Wednesday, March 6, 2013
West Laurel Hill Cemetery, where five sets of remains were laid to rest, will mark a year since the burial.
On March 9, 2012, the remains of five railroad workers remains from Duffy's Cut were interred in West Laurel Hill Cemetery. The non-denominational cemetery, located in Bala Cynwyd, recently announced plans for a memorial service this Saturday at 2 p.m. to mark the anniversary of the burials. Watch a video of the 2012 memorial ceremony here. William Watson, chair of the History Department at Immaculata University, and his brother, Frank, will participate in the service Saturday. The brothers were behind the digging effort that unearthed the bodies as part of an investigation into the deaths of an estimated 57 Irish railroad workers at the Malvern site in 1832. The men—and at least one woman—reportedly died of cholera, though the Watsons …
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225 Belmont Ave, Bala Cynwyd, PA
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
John Ruddy, identified through a birth defect of the jaw, will be buried in County Donegal in March.
The remains of one of the railroad workers unearthed at Duffy's Cut will be buried in Ireland in March, according to a recent report in the Daily Local. John Ruddy, an 18-year-old laborer, was identified by a genetic jaw defect. He will be buried in County Donegal, Ireland, in a ceremony March 2: The workers came down with cholera, died and were buried at the site. The article also points out that Sen. Bob Casey was able to get the work moving again at Duffy's Cut after work was halted due to the dig site's proximity to Amtrak rail lines. Five other sets of remains from the dig site were buried in a Bala Cynwyd cemetery last March. See also: 180 Years After Malvern Tragedy, 5 Irish Reburied in Bala Cynwyd AP: Researchers Unable to …
Friday, March 9, 2012
Hundreds attended the memorial service for the immigrant rail workers who died at "Duffy's Cut".
One hundred eighty years after dozens of Irish immigrants died and were buried en masse at the Duffy's Cut railroad construction site in Malvern, hundreds of Irish and Americans paid their respects Friday in Bala Cynwyd as five of the victims were reburied and all were memorialized. Researchers who excavated the burial site for the past eight years believe that though a cholera outbreak was blamed in 1832 when the workers died, at least some were murdered. Remains of a sixth worker were identified and taken to Ireland for burial. The other 51 known dead are unreachable, in a mass grave under Amtrak train tracks. "Today, we are poignantly reminded that every life is precious and deserving of every bit of dignity we can provide," said Pete …
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West Laurel Hill Cemetery
225 Belmont Ave, Bala Cynwyd, PA
/articles/180-years-after-malvern-tragedy-5-irish-reburied-in-bala-cynwyd
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Five Irish laborers—and their unrecovered cohorts—will be laid to rest in a Bala Cynwyd cemetery.
The Duffy's Cut project is drawing to a close. The remains of five Irish railroad workers, thought to be victims of foul play shortly after their arrival in America in 1832, will be interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd on March 9. According to Immaculata University, which has led the effort to unearth the bones and stories of Duffy's Cut, five caskets will be on display and local dignitaries will attend the memorial service: A visitation of handmade caskets containing the five unearthed bodies from the Duffy’s Cut excavation site will be open to the public beginning at 12:30 PM at Bringhurst Funeral Home on the grounds of West Laurel Hill Cemetery. At 2:00 PM the funeral procession will begin, concluding with the committal…
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215 Belmont Ave, Bala Cynwyd, PA
/articles/memorial-planned-for-duffy-s-cut-railroad-workers
/locations/6471549
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Researchers are focused on unearthing a final set of remains buried under a tree, before they move on to other dig sites.
Editor's Note: Recent news articles have announced the Amtrak-imposed end of excavation work at Duffy's Cut, but that's not exactly the case. Patch contributor Aimee Herbert joined excavators Dec. 9 as they continued to work to unearth remains beneath a tree, before they move on to other sites. History professor William Watson and his crew of researchers are determined to bring a sense of closure to their work at Duffy's Cut, the 19th-century burial site of possibly dozens of Irish railroad workers. They are in the final stages of digging, and plan to hold memorial services for those whose deaths, 180 years later, are still a matter of much conjecture and intrigue. With many bones and artifacts already unearthed, attention is now focused …
Sunday, October 30, 2011
The Associated Press checks in on Duffy's Cut.
What, exactly, is the shin bone connected to? In the case of Duffy's Cut, the full answer might never be known. Researchers have been digging at the Malvern site for evidence of foul play in the deaths of an estimated 57 Irish railroad workers in 1832. The first human remain they uncovered was a shin bone in 2009. Other bones have since turned up, but the prospect of finding all of the bones and uncovering the whole truth of how the men died is unlikely, according to a recent Associated Press article: Nearly 180 years later, local researchers say they have a clearer picture of the men's fate. But their massive effort to unearth, identify and properly re-inter the workers' remains will not be realized; the grave is inaccessible, they say, …
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
After unearthing pieces of a new skeleton in September, the research crew at Duffy's Cut hope to find the rest.
As Dr. William Watson dug in the ground where they had found a skull, vertebrae and jaw bones Sept. 16, he seems stumped as to why he couldn't find more. "Where is this guy?" Watson asked. After 200-plus years, the remains of the Irish railroad—called "SK005" despite being the seventh body recovered at the site—has been covered by much soil and had a tree grow over it. This makes the job for Watson and his team much more difficult. The tree's roots, some as thick as four inches, grew right through his body and spread his bones all apart, and in some cases even split them into pieces. They found SK005's leg approximately two years ago, but they couldn't continue their dig because of the danger of digging under a tree measuring almost 3 …
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Last week, historians unearthed what they believe are pieces of yet another skeleton at the Malvern burial site.
The story of Duffy's Cut began with Phillip Duffy, a contractor who hired 57 Irish immigrants to work for him. When they arrived in June of 1832, the Irish men traveled to Malvern and set up camp in the middle of the woods, expecting to build a railroad. But what they got instead, according to historians, was disease and a violent end that they never could have imagined. Doctor William Watson, history chair at Immaculata University, his brother Rev. Dr. Frank Watson and volunteers have worked to exhume the graves of the men that were murdered there almost 200 years ago. The Watson brothers first took an interest in the story in 2002 when they received a Pennsylvania railroad file from their grandfather. Their grandfather told them that he…
Paula K
9:48 am on Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Daily local goes into more detail on the cholera legend and that it likely was more sinister. K. Lee is correct. They recovered a bullet in one of the skulls--kudos to Sen. Casey for getting permission to continue the recovery of remains. And also to the cemetery for donating the burial space. more ›