THE SHIN HOLLOW WAR.
President Loder being extremely anxious to have the road through
to Port Jervis by January 1, 1848, the contractors were offered
handsome bonuses to hasten the work. The laborers, newly arrived
in this country, were mostly of that class known as "Wild
Irishmen," and all of them had the factional hatreds and
belligerent traditions of their native land still as alive in
their breasts, and as ready to prompt them to action, as they
were among the bogs and on the green turf of Erin. It happened
that those two bitterly opposed factions, the Far-downers and
the Corkonians, were largely represented among these laborers.
This was particularly the situation on the section of the work
of which Shin Hollow was the centre.
Shin Hollow was, and is, a considerable stretch of flat land
lying between the western face of the mountain range and the foothills,
four miles east of Port Jervis. The old Kingston and Milford turnpike,
which crossed the mountain from Finchville, passed through Shin
Hollow, and the course of that long-forgotten highway is yet visible
there.
The locality has been known as Shin Hollow longer than the
oldest inhabitant can remember, but what the origin of that name
was no one can tell. The grading for the railroad required the
making of a cut a mile or more long through the western side of
Shin Hollow, and the cut had necessarily to be made so deep that
when the railroad was done and the cars were running, the surface
of the Hollow was so far above the tops of the cars that, although
the county maps showed Shin Hollow as on the line of the railroad,
passengers in the cars who might be on the watch to see what sort
of a place it was, could see nothing but a forest-clad mountain
front on one side, and a blank rise of earth on the other; and
that is all they can see of Shin Hollow from the cars to-day.
Not that there is much to see of Shin Hollow, even if one should
be curious enough to find his way to the top of the cut and take
a look at the spot. There is nothing there but a lonely opening
in the hills, with a couple of melancholy farms occupying some
of the space, and a discouraged-looking house or two squatting
on them, seemingly wondering what they are there for. But fifty
years ago, when the railroad was building through that way, Shin
Hollow was a lively place. It was the headquarters of Carmichael
& Stranahan, contractors for making a big section of that
costly part of the railroad. They had in their employ about two
hundred men, a force composed largely of the Corkonian element
of the Irish, but comprising also a small contingent of quiet,
plodding, unobtrusive Germans, familiarly and derisively known
to the Irish as the "dom Dootch." The contractors had
a big store at Shin Hollow. Wood & Shute had another one,
and for awhile Blizzard & Clark ran one. Thomas O'Brien was
the sub-contractor who was cutting the way for the railroad through
the great wall of rock a mile west of Shin Hollow, a passage known
then as the Blue Rock Cut, but which modern nomenclature has transformed
info Black Rock Cut. He had as foreman one James O'Brien, who
labored to increase his income by keeping a boarding-house at
Shin Hollow. Carmichael & Stranahan also kept a boarding-house.
So did a German named Volmer. All those buildings were rude but
commodious shanties, the boarding-houses having lofts, or galleries,
around the sides, which were held up by posts, and where the boarders
slept. Besides these structures there were many smaller shanties
scattered about in the Hollow, and also on the side of the mountain,
in which certain laborers "boarded themselves," or where
buxom "widdies" sought to turn an honest penny by catering
to the railroaders in the ways of pork and "peraties,"
or a kindly "drop of the craythur." Thus the Shin Hollow
of fifty years ago might have boasted of a steady population of
at least 200, and, on occasion, of a floating population of a
hundred or so more.
In searching for the impelling cause of the Shin Hollow War,
fifty years after it occurred, with no written record to guide
him, the historian is confronted with the testimony of tradition,
and the uncertain memory of a few who were among those living
in the locality when the noisy riot occurred, and who live there
still. The pay of railroad laborers on the Shawangunk Mountains
section of the New York and Erie Railroad had been fixed at seventy-five
cents a day. One story is that the Corkorian sons of the Green
Isle came first upon the work, and established a precedent by
accepting that pay as sufficient and satisfactory. Later, the
Shamrocks, or Far-downers, began to respond to the call for men,
and their rich and hot blood soon rebelled at seventy-five cents
a day, although Jim O'Brien is reported to have declared, in an
early burst of confidence, that "Divil a wan o' dthem was
afther earnin' dthe likes o' dthat in six days on dthe ould sod,
bad 'cess to dthem!" Another version is that the trouble
began with the boarding-houses at Shin Hollow "skimping"
the men in their rations, and with the contractors' clerks cheating
them in settling, and overcharging them at the stores for their
supplies. Still another account fixes the responsibility of the
Shin Hollow War on the hiring of the Germans by the contractors,
and putting them on the work. But the weight of evidence is that
the number of Far-downers after awhile became much greater along
the line than that of the Corkonians, and that at last the Old
Adam got the better of them, and they felt that they would not
be true to their traditions if they did not rise up and break
an occasional Corkonian head.
