Promise filled the summer of 1832. Contractor Phillip Duffy, an Irishman, lead a massive undertaking: The laying of railroad lines for the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad just 30 miles from Philadelphia. That’s when he hired 56 Irishmen and one Irishwoman who had recently arrived in Pennsylvania, having traveled from their native Derry, Donegal, and Tyrone in Ireland. Within two months time, all 57 would be dead, most buried together in a mass grave in Pennsylvania.
June 1832 marked the beginning of work for 57 Irishmen who had been hired by Duffy, to lay tracks along a hilly stretch of railroad known as Duffy’s Cut.
Wikipedia/Smallbones
The Irishmen’s employment and lives would end abruptly in August of 1832 when a fatal wave of cholera spread through the area.
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Immigrants in the 1800’s were typically treated like second class citizens and considered expendable commodities by many employers. As a result, immigrants were often denied the medical care they needed.
Facebook/Duffy’s Cut Project
The first three of Duffy’s employees to succumb to the cholera were said to have been buried in individual graves. But, the deaths continued rapidly and went virtually unnoticed.
Flickr/Duffy’s Cut
Death certificates were never officially filed and the bodies of the remaining 54 railroad workers were buried together in an anonymous mass grave near the railroad tracks in Malvern. They would lie there undisturbed for decades.
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The Irishmen’s official death records sat locked away by the Pennsylvania Railroad until 1970. But, it wasn’t until the 1990’s that four academics from Immaculata University began researching what really happened at Duffy’s Cut.
Flickr/Jeff Meade
In the summer of 2004, the victims that lay in the mass grave in Pennsylvania received proper recognition with the placement of an historical marker near the grave site. (Pictured below.)
Facebook/Duffy’s Cut Project
Then, in August of that same year, the excavation of the mass grave began. The Duffy’s Cut Project - led by Dr. William Watson of Immaculata University, Dr. Frank Watson, Earl Schandelmeier, and John Ahte - spearheaded the dig.
Wikipedia/Smallbones
In March 2009, the first remains were unearthed and forensically tested. The bodies of several Irishmen were reburied in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Pennsylvania.
Wikipedia/Smallbones
The lone Irishwoman, Catherine Burns, returned to her native land for a proper burial. (Below is a photo from the ceremony.)
Flickr/Jeff Meade
Forensics show inconsistencies with some of the victims, leading many to believe that while some of the Irish died of cholera, others were murdered to avoid the cholera from spreading further.
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Address:
Wikipedia/Smallbones
Flickr/parabat4868
Facebook/Duffy’s Cut Project
Flickr/Duffy’s Cut
Flickr/Jeff Meade
Duffy’s Cut Malvern, PA 19355 Click here for more information.
What do you think really happened to the men and woman who were buried in the mass grave that’s now known as Duffy’s Cut? Do you think they died of cholera? Or were some murdered? Share your thoughts below! Then, click here to view some of the oldest photographs of Pennsylvania.
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