New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-04-10
Hanging the Mollie Maguires.


viz: Patrick Hester, Patrick Tully and
Philadelphia Times gives the following ac-
count Of the crime and it's detection:
Nearly ten years ago, on crisp Sunday
morning the lifeless body of Alexander Rea.
with six gaping bullet wounds upon it, was
found lying on the roadway passing from
Centralia, in Columbia county, to Mount
Carmel, in Northumberland county, and
about a mile and half from the latter place.
Of the ten men concerned iii the killing,
three will meet their deaths on Monday
Columbia county has never had a hang
ing, and when its Initial performance aims at
three studded tal1ings-off and the subjects all
fully-fedged Mollie Maguires at that,
Bloomsbury, the county seat and known
only to fame as the home of Hon. Charles r.
Buckalew, feels degree of excitement hith-
erto a stranger to the quiet little town. Pat
Hester, Pat Tully and Peter McHugh have
been i'll Bloomsbury Jail for more than
year. The 9th OF August last was to have
seen their swing ing-off, but the inevitable
writ of error came in the way, and hanging
day was put of. but only for time. The
judicial killing of a man of Hesters stamp
among his fellows-Tully and McHugh are
not out of the ordinary as Mollie Mcguire
rascaiity runs-is not the only peculiar
phase about this next act in this drama of
retributive justice. The murder of Rea was
remarkable in its way. None ever accused
the SONS of NIolle being above theft, but
during their reign Of violence at the time of
and ante-dating the ''long strke'' their
hands and their revolvcrs-th they never used
llnives-were kept too busy with
destroying the railroad and coal COM
panies' property and accomplishing schemes
Of revenge to permit them to rob peo-
pie, and in the long list Of murders exposed
by the ferretings of Detective McParlan,
there is not one, with the exception of that
of Alexander Rea, that was not committed
for the purpose of satisfying the malice of
some one. Nor can Alexander Rea's death
be ascribed to the robbers greed, for he
gave up his all peaceably, and his death was
purely the result of wanton brutality.
ALEXANDER REA.
Alexander Rea, a mining superintendent,
was a peaceable and inoffensive man, but
naturally fearless, for in the pursuance Of
his duty in a lawless region he was never
armed. He had a wife and six children, and
was considered an estimable gentleman.
About half-p past nine o'clock on the morning
of October II, 1868, Mr.. Rea was riding in
his buggy in the highway in Conyngham
township, Columbia county, in the direction
of the Coal Ridge Improvement company's
colliery, and when near a roadside spring,
where had been erected a rude Watering
excitement IAN high. John Duffy.
of Nahanoy City; Michael Prior,
OF Branchdale; Thomas Dona-
hue, of Ashland, and Pat Hester, of Mt.
Carmel township, were looked upon as the
assassins, and they were at once arrested.
Their trials began in February, 1869, the de-
PENDANTS electing to be tried separately A
test case was made against Donahue. but he
was acquitted, and the prosecution aban-
doned the rest of the indictments, and Pat
Hester was again free man.
What Jack Kehoe was among the Schuyl-
kill county cut-throats. so was Pat Hester
among the gang in Northumberland and
Columbia counties-the noblest Mollie of
them all. Unlike Kehoe, he was not a coun-
ty delegate, Dennis f. Canning holding that
enviable position, but there was no deviltry
afoot round about that he had not a finger
in. He was known as a bad and violent
man. but he was Of high standing in the
Ancient Order of Hibernians. Near Locust
Gap Junction, where the counties of Schuyl-
together, Hesters tavern-all the Mollie
leaders gained their influence from behind
pine board-fr fronts the railroad, his surname
figuring upon a heavy oval sign-board sur
mounting tall post in the regular
olden style. Hester is a rather large, heavy
man, with dark eyes and hair, the
latter worn long and turned under at the
ends, and with massive and stolid but by no
means evil looking features. He has a
slightly wicked expression in the eyes, with
arching eyebrows. thin lips and narrow chin
whiskers, a little lighter in hue than his
hair. McParlan, the detective, in his wan
behring's, rarely travelled out of Schuylkill
county, and he had long been among the
Mollies and was fully accredited member
when he first found his way to Northumber-
land county and to Pat Hester's house.
riparian MAKING LOVE.
Outrages were somewhat decreasing in
Schuylkiu county, while in Columbia and
Northumberland counties the Mollies were
exercising their own sweet will without let or
hindrance, and SO McParlan was ordered to
bend his steps in that direction. Thomas
Donahue, brother of s'Yellow jack Don
ahue, who was hung in Mauch Chunck last
June, was an intimate friend of Hester, and
being on a frst-class spree in Girardville, in
Schuylkill county, was met by McParlan in
Jack Kehoe's hotel. McParlan, or McKen-
ma, as he was then known, intimated to
Donahue that he had tender feeling for
Pat. Hester's youngest daughter and desired
some one to give him an introduction. The
pair accordingly journeyed to Locust Gap
junction, Donahue the while RECALLING his
comrade with stories of outrages he had COM
mitted Arriving at Testers house, the cele-