The Murder of Benjamin F. Yost, Tuesday July 6, 1875

 "Character!  Character!  What can I say of this despicable wretch, this curse let loose from hell, a confessed murderer, a participant in the most fearful of crimes."

--Lin Bartholomew, attorney, dramatically impeaching a witness (James Kerrigan of Newkirk) who had turned state's evidence against his client in the Molly Maguires’ trial - Commonwealth v James Carroll, James Roarity, James Boyle, Hugh McGeehan, and Thomas Duffy - conducted in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in the 1876. [Shenandoah Herald, July 24, 1876]

Background

During the year 1874 and into 1875, the aforementioned James Kerrigan was in the habit of carousing frequently with Thomas Duffy of Tamaqua, PA. [Details about the people and trials from The Molly Maguires : The origin, growth, and character of the organization by   Dewees, F. P. (Francis Percival), Publication date: 1877, Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott] Being Irish, both belonged to the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) and both were hard drinkers. According to some Duffy was a loud and quarrelsome drunk. Kerrigan was himself described as noisy, reckless, ready for anything. They had both been arrested by the Tamaqua police, and locked up on several occasions.

James Kerrigan

One of the two night-shift policemen in Tamaqua was Benjamin F. Yost, a Pennsylvania German. In making arrests, Kerrigan and Duffy had been harshly treated, and on one occasion, during the fall of 1874, Yost beat Duffy severely on the head with his nightstick.

Benjamin F. Yost

Duffy desired revenge. He brought a prosecution against Yost for assault and battery; this case was, however, settled on unknown terms. But his animosity towards Yost did not end, and he determined to kill him. He proposed this to Kerrigan, who agreed, since he had his own grievances to avenge. 

Thomas Duffy

Kerrigan was at this time the nominal body-master of the Tamaqua AOH Division, but the real head was James Carroll, who kept the Union House, a tavern on East Broad Street and sort of AOH hangout. Duffy and Kerrigan met at Carroll's with James Roarity of nearby Coaldale and head of the AOH there. Later, Roarity mentioned this nascent plot to Alex Campbell a liquor-dealer and tavern owner in Storm Hill (Lansford) and previous owner of Carroll’s Union House. Coincidentally, at this time in the neighborhoods of Storm Hill and Summit Hill, it had also determined that another murder was being discussed. - that of John P. Jones, a mine superintendent for the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company (LWC). Thus, the idea of an exchange of killings at once suggested itself. Men from Summit Hill in Carbon County would kill Yost and men from Schuylkill County would kill Jones. 

Site of the Union House Tavern, 132 E. Broad Street, Tamaqua

At this time and certainly after the murder and trial, the AOH was synonymous with was to become known as the "Molly Maguires". A private undercover operation headed in part by James “McKenna” McParlan of Pinkerton Detectives and instituted by Franklin Gowen, President of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was several years along at this time. But it is crucial to note that all of this Yost murder planning took place without knowledge of McParlan or John Kehoe the alleged Molly Maguire kingpin.

The actual killing occurred in the early morning of July 6, 1875 when Hugh McGeehan and James Boyle (both of the Summit Hill area) shot Yost at the corner of Broad and Lehigh Streets in Tamaqua. Kerrigan accompanied the actual killers to the site and then led then away.

The murder remained “unsolved” until Kerrigan later was arrested and confessed to the taking part in the Jone's killing later in September 1875.  McParlan, however, became aware of the transaction in the weeks after the Yost murder occurred (when he was sent by his employer (still undercover) to Tamaqua to investigate) and reported his findings. But the decision was made by his employer to not reveal all facts to the authorities to protect its undercover investigation. Moreover, although the record is unclear, McParlan learned of the Jones plot and, half-heartedly at best, warned Jones’ employers; in retrospect, his and his employers' lack of real action likely caused Jones to lose his life.

The Murder of Benjamin F. Yost

Planning

The planning of the murder took place early in 1975 at Carroll's Tavern. Carroll, the de facto head of the AOH Division in Tamaqua was made aware of Duffy and Kerrigan's intent to murder Yost.  Duffy happened to meet James Roarity, the head of Coaldale AOH, at Carroll's. He spoke to Roarity of the murder and Roarity consented (for money), promising that if he did not do it himself, he would send over others who would.

Roarity, after his talk with Duffy, mentioned that they (Duffy and Kerrigan with Carroll's apparent acquiescence) had in contemplation the murder of Yost, and the request made that he should do it, to Alex Campbell (a prominent member of the AOH). It so happened that at this time others in Storm Hill and Summit Hill had also contemplated a murder, the intended victim being John P. Jones, a boss at LWC, who had black-listed several Summit Hiller's (William Mulhall and Hugh McGeehan). An agreement was then made with Campbell. Men were to be furnished from Summit Hill to kill Yost in consideration of Carroll and Kerrigan sending men from Schuylkill County to kill Jones. Mulhall and McGeehan, as parties especially interested, were selected on the part of Summit Hill. Yost was to be killed first. 

The Murder

The Fourth of July, 1875, fell on a Sunday. July 5 was therefore the national holiday. Roarity had come  to Tamaqua, and, about eleven o'clock in the morning, met Kerrigan at Carroll's. Roarity and Kerrigan walked to Storm Hill, and they would come back together later. Roarity and Kerrigan went at once to Campbell's. Inquiry was made for Mulhall and McGeehan, but Campbell said he had not seen them. Roarity found them and reported to Campbell and Kerrigan that they had agreed to go to Tamaqua that night for the killing, and that he would guide them over. Roarity's pistol, had already been sent to Carroll's bar. The point for the assassination of Yost had been selected by Carroll, Duffy, and Kerrigan - the corner at Broad and Lehigh at the west end of the town. 

Location of Yost Murder (July 6, 1875) at Lamp post Broad and Lehigh Sts, in Tamaqua

Roarity then bowed out; his wife had become ill. Then after Kerrigan had left Storm Hill, Campbell and McGeehan, concluded that Mulhall, as a married man with a family, was better left at home, and Jame Boyle, who was available, was asked to go instead, and consented.

After arrival at the Union House, the conspirators wandered about in the kitchen and the barroom, and Kerrigan in different parts of town. The others only went out once before they left. In order to fully appreciate the plan in view, Duffy walked with McGeehan and Boyle up to the chosen location. McGeehan would use the Roarity pistol, and Boyle would have a small single-shot pistol belonging to Carroll. In a bit of irony Kerrigan during the evening met Yost and had a drink with another policeman.

Kerrigan went home to Newkirk and would arrange to meet afterwards. Duffy led McGeehan and Boyle up the back to the (Odd Fellows) cemetery, there to leave them and return to Carroll's bar, as an alibi. Kerrigan met the two at the cemetery and led them to the street-lamp and placed them under large trees nearby where they waited over an hour. Yost and the other policeman (Barney McCarron) came up the street, but, instead of putting out the light at once, as had been expected, they first went into Yost's house to eat. 

The two policemen came out of the house, and Yost proceeded to the lamp post and mounted the ladder, McCarron remaining a distance away across the street. At this moment McGeehan and Boyle stepped forward and shot Yost.  Boyle missed his mark, but McGeehan's pistol inflicted a fatal wound in Yost's right side. Yost staggered from the ladder, exclaiming, "Oh! my God! I am shot! my wife!" 

