IRISH WHYS
EAST WHITELAND » The next time you ride a train along the Main Line west of the Malvern Station, you might just be crossing the largest mass murder site in Pennsylvania history.
Some of the 57 Irish workers whose remains have been discovered here possibly succumbed to a cholera outbreak. However, recently unearthed evidence shows that many were murdered and possibly then thrown into a trash heap.
Searchers, part of the Duffy’s Cut Project, including Dr. William Watson, a professor of History at Immaculata University, believe that many of the 50 missing railroad workers likely were murdered and buried in unmarked graves at Duffy’s Cut.
Almost 185 years ago, 57 Irish rail workers excavated a stretch of track along what is now known as the Main Line. Duffy’s Cut, an area of treacherous rock formations, was named after contractor Philip Duffy, who critics say exploited the workers, paid them 25 cents per day and then might have contributed to the demise of the crew.
On Friday, after five years of mostly inaction due to a severe lack of funding and the need to secure proper permission from Amtrak, which uses the nearby tracks, a group of about 20 searchers watched and worked as two “ground-penetrating radar” devices swept the area near the tracks.
The devices, which looks a bit like a lawn mower and also are pushed, sport a computer tablet.
Several Amtrak and SEPTA trains rumbled by during an hour-long visit, possibly atop the burial spot of 50 missing workers.
Charles Mason, of U.S. Radar in Monmouth County, N.J., operated one of two battery-powered radar machines.
He compared radar waves to ocean waves. Mason searched for targets 15 to 25 feet below the surface.
“It’s like watching waves come into a shore,” Mason said. “The radar will break around it like a jetty.”
Within about an hour of starting work, Mason had placed about a dozen orange flags marking spots where a blip on a screen, or abnormality, were located.
The radar machine locates voids where something has collapsed.
“A decaying body leaves an uneven layer of soil,” said Professor Watson.
The gravesite was made public in 2003 by Drs. William and Frank Watson. They uncovered more than 100-year-old documents held secret by a railroad company. Volunteers and Immaculata students have performed much of the excavation at the site.
Neighbor David Worst watched workers search for bodies. His family moved into the neighborhood in 1958 and had always heard that the site was a mass grave. Even as a child, Worst said the area provoked an “eerie feeling.”
Bob McAlister, of the Lancaster police department, is an Irish history buff, and said his Irish grandfather worked on the railroads.
“That could have been him,” McAllister said.
“This could be us except for time and circumstance,” Watson said.
Seven bodies have been recovered from the site.
A shanty town of immigrant workers was under quarantine at Duffy’s Cut. Watson said that Duffy and others were likely afraid of cholera, along with a general “hatred “of the Irish and a fear that the immigrants would displace local workers.
Walt Hunter, media consultant, wrote in a release that immigrant workers were “slaughtered.”
“(The team) believe(s) local vigilantes, in an explosion of anti-immigrant hate, and fueled by fears they were spreading disease, then ambushed, beat and shot the workers,” wrote Hunter.
Two victims were identified by name before the last body was found in 2012, following a three-year dig and search. It was determined the seven recovered victims did not die of cholera, but were murdered.
Until they were identified, the recovered victims were only known to present day searchers by names such as “the tall guy” or “the guy with the bullet.”
McAllister said that when a pair of victims was identified by name, the workers were “humanized.” No longer were the murdered workers considered “throw-aways.”
Catherine Burns and 18year old John Ruddy were recently formally buried in Ireland.
A historic marker stands at King and Sugartown roads. Train riders will soon, for the first time, be reminded and informed of the history at ax blow and the spot, fate.
For more up-to-date information, go to www. duffyscut.immaculata. and the workers’ edu To donate at a “Go Fund Me” page, access www.gofundme.com/ duffys-cut-fund-theproject-2uv6pxes