USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 50
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 50
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unele, Hon. M. M. Dimmick, and was admitted to the bar in 1865. He was elected proseenting attorney in 1868, and re-elected in 1871. About 1877 he removed to Seranton, where he now resides.
Jabez Alsom, a native of Easton, Pa., came to Mauch Chunk in 1863 ; was for a few years clerk in Lehigh Valley Railroad office; subsequently studied law with the late Daniel Kalbfuss, and was admitted to practice in 1870; soon after removed to Hazleton, Luzerne Co., Pa., where he practiced law until the time of his death, which occurred in 1879.
F. J. Osborn and Silas E. Bozzard were residents of this county when it was first organized, and were the members of the bar admitted at the first court. We can learn nothing of their antecedents or subse- quent career, except that Bozzard is said to have died several years ago somewhere in Massachusetts. There are others that have lived for a few months or a year within the county and have left without leaving any record behind them. Most of the eminent lawyers of Eastern Pennsylvania have practiced at the Carbon County courts from time to time, and were members of its bar though not residents of the county. The present members of the bar resident within the county are :
Hon. Allen Craig, a native of this county, who studied law with Hon. M. M. Dimmick, and was ad- mitted to the bar in June, 1858; was elected prose- euting attorney in 1859; was elected to the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania in 1865, and re- elected in 1866 and 1867, representing the district composed of the counties of Carbon and Monroe. In 1878 he was elected senator from the district com- posed of the counties of Carbon, Monroe, and Pike. Mr. Craig is now actively engaged in his profession.
William M. Rapsher, a native of this county, studied law with the Hon. Charles Albright in Mauch Chunk; was admitted to the bar in 1871 ; located at Lehighton ; has represented the county in the Legis- lature one term, having been elected in 1876; is now residing at Lehighton.
E. M. Matherson, a native of Mauch Chunk, was admitted in 1873; was a student of the late Daniel Kalbfuss ; is now proseenting attorney.
Edward R. Simons studied law with his father, J. II. Simons; was admitted Oct. 21, 1873; has served six years as prosecuting attorney, and is now engaged in law and insurance business.
William G. Fryman was a student of Gen. Charles Albright; was admitted to the bar in 1873, and be- came a partner of his instructor, the firm continuing until the death of the general.
Frederick Bertolette, a native of Union County, Pa., was a student of John D. Bertolette ; admitted to the bar in June, 1874.
James S. Loose was also a student and partner of J. D. Bertolcette; admitted to the bar in 1875 ; is now a partner of Allen Craig.
Joseph Kalbfuss studied law with his brother,
Daniel Kalbfuss ; was admitted in October, 1876; is collector of internal revenue.
S. R. Gilham, admitted to the bar June terin, 1879 ; residence and office, Lehighton.
1. II. Barber, formerly principal of Mauch Chunk High School ; admitted to the bar January, 1882; was a student of F. Bertolette.
Charles O. Stroh was admitted January, 1883; was a student of Albright & Fryman.
James Kiepes, admitted June, 1883 ; was a student and is now a partner of J. G. Fryman.
Jolin Kline and William Boyl were both admitted to the bar in 1878, neither of whom are now residents of Carbon County.
Causes Célèbres-The Mollie Maguire Trials .- In the history of what is judicially known as the Mollie Maguire trials Carbon County occupies a most conspicuous position. It was here the first trial re- sulting in conviction and execution took place. The evidence elicited on this trial unlocked the mysteries of an organization of criminals, and led to the con- viction and execution of upwards of twenty persons charged with murder, the incarceration in the peni- tentiary of many others, and making great numbers fugitives from justice.
The organization of the " Ancient Order of Hi- bernians," commonly called "Mollie Magnires," what- ever it is or has been elsewhere, in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania was an organization for the perpetration of crime and the protection of criminals. At least such was the use made of the organization by those having control of its workings. The mem- bers of this society were bound together by oaths, and recognized each other by signs, tokens, and pass-words, and the members were bound under dire penalties to obey the orders of their officers, or carry out the res- olutions of their body. They were organized in small local societies, known as " Bodies," presided over by a president, known as " Body Master."
