Look Back: The famous 'rough and tumble' of 1898

Sep. 11—Back in the day, today's magisterial district judges were called aldermans.

One such alderman, John F. Donohue, 48, who represented the Heights and center city Wilkes-Barre, became famous for dispensing his own punishment toward a Plymouth man on Dec. 5, 1898.

The Wilkes-Barre Record described it as a "rough and tumble," which made Donohue famous.

Frank Oldfield, 38, was a known criminal having appeared before Donohue and other aldermans for keeping a "bawdy house," repeatedly assaulting his wife Elizabeth, drunkenness and thefts in the 1890s through the early 1900s. His children were removed several times from his home in Wilkes-Barre and again when he moved to Plymouth for failing to provide necessary care such as food and clothing.

Oldfield found himself in custody by city policemen once again for beating his wife on Dec. 5, 1898, and was taken before Donohue whose office was adjacent to the Central Jersey Passenger Rail Station at the base of East Market Street hill near today's Wilkes-Barre Boulevard.

Fed up with Oldfield, Donohue dispensed his own justice.

"Frank Oldfield of Plymouth, who has been before several justices in this city and Plymouth within the past few years, on the charge of cruelly treating his wife, received an unusual sentence last evening at the hands of alderman Donohue," the Record reported.

As Oldfield asked for mercy, Donohue leapt from his chair as the Record reported, "Donohue said he was 10 years older and believed he could whip any wife beater he ever knew. Taking off his coat and rolling up his sleeves, he bade Oldfield to do likewise. Oldfield seeing that the justice meant business did as Donohue asked and both faced each other for a rough and tumble tussle."

The newspaper reported Donohue and Oldfield exchanged blows, "some of which landed rather heavily on Oldfield's frame" and both ended up rolling around on the floor. Several policemen watched as the "rough and tumble" went on for several minutes.

"The Plymouth man proved no match for the muscular alderman and after receiving a number of rib crackers asked to be let go, promising never again to abuse his wife," the Record reported.

Newspapers across the country picked up the Record story and soon, Donohue received hundreds of letters from wives across the states including the U.S. territory of Alaska that garnered statehood in January 1959.

"Alderman Donohue has become famous on account of his tussle with Frank Oldfield of Plymouth, who was before him on the charge of wife beating. Hundreds of papers all over the county have contained elaborate accounts of the alderman's summary administration of his idea of justice," the Record reported Dec. 13, 1896.

The Record continued to report Donohue received "bundles of letters," most of them from wives who have brutal husbands thanking him for the stand he took.

Several days after the "rough and tumble," Oldfield challenged Donohue to a fight in a boxing ring telling a Record reporter he held back fearing the crowd would "pitch into him." No accounts of a Oldfield-Donohue fight were found during a newspaper archive search.

Donohue held the title of alderman for 27 years until his death at Thompson Private Hospital in Scranton on Dec. 9, 1911.

According to his obituary published in the Wilkes-Barre Record, Donohue was born in County Cork, Ireland, relocated to London where he worked on the docks as a young lad, and at the age of 12, immigrated to New York City as a stowaway being discovered several days after the ship set sail.

Donohue worked on docks in New York City for several years until his persistence got him a job with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad as a luggage loader, brakeman and conductor. He eventually switched jobs to work for the Central Jersey Railroad bringing him to Wilkes-Barre and ultimately living in the Brewery Hill section, now known as the Heights.

While in Wilkes-Barre, Donohue was a deputy coroner before being elected to alderman in 1882.

Several paragraphs in Donohue's obituary that covered an entire page in the Record reflected about being "Hard on Wife Beaters" mentioning the rough and tumble with Oldfield.

Donohue was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Hanover Township.