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Duffy’s Cut
Discover the history……
Explore the History of Duffy’s Cut
Museum, music, history, events and more to honor the 57 men and women of Duffy’s Cut
Duffy’s Cut Crew at Northwood
From left to right
Bob McAllister, Matt Peace, Frank Watson, Bill Watson, Bob Frank, Matt Patterson and Rich Girkin
A newly identified 19th-century mass grave in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, may contain the remains of as many as 120 Irishmen and women. The site appears to be linked to Duffy’s Cut, 11 miles away, where 57 Irish railroad workers from Tyrone, Derry and Donegal were buried in a mass grave during the cholera outbreak of 1832.
These workers had been hired by an Irish construction contractor named Philip Duffy to build a stretch of railway for the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, in an area now known as Duffy’s Cut. Most had sailed from Derry to Philadelphia between April and June 1832 aboard the John Stamp, but within weeks, all had died and were buried anonymously in a ditch. Railroad officials never informed the workers’ families back home of their deaths…..Continue Reading
Northwood Crew on September 27, 2025
Northwood Crew on October 3, 2025
Northwood Crew on October 5, 2025
Downingtown Diner with Northwood Crew 10-5-2025
Duffy’s Cut Exclusives
“Massacre at Duffy’s Cut: Tragedy and Conspiracy on the Pennsylvania Railroad (True Crime)” by William E. Watson and J. Francis Watson
Fifty-seven Irish immigrant laborers arrived in the port of Philadelphia in June 1832 to work on Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. They all perished within six weeks.
Contractor Philip Duffy hired them to work a stretch of track in rural Chester County known as Duffy’s Cut. For more than 180 years, the railroad maintained that cholera was to blame and kept the historical record under lock and key. In a harrowing modern-day excavation of their mass grave, a group of academics and volunteers found evidence some of the laborers were murdered. Authors and research leaders Dr. William E. Watson and Dr. J. Francis Watson reveal the tragedy, mystery and discovery of what really happened at Duffy’s Cut.
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MEMORABLE Quotes
Discover the History behind Duffy's Cut
What have our team members been saying?
“Almost 200 years has passed and we finally get to give these people a resting place they deserve.”
“Bringing these poor Irish laborers back into the conversation, almost 200 years after their disposal, is justice in its purest sense.”
“I can’t imagine the mothers who sent their sons over and never heard from them again.”
“I was really struck by the human tragedy of all these young people dying so soon after coming here, and family back in Ireland never knowing what happened to them, or even knowing that they were dead, their story needs to be told.”
“You have brought Catherine back from her exile to her native pastures.Now there is no fear, no terror for Catherine anymore.”
“In forty years of practice, this is by far the most rewarding endeavor of my career.”
“I ended up being a pallbearer at the burial,” (referring to the reinternment ceremony at West Laurel Hill Cemetery) “For anyone with a passion for history, seeing these men finally given honorable burials, it’s any historian’s dream to be involved in something like that.”
“We see God’s hand and a greater purpose in all of this, mysteries that have remained mysteries for generations are supposed to remain mysterious.”
Speaking at the wake of Catherine Burns in Washingbay, near Coalisland in County Tyrone. “Her story of hopes dashed and dreams shattered is not unique. So in honoring the homecoming of Catherine we are honoring countless other exiles who sailed out of Ireland in the hope of a new life far from home but did not find the streets paved with gold.”
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