street. St. Canicus was the Irish church in town.
10. SHOEMAKER’S PATCH
Site of William “Bully Bill” Thomas’s shooting, which led to the conviction of several AOH members in 1876.
11. EAST MAHANOY TUNNEL
Mahanoy City’s growth can be credited to the 1863 opening of the Mahanoy Tunnel, an engineering fete that allowed rail shipments of anthracite to Philadelphia and the eastern seaboard. The Little Schuylkill Company hired Irish workers to build the tunnel, which they dug through the Broad Mountain. The construction did not come without trouble, including a riot by rival Irish factions and refusal of the Barry brothers, the contractors, to turn the tunnel over the railroad over a payment dispute.
12. WIGGANS PATCH MASSACRE
The site of an attack at a home on the right side of the road. The double home, which has since been demolished, housed widow Margaret O’Donnell, sons Charles and James and four boarders on one side, and her daughter, Ellen, and husband Charles McAllister and James McAllister on the other. Ellen McAllister and Charles O’Donnell died in the massacre.
13. UNION COOPERATIVE BUILDING
The Workingmen’s Benevolent Association, the union founded in 1868 by John Siney and other miners, is believed to have met here. The Cooperative Building was constructed by William and Washington Reagan and Eli Washburn. It housed businesses and meeting rooms.
14. MAHANOY CITY COLLIERY
Originally known as Hill’s Colliery, the Mahanoy City Colliery was one of the earliest in the Mahanoy Valley. Its first anthracite shipment was in 1862. The colliery operated from 1860 to 1953. Its operators were Hill and Harris, and later Rommel, Hill and Harris, and the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. At its peak, it employed 667 men and produced more than 313,000 tons of anthracite.
15. PHILADELPHIA & READING RAILROAD STATION
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad built a freight and passenger station in 1865 across from the 200 block of East Railroad Street. It was located near the spur track connected with the Lehigh Valley Railroad on the east side of Kaier Brewery. In 1906, a new passenger station was constructed west of the original station, which then served freight only. The Reading passenger station was demolished in 1983. The freight station had been razed previously.
16. LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD STATION
The Lehigh Valley Railroad erected a freight and passenger station in 1872 near North Main Street. Later, a separate passenger station was built next to the W.W. Lewis Hotel on North Main, across from Kaier Brewery. The Lehigh Valley freight station was destroyed by fire in 1974 and the passenger station was razed in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
A timeline of Molly Maguire-related events
Events related to the Molly Maguires and the anthracite industry that occurred in the Mahanoy City area,
according to “A Guide to the Molly Maguires” by Mark T. Major and H.T. Crown.
1869
May 5-11: John Duffy tried and acquitted at Bloomsburg for Alexander Rea murder.
1873
Sept. 8: Shots fired at Edward Burke outside Merchants Hotel, Mahanoy City. Bullets tore through his coat and shirt. Burke returned fire. Assailants unidentified. (Sept. 11, 1873, Daily Miners Journal)
1874
April: Chief Burgess George Major of Mahanoy City received commission as state policeman for the P&R Coal and Iron Co. (April 23, 1874, Miners Journal)
Oct. 31: Burgess Major shot and killed during riot in Mahanoy City. Daniel Dougherty shot and arrested in same incident.
1875
March 17: John Kehoe led AOH in St. Patrick’s Day parade at Mahanoy City. Kehoe warned the men if they misbehaved, they would be stripped of regalia. (March 17, 1875, McParlan’s report summaries)
William “Bully Bill” Thomas and Thomas McAneeny fight in Mahanoy City. McAneeny drew a pistol and was shot in the leg. Thomas surrendered to police. (March 19, 1875, Miners Journal and McParlan’s notes)
March 22: Daniel Dougherty murder trial moved from Pottsville to Lebanon County. He was acquitted on May 1.
April 3: Shamokin-bound freight train thrown from tracks near Mahanoy City. (April 4, 1875, Daily Miners Journal)
May 22: Daniel Dougherty shot at in downtown Mahanoy City.
June 1: AOH meeting held at Clarke’s in Mahanoy City. McKenna testified the following year that this meeting included discussion of shooting “Bully Bill” Thomas and the Major brothers. (McParlan memorandum and August 1876 testimony at Pottsville.)
June 3: A mob of striking miners marched into Mahanoy City, pressuring workers off the job at collieries along the way. Tensions mounted, and shots were fired at the sheriff and his posse, resulting in the militia being sent to Mahanoy City to quell the riot. (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 4, 1875.
