Duffy's Cut

Pipes recovered at the site

Immigrants generally and Irish Catholics specifically were often viewed by the owners and managers of railroad and coal mining companies as expendable components, and by Anglo-Germanic Americans as unwholesome and even dangerous.

Philip Duffy's blacksmith buried the first three workers to perish in individual graves, but when it became clear that all would die he buried the rest of the dead in a shallow ditch along the railroad’s right of way without ceremony or funeral.[5] No death certificates were ever filed for these individuals. Asiatic Cholera usually causes 40-60% casualties within a single population. In this case, all of the workers are believed to have died, leading to the theory that some may have been killed.[5]

Official record of the deaths at Duffy’s Cut remained locked in the vaults of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) until Joseph Tripican, a secretary to a former PRR president, removed them after the company’s bankruptcy in 1970. In the 1990s, one of Tripican’s grandsons, Reverend Dr. Frank Watson discovered the papers in a file and began to research the history with his brother Dr. William Watson, Professor of History, and adjunct professors Earl Schandelmeier and John Ahtes of Immaculata University.[5]

On June 18, 2004, a Pennsylvania state historical marker was dedicated near the site. The text of the marker reads, "Nearby is the mass grave of fifty-seven Irish immigrant workers who died in August, 1832, of cholera. They had recently arrived in the United States and were employed by a construction contractor, named Duffy, for the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. Prejudice against Irish Catholics contributed to the denial of care to the workers. Their illness and death typified the hazards faced by many 19th century immigrant industrial workers."

In August 2004, the site began undergoing archaeological excavation by a research team headed by Dr. William Watson from Immaculata University, Rev. Dr. Frank Watson, Earl Schandelmeier, and John Ahtes. The Duffy's Cut Project team consisted of four primary members, William Watson, Frank Watson, John Ahtes (who died in 2010) and Earl Schandelmeier at Immaculata University. On March 20, 2009, the first human bones were unearthed, consisting of two skulls, six teeth and eighty other bones. The researchers announced their discovery on March 24, 2009.[6] Bone expert Janet Monge was included in the analysis of skeletal remains.[7]

In August 2009, "Finding Dulcinea" reported that the two earliest skulls found both show evidence of blunt-force trauma inflicted peri-mortem, suggesting the possibility that they were murdered.[8] More recent research of the site suggests that a mass murder may have taken place against the Irish workers[9] by local vigilantes fearful that cholera would spread. Analysis of the bones has indicated the possibility that some of the men were killed by projectiles.[10][11][12]

On March 9, 2012, the remains of five men and one woman from those who died at Duffy's Cut Shanty Town were laid to rest in a church burial at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.[13] The men and woman were unearthed by researchers from Immaculata University at the location of the Shanty Town near an Amtrak railroad line in Pennsylvania.[14] A sixth body was recovered and identified as John Ruddy from Inishowen, County Donegal; his remains were returned to Ireland for reburial there.[15] in 2013[16] The remains of Catherine Burns of County Tyrone who died in Duffy's Cut in 1832 were reburied in Ireland in 2015[16] Excavation of the deep burial site was halted when Amtrak, which owns the land, would not issue permits for additional digging because of the site's proximity to the railroad tracks.[17]

Television

• Tile Films of Dublin, Ireland produced a documentary on the story for broadcast on the Irish State Broadcaster RTÉ., then went on to produce a follow-up with WNET, "Death on the Railroad" as an episode of the PBS series Secrets of the Dead (season 12, episode 2) first aired May 8, 2013.[1] and RTÉ. In this episode, the claim was made that modern forensic science determined that the 57 Irish railroad workers did not perish as the result of cholera, but instead were murdered. No conclusion was drawn as to motive, although many theories were offered.
• The American TV Series Secrets of the Underground, presented the Duffy's Cut grave story in the first part of the show's episode entitled 'America's Buried Massacre', (Season 1, Episode 4).<ref>"America's Buried Massacre".

Print

• Greenwood Publishing Group published The Ghosts of Duffy's Cut in July 2006.[2]

Music

• Irish musician Christy Moore released a song, written by Wally Page, called "Duffy's Cut" (2009), whose subject matter is the death of the workers on the railway.[2]
• In March 2011, Celtic Punk band The Dropkick Murphys released a song called "The Hardest Mile", which also deals with the newly discovered evidence that some of the men may have been murdered rather than having died of cholera.
• Americana Songwriter Rick Shelley released the song "Dead Horse Hollow" in 2017. The song references young John Ruddy and the 56 other Irish immigrants lost to Duffy's cut.

• 
  Construction tool (top) and iron strapping (bottom) c. 1832 that was attached to a wooden stringer and used as a rail. Both items recovered at the site.
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  Grave of some of the victims in West Laurel Hill Cemetery
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  Duffy's cut memorial marker at West Laurel Hill Cemetery

• St. Malachi Church -1838 Catholic church located 25 miles southwest

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Duffy's Cut.

• "Marker Details: Duffy's Cut Mass Grave". Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
• Rafferty, Meghan (2010-08-24). "Grandfather's ghost story leads to mysterious mass grave". CNN (video).
• Valania, Jonathan (2010-08-17). "Murder in the Time of Cholera". Philadelphia Weekly. Archived from the original on 2013-01-31.
• Hughes, Samuel (November–December 2010). "Bones Beneath the Tracks" (PDF). Penn Gazette. p. 34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-19.
• Loftus, Peter (2011-04-14). "The Mystery of Duffy's Cut". Wall Street Journal.
• Crimmins, Peter (2012-03-11). "Forgotten Irish Laborers Finally Laid To Rest". Weekend Edition. NPR.
• "Duffy's Cut Mass grave". Find A grave.
• "Duffy's Cut Marker". Historical Marker database.
• Loftus, Peter (2012-03-09). "Irish Immigrants' Mystery Honored in Burial". Wall Street Journal.
• "Duffy's Cut". Clonmany Genealogy. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
• "America's Buried Massacre".