When any member of a "body" had a grievance against any one, he laid the subject before his " body," and they determined whether it was of sutheient importance to come under the control of the "body," and also what measure of redress or vengeance should be resorted to. When the object of vengeance was to be punished by beating or other maltreatment, the members of the "body" were se- lected to do the job, or members of other "bodies" were solicited to assist or to take the whole matter into their hands when great necessity for secrecy existed, as in cases where burning out or great bodily harm was intended.
In cases where the taking of life was determined on, the intended victim was generally given notice by anonymous letter, or by what was known as the coffin handbill, which consisted in a rude drawing of a coffin with the name of the vietim written upon it. This was put upon the door of the objectionable person or his place of business. This was called "giving warn- '
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THE BENCH AND BAR OF CARBON COUNTY.
ing." When the offending person was a private citi- zen, or some one whose case was likely to attract but little attention or clicit little inquiry, the victim would be invited to join a social party or other gathering, when some disturbance would take place in which the intended victim would probably not be interested, when some missile would be thrown, or blow struck, as if intended for another, and the object of vengeance more or less injured, all by accident, as would be alleged. Sometimes at one of these gatherings the executioners would be carelessly handling a gun or pistol, when apparently in the most accidental man- ner the weapon would be discharged, and a person either killed or maimed for life, as had been previ- ously determined, and the victim often persuaded that all was purely accidental. Sometimes a victim was waylaid and injured without any clue as to the perpetrators ; or if suspected and arrested, there were always persons ready to prove an alibi by swearing that at that particular time the suspected person was at a wake, frolie, wedding, or funeral, miles away. This state of things had long existed prior to the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, which, by increasing wages, attracted large numbers of working men, laborers, and miners to the anthraeite region, and recklessness and lawlessness became the order of the day.
The order for enrollment for the draft exeited muel uneasiness, and encountered much opposition from most of the laboring class of the mining region, and it became impossible to make enrollments. The first of the noted murders within the territory of Carbon County grew out of the opposition to the draft, and while generally ascribed to the Mollie Maguires, and accomplished mainly through that organization, there were probably many connected with this murder that were not members of that organization. It has also been urged in defense of the society of the " Ancient Order of Hibernians" that the excitement of the war had rendered the organization less particular as to who were admitted to membership, and that desperate and disreputable persons gained admission to and finally control of the order in this county, which could not have happened in more peaceful times. George K. Smith, superintendent and operator of the Audenried Coal-Mines at Audenried, had given the enrolling officers a list of the employes at the mines controlled by him. On the evening of Nov. 5, 1863, Mr. Smith having retired early, Mrs. Smith was ealled to the door by a knock, when a man asked to see Mr. Smith, saying he had a letter for him. On Mrs. Smith informing the man that Mr. Smith had retired, he re- marked that he could as well give her the letter, and as if in the act of drawing a letter from his pocket, a pistol was exploded setting the man's clothing on fire. Immediately the back door of the house was burst in and the house filled with men, and an indiscriminate firing of pistols followed. Mr. Smith and his clerk, aroused by the noise, were soon in the melee, and eu-
gaged in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter. When the intruders had departed, Mr. Smith was found shot. to death, Mr. Ulriek, his clerk, severely wounded, and the walls of the house perforated in almost every di- rection, while a trail of blood leading from the house showed the assailants had not escaped without injury. Of the twenty or more persons in the house who were seen by Mr. Ulrick, Mrs. Smith, and other members of the family, not one was recognized, though none were disguised. It was afterwards remembered that the town had been full of strangers on that day, and they had been buying powder freely ; in fact, as one of the participants said afterwards, they did not leave behind them a charge of powder that could be got hold of. It was many years before any of the par- ticipants in this crime were brought to justice.
On the night of June 11, 1869, Mr. Hendrix, super- intendent of the Buck Mountain Coal Company, was brutally beaten in his room at his boarding-house in the village of Clifton. A gang of men, numbering two hundred or more, surrounded the house, broke in the door, entered his room, and but for the interference of his wife would in all probability have taken his life. Mrs. Hendrix, by throwing herself between her hus- band and his assailants, received many blows intended for him. Mr. Hendrix was beaten with clubs and pistol-butts, besides being kicked and receiving two stabs from a knife, one on the jaw, the other on the shoulder, both undoubtedly intended for his throat. After completing their work on Mr. Hendrix the gang went to the house of Mr. James Harvey, in search of a man against whom they had some grudge or grievance, vowing death to the informer, as they denominated him. This man, by hiding under the bed of Mr. Harvey's children, and Mr. Harvey's earnest deelara- tion that the man had left in the evening, was saved. The party then formed in procession and proceeded to Eckly, Luzerne Co., two miles distant, where lived a Capt. MeGinly, against whom there was some com- plaint.