At any rate, about the middle of January, 1847, the Far-downers
began to be aggressive. Fights with groups of the other faction
of their countrymen became of daily and nightly occurrence, anywhere
between Otisville and Shin Hollow. Saturday, January 30th a large
body of Far-downers formed near the top of the mountain, and marching
to a section of Carmichael & Shanahan's contract, attacked
the Corkonians there with clubs and stones, wounding several severely,
and compelling the gang to throw away their tools and take an
oath that they would leave the work. The following Monday a still
stronger force of the belligerent Far-downers, many of them armed
with guns which they had in some manner got possession of, proceeded
to another part of Carmichael & Shanahan's section, surrounded
the laborers, fired a volley over their heads, and declared that
they would riddle them with shot if they did not quit work. The
Corkonians threw down their tools. Their foes then drove them
before them to Shin Hollow, where they forced the contractors'
agent to pay the men off and discharge them. In this assault many
of the assailed were knocked down and badly beaten, and it was
said, and is still believed by many, that one man was killed in
the melee.
After dealing thus with that gang of Corkonians, the triumphant
Far-downers marched, with fierce yells and dire threats, upon
that part of the work where the Germans were employed, vowing
that they would show the "Dootch" no mercy. They were
not prepared for the reception that awaited them. The Germans,
although few in numbers, had cool heads among them, and they received
the confident Irish with such vigor and determination that the
latter were soon flying from the field, bearing with them two
or three of their number whose ardor was not proof against the
sturdy blows of the resolute Germans.
These raids of the Far-downers created a panic among the other
laborers, and work was almost suspended along the mountain. The
Germans were the only ones that did not lose a day. The Irishmen
who had been driven from their jobs still loitered about Shin
Hollow. All remained quiet along the line after the affray until
the evening of Wednesday, February 3d. The rumor had spread that
the Corkonians had resolved to return to work. Early on the evening
of February 3d, firing of guns was heard at frequent intervals
in the woods at different points between Shin Hollow and the Hog-back,
as the summit of the Deerpark Pass was called, and through which
the railroad was being constructed. These shots seemed in the
nature of signals of some kind, but they ceased at last,
and everything was quiet. The Corkonians at Shin Hollow had climbed
to their bunks in the boarding-house lofts, and the stores and
shanties were closed for the night.
It is to be presumed that Shin Hollow was wrapped in profound
slumber when, at midnight, the Far-downers, in a body one hundred
strong, and armed, marched into the place, divided their forces,
and proceeded half to one boarding-house and half to another.
The inmates of the houses were ignorant of the presence of their
enemies until they were awakened by the smashing of windows and
doors, the discharging of guns and pistols through the breaches
thus made, and the wild yells and cries of the assailing party.
The Corkonians seemed to have been but poorly armed, for they
made but a weak resistance to the attack. At O'Brien's boarding-house,
where most of the men were in the lofts, they hastily pulled up
the ladders by which they climbed to their bunks, and huddled
down, as they supposed, out of harm's way. The Far-downers swarmed
into the place and quickly beat into subjection such of the inmates
as were to be got at. The men in the lofts refusing to come down
and meet with similar treatment, the attacking party hunted up
axes, and quickly chopped down the posts that supported the lofts,
and brought the latter and their frightened occupants crashing
into a heap on the floor. After hammering the Corkonians until
there were few unbroken heads, or noses that were not bloody,
the rioters made their victims swear, at the gun's muzzle, that
they would quit that locality forthwith.
A similar scene was enacted at the other boarding-house, although
there it was not necessary for the rioters to chop down the posts
to make the objects of their wrath "come down." One
Corkonian, who was especially obnoxious to the Far-downers, was
shoved into a big Dutch oven, and imprisoned and left there by
his captors with the cheering assurance that they would return
when they got time, build a fire under the oven, and bake him.
This gang of rioters compelled every one of their victims to get
on his knees and swear that he would leave the place, after which
he would be helped to his feet by a vigorous kick from the heavy
brogan of some lusty Far-downer.
Having dealt to their satisfaction with their Irish fellow-citizens,
some one of their number raised the cry:
"To hell wid dthe Dootch!"
This was a signal for a rush to the German quarter of Shin
Hollow. Race hatred was augmented by the recollection of the victory
the Germans had won over the Irish a few days before, and the
latter dashed forward to a new attack upon the Germans, confident
this time of inflicting severe punishment upon them, and forcing
them to fly from the Hollow. But the Germans, being more calculating
and methodical than their Irish fellow-workmen, had suspected
the possibility of such an outbreak as this, and were prepared
for it. They had a leader named Wisler. He had quietly obtained
guns and ammunition from Port Jervis, Otisville, and Middletown.
The uproar made by the attack on the Irish quarter had aroused
the Germans, and they were drawn up in line in the darkness, under
orders from Wisler, ready for action when the wild Irish detachment
came whooping and yelling to the assault. The Irish were within
a few yards of the German quarter, when just ahead of them a streak
of fire punctured the darkness, and they felt and heard shot rattling
upon and about them. They halted in confusion. Before they could
recover and make a second rush, another streak of fire showed
them a momentary gleam of determined Teuton faces, and the Irish
forces broke and fled toward the woods. The Germans pursued them,
and captured one prisoner, who had been filled with shot from
his neck to his heels.
