Kilrain vs. Sullivan - July 8, 1889 Outside New Orleans - The Sun - 9 March 1909 - Remembrance of Twenty Years Past

The Sun - 9 March 1909 - Remembrance of Twenty Years Past

"It was a twenty-foot ring with the finest inch and an eighth Manila rope strung around the enclosure. There were eight heavy post driven many feet into firm soil. Whew!  It was hot that morning when the sun burst forth with all its fury. Every man was hatless and coatless, and those with umbrellas were lucky indeed. It was just 120 degrees before the fight began, and the New York delegation suffered the tortures of Hades as the wine and the juleps oozed out of their skins. We didn't have to wait long, however, for the fighters soon made their appearance within the roped square. Kilrain came first, followed by Charley Mitchell and Mike Donovan, who were his principal seconds. Bat Masterson was his timekeeper and Denny Butler his umpire. 

(The National Police Gazette 27 July 1889)


Sullivan had a whole pack behind him - Billy Muldoon, Mike Cleary, Joe Coburn, Jack Barnett, Major Hughes, Liney Tracey and Dan Murphy. Tom Costello was the big fellow's umpire. John Fitzpatrick, who was afterward elected Mayor of New Orleans, was the referee. Sullivan and Kilrain each put up $1,000 with Fitzpatrick on the result. 

(The National Police Gazette 27 July 1889)


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Mike Donovan vs. Jimmy Murray - Middleweight Championship Fight - Smith's Island, Delaware River - circa 1873

Smith and Windmill Islands (top),
Delaware River off Philadelphia
Removed by Federal Gov't 1894

..."I got sick of the gang I traveled with in New York, and, knowing that Ned O'Baldwin was in Philadelphia, I went there.

"After a short time I succeeded in getting a match for the middleweight championship with Jimmy Murray, who then held that title.

"Murray was a wonderful athlete. He could do many things. He could put the shot, and he could also jump backwards further than any man I ever saw. He could jump backwards ten feet without weights in his hands. He could jump on a bar in a saloon backwards, and jump over a bar front- wards without touching his hands to it.

"I have a painting of him that I would not take a thousand dollars for.

"As soon as Jimmy Murray and I were matched, Ned O' Baldwin and I started around the country giving boxing exhibitions. ...

"The fight took place (on Smith's Island) a short distance from Philadelphia.

"We didn't pitch a ring, for fear of the police. The crowd of sports that had assembled from various directions formed the ring by grasping fingers with arms folded across the chest.

"I found Murray the hardest-fisted man I ever fought. His blows hurt me, and the scars you can see on my face and forehead now. My lips were all cut up and my nose was broken. I was awfully punished — blind as a bat for three days afterwards.

"The ring as formed by the crowd broke up after a while, but we fought in about a twenty-four- foot space.

"Barney McMullen was referee. Patty Ryan of Philadelphia and Pete King seconded me. Johnny Clark and one other, I have forgotten his name, seconded Murray.

"Murray weighed about one hundred and fifty- six pounds and I weighed about one hundred and forty-eight. He was eight pounds heavier than I and he was stronger, but I had the endurance. When the fight broke up at the arrival of the police I was as strong and confident as at the beginning. I had youth on my side.

"We were both good long-range fighters, and during the first part of the fight, we confined our attack to outfighting, but as the fight went on we warmed up to it and did considerable infighting. Jimmy was as good an infighter as I.

"One thing, I believe, helped me in this fight. I never could stand anything tight about my legs. I asked Mrs. Carol, my good friend, the boarding house keeper, what I could do about getting rid of the elastics around my stockings, and she fixed it by sewing buttons on them and making buttonholes in my breeches so I had no trouble about the circulation of blood in my legs. That has licked many a man.

"At the commencement of the forty-fourth round somebody yelled 'Police!' I dusted for the tall timber. Some jumped in boats, others ran across country; the crowd scattered in all directions.

"I hid in the woods. As I lay there I could hear them say: 'He is around here somewhere.'

"Finally a big Dutchman found me, and he said :

" 'Here he is,' and he grabbed me.

" 'Don't yank me like that.' I was sore ; and Sergeant Moore, whom I met many times afterward, said : 'Let go of that man ! He will go along with us.'

"I walked along quietly, and before I got across the river I was as blind as a bat.

"When we arrived at the station house, there was Jimmy Murray. They had caught him too. We were committed to Moyamensing, and were there four days.

"The jailer — I think his name was Dailey — had known me before, and he said when he saw me: 'You're a picture!'

"I said, 'Yes, I suppose so, but I will have to take your word for it. I can't see.'

"Murray and I were being led to a cell when the Headkeeper said : 'Don't put those two men in the same cell.'

"I remarked: 'Why not? We're not bad friends. We had all the fight we wanted this morning.' So they put us together, and we were there for four days.

"Murray took care of me as a mother would have taken care of a sick child. I had caught cold in my eyes and I was helpless. Jimmy would sit by the hour and bathe my eyes with water with a handkerchief he had obtained from the jailer.

"I was dying to get a look at him. On the fourth day I stretched the lid of one of my eyes so I could just peak out, and I closely scanned his face. There I saw lumps standing out all over his face. He had a harder face than I, and yet, during the fight, I couldn't notice that my blows had any effect. It seems that the swelling came afterwards.

"Well, I fell back and laughed heartily, happy as a lord.

" 'What are you laughing at, you swine?' he said.

" 'Jimmy, I'm satisfied,' I replied. 'I did some handiwork, anyway. I thought I had not punished you at all.'

" 'Well,' he said, 'is that what you have been thinking about the last three days I have been caring for you?'

"Murray and I were the best of friends ever after.

"Murray retired after this fight, taking a position in the Boxing and Fencing Club of Philadelphia."

(Source: Mike Donovan; the making of a man, by Marshall Stillman. 1918)

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To Jump From The Big Bridge - Paterson Daily Guardian - 8 June 1885

Dennis F. Butler, a brother-in-law of "Mike" Donovan, the well known Brooklyn "sport," is preparing to ump from the East River Bridge "one of these days" and says that Paul Boyton, Dr. O'Leary, of High street, Brooklyn, and John W. Barton, of Adam street, Brooklyn, are prepared to bet anything that the thing will be done. "This is no advertising job or anything of that kind," Dr. O'Leary said to a reporter. "Butler means business, and if you go down to the house you'll see whether I am not right."

Butter was found in a rather poorly furnished room at No, 33 Sands street, Brooklyn, diligently working on the curious wearing apparel which he says will insure him against all injury when he strikes the water. He is five feet ten inches in height, strong and wiry, and looks as if he never knew or cared for a knock down blow in the series of encounters he has had in the ring. He is twenty-seven years of age, weighs 156 pounds and is of dark complexion. "I jumped from Passaic Falls," he said, "last Summer, in the presence of 'Mike' Donovan and several others, and you know that is 90 feet.

I'll try how my apparatus works there, when I have it finished, then I'll go right down from the Brooklyn Bridge with the most absolute confidence. In 1875 I jumped from the derrick in the Navy Yard at Philadelphia into the Delaware, and that's 100 feet."   ...


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