Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1883-11-16

RI Mr.. G. w. DeReamer, Of this place
was an e. e.witness of much of the fol
lowing, and fully conversant with th'
whole affair as narrated below.
i LAcKAwAxEN, Pa, October 81
Thiry.six years ago this month two
young Irlshmen emigrated to this conn
try together. Their names were An
drew Call,nghan and Hugh Gil6llan
In 1S4S they were both members OF
gang of laborer employed in the con.
struction of the New York and Erie
Railroad, and were working at this
place. Late in the fall of that year Gil
fillin gave up his situation and went to
Ohio, where he intended to engage IN
farming. Callinghan remained in the
employ Of the railroad company. The
aqueduc: which carries the Delaware
and Hudson Caual across the river at
this place was then building, under the
direction Of John A. Roebiing. Among
the men employed on this work were
several English carpenters, and there
was such strong enmity between them
and the Irish railroad laborers that Sc
rious brawls and fights were Of almost
daily occurrence. On point of land
formed by the junction ofthe Delaware
and Lackawanna Rivers there stood at
the time an ancient raftsmen's tavern,
kept by a man named butcher. The
carpenters boarded at that tavern, the
railroad laborers being quartered at
railroad boarding-shanty. The appear
ance of any ofthe latter at the tav-
er near the shanty, was certain
20 be followed by a fight.
On the 13th of December, 1S48, two
weeks after Gil6llin left for the West,
CaIlinghan and a number Of o:her labor.
ers went to the tavern during noon
hour. The carpenters had just come
in for their dinner. The Irishmen were
in the bar.room, in the basement. A
young Englishmau named George Keys
made the remark, as he went upstairs
to the dining-room, that if the Irishmen
were not out of the bar.room whea he
came down. from his dinner he would !
throw them out. When he returned
the laborers were sull there. and he pro-
ceeded forthwith to carry out his threat |
Callinghan drew a knife and killed |
Keys by stabbing him to the heart.
Callinghan was arrested and lodged in
Jail at Milford. He was ,ried at the
February term ofthe Pike County Court
IN 1916, found guilty of murder in the
first degree, and sentenced to be hang
ed. A motion for a new trial was over
ruled. The year 1S49 was the last one
Of the term of the Governor then occu.
pying the chair in Pennsylvania, aud it
expired without the incumbent having
signed Callinghan's death warrant.
His successor declined to sign the war
rant. Callinghan lay in jail, in daily
OF hearing his doom an
from February. I849, to No
vember, 1852, without his case being
settled.
Those now living who visited him in
MS cell describe the effect which the
great suspense to which he was subject
ID had upon him as having been terri
DE. When he was placed in prison he
vas strong, robust man. but the daily
watch that he maintained for nearly
our years for some news Of what his
ate was to be wore him almost to a
shadow. He would frequently beg to
oe taken out and hanged. or for some
,ne to kill him and put him out Of his
Misery. In November, 1859, appli-
:ation was made to the Supreme Court
II which jeremiah S. Back was the
chief Justice. for a VIII Of error, IN Or
Ter for Callinghan's discharge from
:usody. He was diving man when