The murderers, led by Kerrigan, fled. The other policeman ran after them, firing two shots, which, McGeehan returned.  The assailants scurried along the main road to the west and turned towards the Sharp Mountain. Kerrigan took them through unfrequented paths, then again turning into the town they passed through alleys and back streets to the eastern limits of the borough. The had met no one. Kerrigan continued with them until they were certain of their road back, and then returned to his own home unnoticed. 

Dr. Solliday arrived, examined the wound, and confirmed that Yost was mortally wounded. Death did not, however, occur until ten o'clock the next morning. In the meantime Yost conversed with Dr. Solliday, with Squire Lebo, Conrad F. Shindel, and with Daniel F. Shepp, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Yost. Neither policeman could confirm the identity of the shooters nor did they implicate Kerrigan or Duffy only confirming there were two assailants, not seeing Kerrigan.

McParlan in Tamaqua to Snoop Around

After Yost died, an inquest was held without result. Months passed and no arrests were made. The public would settle into the belief that it was but another murder open and defiant but impossible of detection. 

Nevertheless, Michael Beard, Daniel Shepp, and some others in Tamaqua, could not rid themselves of suspicion. Yost had not, to their knowledge, except Kerrigan and Duffy  (cleared by testimony of Mrs. Carroll and the dying declaration of Yost), an enemy in the world, and a murder entirely motiveless was beyond their comprehension. It was determined by Daniel Shepp and Michael Beard to employ the Pinkerton Agency, if necessary, at their own expense. Pinkerton representatives did not disclose to them the details of their ongoing undercover operation, but McParlan received instructions on July 14, 1875, to investigate and report about Yost.  Mc Parlan, as McKenna, made his appearance in Tamaqua, the scene of action, and conducted his investigation. He knew the Union House to be an AOH hangout, and, going there, for the first time formed the acquaintance of James Carroll. Carroll had heard of  McParlan (as McKenna) and one of the trusted AOH leaders of the Mahanoy Valley lodges and thus treated him cordially.

He used the pretext of AOH business to re-connect with Alex Campbell to whom he was somewhat acquainted, and by July 25, had learned that Yost's murder had been performed by unnamed members of the Summit Hill lodge. McParlan now temporarily based himself in Tamaqua, calling again at Carroll's bar, and learned about the murder weapons, the two pistols, that one was  Roarity's  and a small one was Carroll's. The conspirators were identified as Duffy, Kerrigan, Roarity, and Carroll. He did not, however, give the names of those who actually committed the crime. McKenna who had been stopping at the Columbia  House (at the Five Points) in Tamaqua now concluded to make Carroll's his local hangout. He also began calling, romantically, on Kerrigan's sister-in-law Mary Ann Higgins, all to avoid suspicion of all his time spent now in Tamaqua,

But the Yost murder remained “unsolved” until Kerrigan confessed to it and another murder in 1876.  McParlan, however, knew of the transaction in the weeks after the Yost murder occurred and reported his findings. But the decision was made by his employer to not reveal all these facts to the authorities to protect its undercover investigation. Moreover, by August McParlan learned that the Yost killing was a trade for the imminent planned killing of John P. Jones of Lansford.  Although McParlan was able to warn Jones, in retrospect, his and their lack of real action caused Jones to lose his life on September 3. The actual perpetrators of that crime were caught in the normal course of policing. It was that first Molly Maguire show trial that was tried without full undercover disclosure.

During the late stages of the Jones trial Kerrigan broke. Locked in solitary confinement, the Tamaquan, became apprehensive and decided to save himself and turned informer. The confession which contained the principal outlines of McParlan’s prior reports of the plans to kill Jones and their relation to Yost's murder in Tamaqua. Now the State/Local authorities could bring that case to trial as they immediately arrested the men implicated by Kerrigan, but they still did not know the presence of undercover agent, McParlan and how he implicated the same men. However, these arrests created a flurry of rumors. Fearing that others involved would leave the area, Coal and Iron Police (acting as the State) rounded up additional men (implicated by McParlan) and beyond Kerrigan's knowledge. Since Kerrigan did not know the men arrested by the second posse, the Molly Maguires could only suspect the existence of a second informer. Shortly thereafter, McParlan disappeared from Schuylkill County until the Yost murder trial.

The Trial

Following the conviction and sentencing of the first two Molly Maguires in Mauch Chunk, attention shifted to Pottsville, where another series of showcase trials was staged in the summer of 1876.The first of these highly publicized proceedings began on May 4, 1876 with James Carroll, Thomas Duffy, James Roarity, Hugh McGehan, and James Boyle facing trial for the murder of Benjamin Yost. James McParlan (in his Pinkerton Reports) and Kerrigan (in his confession) had both linked the Yost killing to the Jones case as quid pro quo to each other.

In the afternoon of Thursday, May 4, 1876, District Attorney Kaercher announced to the court, then in session at Pottsville, that the Commonwealth was ready to proceed in the trial of James Carroll, James Roarity, James Boyle, Hugh McGeehan, and Thomas Duffy, charged with the murder of policeman Benjamin F. Yost on the night of the July 5 and 6, 1875, at Tamaqua. The case was to be tried before a full bench, with Judge Cyrus L, Pershing presiding, with Judges David B. Green and Thomas H. Walker, and Associate Judges Kline and Seitzinger. 

When the case was called the Commonwealth was represented by District Attorney George R. Kaercher, joined with attorneys Hughes, Albright, and Guy E. Farquhar. Attorneys Ryon, Bartholomew, and Kalbfus appeared for the defense. The defendants had agreed to be tried together. The defense was calculating fully on breaking down the testimony of the informer, Kerrigan, and thus, were hopeful.

As in the Jones trials, the jurors were primarily of German extraction. One juror, Levi Stein, admitted, "I don't understand much English"; another, William Becker, asked to be questioned "in Dutch (Deutsch or German) as I am light on English ... I would not understand the witnesses." Both men were accepted as jurors. No juror was Irish. [See Albright, The Great Mollie Maguire Trials, v and Broehl, The Molly Maguires, 296]

After the jury was chosen, on Saturday morning the case was opened by Kaercher. He confirmed that the testimony of James Kerrigan, the accomplice, would be offered, and that a man who for years had lived in the county, associating periodically with these men, and who had learned the history of their crimes, known to them as James McKenna, would also be put upon the witness stand. His name was James McParlan, and he was a detective employed by the Pinkerton Agency, in the employ of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. This was the first public acknowledgment of an undercover plant infiltrating the so-called secret society of Molly Maguires. (It is useful to remember that neither Kerrigan or McParlan testified in the Doyle or Kelly trials. So this would be their coming out party.) [See McParlan's testimony in the Yost trial, Among the Assassins!, 16—17; and, for a fuller account, see his testimony in K.C.K, 92-98. Cf. Pinkerton, The Molly Maguires and the Detectives, 497-508; Dewees, The Molly Maguires, 252-74; Broehl, The Molly Maguires, chapter 11.]

