Her name was Megan Nieberle. CBS News released at first, so I am not breaking any confidences or being insensitive. She knew people that I’m friends with. I have known her name since this happened and I kept it to myself but now it’s out there along with an obituary.
She was a nurse at Children’s Hospital. she was a mom, a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a niece, a friend. I could go on, but you get the picture.
And she was a nurse, a natural caregiver. I have so much respect for nurses and she was a children’s nurse. She was a local Chester County girl through and through, having also been a proud graduate of Henderson High School in West Chester.
I have no pity or empathy for Steve Jahn who shot her. Random acts like this make me quite run out of the milk of human kindness.
And while I also understand per the other media reports about how it’s hard to 302 someone. I really feel Tredyffrin should’ve tried harder and I really hate anything that sounds critical of law-enforcement because they have such a tough job and we’ve already lost someone in law-enforcement at the same time in Chester County….at the same hospital.
I will also note to everyone again that there is an official obituary at this point. This is it:
There is also very rando stuff floating across social media. That is literally Clickbait that will probably infect your phone or your tablet or your computer. Please don’t click on them, but please do report those because they’re not being put out by the family. They’re being put out by ghouls.
Steven Jahn mugshot
So NBC10 and Deanna Durante said yesterday I think it was that Jahn’s friends were trying to contact police along with his own call Saturday a couple of hours before the murder of Megan Nieberle? NBC10 interviewed a couple different lawyers about it when I was a little confused about because I thought he was like education related law?
Megan’s life mattered. This also could be any of us. I spoke to a couple of people who are my friends who are in and around Berwyn. Both of these friends of mine had been out around a similar time frame and almost went down that road close to that time when the murder was committed.
Life is a fleeting and fragile thing, indeed.
Now let’s go back to what people told police about this guy was being like, and was he not known to the police for past behavior?
Online there have been many people commenting about situations even from within their own families where the police took someone’s weapon, etc.
I don’t know what else to even say at this point. I didn’t know Megan, but this could’ve been any woman on a dark and often too quiet road. and my opinion remains that this maybe could have been prevented.
My heart goes out to her friends and family. I will remember her in my prayers. Heaven gained another angel, who is there way before she should be.
RIP Megan Nieberle.
May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
May God be with you and bless you: May you see your children’s children. May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness From this day forward.
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home, And may the land of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on, May blue be the skies above you, May pure be the joys that surround you, May true be the hearts that love you.
I have to say if you have ever been inside Immaculata where some of the professors have offices, I am still wondering why they think her office was in such bad shape when I can tell you I have been over there and was somewhat appalled by the offices I saw. And a lot of that has to do with how cell-like they were and very out of date and yes super duper cluttered.
According to the original complaint (see first post embedded above, it has the complaint):
(1) Grimes was chair of the art department until 2007 when it merged with English, literature, communications, and language. Grimes served as director of art programs.
(2) In February 2020, Immaculata stripped her of her title and gave her more responsibility without more pay.
(3) In the summer of 2022, university officials disposed of her personal belongings, research materials, artwork, and more.
Professor Grimes is an artist. Pieces of her art are among the things tossed. When they were tossing her office, was anyone else’s office getting tossed or was she just singled out?
Naturally and quite predictably, Immaculata’s hired legal guns have told a Federal Judge to basically toss out the poor professor’s case.
Here’s what I know about discrimination lawsuits: women don’t just file these willy nilly. They are hard. They are unpleasant. So I think (still) this case bears watching and I feel for this Professor Diane Grimes. We live in a society in this country that would not only sell a louse for it’s hide, but also ditch anyone middle aged in the work place if possible. Over 50 and female in the workplace, and even male is a precarious place to be.
Middle aged = expensive for employers does it not?
This whole case makes me sad. Immaculata should treat it’s employees better, male and female. I am allowed to have that opinion. Because if they did, there wouldn’t be litigation like this, would there be?
