Bones may be from US grave of 57 Irish immigrantsResearchers may have discovered a mass grave for nearly five dozen 19th-century Irish immigrants who died of cholera weeks after traveling to Pennsylvania to build a railroad. Historians at Immaculata University have known for years about the 57 immigrants who died in August 1832 but could not find the grave.
Human bonesdiscovered last week near the suburban Philadelphia university may atlast reveal their final resting place — and possibly allow researchersto identify the remains and repatriate them.
“We feel a kinship with these men,” said Immaculata history professor William Watson. “Righting an injustice has led us to this point.”
The woodsy site where the bones were found is known as Duffy’s Cut. It is named after Philip Duffy, who hired the immigrants from Donegal, Tyrone and Derry to help build the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad.
Years of combing the several acres of rough terrain in Duffy’s Cuthad so far yielded about 2,000 artifacts, including pipes, buttons andforks. Then on Friday, researchers using ground-penetrating radarunearthed pieces of two skulls along with dozens of other bonefragments and teeth. The findings were announced Tuesday.
Researchled Watson to conclude many of the Irish workers died of cholera, anacute intestinal infection caused by contaminated food or water thattypically had a mortality rate of 40 percent to 60 percent.
Watsonbelieves some of the workers may have been murdered because of theirillness or ethnicity. There was general prejudice against Irish Catholics,tension between residents and the transient workers, and a great fearof cholera — especially among the affluent classes, Watson said.
Anyonewith cholera “was deemed to be almost subhuman,” Watson said. “Godforbid it would spread to the respectable segments of society.”
Researchers including University of Pennsylvania geosciences professor Tim Bechtel expect to find bullets buried with the bones.
“Every shovelful of dirt that comes out of there ought to be sifted,” Bechtel said.
Theimmigrants were buried anonymously in a ditch outside what is nowMalvern, about 30 miles west of Philadelphia. All day long trainstravel past the site, which backs up to a manicured subdivision in East Whiteland Township.
Watsonand his twin brother, Frank, also a historian, started the Duffy’s CutProject in 2003, a year after learning of the workers and their demisefrom the personal papers of their late grandfather, who had worked forthe railroad much later on.
Watson said theyhave discovered the names of 15 of the 57 immigrants with help from aship’s passenger list, and even have tentatively identified one set ofremains as that of John Ruddy, a teenager.
Researchers plan to extract DNA from the bones and find living descendants of the men in Ireland. The goal is to identify them all and either repatriate their remains or give them proper burials, Watson said.
Therailroad never informed the men’s families of their deaths and insteadallowed the bodies to be “thrown into a ditch and treated likegarbage,” Watson said.
“This was someone’s son or brother or husband,” he said. “Something has to be done.”
BreandanO’Caollai, deputy consul general of Ireland in New York, praised theWatson brothers for their commitment to the project.
“Thisis a very important discovery that will help bring some closure to avery sad chapter in Irish-American history,” O’Caollai said.