During the Kaercher’s opening speech, Franklin Gowen, the President of the Philadelphia and Reading and himself an attorney, entered the court and took his seat at the counsel-table of the prosecution. Benjamin Franklin, head of the Pinkerton Agency at Philadelphia, entered at the same time, and took his seat close behind the bar. 

The LWC, which had openly shown their position in the Doyle and Kelly prosecutions made no secret of the fact that they had also engaged the private counsel in the present prosecution. The presence of Gowen indicated that not only was his legal ability (he had been the Schuylkill County District Attorney in 1862-1864) to be used on behalf of the Commonwealth, but also that the Railroad, with its vast resources and power, was openly engaged in the contest with the "Molly Maguires." 

In another bit of showmanship, the drama was heightened when, toward the end of Kaercher's opening, ten more “Molly Maguire” prisoners were led past the courthouse in chains to Schuylkill County prison, having just been arrested. They included John Kehoe, the AOH delegate for Schuylkill County and the alleged ringleader. "The news of the latest 'catch' spread through the town like wildfire, gathering in a short time an immense concourse of excited citizens all anxious to learn the details … Poor fools! They imagined themselves sharp and capable of committing any deviltry without being followed—not to mention captured by that justice which sleeps, but never dies." [Shenandoah Herald, May 8, 1876] Now at last, the Herald exulted, the Mollys were about to be "swept from the face of the earth."

Late on Saturday, May 6, just after Kaercher's opening speech, James McParlan entered the Pottsville courtroom for the first time, accompanied by Captain Linden (both a Pinkerton and railroad employee) and two Pinkerton bodyguards. On the first day of his testimony, McParlan described his relation to the Yost case, how he had heard firsthand confessions from Carroll, Roarity, and Kerrigan, and how Duffy was the mastermind behind the whole affair. This evidence, on its own, might have convicted the defendants, but on Monday the prosecution extended its case into a general indictment of the AOH, which McParlan (in retrospect conflated with and) called the "Molly Maguires".

This constant linking of the AOH and the Molly Maguires was an important prosecution strategy, as it attributed the crimes to a large, well-organized society, supporting Gowen’s claims that it was the basis of a major conspiracy. Remarkably, by McParlan’s third day on the stand, even the defense had accepted this admission that the organizations were the same. At one point Bartholomew asked McParlan: “As I understand from your testimony, you were initiated into the Ancient Order of Hibernians or Mollie Maguires, on the 14th day of April, 1874?” [The Daily Miners’ Journal, May 9, 1876] McParlan thus offered minute details of the inner workings of a conspiracy. Much of his testimony was corroborated by the informer Jimmy Kerrigan. [MJ, May 5 to May 18, 1876; Among the Assassins!]

With the prosecution poised for a major conviction, the trial was suddenly disrupted on May 18, when the aforementioned Levi Stein, one of the German-speaking jurors fell ill. The case was suspended, and when Stein died on May 25, the judge dismissed the jury and declared a mistrial. 

The setback for the prosecution was temporary.  There was little doubt in anybody's mind that the testimony offered by McParlan and Kerrigan had doomed the five defendants. All that was needed was to arrange a new trial. In the meantime, the defendants in the Yost case were remanded in custody. 

That new trial took place between July 6 and 22 and resulted in the expected guilty verdict for four of the five defendants. Duffy requested and was granted a separate trial, which was held in September.  He was likewise convicted.

PART 1 - One Son's Father - Retrospective of My Father's Service in World War 1

This is a personal history of my father's time spent in World War 1. My father was an Italian who served in the Brigata Macerata from 1915 until 1919. He was in the 121st Infantry Regiment (Reggimento di Fanteria). He fought in the Isonzo (1915-1916), the White War (1916-1918), the Piave (1918) and in the ultimate Battle of Vittorio Veneto (1918) against the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Americans (and indeed the British, French, and others) probably do not know this war in Italy so much. Well, here is a little history lesson (in several parts) to remedy that ignorance. The story begins in Teramo Province in Abruzzo. The story starts out slowly with typical rural Italian life

Clouds of War

The Old Life

On June 28, 1914, the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince, Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo was to affect the lives of millions of young men throughout the world. One of those young men was my father. He was a 19 year old son of a contadino (farmer who either owned some land or worked for others not owning the land, like a sharecropper). His mother had died in approximately 1900, leaving my grandfather to fend for three young children – my uncle age 7, my father age 5, and my aunt, age 2. 

By 1909 my grandfather had remarried and had two additional sons born in 1909 and in 1913. Later two other children would be born – a daughter in 1916 and a final son in 1919 - to complete the family.

My father would have likely been working with his father helping him farm and take care of this family. The story passed down is that my grandfather was a type of sharecropper, a system known as the mezzadria. Large landowners (padroni) would divide their land into sections and allow other families to live on it and grow crops. Half (or some other percentage) of the produce (or the revenue from the sales of such) would go to the landowner. My family by the accounts of my aunt did well enough. A typical farmer in Abruzzo would have produced all the food needed to feed his family. Four or five people could survive on the produce of one ettaro (hectare - about two and a half acres) of land. The family took care of everything, like a small family-run farm. Generally, everyone knew how to do everything, but everyone had their specific tasks. Their plot would have grown a large variety of vegetables the same as are seen in farmers’ markets today, including carrots, potatoes, beets, garlic, onions, radishes, turnips, artichokes, tomatoes, eggplant, asparagus, fennel, chard, spinach, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, peppers, beans, lentils, chickpeas, zucchini and other types of squash, and peppers. Years later in America my father would grow many of the same vegetables in his backyard plot. Whereas our “American” neighbors would have a yard of flowers and grass, our backyard was filled with vegetables (every square foot).  In addition to the vegetables, wheat and corn was probably grown.  Then they would have had fruit trees: apples, pears, apricots, peaches, figs. Every family had its own livestock - chickens, pigs, rabbits, sheep and cows (for both milk and meat). Extra eggs, vegetables and fruit would have been sold at the markets in old Atri or in new and growing Pineto. 

Sharecropping spread from the late Middle Ages in various parts of Europe, as a productive relationship framed by the feudal system. In Lombard feudal society it was the "manente": an agricultural worker who resided on land that he did not own, which he cultivated and whose profits he shared with the owner. [See Treccani.it - ​​Online encyclopedias , Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 15 March 2011.] Since then, November 11 was the expiration date of all agricultural contracts, including mezzadria contracts, when all the activities related to the previous ended & to which a new year would begin. "Fare San Martino" literally meant moving, if the sharecropping contract was not renewed; vice versa, if it was. This became a feast day; people began to sample the new wine, oil & chestnuts etc.

Every farming family also had its vines to grow Montepulciano or Trebbiano grapes for making wine and olive trees to produce oil. Wheat, corn and olives were brought to local water mills for grinding. Chestnuts were also used to make flour, especially important for farms that were not suitable for growing grain. Much of the grain had to be dried and stored on the upper floor of the houses and barns to keep the animals fed during the winter months.

Life Changing Events

It would seem that the family would, in rural Abruzzo, have had little reason to much notice world events ongoing in 1914, with one exception.  The older brother was already serving in the Italian Army.