Yesterday, I had the privilege of visiting a Duffy’s Cut archaeological dig site thanks to Dr. William Watson of Immaculata. This is my second Duffy’s Cut tour thanks to the good doctor.
I also had the opportunity to meet his team, his brother, and the teachers attending the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Duffy’s Cut Teachers Institute. Everyone was so warm and welcoming to a non-educator.
I have always wanted to see what an archaeological dig was like in real time, so I found it all fascinating!
Thanks Bill for including me!!!
Here is the PBS video of a few years ago. I have watched it a few time now and it still gets me every time – really powerful stuff:
Dear Cowards who hit the dog on W. King Road this afternoon:
Here is the dog you hit. She’s a pretty little girl isn’t she? She is beloved to her humans and right now she’s at an emergency vet fighting to stay with her people.
Yes, she got out. It was an accident, it happens. But you hit this precious little dog and kept driving! How can anyone with a heart or soul or a conscience do that? How could you have not stopped and pulled over?
What is wrong with you that you did not stop?
Everyone else around you stopped.
You know you hit this dog and you kept on driving.
Accidents happen, it’s how you deal with them that makes all the difference.
Please contact East Whiteland Police Department and own up to this. At least to apologize to the family.
To anyone else who is reading this post:
This little dog was hit on W. King Rd. mid afternoon this afternoon. If you know anything or you have any details on whomever it is that hit this dog please contact East Whiteland Police Department.
It was an accident, a horrible accident but the kids who went into the road to get the dog could have been hit by traffic if other people hadn’t stopped.
God bless the nice couple who stopped and helped the mom and her children get the dog to an emergency vet.
We are all hoping that St. Francis is watching over this beloved pet and she continues to hold her own. We asked that any animal lovers out there whisper a little prayer for this sweet little dog.
And to those who travel back-and-forth on W. King Rd. please slow down. No one pays enough attention to the speed limit and it is so easy to fly from the edge of Immaculata’s campus out past the Little League field. Next time it might be a human being who is hit and we don’t want that.
Now that the weather is nice W. King Rd. is dangerously busy seven days a week, especially when there are activities like all the Little League games.
People are in too much of a hurry.
Slow down… please.
And again, if anyone knows who hit this poor little dog please contact East Whiteland Police Department. It’s the right thing to do. We should still live in a world where occasionally people do the right thing.
I saw Duffy’s Cut today. It took my breath away. It is such a compelling story, and it is an eerie, silent, almost sacred place. Yet it is also an inconvenient history, an inconvenient truth.
When I was little my one grandfather whom I called Poppy would tell me stories of how the Irish were persecuted at different times in this country (John Francis Xavier Gallen was Irish and born in the late 19th century) . When he was a little boy, my great grandmother Rebecca Nesbitt Gallen was in service and was the summer housekeeper to the Cassatt Family in Haverford. If I recall correctly, he lost a lot of family during the Spanish Flu Pandemic of the early 20th century, but I digress. Poppy would tell me of anti-Irish sentiment and tales of “Irish need not apply”.
My other grandfather, Pop Pop, would tell me of anti-Italian sentiment. Poppy’s wife, my grandmother (my Mumma), who was Pennsylvania German, would tell me tales of anti- German sentiment during both world wars. And so did my own mother. Yes, I am off on a slight tangent here, but for all that the United States was founded as a nation of immigrants, different sets of immigrants have been persecuted at different times throughout our history and even today. Considering the immigrant stock that runs through my veins I identify with this and am basically unapologetic about my views.
So maybe while Duffy’s Cut is one of Chester County’s most astounding and horrific pieces of history, can it also be said cruelty to various sets of immigrants is as much a part of this country’s inconvenient history as slavery and indentured servitude were?
But back to Duffy’s Cut. I heard about that from my Poppy as a little girl, yet we never learned about it in history class in school. Well one history teacher I had knew of it, but it wasn’t taught to us.
