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He’s is the last of the Duffy’s Cut victim to be afforded a grave of his own.
The historical dig team headed by Dr. William Watson of Im- maculata University believes it has found the body of another man on the suburban Philadel- phia site that is the final resting place of Irish railroad workers who died there in the early 1830s.
Known for now as “the man under the tree,” the remains are under what is left of a 100-foot tall tulip poplar tree, most of which was cut down about a month ago.
“There is still a hefty stump there and a root ball the size of a small truck which we are work- ing through now,” said Watson.
“We have a good portion of his legs out. Recently, I excavated something that did not look like a bone or the remains of a coffin. When we it cleaned up, it ap- peared to be a pocket knife or a straight razor which must have been in his pocket when he was buried,” Watson added.
“We expect to be finished up in the valley with the individual graves by the end of this week and our geologist, Tim Bechtel, has told us that the main grave appears to be located up behind the 1909 stone wall adjacent to the tracks.
“Amtrak gave us permission to do a GPR survey up there and we are certainly hoping and praying
that Amtrak will allow us to ex- cavate there if we can present them with geological data show- ing where the graves are lo- cated,” Watson said in reference to what is believed to be a mass grave at Duffy’s Cut.
“It would be so tragic if we got the individual burials in the val- ley but were not permitted to get the rest of the men buried in the
main ossuary. “The Philadelphia and Colum-
bia Railroad did not do good by our men in 1832, and we can only hope that the modern day rail- road will help rectify the wrong perpetrated so long ago and allow the men to be properly re- buried in the cemetery alongside their comrades whom we have excavated in the valley.”