 

On July 28, a month after the assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.  This set in motion a series of war declarations driven by alliances between major European countries:

•  Austria-Hungary had sought German (its ally) support for a war against Serbia in case of Russian “militarism”. Russia had close relations - almost as a protector - but no formal treaty with Serbia (both countries tied together by their large Slavic populations. Germany gave assurances of support. (July 5) This was weeks before the Austrian declaration of war;
•  Germany declared war against Russia (August 1);
•  Italy, a member of the Triple Alliance (with Austria and Germany) declares neutrality (August 3), claimed that its pact only applies to defensive actions. Italy’s actions seemed (to its citizens) that war would be avoided by Italy; 
•  France mobilized (August 1) in response to the declaration of war on Russia.  France had a military alliance with Russia:
•  Germany declared war on France. (August 3);
•  Germany invaded France through neutral Belgium. (August 4) In response the United Kingdom declared war on Germany (August 3) as a violation of the Treaty of London (1839) – guaranteeing Belgian neutrality;
•  Austria declared war on Russia. (August 6);
•  Serbia declared war on Germany. (August 6);
•  France declared war on Austria. (August 11);
•  the United Kingdom declared war on Austria. (August 12)

Despite war now raging in Belgium and France in the west of Europe and Russia in the east and Serbia in the southeast, everyday Italians seemed reasonably assured that war was not going to directly affect them. However, the Italian state was taking steps to defend against war. Luigi Cadorna, the Italian chief of staff, began to move troops to the Austrian border on August 21. It appears, however, that no formal mobilization order was issued. 

By September and October, an Italian interventionist (pro-war) movement was underway fueled by “Italia irredentia”. The elected government of Prime Minister Salandra (the majority of socialists and Giolittiani (followers of opposition party head Giolotti) were still neutralist, as well as a large share of Catholics) began to secretly probe which side would grant the best reward for Italy's entrance in the war and to fulfill Italy’s “Irredentia” claims. The government does not do anything but let the pro-war movement happen and take note of the situation. “Italia Irredentia” was keen to annex Italian-speaking portions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire such as Trentino (the South Tyrol), Trieste and Dalmatia (Istria), on the east coast of the Adriatic.

Diagram from the London Telegraph May 25, 1915 showing the areas of Trentino and Trieste Istria significant to Italy’s entry into the war. Most knew about Italy's general intentions despite the specific negotiations being secret.

Farmers and rural citizens such as my family could probably not have cared less about this, but eventually the interventionists succeeded and secret government negotiations ensued with the western allies as well as the Triple Entente, in a version of let’s make a best (for Italy) deal after a new Foreign Minister (Sidney Sonnino) is named in November.

On December 14, 1914, my father registered for the Liste di Leva (Draft) and was given a physical and other tests.  He was put into the 1st category, conscripted soldier, class of 1895, Teramo military district and left on “unlimited leave” (i.e., not inducted at this time). 

Less than a month later, on January 13, 1915, my father was left in provisional “unlimited leave” pending the discharge of brother to the matriculation under the terms of art. 6, of the law December 15, 1907. He was to report for presentations to arms with his class eight days after his brother's discharge. 

The Liste di Leva contain the names of all those young residents in an Italian province who were twenty years old and in phusical condition to go to the military service.   Conscription of all males at the age of eighteen was instituted in Italy in 1862, shortly after Italy became a nation. Every Italian male was and still is required to report to the draft board for a physical exam. Within the recruitment plan of 1907, all able-bodied men were chargeable for call-up in 3 classes between the ages of nineteen and thirty-eight years. The first class spent 2 years on active duty, 6 in the reserve, 4 in the Mobile Militia, and 7 in the Territorial Militia. The 2nd class spent 6 months on active duty, 7 and 1 / 2 years in the reserve, and the same periods in the militia as class one. The 3rd class spent all 19 years in the Territorial Militia, however having received no training.

It is unknown when my Uncle was ultimately (if ever) discharged (or his class 1 or 2) – given the imminent war.  It is also unknown if either brother would have any idea that Italy would soon be at war.  Life went on for the average rural Italian - good and bad. For example, on this same day in January (13th), a violent earthquake shook the Abruzzi, Lazio and Campania, with the main center in Marsica, about 125 km away from where my family lived, Mutignano, which felt the tremors. Over 370 municipalities were damaged and 50 thousand people perished. 

On March 22, my father turned 20 and became eligible for military service under the 1907 law but for his brother’s on-going service.  By this time it is inevitable to the government that Italy will enter the war.  However, the average citizens do not know this.  The government conducted all negotiations in secret. In fact on March 28, an Italian royal decree prohibits the publication of military news until June 30.  Recognizing the seemingly inevitable, Austria established new fortifications around the capital, Vienna, and the forts near Trentino and the Isonzo (Italian border areas) were armed.

On April 26, at a secret meeting held in England, representatives of the Italian government agreed to enter the war in return for financial help and the granting of land currently under the control of Austria-Hungary. This Treaty of London resulted in Britain granting an immediate loan of £50 million and a promise to support Italian territorial demands after the war. The negotiations with the Allies have been long and secret. In political Italy there are only three people in the know: Prime Minister Salandra, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sonnino and King Vittorio Emanuele III. Even the Parliament is kept in the dark. Then on May 3, Italy officially revoked the Triple Alliance.

Interventionist demonstration at the Spanish Steps in Rome (May 1915)

Intervention demonstrations in Italy keep increasing in number, size and location - impressive interventionist demonstrations were everywhere. In Rome Giolitti deputies are insulted and beaten up; in other places, as in Milan, there are physical conflicts with the neutralists. On May 13, knowing that the consensus of the elected parties is lacking Salandra presents his office’s resignation of the government to the King, who reserves the right to decide, and which is ultimately rejected on May 16.  These acts appeared to put the government over the top for intervention. Five days later, the Italian Senate unanimously approved the bill granting full war powers to the Government. The news causes the closure of the border between Italy and Austria-Hungary (including rail and telegraph). In Italian speaking Trieste (then in Austria), military law was proclaimed.  This vote is followed by the Parliament, under pressure from the interventionist demonstrations, for approval, with 407 votes in favor, 74 against and 1 abstention, for the bill conferring to the Government the extraordinary war powers. 

The Customs House at Trivignano Udine on the border with Austria, near the Torre River.

On May 22, Italy instituted a general military mobilization to increase the size of the military - R.D. May 22, 1915 Circular of the G.M., under which the King has decreed the general mobilization of the army and navy and the requisition of equipment. The mobilization was set for the next day.  With this communiqué King Vittorio Emanuele III prepares the country for the conflict.  In the provinces of Sondrio, Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, Belluno, Udine, Venice, Treviso, Padua, Mantua, Ferrara and in those of the Adriatic, a state of war is proclaimed.  On May 23 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, although not on the Germany (which will occur until 15 months later, August 28, 1916).