I first wrote about Duffy’s Cut in 2013. I happened to be passing by the Duffy’s Cut historical marker at the time, and stopped to photograph it. Given the clouds of mystery and intrigue still surrounding Duffy’s Cut, I think the foggy afternoon was perfect. I also think that given the development occurring in Malvern (borough and East Whiteland) by developers who don’t truly give a rat’s fanny about the area, the history, or the current residents (they care about building and selling projects) it is also appropriate to remember the history. You can never truly move forward into the future if you can’t honor the past, or that is just my opinion as a mere mortal and female.
Duffy’s Cut is a big deal. What was Duffy’s Cut? Most simplistically the mass murder of Irish rail workers in 1832 around the time of a cholera outbreak they were blamed for but most say in actuality didn’t cause.
…..Duffy’s Cut, the….tale of 57 Irish immigrants who left their deeply divided homeland in search of a better life in America, only to be discriminated against, struck with disease, and tossed into a mass grave beside the tracks within two and a half weeks of their arrival….. The tale of Duffy’s Cut is more than a local story; it’s even more than an Irish story. It’s a story of human indifference and cruelty, of family legends, and of the power of technology to uncover the truth.
In April 1832, a ship called the John Stamp embarked on a journey from Derry, Ireland, to Philadelphia. Aboard the ship were about one hundred Irish immigrants. They left poverty and religious strife in Ireland; they came in search of “The American Dream.” After a long journey, the John Stamp arrived in Philadelphia safely on June 23, 1832, during an unusually hot and humid summer. Historian Earl Schandelmeier III sums up what it was like for an immigrant at this time, “you came over and either made your way or you didn’t.”
…..In charge of a particularly difficult portion of this stretch [of Railroad] was Phillip Duffy, an Irish contractor who lived in Willistown Township, Chester County. He had many contracts with the Philadelphia & Columbia and West Chester Railroads from 1829 to 1849. Track Mile 59 of the former was significantly more difficult than any other mile and delayed the whole project for over a year….Track mile 59, later known as Duffy’s Cut, was a setback. Duffy was in need of men who would work tirelessly for little pay.
Phillip Duffy ventured down to the Philadelphia docks on June 23, 1832, and met the immigrants who had just come ashore from the John Stamp. He greeted the immigrants and persuaded 57 of them to work for him on track mile 59 (Duffy’s Cut). The men were put up in a shantytown and given strict orders not to leave the camp. Duffy’s new laborers were loathed by locals; they were looked upon as less than human…. within two and a half weeks all 57 were dead.
There had been a cholera outbreak. People believed the Irish bought the disease with them. They didn’t as the records for the ship would later prove, but it didn’t matter. Those 57 men (and a woman) were immigrants who spoke mostly Gaelic and lived in the shanty town created to house them next to the railroad (Philadelphia and Columbia line) they were helping create in Malvern.
These immigrants were different. They were “dirty Irish” and locals at the time were suspect of them and threatened by them. I am sorry that sounds awful, but it is an unfortunate truth. I think that and the murder of at least some of these Irish rail workers is why this story has taken so long to unfold and is still continuing.
For example did you know that there is an edition of a paper that was a predecessor (I believe) of the Daily Local called the Village Record.
The October 3, 1832 edition of the paper had an accurate telling of what happened down at Duffy’s Cut earlier that year. The edition of the paper disappeared. The only thing that still exists is the November 8th correction article. The more palatable version of events (yet how was any of it ever palatable or acceptable?)
So my friend and I met with Dr. William Watson at Immaculata today, and he took us to the site. I will not disclose the exact location of the site because well, shall we say, Duffy’s Cut still makes people uncomfortable. And modern day residents who live near this piece of history deserve to NOT be pestered by amateur sleuths and ghost chasers.
Dr. Watson and his brother Reverend Frank Watson became intrigued by Duffy’s Cut when they were given a file that had been in the possession of their grandfather, Joseph F. Tripician. Their grandfather had been a secretary to Martin Clement, the 11th president of The Pennsylvania Railroad. Their grandfather had Clement’s old file on Duffy’s Cut. (And it was Clement who put up the stone monument at the edge of the tracks.)
