Alec
Campbell was born in the village of Dungloe, County Donegal, Ireland in 1833.
Having survived the great famine and having witnessed the devastation of his community
brought on by the great hunger, he emigrated to the Pennsylvania coal fields in
1868. Campbell first found work as a mine laborer, but within 6 months he was
able to purchase the position of miner. He remained in the mines for two years,
and saving money he purchased the Columbia House Tavern in Tamaqua and catered
to immigrant miners. Campbell sold the Tamaqua tavern to James Carroll and the
establishment became known as the Union House. Campbell established the Columbia
House in the Storm Hill section of Lansford and settled himself as a tavern keeper
and wholesale liquor distributor. With the anthracite boom in the 1860’s
and 1870’s many Irish found their way to the coal fields. The Irish compromised
about 1/3 of the mine workers in the hard coal region. Not only were they despised
because they were foreign and Catholic, they were also disdained for their frowned
upon habit of aggressively asserting their rights. Campbell grew in prominence
as a businessman and leader of the Irish community. He was active in local Irish
organizations and became Treasurer of the Storm Hill AOH. When the mine and railroad
interests including Franklin Gowen, Charles Parrish, and Asa Packer, colluded
to break the back of growing organized labor, they targeted the Irish and specifically
the AOH, equating the AOH with a violent organized movement they called the Molly
Maguires. The Mollies were an anti-landlord movement in Ireland. The mine owners
were successful in swaying public opinion in equating coal region violence with
the secret society the Molly Maquires. When Edward Kelly, Michael Doyle, and James
Kerrigan were arrested in September 1875 for the murder of mine boss John P. Jones,
there was a great deal of newspaper publicity linking leaders of the AOH in a
plot to murder mine bosses. Alec Campbell traveled throughout the coal region
enlisting support for the defense fund of the accused. He actively supported candidates
that fall that were running against the hand picked slate of the mine interests.
Campbell traveled to New York City to solicit national AOH support for the accused.
In February of 1876, when Alec Campbell was arrested as an accessory in the murder
of John P. Jones, he initially construed that this was pure harassment against
his activities. He did not realize his jeopardy as James Kerrigan had turned state’s
evidence, and would say anything to save his own neck. The trial was a foregone
conclusion. The jury wheel was tampered with. Irish and Catholics were dismissed
as potential jurors. Motions for a change of venue in spite of a tidal wave of
pretrial prejudicial publicity were denied. The puppet masters that controlled
the private Coal and Iron Police as well as the Pinkerton Detectives, also connived
to control the Court. The prosecution team was headed not by the district attorney,
but by private high powered attorneys on the mine and railroad payrolls. Evidence
presented was bought and perjured. Conviction under these circumstances was guaranteed.
When Alec Campbell appealed his case, the mine interests fearing that the conviction
would be overturned, charged him in the 1872 death of Morgan Powell. Despite the
fact that there was strong evidence that Mr. Powell’s murder was the result
of a domestic problem, the prosecution was hungry for a second conviction to guarantee
an execution. The weak rationale linking Campbell to the murder was so outrageous,
the defense called only one witness, Charles Powell the decedent’s cousin.
Despite defense testimony from Mr. Powell that destroyed the prosecution’s
case, Campbell was inexplicably convicted. The influence of the Mine bosses extended
to the hierarchy of the Church. The southern anthracite region at the time was
part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Archbishop Wood of Philadelphia, and
Bishop O’Hara of Scranton, excommunicated all members of the AOH in the coal
region. It is important to note that Bishop Michael Domenec of Pittsburgh refused
to join in the condemnation, and the diocesan newspaper openly supported the AOH.
Alec Campbell along with John Donahue, Michael Doyle, and Edward Kelly, were hung
at the Carbon County Jail on June 21, 1877. Six more men, Thomas Duffy, James
Carroll, James Roarity, James Boyle, Thomas Munley, and Hugh McGheehan were hung
the same day in Pottsville, in what has become to be known as The Day of The Rope.
All the condemned had a priest attend to their spiritual needs prior to the execution.
Ten more Irish Americans were to be hung in the following 18 months under similar
charges, until the insanity finally ended. The Carbon County Division #1 of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians proudly bears the name of Alec Campbell.
Page last updated 01/02/01 by Robert Lee
