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CHEMUNGS OF STOUGHTON
In 1909,
Billy de Coster, a member of the second nine of the Chemungs of Stoughton in the
late 1860s, gave this history of the club: “We used to play what was called the
Massachusetts game. That was where we had a square, instead of a diamond, and
ran four bases. We had a small ball and a small bat, and the ball could be
thrown at a base runner and if it hit him before he got to the base he was out.
“It was
in 1866, not long after the war, when Halsey J. Boardman, who was president of
the Tri-Mountains of Boston, got us interested in the present game, which we
called the New York game. Boardman lived in Stoughton, and showed us boys how
to play the new game and coached us right along until we organized the Chemungs
and got some uniforms.
“There
were so many of the boys in Stoughton interested that we had a first, second and
third nine, and we would have some kind of a game on our grounds every night
when the weather permitted. Everyone played for the love of the game, and we
began to play some of the teams from other towns. There were teams then from
Foxboro, Mansfield and the King Philips of East Abington, what is now known as
Rockland, and in Weymouth and Boston.
“The
Chemungs were successful from the very start, and in ’68 were the champions of
the county. Norfolk county had a fair in Dedham, and the Chemungs and the
Mechanics of East Weymouth were the teams that played for the championship.
That was a great game. We had seven or eight home runs in that game. You see
the ball had to be delivered straight, and not above the hips, so it was easier
to get home runs than it is now.
“The
towns were divided into districts and at the close of the season the champion of
each district would play the other champions. I remember there was a team
called the Eurekas of Cambridge and the Winthrops of Boston and I think the
Shields of Chelsea. It finally came down to the Tri Mountains of Boston and the
Chemungs to play for the silver ball that was the trophy of the champions of the
state. The Chemungs won the championship, but never got the silver ball.”
All of
the Chemungs were still alive in 1909 and remained fans of the game who loved
nothing better than recounting memories of their ball-playing days. One
favorite recollection was of a game against the Tri-Mountains on the Boston
Common during which one of the Chemungs knocked the ball over a building on
Tremont Street. The ball could not be found and a home run was the result.
Another
much-told anecdote involved a game umpired by a minister who did not have a firm
grasp on the game’s rules. One of the opposing players clouted a ball clear out
of sight and over a house. But when the outfielder ran back clutching the ball,
the minister called the batter out.
Naturally, the players loved most to reminisce about the triumph over the
Tri-Mountains. Archie McDonald gave this account: “We had got friendly with the
Tri Mountains through Halsey Boardman, who was their president. He ran for
mayor of Boston afterward. Well, we had beaten them once and they had one on
us, and we were the two best teams in the state. We had played them once on the
Boston Common, but this deciding game was to be played in Medford.
“Well, a
few days before the deciding game they got a pitcher, Del Linfield, away from us
and we asked for a little more time so as to get a pitcher ready for the game,
but they answered and said the game was scheduled for a certain day and they
should expect us there on time. We were there all right, but it was raining
some and then for some reason they wanted us to wait and said that the grounds
would be all wet, but Dick Seeley had been to sea some and he said that we would
play if we had to get a boat or swim for the ball.
“They
wouldn’t postpone for us, and so we wouldn’t postpone for them, so we went
ahead. Linfield was the best pitcher in the league, but besides him they had a
professional player named O’Brien, from New York, who was supposed to be a
wonder. Well, we went in and batted O’Brien out of the box and then they put in
Linfield and we batted him just as bad as we did O’Brien. We had taken Capen
Brown, the pitcher on our second team and he proved to be a star and they
couldn’t do a thing with him. We won the game, but did not get the silver
ball. I don’t know just why it was, but we were the champions just the same.”
CLUB MEMBERS
Berthier Richmond
Ballou: B. R. Ballou was born on December 8, 1836, in Stoughton. He worked as a
trader in live stock, but eventually lost his eyesight around 1895. After that,
his wife supported the family by keeping a boarding house in Stoughton, while
Berthier continued to make his way downtown each day to talk to his friends. He
died on January 7, 1915, in Stoughton, and his front-page obituary mentioned his
long-ago involvement with the Chemung ball club.