La Stampa, Turin: Headline of May 23, 1915 announcing the General Mobilization (War Declaration Not Yet Announced Until Later that Same Day)

Now my father’s life is about to change.  On June 1 he is called for active duty into the Italian Army, under mobilization by the R.D. May 22, 1915 Circular of the G.M. and arrived in the 14th Infantry Regiment (Pinerolo Brigade). The 14th Regiment is normally stationed in Foggia (Puglia), while the 13th (its brother regiment) is stationed in L’Aquila (Abruzzo). The history of Pinerolo indicates that between May – December this unit was at the front yet my father’s record does not show this. In some regard there would have to have been some basic training going on. It would appear therefore that he underwent several months of infantry training (addestramento di fanteria) with the 14th Regiment (at L'Aquila or Foggia).  Six months later on December 2, Angelo arrived in the War Zone, territory “declared in a state of war assigned to the 121st Infantry Regiment (RF). This unit was located at the front line at the Castelnuovo del Carso Sector.

Part of my father's Italian Military Record, the Ruolo Matricolare which records all the developments in a military career, from promotions to changes in status.

Under Italian conscription, a fraction of those suitable actually served in the army, e.g. in 1911 under 25 per cent of those eligible (each year) for military service were in fact called up. Consequently the active army consisted of regular officers – always in lower numbers than needed – in addition to class 1 recruits. To make situations even worse, the recruits were expected to review in each November, annually. On the other hand real military service was postponed until the subsequent March. Because the difference wasn’t, in reality, filled up with by class 2 soldiers under training, there was simply no army in being throughout the winter season. Even in summer several units had below 10% of their nominal strength.

Difficulties were worsened by a severe lack of non-commissioned officers (NCOs), who were typically drawn from Italy’s tiny literate lower middle class. Moreover, the Italian Army was still affected by the “mopping up” of Italo-Turkish War in Libya in 1911-12. There was a lack of equipment to replace that lost in this prior war.

In spite of this, the army did accomplish significant improvements during the prelude to World War One. By May 1915, General Cadorna, had mobilized 23,039 officers, 852,217 other ranks and 9,163 civilians. Italy joined the war with twelve army corps (constituting four armies) inside Italy, each with 2 active infantry divisions. The First and Fourth Armies were sent to the Trentino Front and the Second and Third Armies to the Isonzo Front.

New Life

Many of the five million Italians who served in the First World War received their basic training before the war, during their compulsory military service. The inadequacy of infantry training in this period had already been highlighted by the war against the Turks for Libya in 1911-12. Italian conscripts trained in simplistic and rigid tactics found themselves facing small, mobile bands of motivated Turkish and Arab forces, which repeatedly inflicted tactical defeats on the Italians. The Italians were pressured into using cautious, hesitant tactics which were ill-suited to their ambitious strategic goals, and their ultimate victory was more due to the weakness of the Ottoman Empire than to Italian military prowess.  Even reform-minded critics such as Captain E. Bottini saw the Libyan war as “comforting proof of the success of our patiently developed educational work”.

In regards to the new troops who would eventually begin to comprise the bulk of the Italian Army as time passed, army authorities relied on a relatively decentralized system. The design and implementation of most training exercises was handled at brigade level or below. In 1915 officers responsible for training were given manuals of doctrine but little advice on how the desired outcomes were to be achieved or what were the best methods for informing and preparing the troops. Not until early 1917 were more specific instructions on how to train regularly issued from Supreme Command or Army.

  

Basic training was already somewhat flawed before 1915, but wartime bought new pressures: time, money, experienced instructors and equipment were all in short supply. Insufficient time was especially critical, since training, like rest and recreation, was rarely a priority for the army authorities in 1915-6. The need to get new men into the lines quickly often overrode other considerations.  Lt-Col. Francesco Rossi, of the 224° regiment (Etna Brigade), reported in June 1916 that:

“The unit is composed almost entirely of the class of 1896 whose hasty instruction (little more than three months) has not been sufficient to ensure an adequate preparation for the campaign, either with regard to technical training or with respect to physical endurance.”

Rossi concluded that after a necessary period of rest, to help overcome minor health problems and fitness-related injuries, his men required a week of intensive tactical training before returning to any kind of active service. Training was not just brief but it was often ineffective in tactical terms, rarely corresponding to the realities of trench warfare. Conscripted into an infantry regiment in August 1914, Gino Frontali described his experiences of basic training:

“We received our first lesson in ‘open order’ and ‘tactics.’ Our lieutenant explained in minute detail the essential rules: be silent, obey signals, always look at the officer in charge, adapt movements to the ground, use shelter in order to offer the smallest possible target, never drop vigilance and observation in order to guard against any surprise.”

This description suggests that trainers acknowledged the need for greater tactical sophistication than close-order drill alone would permit but emphasizing the need to follow the officer closely in all things left infantrymen lost and unable to proceed without leadership – if officers fell during combat, their men had no experience in taking the initiative themselves.

The acute shortage of experienced officers and NCOs who could conduct effective training was another cause of these problems. Alpini Lieutenant Garrone recorded that he was “daunted” by the scale of his task in training his men, and complained that he had been given insufficient guidance and support. Since officer training was itself weak on practical matters, tactical instruction and personnel-management, junior officers' task was an unenviable one.

Along with time and experienced instructors, the Italian army was critically short of equipment. Weapons handling and target practice, among the most fundamental elements of infantry training, were deeply flawed.  Any form of firing practice was difficult given the acute shortages of equipment. In August 1914 the Italian army had at its disposal 750,000 rifles of the 1891 model, supposed to be the standard, and no hand grenades at all. Training was therefore sometimes carried out with just one or two rifles per company, each man taking turns with the weapon. Gino Frontali described the situation in late 1914:

“Target practice suffered from a most serious defect. It was done in a great hurry… we fired two rounds (twelve shots each) every week. This exercise was sufficient to familiarize us with the use of the rifle, but not to establish any precision of aim. One saw progress only rarely. Those who [already] shot well, who had a passion for hunting, improved a little after the first lessons. The others, the majority, hit the target only rarely, and no-one seemed concerned about it.”

There are other rememberances of the training camp at Porretta near Modena and almost none of them is positive: "For two months in Modena and for one under the tent in Porretta I learned a few military things and certainly nothing of war" recalls for example Alberto Ghisalberti of the 42nd Infantry, and concludes: "At least we learned to pitch a tent!" Certainly the training that was provided by official cadres left most unprepared at the beginning of the war as training differed greatly from the reality of the front.

A panorama of a portion of the training camp (campo di addestramento) at Porretta (Modena)

The shortage of weapons with which to train also affected machine-gun units and the artillery, some of whom were forced to practice maneuvering their weapons with wooden models. Frontali reported an infantry major's comments in May 1915: “We have no machine guns, they are running courses for machine gunners using wooden guns, and none of the gunners have ever fired a shot using a real weapon.”

In May 1915, when its neutrality ended, Italy’s entire stock of machine guns was 618 (including those in use in Libya and not all in working order) compared with 1,500 for Austria-Hungary, 2,000 for France, and 3,000 for Germany when these countries had started to fight some 10 months previously.

The Italian Front Overview

When war came to Italy in May 1915, it opened up a third front for Austria-Hungary – the major front in Russia, the Serbian Front and now in Italy. The Italian Front covered about 600 km from the Swiss border to the Adriatic Sea – covering two areas, the Trentino (and Tyrol) in the west and the Carnia-Karst (Carso) in the east (the Isonzo).  The Austrian Command was unable to face its former ally with more than just a defense force - barely managing to garrison the new front. The Austro-Hungarian Command shortened the front, moving back the defensive lines along a system of trenches, caves and fortified shelters arranged in the previous months. 

