Born in William Penn in 1911, Thomas F. Barrett retired
as the City Editor
for the Shenandoah Evening Herald. His weekly column, Short & Snappy
addressed local issues and highly visible topics in a lighter way.
Tom Barrett corresponded with the Philadelphia Evening
Bulletin, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Associated Press and the United
Press. He had many short stories published in True Crime and True
Detective magazines, and the United Mine Workers Journal.
His book, The Mollies Were Men, published in 1969 by Vantage
Press, told the story of the arrests and trials of the Molly Maguires.
His connections with local
papers and editors provided him the access to many old files and records.
With this knowledge and his experience as a reporter, he built the pages of history into
this book. Mr. Barrett's son, Dr. Thomas Barrett, has written an
updated 2003 edition
of the book:
The Mollies Were Men (Second Edition): The Final Chapter, available in the
coalregion.com bookstore.
Several of Tom Sr's pocket books provided information for miners and
showed the work schedules of the
anthracite mines, including those that were shut down. These were used to
confirm work histories for pensions and retirement benefits. He gave the
Mine Workers the directions for How to Organize and Establish Rules of
Order for Meetings.
Short stories by Mr. Barrett include The Snow Dance
(about the Dorsey Brothers), Which is Witch, The Ballet Box, and
Remnants of the Mine Patch. He also established the annual Miners Minstrels
which were vaudeville productions presented throughout the coal region to
raise money for veterans, orphans, schools, and churches.
Upon his death, a Philadelphia Evening Bulletin retired reporter
wrote a special letter to the Shenandoah paper titled: "Tom Barrett - a
legend in the Coal Region."