The Murder of John Watson in North Laurel

When the B&O Rail Road was selecting the best route to go from Baltimore to Washington DC in the 1830s, they knew they would have to “cut through” some hills and ridges to make the train travel as level as possible. Two of the biggest ridges in Howard County were Merrill’s Ridge (near Jessup) and the Patuxent Ridge (between the Little and Big Patuxent Rivers).

The B&O assigned company managers to oversee the work done through these cuts rather than let the hardest and most substantial work be run solely by contractors. Hence, both Jonathan Jessop and John Watson were B&O employees. Jessop, born in Guilford County, North Caroline (a separate series of posts are coming on him) was responsible for managing Merrill’s Ridge which was Section 1 of the second Division (it was earlier referred to as Section 8 of the first Division). Watson, from Lisbon, Maryland, was the manager for cutting through the Patuxent Ridge in Section 4 of the second Division as well as Section 5 which would go through Snowden’s Ridge.

As work continued on the sections of the B&O Washington Branch that had seen trouble in June 1864, a very deliberate and calculated violence took place in November 1834 with many newspaper headlines reporting the “Shocking" and "Horrible" murders. This was not an issue of violence between the Fardowners and Corkonians, but rather worker unrest directed towards those managing the projects.

The Initial Violence

The newspapers and B&O documents reported that the first assault occurred on a Tuesday afternoon, November 18th, in contractor John Gorman’s shanty (temporary log cabin) where John Watson was visiting. It is claimed that John Gorman was previously robbed of $1,200 and blamed some of the workers on the line. The accused were upset and 8-10 of them attacked Gorman in his shanty and afterwards attacked Watson. Gorman was badly beaten and it is said his wife and others were also injured.

Watson was very seriously injured but “unable to walk crawled upon his hands and knees for some distance and sheltered himself behind a tree”. Once he recovered enough to move, he went to his own shanty which was 2 miles away. His friends warned him to leave for his own safety, but he refused.

They Came back to Murder and Loot

The next night, between Wednesday midnight and Thursday 1am, about 30 or 40 returned to finish Watson. Three of his assistants were with him and one of them, William Mercer, who helped Watson momentarily hide, was found and dragged outside and clubbed to death. The gang then went inside and located Watson and did the same to him, crushing his skull open and ransacking his belongings. The Niles National Register of 20 Dec 1834 contained the following account:

“When killing Mercer, someone said, “you will recollect the cartmen you discharged” and then killed him. They came back to search for Watson in the house and found him upstairs threw him down and killed him. It is said he and Mercer were Orangemen but thought the combination of Watson firing men for poor conduct and then receiving yet another contract in the DC area just upset the men enough to kill him. Watson had threats on his life before but ignored them.”

The best information we have as to the likely location of the murders of Watson and Mercer were the camps for Section 4 likely along the western edge of the Washington Turnpike (currently Route 1) between Gorman and Whiskey Bottom Roads.

Amos Williams to Initially Keep the Calm

On Thursday, Philip Thomas, the President of the Board of the B&O RR, sent a letter to Amos Williams at Savage Manufacturing Company asking him to “immediately take possession of whatever papers, books, money or other property left in his {Watson’s] possession” belonging to the B&O. On Friday, Nov. 21st, Philips again wrote to Williams with the hope that the situation is not visibly escalated so as not to cause more attacks while sending an experienced police man from Baltimore to investigate the situation before taking actions. The next day, Philips wrote to Williams thanking him for securing the B&O property at Watson’s station and asked Williams to keep charge of the situation until someone else can take over that duty. He also mentioned that the clerk who escaped, Smith, sent a package of papers to Lisbon [where Watson lived] by mistake and noted he will pick up the books and papers that Williams secured soon.

Philips asked Williams to consider the removal of the shanties in the Watson and Jessop cut sections but wanted to avoid any unneeded provocation of the rioters noting “These people are revengeful, vindictive and unrelenting”. Soon, Lt. Col. Campbell and his troops from the 1st Volunteer Rifle Regiment of Maryland saw to the safety of the residents by going through the shanty areas and rounding up workers before more trouble could occur.

Arrests for the Murders

Soon, Campbell’s forces rounded up about 300 Irish workers from the Jessop and Watson sections, covering about a 4-mile area, and took them to the Baltimore County jail. Campbell reported that “There is strong reason to believe that some, if not all, of the murderers of Watson and Mercer are among the prisoners now in custody, and probably all of the important witnesses. No doubt, among them are many, not only innocent of the crime, but ignorant of the perpetrators of it.” (Niles National Register 12-20-1834).

Eventually, the following men were arrested and indicted for one or both of the murders: Owen Murphy, Terrence Coyle, Patrick Gallagher, and John Burnes. Bryan Riley, Thomas Coyle and William Martin were indicated for the assault and intent to kill Margaret Timmons.