the coming trials took place in June of 1862. A 4th of July celebration was
being planned in Carbon County when Irish miner Jack Kehoe spit on the
American Flag. F. W. Langdon, a foreman who was responsible for accepting
or rejecting a miner s coal, was quick to brand the man a traitor. Kehoe was
heard to say the words, You son of a bitch, I ll kill you. Later, the mine
foreman was severely beaten and died the next day.i6 There were no arrests
made at the time and the murder would be one of many unsolved cases
attributed to the Molly Maguires. Langdon was murdered, likely by Kehoe
and his friends, but it was a simple act of retaliation by miners who felt the
foreman had cheated them.17
The killing of George K. Smith, a mine owner fairly popular with the
skilled laborers, would also be attributed to the Mollies. Smith was a fair
operator, but worked the men hard. His attackers were most likely angered
by the fact that Smith had invited draft enforcement officers to his home.
Men with blackened faces forced their way into his home on November 5,
1863. There they quickly ended his life with a shot to the head. Several of
the alleged attackers were arrested, but later freed by a mob. They would
not be tried for 14 years. With all the violence in the area at the time, it was
unlikely that a proper police investigation took place even then.18
16 Ibid., 40.
17 Kenny, 85.
18 Ibid., 85-6.
After the Civil War, violence in the coal areas rose to even higher
rates. The combination of increased anthracite demand and the scarcity of
labor due to war service inflated the coal miners’ wages to perhaps the best
in the nation. The conclusion of the war caused a sharp downfall in demand
for all businesses, and affected the coal mines with devastating force. Prices
dropped at a stunning rate and miners’ wages followed suit. Miners who had
been let go during this time were joined by war veterans returning home.
Unemployment and therefore violence climbed to pre-war levels.19
The concern caused by the increased violence, especially against coal
mining officials prompted the establishment of the Coal and Iron Police in
1866. Permission for the institution of this special police force was granted
by the state legislature with the intention that the force would protect
private property from vandalism and sabotage. The “policemen” were hired,
paid, and therefore completely controlled by the coal companies. This private
force would be the one that made many of the arrests that would lead to the
Molly Maguire executions. The coal companies were given the power to
arrest the men that troubled them, and used this power to its fullest
extent.20
The fall in coal prices confronted the mine owners with a very real lack
of funds. The Eagle Colliery attempted to execute a ten percent pay cut but,
in January, 1868, the miners struck. The mine owners could not afford to
19 Ibid., 96-102.
20 Ibid., 107-9.
allow the other mines to continue working while the Eagle was not in
operation, so the operators were forced to comply with the miners’ wishes.
The strike itself was not important, but it led to the formation of the
Workingman’s Benevolent Association under the leadership of John Siney.
The new union was plagued by problems. The northern miners and southern
workers of the Schuylkill area were competing for business. Although leaders
from both areas agreed on paper to support each other’s strikes, distrust
and personal greed prevented the unity so urgently needed. In 1871 the
southern and northern fields finally agreed to strike together. The operators
were unable to ship out any coal and eagerly accepted the miners’ terms.
Franklin B. Gowen, however, ensured that the miners’ moment of triumph
was a short one.21
Gowen had been elected Attorney General during the period of
violence in the early 1860s. He failed to prosecute many of the crimes
because the Irish had been major supporters of the Democratic ballot he was
elected on. He retired from politics in 1864 and became the legal director of
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, soon to rise in rank and head the
entire operation.22
Gowen tried for many years to slip a clause allowing his railroad to
purchase coal lands into unrelated legislation, but the clauses were spotted
and stricken by the anti-monopoly senators of the time. A bill was finally
passed to allow Gowen to hold the lands but under questionable
21 Ibid., 116-17.
22 Ibid., 137-49.
circumstances. The clause Gowen had placed within the bill was removed in
a morning vote by a vote of 17 to 15. Another vote was called in the
afternoon and three of the senators opposed to the bill were absent while
another had reversed his vote. The bill so necessary to Gowen’s plans
passed under conditions that strongly suggest that Gowen worked this
miracle himself, with bribes. The plan succeeded and while the increased
transport prices devastated mine operators, Gowen bought land at an
unbelievable rate. By 1875, he owned 150 square miles of anthracite mining
land, which amounted to 80 percent of the Schuylkill and 1/3 of the entire
coal field. The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company was born.
His fear of the Molly Maguires possibly disrupting his coal monopoly spread
to his investors, who were also powerful in the community.23
Franklin Gowen approached detective Allan Pinkerton during October of
1873. The Pinkerton Agency was already famous for their work towards
capturing outlaws in the West. Pinkerton recorded in his diary that Gowen
told him: “… we want people to sleep unthreatened, unmolested, in their
beds, … we want the laboring-men … protected in their right to secure
sustenance for their wives and little ones …” 24 The records of the Ancient
Order of Hibernians, an established Irish secret society, often accused of
being Molly Maguires, quoted Gowen quite differently.
I want you to send a man … to join the Mollie Maguires and become its
leader. … I want him to precipitate strikes … and make the lives of the
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid., 154.
mine managers a burden. I want him to lead bands against the
English, Welsh and German miners and mine bosses, beat and kill
them off, until the collieries will be unable to run for want of competent
men.25
Although neither quote probably records the exact words of Gowen, the
latter records feelings more appropriate to his prior actions.
The Molly Maguires were created out of necessity. It was not the
unruly, drunken Irishmen that created them though, it was people like
Gowen and Bannon with their politics and greed. With the laissez-faire
economy that allowed people like Gowen to become infinitely wealthy in the
absence of government intervention, came the need for a social cure. As
far as the film goes, it was pretty accurate in its portrayal of the hardships
that coal miners endured every day, and it provided a glimpse of the
dictatorial atmosphere that plagued nineteenth century industry. Although
the film portrayed the Mollies as guilty as hell , it did accomplish the task of
relaying the message of the unusually harsh lifestyle Irish immigrants were
forced to endure. 26 Even though it did not deal too much with the history
behind the formation of the Mollies, it intimated that a distinct history was
definitely there.
25 Ibid., O dea.
26 Zaniello, Tom. Workers, Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds and Riffraff: An organized guide to films about labor.
Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996, 165.