Photo courtesy or Rev Frank Watson and Dr William Watson – Part of the PRR employee Julian Sachse document from the papers of Mr. Tripician from Martin Clement. This image appears many places including where I found it Duffy’s Cut: The Murder Mystery of Malvern By William S. Patton III, Spring 2014 (PSU.edu)
In April 2010 Smithsonian Magazine had this amazing article on Duffy’s Cut. You can read it online today.
And articles keep being written . Especially because Dr. Watson and his brother and their team have actually gotten some of the remains returned to family descendants in Ireland to be buried with other family members.
The world has taken notice of Duffy’s Cut and what happened there. Perhaps more so than around here truth be told. However, in 2012 an Inquirer reporter named Kristin Holmes wrote a wonderful article about the Duffy’s Cut workers remains which were given burial space at West Laurel Hill Cemetery.
In the spring of 2013, the New York Times continued with another part of the story: they covered the remains of young John Ruddy being returned to his descendants in Ireland:
MALVERN, Pa. — They laid his bones in a bed of Bubble Wrap, with a care beyond what is normally given to fragile things. They double-boxed those bones and carried them last month to the United Parcel Service office on Spruce Street in Philadelphia. Then they printed out the address and paid the fee.
With that, the remains of a young man were soon soaring over the Atlantic Ocean he had crossed once in a three-masted ship. His name is believed to have been John Ruddy, and he was being returned to the Ireland he had left as a strapping teenage laborer. In 1832.….Three weeks ago, the Watson brothers joined a small crowd gathered in a church cemetery in the small Donegal town of Ardara. They prayed and sang under a limestone sky, as a young laborer, late of Duffy’s Cut, received his delayed but proper burial.
Decades ago, just before the Pennsylvania Railroad was auctioned off, Watson’s grandfather — who worked for the company — saved key company records before they were destroyed. Among them were documents that hypothesized the location of the mass grave and reported the deaths of 57 workers.
The documents also clearly stated that the information was intended to remain a secret.
It was a “crazy coincidence” that the railroad company’s records survived through his family, Watson said.
The papers confirmed fears of a cover up. If the men’s deaths were due to cholera, why weren’t they recorded in a local paper, like most cholera deaths were at that time? And why would some of the bodies have been brutalized?
The answers remain elusive.
Have you noticed when you mention Duffy’s Cut you get many reactions/opinions? Ok I get it. Some day the entire truth will come out….and I wouldn’t want to be related to people who either took part in making these workers disappear or the cover up which ensued. It will be like saying you are related to Benedict Arnold. Or a slave owner. And it is something else historically wonky that basically happened in East Whiteland. (Dare I say it? Has the East Whiteland Historical Commission ever opined on this? Participated in research in any way? Or just erected a slightly historically inaccurate sign?)
But it is part of our history around here. And for those of us with at least partial Irish lineage, well, don’t you just want to know? Will finally learning the truth be so bad? John Ruddy from Donegal and the woman Catherine Burns from Tyrone have been returned to their modern descendants and buried in Ireland. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to identify the remains of more workers so that they could be sent home to their modern day descendants and rest in peace?
Fresh research and searching for the truth is underway. That has gotten a lot of coverage the past few months in Ireland, incidentally:
You will notice in the Walt Hunter report the incorrect verbiage on the Duffy’s Cut sign by the stone monument – by the East Whiteland Historical Commission. I mean I guess they tried but they state the wrong year (1834 when the incidents occurred in 1832) and the well wrong cause of death – black diphtheria, and the disease was cholera. The text of the sign is “Burial Plot of Irish Railroad Workers. Died Summer of 1834 of Black Diptheria- East Whiteland Historical Commission.”