The captain was a man of spirit, and fearful of an encounter with him, armed with his magazine rifle, they broke in the door, and, seizing the captain's father, used the old man as a shield to protect them in front while advancing up-stairs to attack the son, the old man meantime begging the son most piteously not to fire, as he would be sure to kill him. The cap- tain was at last reached (not, however, before he got in one shot, which from subsequent signs was not without effect), knocked down, and beaten into insen- sibility. The party then dispersed, returning to their homes, which were, after many years, learned to have been principally in Audenried and Yorktown, ten miles from the scene of their ontrages.
That their coming was known and prepared for was attested by the fact that the house-dog had been killed and Mr. Hendrix's pistols removed from his room by the servants of the house, and all the ser- vants were absent on that evening.
620
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
On the evening of Dee. 2, 1871, Morgan Powel, superintendent of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's mines at Summit Hill and vieinity, was murdered at Summit Hill. Between eight and nine o'clock he left the store of Capt. Williamson to visit the office of the company across the street. He saw several men standing in the street, and had passed but a few steps from the store when one of the men stepped in front of him and fired a pistol-shot into his body, inflicting a mortal wound, from which he died two days after. He did not recognize any of the men, but from the size and action of one, he sus- ¿ pected a man with whom he had formerly had some difficulty, who was arrested and put on trial, but was shown to be perfectly innocent, and it remained for several years a mystery who were the actors in that deed of blood.
On the morning of the 3d of September, 1875, was enacted a tragedy that finally led to the discovery, conviction, and execution of the perpetrators of many dark erimes. On that morning as John P. Jones, mine-boss at Lansford, was going to his work, and passing down a path that leads from Storm Hill to the depot at Lansford, in daylight, and in sight of many people employed about the place, he was overtaken by two men, who came running as if in a hurry to reach the train that had just arrived at the depot, and shot down in the most brutal manner. His murderers turned and serambled up the hill, and, before the wit- nesses of the deed fully comprehended the affair or had time to organize for pursuit, had gained the covert of the woods and were out of sight. Active pursuit was soon begun, and by noon had terminated in the capture of Michael J. Doyle, Edward Kelly, and James Kerrigan, who were sceurely lodged in jail at Manch Chunk that evening. Doyle and Kelly were recognized as the men who did the shooting of Jones, and Kerrigan as the man that had been in company with them the day before, under pretense of look- ing for work, taking in the situation, and becoming familiar with the appearance of Jones. When cap- tured Kerrigan was supplying Doyle and Kelly with refreshments in the woods near Tamagna. With them was captured the celebrated black pistol known as the " Roarity Pistol." This pistol was highly es- teemed, and called by the Mollies "the Incky pistol," and had been used by them in a number of murders, among them that of Morgan Powel, Policeman Yost, and others. It was a heavy weapon, of large calibre, said never to miss fire; indeed, in the Mollies' estima- tion, "just the thing for a clanc job."
The prisoners, Doyle and Kelly, were found to be from Mount Laffa, Schuylkill Co., and Kerrigan was the body-master of Tamaqua Lodge of Mollies. This arrest was one of the greatest importance, not only to Carbon County, but to the whole anthracite coal- field. It was the first time that perpetrators of crime by the Mollie Maguire organization had been arrested with a fair chance of their being convicted. The
Mollies, emboldened by a long course of crime, and easy escape from punishment by reason of their ability to intimidate witnesses and overawe juries, as well as their facilities for procuring false witnesses in their defense, had become reckless and had exposed them- selves to unusual danger. But this did not discourage the Mollies or prevent their making desperate exer- tions to defend their comrades. Money was speedily raised for the employment of counsel, and some of the best lawyers of the country were retained for their defense, and when the prisoners were arraigned at the October term of Carbon County Court, John W. Ryan, Linn Bartholomew, and James B. Riley, of Schuylkill Courts, and Daniel Kalbfuss and Edward Mulhearn appeared in their behalf. To meet this formidable array of legal talent the Coal and Railroad Companies authorized their connsel to assist District Attorney E. R. Siewers in the prosecution, and F. W. Hughes for the Reading Railroad, Charles Albright for the Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal Company, and Allen Craig for the Lehigh Valley Railroad appeared iu behalf of the people. At the October term, on motion of the defendants, who took technical objec- tions to the array of jurors, the case went over to the January term. Accordingly, on the 18th of January, 1876, was began the most important criminal trial that has ever occurred in the State of Pennsylvania. It is not necessary here to detail all the incidents of tbis trial. They have been fairly depicted by F. P. Dewees, in a book entitled "The Molly Maguires," published by Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1877, and an interesting book by Allan Pinkerton, entitled "The Molly Maguire," in which the detective gives a full and interesting aeconnt of the doings of the noted Detective MeParlan, published by Carlton & Co., New York, 1877.