The Austro-Hungarian Army was composed of three parts: the joint army ("Imperial and Royal Army" - kaiserlich und königliche Armee or k.u.k.), recruited from all parts of the country), the Imperial Austrian Landwehr and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd. In July 1914 the force included - 36,000 Officers, 414,000 NCOs and troops, 120,000 horses (estimate) and 1,200 artillery pieces.  After war was declared, the force had 3.35 million men (including the first call-up of the reserves and the 1914 recruits).

The Imperial Army had about 115,000 troops in the Isonzo/Carnia Front.  However, the size of that Army kept increasing as the Imperial Army was able to move troops from both the Serbian Front and the Russian front as these areas had turned into an Austrian and Austrian/German advantage with losses by both the Serbs and Russians in late 1914 and early 1915.  The Imperial Army moved its front lines in Italy to easily defensible positions on high ground essentially abandoning the lower valleys and plains (what little there were) of the political borders. There were few fortifications along the Isonzo front before 1914, so a defensive line based on field fortifications, wire and minefields, was hastily 

The Italian Army advances in May 1915 into areas abandoned by the Austrians for defensive positions in the higher mountains (blue) and the Austrian mountain defenses (red)

constructed, in particular around the plateaus of the Bainsizza (at Gorizia) and the Carso.  The Austrians hastily built powerful defenses in the area, using terrain to its advantage and literally blasting strong dugouts, trenches and gun-pits from the rocks. The Imperial Army essentially gave up a small amount of low-lying territory in return for a huge tactical advantage. To defeat the Austrians and drive them from these formidable positions the Italians would need considerable firepower (especially heavy artillery), competent leadership and NCOs, and effective tactics suited to such warfare. Italy had none of these.

The troops deployed in defense of the Tyrol amounted to about 35,000 men; the Tyrolean Standschützen companies were also mobilized.  In support of its ally, the German army also sent some departments, although when Italy entered the War, they did NOT declare war against Germany.  Similarly, the Austrians had built formidable defenses in these mountains as well.  In September 1914, the Austro-Hungarian General Staff commissioned General Franz Rohr to build the Tiroler Widerstands linie (Tyrolean resistance line [linea di resistenza Tirolese]), an uninterrupted entrenched line from Tonale to the Marmolada to be used in the event of a conflict with the Kingdom of Italy. About 20,000 civil workers were employed. Around Trento a new massive fortification was also set up.

The Italians on the other hand were interested in an offensive war in support of Italia irredentia. Cadorna had planned for the Italian army to take up a defensive stance in the Trentino, launching its 

 offensive across the river Isonzo, which snaked down to the Adriatic sea in the east, on two main directions: from the Cadore and from the Carnia.  The main attack fell to the left wing (2nd Army), its goals being Ljubljana and later Vienna, with Trieste as a secondary objective to be reached by the right wing (3rd Army).

Young Soldier - 1915

Arrival at the Front

On December 2, 1915, my father arrived in territory “declared in a state of war”, i.e. the war zone, to the 121st Infantry Regiment (RF). The unit was located at the front line at the Castelnuovo del Carso Sector.

One cannot imagine arriving at an area where people are waiting to kill you in battle. The young farm-boy who until some months ago had probably not ventured very far from his home in Abruzzo now ventured into Venezia and Fruili.  The following is an excerpt from a diary by someone probably much like my father who arrived in this same time frame in November 1915.  Domenico Bodon, a private with the Chieti Brigade (124th Infantry Regiment), who arrived behind the front lines at Ruda/Villa Vicentina on November 7, 1915 wrote:

We are very close to the front, all around houses are destroyed.

In a town where the train is forced to stop, there is a huge camp and in the middle, the Italian flag. 11 am.  The village is called Villa Vicentina, the last station as the train can no longer continue, because the enemy lays further on; I'm still on the train and without food since last night. We disembarked and the appeal is made to stay close to it. Nice weather. The cannon thunders continuously. It starts at 11 and a quarter. At one and a half we are facing the enemy on the spot where the shrapnel landed this morning. You can see the holes made without misfortune. Still wanting to eat and I find myself in a field full of mud. After 2 hours of waiting we were ordered to wait.

Oh God! In that mud, where, now traversed by other soldiers, you sank to the whole shoe. Patience! We planted the tent and meanwhile those of us 5, destined for this work, were free, went in search of straw, something to put down our poor bones. In the end everyone got sweaty and then he went to get the bedding getting 4 kilos for each one.

5 o'clock in the evening. We are at the end. Meanwhile, we talk with several companions who tell us the name of the locality is Ruda. The night comes and at 7 pm the ration came: a little pasta and a nice piece of meat, almost raw; but hunger is so great that we had to swallow it to pieces. The thirst began; and where in the night to find the water? A companion showed us the point and then we started splashing in the puddles. We reached the fountain and drank to fullness. And then a mess tin brought it to me under the curtain.

So here we are at night high, prepare the bed, we will say, without lighting matches, all groping. In the meantime, one was preparing, the other waiting, until the last one arrived to close. I was the last one.

In that time I was waiting, a show of the most gruesome presents itself to me. On the Isonzo front, there are always great reflections, but many, that run with their trajectory of long pieces, so that our, under that strong clear, could see the enemy pieces; and then the cannon that was ready fired with a tumult that in the middle of the night was disgusting. Know among other things that we are stationed near a cemetery. At the same time you can also see the shrapnel split in the air and then maybe do damage that I cannot explain now. In short, I was so impressed that I immediately went to bed with the idea that perhaps among those 4 sheets to stay safe.

It is unlikely that my father was thrown immediately into the front. On 14 December, the 121st RF is relieved at the front and goes back to the rear at Campolongo and Armelino, near Ruda. The Regiment remains there until January 2, 1916. So there was no combat in 1915 for my father.

While the Regiment is in the rear, one of the primary roles is to continue to train itself and its new members of the group such as my father. These young men are not yet soldati (soldiers) and know very little of what they are facing.  The 121st Regiment was part of the Macerata Brigade. The Brigade was established on March 1, 1915. The Brigade command and its brother 122nd Regiment were taken from the 12th Infantry Regiment; the 121st Regiment from the 93rd Regiment.

It is not known to which Battalion my father was assigned, either infantryman or special weapons or in a pioneer unit as a “genio” / “zappatori” or engineer/sapper. The Army’s basic unit was the “Regiment”. Each Regiment at full strength consisted of three “Battalions” (of 1000 men each, further divided into four “Companies” of 250 men.  Each Battalion had three rifle companies and one special weapons company generally with a machine gun squadron, a mortar squadron and a pioneer platoon, tasked with construction duties.

“Macellata” - Brief History of the Macerata Brigade in 1915 

The Macerata Brigade by the time my father reported had become known as the “Macellata” Brigade which means butchered/slaughtered – a play on the official name of the Brigade. This nickname is typical "gallows" humor of soldiers and the reason for this nickname becomes evident when the history of the Regiment in battle is uncovered.

