The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-03-13
The Molly Maguires.
An Interesting Account OF Their Terri
BILE History-where They are Now.

An Interesting Account OF Their Terri
BILE History-where They are Now.
Outside of the mining regions of Penn
sylvania, Ohio and Illinois or West Vir
ginia, little is known of this organization,
but it is safe to say that there is not la
Dor organization in the United States that
is entirely free from their deadly and per-
nicious influence. 1t is now nearly twenty
years since this murderous association was
first set in motion, and the great riots Of
1877, with theirtremendous loss of life and
property, were only one of the episodes in
its history.
In 1868 there lived in Dunmore, Penn
sylvania, quiet, peaceable man named Shar-
key, whose worst fault was an unfortunate
taste for rum. In the same village,
woman known as "Red Biddy," kept low
place, which in the language of the miners,
was called the "doggery" This horrible
haunt was located ON the banks of Roaring
Brook, just out of the village, and it was
in this dive that the miners met and dis
cussed the subject of rum and wages.
"Red Biddy" was the original "Molly
Mcguire" She was short, stout and ugly,
and here VIM. Oxrider, Ashbel Hobbs,
Sharkey and Patrick Kirby and ten or
twelve others organized the infamous order
of ''Molly Maguires," The scheme took
at once, and within six months the society
numbered more than seventy thousand, and
extended its ramfcations to Pittsburg, Co
lumbia, Pottsville, Scranton, Wilkesbarre,
and all the towns in that circle.
At first it was popular with the politi-
clans, and at the elections of 1869 and 20
no man who was not "Molly Maguire"
stood any chance of election. Oxrider,
Hobbs, Kirby, Sharkey and Red Biddy
were prominent names in its councils, and
Frank D. Collins, Thomas Powderly and
others were waited into Office on the breezes.
of that bloody cyclone of so called labor
union. Sharkey was the first man to draw
prize in the dark lottery of murder.
Then came Kirby and his young brother,
John. Sharkey had a young and lovely
wife and pleasant little home in Dunmore,
but he had drawn the lot to kill his friend
Williams, the mine boss, and he had no al
tentative except to do the deed. Then he
was fugitive, with every mans hand
against him, till he expiated his crime on
the gallows.
Kirby attempted to kill Dan Strouble, a
young man whose offence was that he would
not Join in the great strike of 1863.
Strouble was not killed, but has since died,
and Kirby is now in Australia on murder
Punishment, and his brother in California
under another name.
Lists of names of men who did not join
in these so-called "labor unions" were kept,
and the parties marked to die, and among
others were several who were leading men
in mining and railroad circles. Under the
influence of this atrocious espionage the
value of property in the towns where the
society was strongest declined one-half
within two years, and not one of the men
who started in the original organization
holds any place of trust in the community,
except Q4rider and Powderly, and they
disavowed all sympathy with its operations
long ago.
Thousands of men sold out in Scranton,
Wilkesbarre and Pottsyille under the ban
of that terrible order Of fanatics, and pail
hangs over the Lackawanna and Wyoming
Valleys like that over the vale of Babylon
The press has thrown food of light over
Mollie Maguireism and its kindred social
evils in those once beautiful valleys; but,
outside of the city of Scranton and the
other commercial centres, the old spirit OF
'Red Biddy" broods in horrible supremacy.
The Mollie Maguires still hold sway
more stern and unrelenting in Plymouth,
Mahanoy City and Dunmore than at any
former time, and only the fear of the regi-
ments of militia from other parts of Penn
sylvania keeps them in awe. The coal
breakers and mines contain tens of thous-
ands of men and boys who can neither read
nor write-and the Verplancks, the. Nc
Clures and other statesmen and Journalists
lament and moralize in vain.
At the time of the riots of 1877 the
Mollie Maguires openly held the towns of
Pittston, Dunmore and Scranton in tribute
for weeks, and the adherents Of Red Biddy
only Welded to the friends of law aud order
when some of their leaders were shot dead
in the streets of Scranton by "a posse under
the command of William w. Scranton, a
brother of Joseph A. Scranton, now in
Congress from the Lackawanna district.
1t would interest the believer in retribu-
tive justice to trace the career of the Dun
more gang of Mollie Maguires. One of
them, Sharkey, died on the galowsi Ashhell
Hobbs Is, or was, lately sot in the village
of Pittston. His SONS, William and John,
one vagaboud and the other gone, no one
knows where. The two Kirbys outlaws,
and Red Biddy dead and her husband and
family in the poorhouse. One Of the pol
iticians who drifted into .notoriety in that
connection is confirmed drunkard, and
several of the merchants in Scranton who
gave material aid and comfort to the gang
are dead, and every one of them that still
lives is bankrupt in business.