GIRARDVILLE - A reenactment of the coroner's inquest into the 1875 murder of Squire Thomas Gwyther was held Sunday as part of the third annual Girardville Town Tour.
The testimony presented during the inquest led to a charge of murder against William "Bill" Love, Gwyther's neighbor, but the case never made it to court since Love disappeared and was never found.
Sponsored by the Girardville Historical Society, the inquest reenactment was a unique way of telling a part of Girardville's unique history, with local residents dressed in period clothing presenting testimony on what they saw, heard and knew about the events on Aug. 14, 1875, to the six-man coroner's jury. Leading the inquest was Schuylkill County Coroner Dr. Charles Edward Quail, Auburn, portrayed by James Kilker, Girardville.
The location of the reenactment at William and Ogden streets was important in that the home of Gwyther, the local justice of the peace, was located near the intersection.
The narrator for the town tour was Rosalie Kuzma, who organized the event and created many of the period clothing.
"Because the murder occurred during this time period, it is said to be planned and plotted by the Molly Maguires," said Kuzma, noting that Gwyther was Protestant and Love was Irish Catholic. "To further add to the assassination theory, on that same night that Gwyther was shot, an Irishman named Thomas Hurley allegedly murdered a Welshman, Gomer James, at a picnic at Glover's Hill Grove in Shenandoah approximately five miles away, and so the two murders were linked together and said to be Mollie-related, with no thought given that the two murders on the same night could be purely coincidental."
Kuzma explained a bit of the time's history and what led to Gwyther's murder.
"August 1875 marked the end of a major strike at the coal mines. The miners had just been paid for the first time in six months. As one might expect, they were celebrating on Saturday, Aug. 14, 1875. Things got out of hand at Wendel's Tavern in Girardville and a man named Hoary assaulted John Stitzel. A shot was fired. Squire Thomas Gwyther, the local justice of the peace, happened to be in the tavern and left with Mr. Stitzel to swear out a warrant for Hoary's arrest. Billy Love, Gwyther's neighbor, did not want his friend Hoary arrested and tried to intervene. His intervention proved to be fatal to Squire Gwyther."
The autopsy by Quail and his deputy, A.B. Sherman, M.D., showed gunshot wounds scattered over the whole chest - both sides - on the left side of abdomen, with said marks being dark discoloration from gunshot having entered the body. There were more than 60 wounds, indicative of a shotgun.
Kilker, an attorney, spoke of the speed of the inquest, from the day of the murder on Aug. 14 to the conclusion reached on Aug. 16.
"We have to imagine that this is 1875, the day after this man (Gwyther) was shot and it was hot," Kilker said. "This inquest took place in the descendant's family home."
Providing the testimony were John Stitzel, portrayed by Robert Krick; Mary Ann Gwyther Baldwin (Carol Carduff), Ann Gorman (Lucretia Christman), Elizabeth Bradbury (Betty Moran), Mary Adams (Jean Weist), Mary Love (Rose Yost), Ann Whalen (Edna Labie), Leeborgh McCreen (Julie Rutko), Alice Sohlersman (Amanda Joyce), Samuel Bradbury (Michael Covach), Maggie Love (Kaley Joyce) and Barbara Davis (Alexis Schrantz).
Kuzma said some of the historical material and information used in this presentation was found in the USGEMWeb Archives from the information contributed to that website by Matt Cross, as well as material from the Girardville Historical Society archives.
After the reenactment, Thomas Dempsey, Girardville, who is well studied in local history, said Love was never apprehended.
"He took off and they never got him," said Dempsey, explaining that Love's brother, Thomas, was arrested by town constable Jack Kehoe and held overnight in jail, possibly as a ruse to allow William Love time to escape.
"The next day is when they found out that it was Tom in jail and not Billy," Dempsey said. "Five years later, they supposedly found Love in Canada and they were going to extradite him, but there was something in the paper a couple of weeks later that said it wasn't Love. He just disappeared into thin air," Dempsey said.
"Kehoe denied the accusation against him and it could never be proven otherwise," Kuzma said.
The second part of the tour was across the street at 105 W. Ogden St., at the former home of the Nattress family.
"There were two girls and one boy in the Nattress family who were the last ones to live in this house," Kuzma said before her presentation in the yard. "I'm going to tell a little bit about the Nattresses, how the Nattress name came into Girardville, and how it pertains to this house."