James Leighton
Belcher: James Belcher was born in Canton, Massachusetts, on February 19, 1840.
He enlisted in the Union Army and fought in more than twenty Civil War battles,
including Gettysburg, Wilderness and Antietam. Upon returning home, he got
married in 1866 and started a family the following year. He worked in a boot
factory and then for many years at the Stoughton last factory of his brother
George Belcher. James Belcher became a skilled last maker and had worked his
way up to foreman by 1907. He died at his Stoughton home on May 30, 1910, which
appropriately enough was Memorial Day. His obituary took up much of the front
page of the next day’s Stoughton paper, which lengthy coverage of his Civil War
service but no mention of his days on the baseball field. The Belchers were
such big news in Stoughton that the death of James Belcher’s widow twenty years
later was also featured on the front page.
Capen Brown: Capen
Brown, who “became the proud boast of the Chemungs because of his victory over
the Tri-Mountains,” was born in 1848. Like so many of the Chemungs, he worked
for a while in a Stoughton boot factory, but eventually moved to Brookline,
where he continued to work in the shoe business. He died in Boston on October
19, 1925.
William Henry DeCoster:
Billy DeCoster of the second team was born in Stoughton in May of 1852 and also
found work at a Stoughton boot factory. His mother’s maiden name was Record and
she was from Buckfield, Maine, so he must have been a cousin of teammate
Wellington Record. He moved to South Dakota for a while, then returned to
Stoughton and was living in Boston as of 1920. He died on August 10, 1920, at
his daughter's house in Dorchester.
Isaac L. Gay: Isaac
Gay was born in 1847 and was also working in a boot factory at the time of the
1870 census. He later worked as a clerk and as a chef in hotels and restaurants
in Stoughton and Brockton. He and his brothers were still running a lunch room
in Stoughton as late as 1915. Gay died of acute alcoholism in Stoughton on
October 24, 1916.
Charles H. Jaques:
Charles Jaques was born in 1845 and served for three years in the Massachusetts
12th Infantry during the Civil War, being wounded at Antietam. He later worked
as a bootmaker and a laborer. He passed away in Stoughton on October 15, 1931.
Adelbert Moses
Linfield was born in 1842. Unlike most of the Chemungs, he left Stoughton soon
after his ball-playing days ended, moving to Worcester, then to Philadelphia,
and finally to Newport, Rhode Island. There he and his second wife Lizzie kept
a hotel. He died April 22, 1916, in Cranston, Rhode Island. His obituary
mentioned that he had once been a ballplayer.
Archibald H. McDonald:
Archie McDonald was born on March 4, 1848. He worked at same bench at Stacy
Adams shoe factory in Brockton for more than 40 years. He died in Stoughton on
March 20, 1921.
Francis Raymond: Frank
Raymond was born in December of 1842. During the Civil War he served with future
teammate Charles Jacques in the Massachusetts 12th Infantry. He was taken as a
Prisoner of War at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, and exchanged on March 8, 1864.
He got married in 1867 and worked as a bootmaker and a mason. He died on
September 20, 1919.
Wellington W. Record:
Wellington Record was the youngest member of the team, having been born on
August 10, 1852, in Buckfield, Maine. He became a doctor and practiced in
Quincy and then in Wollaston, becoming the first doctor to actually live in the
latter town. He died on November 12, 1912, when, after treating a patient, he
tried to board a train but slipped under it. The quantity of flowers at his
funeral was the greatest ever seen in Wollaston.
Dick Seeley’s real
name was Alden A. Seeley and he was born in Old Town, Maine, in 1845. He got
married in 1866 and as of 1870, he too was working at a last factory in
Stoughton. Eventually he moved to Leominster and worked as a factory engineer.
He died on January 20, 1927, at the War Vets Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Source: Boston
Globe, June 27, 1909. Many thanks to Dixie Tourangeau for yeoman work in
collecting biographical information on the members of the club.
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