The brigade fought in both the Second (August) and the Fourth (November) Battles of the Ionzo. These battles included brutal trench warfare at Redipuglia and the trenches Rocciosa, dei Morte and Razzi. These actions were recognized by the Italian high command and resulted in the award to the Brigade of the Medaglia d'argento al valor militare (which became part of the Brigade’s emblem).  The Brigade returns to the rear on December 14 to Campolongo and Armelino for the remainder of the month.  Total losses (deaths) for 1915 were 92 officers and 2,796 men constituting a loss of nearly half the Brigade and giving the Brigade the unfortunate “Macellata” nickname.

Medaglia d'argento al valor militare, Citation reads: With tremendous energy and tenacity they conquered and firmly maintained important positions on the Karst, … to the east of Polazzo and Castello Nuovo, …  July-November 1915 …

America's Founding Father James Wilson and Tamaqua, Pennsylvania

Prologue

Who?? and What??

I grew up in Tamaqua. Everyone who has grown up in Tamaqua knows about its “origin”.  The story is that, how, in 1799, one Burkhardt Moser emigrated from Northampton County over the Blue Mountain and settled near the confluence of the Panther Creek and Little Schuylkill River (then known as the Tamaqua - or Tamaguay - Creek). Here he built a sawmill and later his permanent residence in 1801 (which today remains standing, in part, at the rear of 307 East Broad St).  Moser was a lumberman and farmer and with a small cadre of family and friends, a small settlement took root.  In 1817 coal was discovered here and a railroad was built in 1831 to transport it and as they say, the rest is history.

Burkhardt Moser's original log cabin dwelling built 1801 in Tamaqua, PA

The (William) Penn Proprietorship “purchased” the land upon which the town later arose in the mid eighteenth century.  This acquisition was made under the Purchase of 1749 Treaty. What was to become Tamaqua was first assigned to Northampton County. The northern-most township in this part of Northampton County was Lynn Township and initially this land north of the Blue Mountain became part of Lynn Township. But in 1762, a township north of the Blue Mountain was created called Penns Township. Later in the first decade of the 1800s, Penns Township was further divided into East Penn (eventually becoming part of Carbon County decades later) and West Penn Townships. The area north of new West Penn Township was further sub-divided into Rush Township.

With the exception the fertile farmland immediately north of the Blue Mountain (near Lizard Creek) very little migration to the new land took place. The first reason for this was the effect of the French and Indian War in the 1750s.  Subsequently at its conclusion in 1763 and a little more than a decade later the American War for Independence began and lasted until 1783.  This was the second reason for the slow migration.  

But the lack of migration here did not mean that the land was ignored. People purchased the new land and began to establish individual ownership. There was a 5-part process to create deeds (and have individual owners buy the lands). The original and normal process for obtaining land in Pennsylvania was set up under the authority of Crown of England for the colony of Pennsylvania: 

    1) the applicant submitted an application for a land tract; 

    2) the Pennsylvania Land Office (after the payment of a fee) issued a warrant, or order, for a survey; 

    3) the next step was to pay another fee for the survey and wait until a deputy surveyor could be assigned to do the work; 

    4) the survey with a precise description and map of the tract was returned to the Land Office for issuing the final title or “patent”; and

    5) the patent (upon payment of yet another fee) was issued and a name given to the tract by the patentee. (From the years of the Penn Proprietorship until about 1810, tracts were given names to make it easier to track them when they changed ownership. Moser named his tract, "Amsterdam.")

It is estimated that approximately 70% of land within Pennsylvania was transferred from the colonial or, later, state government to private owners using this process. In the other 30% of land transfers, different processes were used. Many early settlers settled on vacant land before paying for and receiving government authorization (a warrant), often because they were beyond government offices or because Pennsylvania had not acquired the territory yet through treaties with Indians.  Rather than receiving a “warrant to survey” ordering a surveyor to come and survey the land as in the normal process, they received an “order to accept” a survey conducted after their settlement.  In this case, the survey states it was conducted on a “on a warrant to accept” and the word “accept” is noted in the relevant Warrant Register.

Sometimes, many years passed between the steps.  Moreover, the process was rife with land speculation.  Many warrantees were not interested in the land to have as their own, but would purchase the land in order to sell to those who did desire it as farmers, lumbermen or others as patentees. Furthermore they could be an additional step of land speculation in which both the warrantee and patentee would be speculators, intent on subdividing their tracts and reaping the expected profits.

The process, for example, for Burkhardt Moser's patent occurred as follows:

    1) John Burkhardt Moser applied for a Warrant in Northampton County on June 27, 1768 (A-21-253).  

    2) However, the survey was not completed and returned until November 9, 1775. Moreover, Moser did not turn the warrant into a patent before he died in 1807.  

    3) Later his son Burkhardt received a deed (accept to warrant) on June 21, 1809 (H-1-138), 41 years later. 

By this time Burkhardt (the son) had settled in Tamaqua and began a small but growing community there.  The elder John Burkhardt Moser never moved from Lynn Township and died in 1807.

Patent of Burkhart Moser, dated June 21, 1809, Rush Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania

Other Developers of Tamaqua

Burkhardt the Elder was actually the second person to apply for ownership of land in what was to later become Tamaqua borough limits. Nine other individuals (or groups) were to purchase land (warrantees) which eventually became Tamaqua borough limits.  It is important to recognize that these warrants and patents included substantial acreage (from 200 to 400 and sometimes more, acres for each patent) and only a portion of the original deeds constituted property in the borough limits.  For example, Moser’s final deed was 221 acres, with about 50% being east of the future town limit (an area later known as Greenwood and Rahn Township).

The following is a summary of the Warrantee / Patentee records for what was to become the borough (limits) of Tamaqua:

#	Warrantee	Date of Warrant	Patentee	Date of Patent
9	John Wood	7/22/1784	John Reiner	5/9/1786
10	Peter Aston	7/10/1793	James Wilson	9/17/1794
11	Aaron Bowen	11/23/1785	Aaron Bowen	2/4/1786
25	Frederick Boller	11/18/1793	James Wilson	9/16/1794
26	Jacob Hauser	5/6/1776	Jacob Hauser	7/15/1782
27	Peter Scholl	6/2/1768	Charles Graff et al	1/4/1828
28	J. Dunn et al	8/13/1794	Aaron Winder et al	5/30/1854
29	J. Burkhardt Moser	6/27/1768	Burkhardt Moser	6/21/1809
40	Melchior Christ	8/10/1794	Thomas Armat	1/5/1798
90*	Joseph Clark	11/18/1793	Andrew Douglass	9/16/1794
* See the extreme NW corner of the Tamaqua boundary. Not IDed by number on map below.

The map below shows the relative location of the tracts of land that would constitute the area of the future borough of Tamaqua: 

Map showing the Patents/Warrants issued on land later to become the Borough of Tamaqua (see parallelogram, outlined in black); Burkhardt Moser's plot shown outlined in green. See Warrantee Maps for Rahn Township.