June 4: Attempt made to burn down Joseph Holt’s hotel in Mahanoy City. The Evening Chronicle suggested the motive was that Mr. and Mrs. Holt played a prominent part in the Dougherty trial. (June 5, 1875 Pottsville Evening Chronicle)
June 27: “Bully Bill” Thomas survived attack at Shoemaker’s Patch near Mahanoy City. Two bullets passed through his body.”
July: Another attempt to kill “Bully Bill” Thomas occurred in Mahanoy City. He was shot at from a rail car platform as a train left the station. (July 15 , 1875, Miners Journal)
July 24: Squire Comry of Mahanoy City reported to Pinkerton detective Robert Linden that “Bully Bill” Thomas shot at him. (July 27, 1875, Linden’s report summaries)
Aug. 14: “Bully Bill” in shootout at Mahanoy City with James Dugan. Thomas shot in the face. Innocent bystander Christian Brenhower shot and killed. Dugan and Thomas arrested.
Sept. 3: Coal and Iron Police officer James O’Brien shot and killed William Yahn near Mahanoy City. O’Brien suspected Yahn and a partner of murdering colliery foreman Thomas Sanger and William Uren two days earlier.
Sept. 8: Patrick Dugan, James’ brother, struck “Bully Bill” Thomas at courthouse. Dugan was arrested and jailed. (Sept. 9, 1875, Pottsville Evening Chronicle)
Sept. 18: James Dugan reported to have jumped bail in assault and battery against “Bully Bill” Thomas. (Sept. 18, 1875, Pottsville Evening Chronicle)
Oct. 29: “Bully Bill” identified Tom Hurley as one of the men who shot him. (Oct. 29, 1875, McParlan)
Nov. 13: Silliman Guards, a National Guard Unit, formed in Mahanoy City. Local butcher Frank Wenrich appointed second lieutenant.
Dec. 10: Masked men entered house of Margaret O’Donnell at Wiggans Patch, shooting and killing Ellen O’Donnell McAllister and brother Charles O’Donnell.
Frank Wenrich arrested in the Wiggans shooting but later released.
1876
July 12: “Big Ned” Monaghan arrested for conspiracy to murder “Bully Bill” Thomas.
July 20: William Calahan, Mahanoy Plane, arrested for perjury by Officer Krieger of the Coal and Iron Police. Calahan testified in the Alexander Campbell murder trial at Mauch Chunk.
August: Conspiracy trials involving the attack on “Bully Bill” Thomas and Major brothers held at Pottsville. John Kehoe among those found guilty.
1877
Jan. 16: John Kehoe found guilty of first-degree murder in Frank Langdon’s death.
Dec. 18: John Kehoe hanged at Pottsville for the 1862 murder of Frank Langdon.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to Mark T. Major for allowing the Mahanoy Area Historical Society to use “A Guide to the Molly Maguires” by Major and the late H.T. Crown as a source for this brochure.
SOURCES
BOOKS
Crown, H.T., and Major, Mark T. A Guide to the Molly Maguires. Frackville, Pa.: Broad Mountain Publishing Company, 2003
Flaherty, Anne. The Passion of John Kehoe. Saint Leonard, Md.: Hibernian Press, 2023
Kenny, Kevin. Making Sense of the Molly Maguires. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
NEWSPAPERS
The Reading Times, The Mahanoy City Record American, The Shenandoah Evening Herald, Pottsville Miners Journal, The Daily Graphic
PHOTOS
The Schuylkill County Historical Society (Photos of Kehoe, McParlan, Gowen)
OTHER
Mahanoy City Business Directory 1869-1870, 1860 and1870 U.S. Census, Schuylkill County Tax Assessment records
Schuylkill County Atlas 1875
Peggy Ward Brill's Memories
Growing Up in the Former O'Donnell House in Boston Run ( Wiggans)
On December 10, 1875, what became known as the Wiggans Patch Massacre occurred at the O’Donnell home in Boston Run just west of Wiggans patch near the St. Nicholas bridge. Tom Ward (1926-2018) former historical society president grew up in the former O’Donnell house and lived there until entering the army during WWII.
In 1996 Tom’s sister, Peggy Ward Brill (1923-2021} recalled her childhood in Boston Run during the Depression with her parents, Thomas A. and Ethel Ward and her eight siblings.