Core samples are being taken. Amtrak seems to be cooperating a little more (I call that a true Christmas miracle – hopefully that continues.)
And oh yeah, thanks to the latest Walt Hunter story Duffy’s Cut has even made People Magazine. So what of other local media? Since it was the paper that possibly eventually became the Daily Local (Village Record, West Chester, PA) had that article that disappeared from October 3rd, 1832 how about an in-depth update from our local paper or any of the other Chester County newspapers?
Dr. Watson took us to the little museum at Immaculata where we saw the artifacts and heard the tale. I also find it fascinating how many songs and musical tributes to Duffy’s Cut exist. (You can buy a CD of songs on the Duffy’s Cut Project Website.) But it was when he took us to the site where it hit home ten days before Christmas.
The site feels almost sacred and is so quiet except for the occasional piercing whistle of a passing train or a hawk overhead. Dr. Watson told us not only the tale of the workers but his tale of his grandfather’s file and all the twists and turns it has taken to get this far.
And as his words floated in the air around us and I gazed at a stone monument and surrounding woods, could I heard in my imagination the sounds of the workers? Did they just sort of float in the air outside of our normal consciousness? I am not being fey or deliberately dotty but when you stand there and you hear what happened to them, you can almost see and hear the past…and feel it.
We need to put this right. We need to support this ongoing project as a community. It is part of our history on so many levels, like it or not. We can’t undo what happened, but we can help correct it on some level by finally getting the entire story told.
And finally we can learn from this. Every generation in this country founded by immigrants fleeing persecution, we somehow as a nation seem to persecute over and over different sets of NEW immigrants to this country. How is that showing the religious and cultural tolerance on which this country was founded?
As a society, we can do better. We need to honor our dead locally whether at Duffy’s Cut or the ruins of Ebenezer AME Church on Bacton Hill Road, or farther out towards Kennett Square and elsewhere where other bits of our history is disappearing whether it takes the form of old houses involved in the Underground Railroad, to all the abandoned graveyards that dot Chester County and the rest of the state.
We shouldn’t whitewash our history or pretend uncomfortable and horrific things didn’t happen. We learn from those mistakes. If you cover them up, as human beings we are then doomed to repeat them unless we break the cycle and face the past.
I have a bunch of photos from today from the site and the museum. I will get to them over the next day or so. You can visit the Duffy’s Cut Museum in the Library at Immaculata when the library is open. The actual Duffy’s Cut site is NOT open to the public it is impossibly located to do that, so kindly respect that fact because so many over the years have not. People folly hunting for Duffy’s Cut only jeopardize the work that archeologists, geologists, and historians are trying to accomplish and that is not right.
Before I sign off, a big thank you to Dr. William Watson. He is kind of a big deal history professor and he took the time for us to show us Duffy’s Cut and tell us all about their work surrounding that. Educators like him make all the difference in how you learn and I think his students are so very lucky to have a professor with a passion for history like he has.
This has been a very long post….so thanks for reading through until the end and for stopping by.
Someone must be protesting something being built at Immaculata.
I hope it doesn’t have to do with the Camilla Hall project as that is the place where there is the Convent Home and Healthcare Center of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Translation, this is like a nursing home and medical center. They take care of their own and that is an amazingly good thing.
I think these sisters do a lot for the community at large and I was left feeling very uncomfortable that someone was seemingly protesting them or someone working for them along King Road.
I do not object to unions, I don’t want anyone to think that, but I just don’t think people should be unkind to the sisters.
So please, whoever this is, if you have a beef with a non-union company doing work for the nuns, take your protest to them wherever their business is actually located, and leave the sisters be.
The sisters are good to our community. And trust me, it is also rare that an academic institution is also good to the community. I used to live near a couple which weren’t and trust me, if they were the ones being protested I would not have said a word.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of visiting a Duffy’s Cut archaeological dig site thanks to Dr. William Watson of Immaculata. This is my second Duffy’s Cut tour thanks to the good doctor.