During the trial Mauch Chunk was the scene of great anxiety. The Mollies were out in great force. Alexander Campbell, body-master of Summit Hill, who had procured the assassination of Jones, was on hand with a trusty band of lieutenants. Jerry Kane, of Mount Latta, who had furnished the men for the job, was also on hand, mysteriously keeping his room at the Broadway Hotel, seeing no one except by special announcement, and then but one at a time. John Slatterly, of Tusearora, ex-postmaster and late candidate for associate judge of Schuylkill, dignified and serene, appeared to almost give respectability to the motley rabble of the more plebeian sympathizers with the prisoners. Insinnations were freely given out "that it would not be well for witnesses to be too hard on the prisoners," and any jury that rendered a verdict of guilty would henceforth be marked men. The most openly active of all the apparent friends of the prisoners was a red-haired, rough-looking, hard- drinking, reckless representative from Shenandoah. Very popular among his acquaintances, and appear- ing to have the whole outside manipulation of the de- fense in his hands. He was suspected and closely .
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THE BENCH AND BAR OF CARBON COUNTY.
watched by the local police as a man capable of any desperate aet, even to heading an attack upon eourt and officers for the purpose of rescuing the prisoners. He was known to the Mollies as James McKenna, but to Capt. Linden, chief of the Coal and Iron Police, he was "James MeParlan, the detective." He had been among the Mollie Maguires, in the employ of Pinker- ton, for three years, and knew all the inside workings of the organization, and, being fully trusted by all of them, was admitted to all their councils, even to the consultations of their attorneys. The prisoners had pleaded " not guilty," and demanded separate trials, and the commonwealth chose to try Michael J. Doyle, but Kerrigan and Kelly were always present for pur- poses of identification. As the trial progressed, and the commonwealth developed their chain of evidence, and link by link wound it more and more tightly around the prisoner, all the Mollies became uneasy and sullen. Their aeute attorneys were not long in discovering that some one was divulging all their plans. But where was the leak ? No one suspected McKenna. Was it one of the prisoners not on trial, and, if so, whom so likely as Kerrigan? He soon saw that he was suspected and shunned. He saw also the enormous expense the trial of Doyle was entailing upon the organization, and where was the money to come from for his defense? Moreover, conversation between himself and Doyle in regard to the plans and witnesses to prove an alibi in his ease had been over- heard and detailed. His cowardly soul, that had eon- eveted, commanded, and assisted in the perpetration of many crimes, trembled at the sight of the rope he saw was prepared for Doyle, and was about to reach him. He informed the district attorney that he wished to see him to make a confession. In the language of the order of which he was an honored member, he be- came a squealer. The commonwealth having com- pleted their testimony, and being informed of all the plans of the defense, had made their case so strong by traeing Doyle's course almost step by step from the time he left Mount Laffa until he was arrested near Tamaqua, that no room was left for the carefully- prepared alibi, and the witnesses were sent home, and the case left to the jury on the evidence of the com- ntonwealth. The arguments of the lawyers on both sides were long, learned, and able. For the defense one would suppose little could be said. Yet the speech of Mr. Bartholomew was one of the most in- genious and incisive arguments ever presented to a jury by an attorney who had an up-hill case, and the argment of Kalbfuss abounded in passages that for impassioned eloquence has few equals. The Mollies present were so carried away that their cheering had to be suppressed by the court. And as he described in his most burning words what he denounced as a "most hideous erime," the corporation sending their attorneys to push on the prosecution, one enthinsiastic Mollie so far forgot himself as to exclaim at the top of his voice, "That's right; give it to them, Dan."
