The "Molly Maguires" was a 19th-century secret society composed mainly of Irish and Irish American coal miners. The "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania, dubbed the Coal Region, which included the Pennsylvania Counties of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Schuylkill, Carbon, and Northumberland. Members of the "Mollies" were accused of murder, arson, kidnapping and other crimes, in part based on allegations by Franklin B. Gowen and the testimony of a Pinkerton detective, James McParland.
A hotel was built in (Schuylkill County) St. Clair, Pennsylvania (1866) by Martin Dormer & Thomas Canfield. And history depicts the site to play a major role in Pinkerton Detective James McParland's infiltration of the Molly Maguire's through saloon keeper Patrick Dormer a known chief of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The basement of the hotel originally served as an alleged secret meeting place of the Molly Maguires using its in and out access of the secret tunnel.
Wages were low, working conditions were terrible, and deaths and serious injuries numbered in the hundreds each year. Finally the miners were asked to join the Union. Thirty thousand members - as 85% of the anthracite miners had joined. Franklin B.Gowen had brought all of the mine operators into an Employers' Association known as the Anthracite Board of Trade. Finally Gowen forced a strike. The Molly Maguire ties were linked to "The Ancient Order of Hibernians" from Ireland and the connected violence. After six months and near starvation of the mine workers, the strike was over. But miners belonging to the Ancient Order of Hibernians continued to fight. The Molly McGuires were connected to the continued crime and eventually arrested and tried. The "Mollies" were convicted and hung. To the dismay of the coal barons, the Unions would gain the strength they so desperately needed and, in doing so, would join to create the United Mine Workers in 1890.
In 1979, Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp praised the men called 'Molly Maguires" as "martyrs to labor" and heroes in the struggle to establish a union and fair treatment for workers.
WHAT SECRET SOCIETY WAS COMPOSED OF IRISH AND IRISH-AMERICAN COAL MINERS ?????
THE MOLLY MAGUIRES = N 40 48.042 W 078 54.111
THE PINKERTONS = N 40 47.675 W 078 54.587
CONGRATULATIONS TO beans&franks FOR THE FTF