The most intense excitement prevailed at Shin Hollow the rest
of the night. The Far-downers bombarded the place from the woods,
whither they had fled from the Germans. The contractors now concluded
that it was time to take some action toward putting an end to
the troubles, for their work was being seriously delayed by the
unsettled condition of affairs. A man was sent to Otisville with
instructions to despatch a message to Sheriff Welling, at Goshen,
by the train that left Otisville early in the morning. The sheriff
with a posse arrived at Shin Hollow during the forenoon, but being
unable to quell the riot or arrest any of the rioters, he called
on the Deerpark Militia to aid him. Every town maintained a company
of militia in those days, and Capt. Peter Swartwout summoned his
company, and led it from Port Jervis to the scene of the Shin
Hollow War. In responding to this call to duty, the Deerpark Guards
made their rendezvous at Hilferty's Hotel, at Carpenter's Point,
and marched up the old Finchville road, under the high rocks,
and, as High Private M. C. Everitt says, "If there had been
three or four old women, with their aprons full of stones, on
top of those rocks, and had bombarded us just at that time, I
think they would have routed us."
There were twenty-five or thirty men in the company, most of
them subsequently prominent in the affairs of Port Jervis and
the surrounding country, but only two or three of them surviving.
Among the volunteers, besides Mr. Everitt, were Charles St. John,
afterwards Congressman, and Charles S. Ball, son of Dr. Ball,
a man of more than local celebrity. Young Ball was one of the
engineer corps then in charge of the railroad work west of Port
Jervis. As the company approached the scene of the disturbance
they were divided into squads by Capt. Swartwout, for the purpose
of reconnoitring and investigating the shanties that were scattered
about in the woods. About this time a man came out of one of the
shanties and ran for the better security of the woods. As he did
so, Private Ennis, another of the Erie engineer corps, stepped
forward from the ranks, and bringing his gun to his shoulder,
cried out
"Shall I shoot?"
Capt. Swartwout, true to the dignity of his office, and resolved
on maintaining discipline, smote Ennis a resounding blow with
the flat of his sword across the seat of his trousers, and shouted:
"Fall in here and wait for orders, or I'll shoot you!"
This the Captain could not well have done without confiscating
for the moment some comrade's gun, for on leaving Hilferty's he
had let High Private Everitt take the rifle he himself had started
with, Everitt having no gun of his own, the Captain being content
to march with his sword alone. Ennis fell back into the ranks
without shooting, and the campaign was resumed. The Shin Hollow
combatants, frightened at the advance of this formidable army
of military, moving as it did with such amazing tactics, shut
themselves up in such shanties as they could get into, or fled
to the woods. The Deerpark Volunteers, nothing daunted, scoured
the locality, and took many prisoners. These, the Company re-forming
in double line for the purpose, were marched to the office of-
the paymaster of the contractors, where they were paid off and
promptly discharged, and warned to leave the neighborhood. For
fear that they would not leave, and that more trouble would ensue,
two of the Deerpark company, Samuel Smith and "Case"
Caskey, were left on the grounds with a cannon to maintain the
peace, and the remainder of the company returned home, covered
with some glory, but not enough to suit a number of the volunteers,
among them Charles S. Ball. He was "spoiling for a fight,"
and actually did fire at one man, but whether disastrously or
not was never known. Smith, his comrade, and the cannon remained
a week or so at Shin Hollow, when, it being apparent that the
trouble was over, they returned home.
"If the rioters had only known it, though," says
High Private Everitt, in recalling the incidents of the war for
the writer hereof, "they could have had a great deal of fun
with that battery of artillery, for neither Smith nor Caskey knew
any more about loading or firing a cannon than if he had never
seen one."
This somewhat Falstaffian detachment of militia was accompanied
by Oliver Young, Esq., lawyer and influential citizen. He addressed
the rioters as the Deerpark Guards advanced, admonishing them
that they were in serious contempt of the law, and that the whole
power of the State would be called upon to suppress and punish
them if necessary. Some of the prisoners taken were turned over
to the Sheriff, who escorted them to Goshen, where they were given
a hearing and heavily fined. They were then taken back to Shin
Hollow, and the contractors settled with them and discharged them.
This did not entirely quell the riotous spirit of the Irish.
A squad of militia was kept on the grounds for nearly a month,
by which time the ringleaders were found out, summarily discharged,
and warned out of the region. These guards were from Middletown
or Goshen. Unlike the Port Jervis Militia, they had sought the
seat of war clad in their dress parade uniforms, which included
white trousers and fine boots. They were transported on a car
run from Otisville, in charge of Conductor W. H. Stewart. He stopped
the car about a mile from the scene of hostilities, and unloaded
the "troops." The ground was covered with snow and slush
to the depth of several inches, through which the dapper home
guards were forced to march, much to their disgust and discomfiture.
But peace was gradually restored, and the Shin Hollow War passed
down into history as an engagement in which much blood was shed,
but no lives were positively known to have been lost, although
legend insists that the Germans killed three of the Irish in that
night attack, and buried them in the woods.
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