By LORNA CHEROT LITTLEWAY
THE ROELIFF JANSEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY was the site of a talk about the 19th century’s greatest champion boxing match, staged in Boston Corner, Sunday, March 10. The talk was organized by the Boston Corner Community Group and featured aspiring filmmaker Rich Rosenzweig, whose “night job” is drummer in the “Spamalot” musical on Broadway.
Rosenzweig’s presentation included vintage slides of the pugalists, John Morrissey and Yankee Sullivan, posters and newspaper headlines touting the $2,000 prize money as well as bucolic scenes of Berkshire County, MA, which included Boston Corner at that time. How did such an out of the way place like Boston Corner attract a major sport event?
The choice of location was decided by a coin toss, which Morrissey won. Rosenzweig explained that although boxing was very popular in New York City it was also illegal there. Boston Corner was serviced by the Harlem Railroad, which afforded fight enthusiasts from the city easy access.
Rosenzweig added that Boston Corner had a “reputation for lawlessness.” Criminals discovered that the 1,000-acre area with only 20 farm families had “no laws, no taxes and no voting.” Horse thieves, looking to supply the Saratoga tracks, would dye equines’ coats and hide them in rock crevices in the Berkshires known as “blow holes.”
The topography of Boston Corner formed a “natural amphitheater” on a slope. Not only could fans from New York City, Albany and Troy attend but there was a local audience of Irish immigrant railroad and iron ore workers too. It was a “crazy few days” before the fight when between 3,000 to 4,500 people descended on Boston Corner, which had no public accommodations for such a crowd. Rosenzweig said, “People were sleeping in the fields and slaughtering farm animals for food.”
Rosenzweig underscored the men’s similarities and differences. Both were Irish immigrants and resided in the 5 Points slums of lower Manhattan, which author Charles Dickens described as the “worst slum in the world.” When not boxing both worked as “enforcers” or “shoulder strikers” persuading voters’ candidate choices and guarding ballot boxes for local and corrupt political machine bosses.
Morrissey’s family settled in Troy when he was 2 years old. He moved to 5 Points at age 19, went to the Empire Club, a strong nativist anti-Irish group, and announced that he could “whip any man” in there. According to Rosenzweig, Morrissey was set upon by up to nine men, withstood a sound beating, and gained a reputation as being “hard to knockdown.” In 1850, Morrissey caught the gold fever and journeyed west to San Francisco, where he took up bareknuckle boxing and adopted the nickname “Old Smoke.” When he returned to New York City three years later, Morrissey challenged Sullivan.
Sullivan, born James Ambrose, moved with his family from Ireland to London, where he survived as a pickpocket and street urchin. He was arrested at age 14 for lifting a man’s handkerchief and sentenced to 20 years. Sullivan was held in the hull of an abandoned ship on the Thames River and was transferred, after 3 months, to a work penal colony building roads in Australia, where he learned to bareknuckle box. Upon his release 8 years later, Sullivan journeyed to America, settling in 5 Points.
Sullivan built up a reputation as a prizefighter, winning eight matches, and declaring himself a “world champion” before taking a savage beating over 20 rounds from Tom Hyer, a Dutchman. Sullivan was 40 years old when he battled Morrissey, who was 23. A news report said that Sullivan “looked like Morrissey’s father.” Bettors favored the younger man.
Rosenzweig described the fight. “It was a sunny autumn day, 2 p.m., October 12, 1853.” They fought “under 1840s London Rules.” A referee was selected. Each fighter had “two corner men known as seconds.” There was a chalk line, known as the “touch line” drawn down the middle. Fighters were required to “scratch” or “toe the line” at the start of each round. “There was no bell.” Rounds ended when a fighter’s knee touched the ground. Because it was bare-knuckle boxing, “fighters sought to protect their hands by mostly throwing body blows.”
Rosenzweig said that it was “apparent” early in the fight that Sullivan was the more skilled fighter and that mid-fight bettors switched from Morrissey to Sullivan, whose tactic was to batter Morrissey and then “take a knee to end the round.”
This strategy frustrated Morrissey greatly. After 36 rounds the fight devolved into a brawl when Morrissey threw Sullivan into the ropes and began to choke him. Mayhem ensued when the seconds jumped into the ring as well as fight fans and began fighting each other. Somehow Sullivan wound up outside the ring when the referee ended the 36th round and called the fighters to “scratch” for the next round. Sullivan could not get into position in time and thus lost the fight. Raucous attendees sacked both Boston Corner and Millerton.
Post fight the combatants’ lives diverged. Morrissey retired from boxing, returned to Saratoga and became a gambler. He also embarked on a political career representing the 5th district in Congress for two terms, 1867-71. Morrissey became a legend in Saratoga, where he died from pneumonia at age 47. According to Rosenzweig 10,000 people attended Morrissey’s funeral.
Sullivan too retired from boxing but he drifted about eventually winding up in San Francisco, which had a large Australian immigrant population. Sullivan resumed working as a “shoulder striker” for James Casey, who won election to Board of County Supervisors despite not being on the ballot.
Casey shot and killed a crusading newspaper editor calling himself James King of William, who exposed Casey’s criminal past. Vigilantes responded by hanging Casey. Sullivan was arrested for ballot box tampering, confessed and was sentenced to deportation. But after four days of confinement Sullivan committed suicide at age 45.
Rosenzweig said that his project would be a documentary and an adaptation of the book, “Hell’s Acre,” by Clay and John Pell. He called the book an “historical, epic and violent” book that fictionalizes the fight and events leading up to it. Rosenzweig said that film would “tell the truth.”
He also said that there is a “resurgence” of interest in bareknuckle fighting.
A plaque marks the site of the fight on Under Mountain Road off State Route 22.
In 1855 Boston Corner won its petition to cede from Massachusetts and join New York.
