Hugh McGeehan

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you true-born Irishmen wherever you may be": Don't go to jail or you will rue the day you came to America. McKenna and Kerrigan have brought ruin on many, including Hugh McGeehan, who declares he never knew Kerrigan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining prison homicide betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 21, 1877 - Execution of Hugh McGeehan
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 264-265, "Hugh McGeehan" (1 text)
Roud #4091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
NOTES [1298 words]: This song is item dE30 in Laws's Appendix II.
For the background to the whole issue of the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]. Briefly, in the 1870s, the owners of the mines in the Pennsylvania anthracite region put the squeeze on their workers. The workers responded by striking -- an event known as "The Long Strike." It failed, and the miners had to go back to work for reduced pay. In the aftermath, there were a series of murders in the anthracite region, blamed on the "Molly Maguires." The mine owners infiltrated the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) to try to find those responsible. They eventually arrested many, and tried and executed twenty men. One of those executed was Hugh McGehan (the spelling used in the histories although not by Korson).
Kenny, p. 293, gives this capsule biography of McGehan: "AOH member, Summit Hill, Carbon County. Kept a saloon a Summit Hill. Born about 1852 in Carrickfin, County Donegal. Emigrated to the United States with his family as a child. Worked for the mine superintendent John P. Jones, who blacklisted him. The prosecution alleged that he had participated in the Yost killing in the understanding that the favor would be returned by the murder of Jones. Hanged at Pottsville on June 21, 1877 for the murder of Yost."
Although there were murders as far back as 1862 that were eventually attributed to the Molly Maguires, there was a flurry of murders in the coal country between July and September of 1875, following the failure of "The Long Strike" (for which see "The Long Strike" as well as, again, "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]). The first of these murders, based on the list on p. 8 of Kenny, was that of policeman Benjamin Yost, on July 5/6, 1875, in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.
Riffenburgh, p. 85, says that Yost was a 34 year old policeman, of German ancestry. He wasn't really anti-Union -- but he was not friendly to the Irish; he had arrested James Kerrigan for drunkenness more than once, and beaten him at least once in the course of one of the arrests. Kerrigan, the narrator of "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession" (which see) had a violent temper and an urge for revenge. And he was sufficiently high in the AOH to be able to arrange it. (Thomas Duffy, the subject of "Thomas Duffy," was also accused of seeking Yost's death, but the evidence against him is very weak.) Yost, who was also responsible for putting out street lamps, was about to put out the light by his own house when two men came up and shot him twice. Yost's partner fired back, but the assassins escaped. Yost died a few hours later; he and his partner both thought that the assassins were men they had seen at James Carroll's tavern (Riffenburgh, p. 85).
According to the Pinkerton detective James McParlan, who had infiltrated the AOH, it was the habit of the Molly Maguire leaders to not use locals for their assassinations. Instead, a group in one town would trade favors with another, so that the assassins would not be readily identifiable by the locals (Riffenburgh, p. 87). Hugh McGeehan's beef was with John P. Jones (for whom again see the notes to "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession"). But he and James Boyle had been "traded" from Summit Hill to deal with Yost: Kerrigan (and supposedly Duffy) had asked James Roarity, the bodymaster at Coaldale, to arrange it. Roarity would not participate himself -- his wife was sick -- but he lent his revolver to McGehan for the crime (Riffenburgh, pp. 87-88).
McGehan supposedly eventually gave a direct confession to McParlan (Riffenburgh, p. 92); unfortunately, we know that McParlan was not above modifying the truth, so this has (as far as I'm concerned) no evidential value.
The police did not arrest McGeehan at once. It was only when Kerrigan confessed to his role in the Jones killing that McGehan (and Roarity, Boyle, and three others suspected of other killings) were taken into custody, having been implicated by Kerrigan.
On May 4, McGehan, along with Boyle, Roarity, Thomas Duffy (who allegedly instigated the assassination along with Kerrigan), and James Carroll (a tavern owner who helped facilitate the crime; see below) went on trial for the murder of Yost. On May 6, McParlan the Pinkerton began his testimony. This first trial ended in a mistrial, however, when one of the jurors died (Kenny, p. 219). The case was retried from July 6-22 (except that Duffy had been granted a separate trial; he would be convicted despite a lack of substantial evidence). McGeehan, Boyle, Carroll, and Roarity were all found guilty (Kenny, p. 221). They and Duffy were among ten alleged Molly Maguires hung on June 21, 1877 for the murders of Yost, Jones, and others (Kenny, p. 270).
Miscellaneous references in the song:
"Tom Munley" -- Kenny, p. 294, gives this biography: "AOH member, Gilbertson, Schuylkill County. Born in Tallaughn, parish of Kilcommon, County Mayo, in 1845. Came to the United States in 1864. Went first to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where members of his father's family lived at the time. Moved to Gilbertson, Schuylkill County, where he lived until the time of his arrest. Worked at the Draper Colliery, but was unemployed when arrested. Hanged at Posttsville on June 21, 1877 for the murders of [Thomas] Sanger and [William] Uren." It appears to me that his only real connection with McGehan was that both were hung at Pottsville on the same day -- and received their final communion together on the morning of the execution (Kenny, p. 253).
"James McKenna" -- the name used by James McParlan(d) when he infiltrated the Molly Maguires. He was the leading witness for the prosecution, and the key to their conviction. It is interesting that the song calls him by the name which McGehan would have known, not his birth name.
"Jimmy Kerrigan" -- as mentioned above, the leading informer, for whom see "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession." The song claims McGeehan never knew Kerrigan. This may well be true -- note that it was Roarity, not Kerrigan, who recruited McGehan to do the dirty work, and McGehan lived in Summit Hill while Kerrigan lived in Tamaqua.
"Mauch Chunk," in Carbon County, was one of the largest towns in the coal country; it has since been renamed "Jim Thorpe." It was a local government center, and many of the Molly trials were held there.
"Tamaqua" -- located in Schuylkill County, Alexander Cambell, James Carroll, Thomas Duffy, and James Kerrigan all resided or worked there; it was a center of Molly activity, but McGehan was not from there.
"Cambell, Kelly and Doyle" -- see the notes to "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle."
"James Carroll and James Roarity, with Boyle, Duffy, and Hugh McGeehan" -- Boyle was, as mentioned, McGehan's fellow assassin, and Roarity was alleged to have recruited them. Carroll was the AOH secretary in Tamaqua, and a tavern-keeper. The Yost murder was planned in his saloon, and he probably helped with the planning although he did not participate. Whether Duffy really had a role in all of this is dubious; see the notes to "Thomas Duffy."
Franklin B. Gowen -- the man who assembled the coal collective that so afflicted the Irish workers; for his activities, see (yet again) the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]. He also was lead prosecutor in many of the Molly trials. His role in McGehan's trial seems to have been less, but he was involved (Riffenburgh, p. 124).
The song is correct in saying that McGehan was born in Donegal.
Kenny, in the section of illustrations following p. 164, has a sketch of McGehan, along with most of the others mentioned in the song: Carroll, Doyle, Duffy, Munley, Roarity, Boyle, Campbell, and Kelly, as well as a sketch of Yost (though that presumably wasn't from life). There are also photos of Gowen and Kerrigan. - RBW
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