As points of interest, there were ten land plots that covered "Tamaqua". Only three land plots share the same family name as both warrantee and patentee. James Wilson was the only person to own two plots within "Tamaqua" (as a patentee). He was also the largest landowner by area in the future borough.  Peter Scholl was the first warrantee in 1768, Moser being the second. Jacob Hauser was the first patentee in 1782. Three warrants were not converted to patents (deeds) until the 19th Century, the last in 1854. Only three warrants were issued before the American Revolution. Only Hauser's patent was issued prior to the completion of the American Revolution. Only two warrants are fully enclosed by the future Tamaqua borough limits.

Land Speculation and James Wilson

The Founding Fathers

Land speculation was a common preoccupation among the Founding Fathers. For some it became an economic affliction. As noted by Albert J. Beveridge in his The Life of John Marshall, Volume II, p. 202,

“Hardly a prominent man of the period failed to secure large tracts of real estate, which could be had at absurdly low prices, and to hold the lands for the natural advance which increased population would bring”. 

For many, such speculation would prove a hazardous preoccupation. Virginia’s Henry Lee and Pennsylvania’s Robert Morris and James Wilson ended up in jail because of their debts from land speculation. Washington biographer James Thomas Flexner in his George Washington: Anguish and Farewell (1793-1799), p. 371, noted that land speculation was, 

“a fundamental aspect of American economic life, but it had become in the last few years an extremely tricky one. General [Henry] Knox was above the knees in financial trouble because of the new settlements he had started in Maine.”

Speculation in land became particularly rampant in the early 1790s when the stability of the new republic seemed assured. Describing the process of speculation, historian Forrest McDonald in his The Presidency of George Washington, p. 10, wrote: 

“One worked or connived to obtain a stake, then worked or connived to obtain legal title to a tract of wilderness, then sold the wilderness by the acre to the hordes of immigrants, and thereby lived and died a wealthy man. Appropriately, the most successful practitioner of this craft was George Washington, who had acquired several hundred thousand acres and was reckoned by many as the wealthiest man in America.”

So in the 1790s, there were rich speculators and there were successful farmers and businessmen who bought up large tracts of land (400 acres) with the goal of subdividing the area and sell to migrant immigrants in smaller parcels (5-10 acres). Tamaqua was no different and one man who was well known, and who was also a founding father, was James Wilson.  He owned two plots which are (in part) contained within the Tamaqua town (old) limits (see above). He owned what was to become upper Dutch Hill and part of the North Ward, as well as the southwestern part of the South Ward.

James Wilson

James Wilson was born in Leven, Fife, Scotland on September 14, 1742. He immigrated to Philadelphia in 1766 and became a teacher (Latin tutor who became an English professor) at the College of Philadelphia (later to become the University of Pennsylvania). After studying law under John Dickinson (a legendary Pennsylvania attorney and fellow Founding Father), he was admitted to the bar and set up a legal practice in Reading, Pennsylvania. He moved to Carlisle, where he operated a farm and became a founding trustee of Dickinson College. 

He wrote a well-received pamphlet arguing that Parliament's taxation of the Thirteen Colonies was illegitimate due to the colonies' lack of representation in Parliament. He was elected twice to the Continental Congress, and was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence. 

After some time, Wilson moved his family back to Philadelphia.  Upon holding the University of Pennsylvania’s first law lectures – which may also have been the first in the United States – James Wilson became known as the founder of what is today the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

In 1787 he was a major force in drafting the United States Constitution. Wilson served on the Committee of Detail, which produced the first draft of the United States Constitution. He was the principal architect of the executive branch (see McConnell, Michael W. (2019). "James Wilson's Contributions to the Construction of Article II". In Barnett, Randy E. (ed.). The Life and Career of Justice James Wilson (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown Center for the Constitution. pp. 23–50 and p. 219) and an outspoken supporter of greater popular control of governance, a strong national government, and legislative representation proportional to population. Along with Roger Sherman and Charles Pinckney, he proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in the United States House of Representatives. While preferring the direct election of the president through a national popular vote, he proposed the use of an electoral college, which formed the basis of the Electoral College ultimately adopted by the Convention. After the convention, he campaigned for the ratification of the Constitution, with his "speech in the statehouse yard" reprinted in newspapers throughout the country, and he opposed the Bill of Rights. Wilson also played a major role in drafting the 1790 Pennsylvania Constitution.

Lawyer, Founding Father and Supreme Court Justice, James Wilson

A leading legal theorist, he was also one of the six original justices appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States. In his capacity as first Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, he taught the first course on the new Constitution to President Washington and his cabinet in 1789 and 1790. 

However, Wilson was, as noted above, one of the numerous Founding Fathers who was a land speculator. During 1779 he began actively taking up the development of the country, not only in Pennsylvania and other States of the East, but in the new territories of the West, over which the States were quarreling but which was bound to become National domain. He was an owner of the combined Illinois and Oubache (Wabash) Land Companies, and later became their attorney and president, and from this time until his death it is doubtful if there was a greater individual land owner in America. Two years later he owned 300 shares in the Indiana Land Company, whose bounds covered a good part of two eventual States, Indiana and Illinois. Within a dozen years or so he had sold a half million acres to the Holland Land Company and bought over 4,000,000 acres scattered in all parts of the South from the Potomac and Ohio to the western boundary at the Mississippi.  His papers show that he was not merely a speculator, but, as he put it to certain Dutch capitalists, proposed to develop our need with their abundance of men and money. He outlined to them a plan of immigration and development imperial in its scope. (From James Wilson and the Constitution: the opening address in the official series of events known as the James Wilson Memorial by Burton Alva Konkle [Philadelphia], 1907)

As an example of this (and after he began his tenure on the Supreme Court in 1792), Robert Morris and John Nicholson incorporate the Pennsylvania Population Company with a capital of $500,000 to raise money on 500,000 acres in northwestern Pennsylvania; shares are sold at $200; John Nicholson takes 400 shares and another 100 for Robert Morris; other directors include James Wilson, Gen. William Irvine (1741-1804), Walter Stewart, Theophile Cazenove (representing Dutch investors) and Aaron Burr. The object is to sell land in small parcels to settlers. (See Arbuckle, Rappleye, Chernow.)  

He continued speculating near his adopted home in Pennsylvania. He established mills and factories in Northampton County and speculated in the Pennsylvania interior including upcountry Northampton and Berks Counties, where Tamaqua was to be born.  In 1794 Wilson owned over 6,000 acres in northern Penns Township (what was to become Rahn Township) including two parcels in Tamaqua.  Wilson had been described as owning large areas of coal lands in Northampton County, which he later sold in 1796 to Benjamin R. Morgan of Philadelphia and General Henry Lee of Virginia. (See The History of the Supreme Court, Volume 1, Gustavus Myers, p.114, Chicago, Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1912.) It is not clear that the Tamaqua parcels were part of these “coal” lands, although both parcels were certainly future collieries – parcel 10, with the LCN Number 14 and parcel 25, near the West Lehigh Colliery.

However, Wilson suffered financial ruin from the Panic of 1796–1797 and was briefly imprisoned in a debtors' prison on two occasions (while on the Supreme Court). He suffered a stroke and died in August 1798 (in North Carolina), becoming the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to die.  He was replaced on the Supreme Court by Bushrod Washington, George’s cousin (appointed by President John Adams).  His son, Bird Wilson, was still settling his vast affairs in 1852, decades after Wilson’s death.