We will not describe the arguments of the attorneys for the commonwealth further than to say that they were like the men,-earnest, learned, precise, and elo- quent. One incident must, however, not be omitted. Kerrigan, having " squealed," had put into the hands of the proseention all the minute details of the proceed- ings connected with the killing of Jones. Mr. Hughes therefore, in his argument, gave a detailed account of the whole affair to the jury, calling it the theory of the commonwealth. Many of the Mollies present were shadowed by detectives for the purpose of ob- serving its effect upon them. Alexander Campbell, in particular, and Jerry Kane were thus attended to. Campbell stood it like a Stoic, the only emotion being his deep attention and an occasional spasmodic twist- ing of his black moustache. Not so with Jerry Kane. As Mr. Hughes described the message sent by Camp- bell to Kane, Kane's selecting and instructing the men, his directing them to rendezvous at Carrol's in Tama- qua, the sending out for Kerrigan, his joining them, and conducting them to Campbell's at Storm Hill, Campbell's taking them to another house at Summit Hill to lodge, etc., Kane turned pale, then red, then white. Mr. Hughes' speech was hardly concluded before Kane left the house, returned to Mount Laffa, and next day left the country, and the most diligent and persistent search has failed to strike his trail. The charge of Judge Dreher was cool, precise, and direct. The jury retired, and, after a few hours' de- liberation, not that there was any doubt in their minds, but because they considered the magnitude of the ease demanded it, returned a verdict of "Guilty of murder in the first degree."
Thus the first conviction for nearly one hundred murders by this Mollie Magnire organization, in vari- ous counties of the coal regions, was consummated, an informer, in the person of Kerrigan, obtained, and the material furnished to crush this nefarions organization, we hope, forever. The verdict was rendered February Ist, and on February 4th, Alexander Campbell, from facts elicited during Doyle's trial, and information obtained from Kerrigan, was arrested and lodged in Mauch Chunk jail, just as he was making arrange- ments to take a journey for his health. On the same day James Roarity, James Carroll, Hugh McGeehan, James Boyle, and Thomas Duffy were arrested, and taken together to Pottsville, and placed in jail for the murder of Policeman Yost, of Tamaqua, on the morn- ing of July 6, 1875. Most of these men were residents of Carbon County, and had murdered the policeman at the request of James Kerrigan, of Tamaqua. These arrests, and the knowledge that Kerrigan had turned informer and McKenna (MeParlan) was suspected of being a spy, produced great consternation among the Mollies throughout the whole region.
Edward Kelly was brought to trial for the murder of John P. Jones, March 27, 1876, the same counsel appearing on the part of the commonwealth as in the Doyle trial. On the part of the defense, Hon. Linn
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622
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Bartholomew, Daniel Kalbfuss, Gen. John D. Berto- lette, and Edward Mulhearn. The evidence was a repetition of that in the Doyle case. Much excitement was manifest, as it was expected that Kerrigan would be put on the stand as a witness, and all were anxious to know how far his disclosures would go, and whom he would implicate in the many crimes he was notori- ously cognizant of, but the commonwealth had more than enough without, and the commonwealth did not choose to give the defense a chance to ventilate the character of Kerrigan and thus prejudice their case before the jury. The defense did not offer any testi- mony, and the ease, like that of Doyle, went to the jury on the evidence of the commonwealth. There was great effort on the part of the attorneys for the defense to create sympathy for Kelly on account of his youth, he being but nineteen years old, the fact that his father had fallen a victim to a coal-mine acci- dent a few days after his son's arrest, and the heart- broken condition of his widowed mother, who clung to her son in his deplorable condition ; but the use made of the widow of John P. Jones and his three orphaned children by the attorneys for the common- wealth was a fair offset to all their best efforts. The trial lasted ten days, and, like that of Doyle, resulted in a verdict of guilty. The usual motions for arrest of judgment, granting of new trial, etc., having been disposed of negatively, both were sentenced by Judge Dreher to death by hanging, and Governor Jolm F. Hartranft issued death-warrants, ordering the execu- tion of Doyle on the 3d and Kelly on the 4th of May. This prompt action of the Governor, who, they claimed, they had elected, and that two could be hung for one murder, was a new revelation to the Mollies, and was most vehemently discussed by the men of Mollie proclivities.
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