Promising discovery in 1830s deaths of Irish rail workers on the Main Line

In 2002, twin brothers William and Frank Watson discovered documents kept by their late grandfather, who had been the executive assistant to the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The file came with instructions that the information be kept private.

The documents contradicted the story released during the cholera epidemic. They revealed that instead of eight deaths, 57 people had lost their lives. But untreated cholera has a mortality rate of only 50 percent. Something didn’t add up. Why did everyone die? The Watsons embarked on 15 years of research.

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William Watson said he believes a vigilante group murdered the immigrants out of a fear of cholera and prejudice against the Irish, who were often blamed for the epidemic. The Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad then covered up a massacre.

“What happened at Duffy’s Cut is kind of an epitome of the fear of cholera, of the fear of the foreigner,” said the Rev. Frank Watson, president of the Lutheran Archive Center in Mount Airy. “It certainly speaks to some of the worries and concerns people have today and the craziness that we see perpetrated in different communities around the world.”

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