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CLIFTON OF BUFFALO
During the baseball boom that
followed the Civil War, the Niagara Club emerged as Buffalo’s premier club.
Every club of the era needed an in-town rivalry to keep interest high and at
first “the Niagaras found foemen worthy of their white-ash weapons in the
Cliftons.” (“When Baseball Was A Fledgling,” Illustrated Buffalo Express,
October 7, 1897) The Cliftons, however, soon disbanded and an 1897 article
would provide an intriguing explanation of why they did so. (“Baseball in ’67,”
Illustrated Buffalo Express, November 7, 1897)
One of
the major gaps in our understanding of early base ball comes from the fact that
the vast majority of the clubs formed during the explosion of 1866 and 1867 had
disbanded by 1869 without providing any reasons. We often have a rough idea as
to when they gave up baseball because accounts of their games ceased to appear
in the local newspapers, but even that can be misleading since some newspapers
simply decided to stop covering baseball. More crucially, the specific reasons
for giving up baseball usually remain shrouded in mystery.
The
result is that plausible explanations can usually be offered – lack of success
on the baseball diamond, the interference with work and family life, inability
to find a suitable home field or convenient practice time, financial
constraints, internal friction, injuries, defections of key players, etc., etc.
– but there is no way to be sure which factors were really responsible for the
decision to disband. The story of the Cliftons is thus an important one because
it suggests yet another fate that could befall clubs of the era.
The
Cliftons were one of many clubs to emerge when a frenzy of baseball enthusiasm
swept Buffalo in 1867. Leslie Lyman was credited with organizing the club and
it established playing grounds in a vacant lot on Virginia Street. Like most of
the city’s clubs, it played on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. A photo of
the club published in 1897 shows that the players wore natty checkered uniforms.
The
Cliftons soon established themselves as an up-and-coming club when they beat the
Stars of Batavia in an exciting three-game series, with the decisive game
between played at a neutral site in the town of Le Roy. In August, a nine known
as the All-Buffalos defeated the mighty Niagaras. While the All-Buffalos were
an all-star squad, all but a couple of the players were members of the Cliftons,
suggesting that that Niagaras’ reign as Buffalo’s top club was in jeopardy.
Subsequent matches showed that the Cliftons were indeed a worthy opponent for
the Niagaras, and yet they kept coming up second best. In the next match
between the two clubs, the Niagaras pulled out a hard-fought 50-42 victory. In
a major tournament in Auburn in 1868, the Clifton tied for second place – but it
was the Niagaras who took home a gold ball valued at $500.
The
Cliftons did manage signal triumphs such as a win over the Alerts of Rochester,
but it wasn’t enough. The Niagaras handed the Cliftons two decisive defeats in
June of 1868 and a few weeks later two members of the Cliftons – William Tanner
and H. L. Fairchild – left the club and joined the archrival Niagaras. It was
the death knell for the Cliftons and by 1869 the club had “lost its identity”
entirely and it passed out of existence.
While it
is tempting to look at Tanner and Fairchild as traitors whose defection
destroyed the Cliftons, that wasn’t how the situation was portrayed in the 1897
article. Instead its author wrote that, “It was the ambition of the other local
teams to be drafted into the Niagaras.” It is a simple but important
declaration.
We know
that ballplayers of this era took fierce pride when they donned their uniforms
and took the field because they were representing their cities and their clubs.
Yet it is important to remember that these two sources of pride were often at
odds and players were forced to choose between them. Should the players on a
club like the Cliftons continue to work toward dethroning the top local nine?
Or should they join forces with the Niagaras and perhaps form a club good enough
to put Buffalo on the national map?
In the
case of the Cliftons, the latter option must have seemed especially appealing
since in between their two wins over the Cliftons, the Niagaras had pulled off a
historic upset over the mighty Atlantics of Brooklyn. It thus must have seemed
to many Buffalonians that enlisting the services of a few members of rival clubs
would be the ideal way to establish a local club as a national powerhouse.
As it
turned out, the addition of Fairchild and Tanner did little to strengthen the
Niagaras. Fairchild does not appear to have made the first nine at all, and
while Tanner did become a regular in the club’s outfield, the Niagaras were
unable to build on their historic win over the Atlantics. No other major
victories occurred in 1868, and by 1869 the Niagaras were headed toward
dissolution themselves.
Meanwhile
the city of Buffalo had lost its best rivalry. The importance of this absence
was demonstrated at the start of the 1869 campaign when the Niagaras beat a
local club called the Columbias by the count of 209-10. The extraordinary score
was a record even by the high-scoring standards of the era and it attracted
considerable attention. But what it really showed was that the Niagaras no
longer could get any competition in Buffalo.
Nevertheless, the 1897 article conveys no sense that the other members of the
Cliftons were bitter toward Tanner and Fairchild for their decision to join the
Niagaras. Club pride and civic pride, it would seem, were both understood to be
powerful bonds and the decision to choose the former over the latter was not
considered a betrayal.
Primary
Source: “Baseball in ’67,” Illustrated Buffalo Express, November 7, 1897
PLAYER
PROFILES
Almost
all of the members of the Cliftons were born in the late 1840s and grew up
together in Buffalo. While not exclusively the case, an impressive number of
them were the sons of some of the city’s most successful businessmen.
Augustus
C. Allen: Allen, an outfielder on the original first nine of the Cliftons, was
born in 1847 in New York state and was the son of a land agent. By 1880, the
whole family had moved to Brooklyn.
Henry
Barnum: Barnum, another outfielder, was born in 1847 and was the son of a
wealthy Buffalo merchant who owned “Barnum’s Bazar.” He was listed as a clerk
on the 1870 census, but died not long after that.
Charles
F. Bingham: Bingham was not listed as a member of the first nine but was
described as a former player in the 1897 article. The reason for that may be
that Bingham, who was born in August of 1843 and was therefore several years
older than the other members of the club, got married in 1868 and his first
child was born in the first week of 1869. Bingham was born in New York to the
Welsh-born owner of a successful Buffalo foundry owner and he eventually became
the co-proprietor of the foundry. The Binghams lost their only child in an 1879
horseback riding accident. After the turn of the century, Bingham and his wife
spent most of their time in Palm Beach, Florida. She passed away there in 1912
and he followed two years later, leaving an estate of over $400,000 that became
the subject of a court battle. (Buffalo Express, February 19, 1915)
John
Bullymore: Bullymore was born in Buffalo in 1847 to emigrants from Northampton,
England. His father operated a successful pork packing business and John became
a prominent Buffalo maltster. He died in Buffalo on February 6, 1914.
Tommy
Castle: Castle was born in 1848, the son of a wealthy Buffalo jeweler. He was
accepted into Cornell University in the fall of 1868 and was on the verge of
graduating when he fell victim to a smallpox epidemic and died on April 18,
1872.
William
K. Cowing: Cowing, who was described as “the star catcher of the nine in its
palmiest days,” was born in Buffalo in 1842 to one of the city’s pioneer
families. When the Civil War broke out, he joined Buffalo’s first regiment, the
21st Infantry, serving for more than two years and rising to the rank
of sergeant. He became a bookkeeper and worked in New York City for several
years, but eventually returned to Buffalo. He was the cashier of the Buffalo
Mill Supply Company during the last fifteen years of his life and died in
Buffalo on November 12, 1909. His obituary in the Buffalo Express stated
that he had once played for the Niagaras, another piece of testimony to how the
Cliftons had been forgotten.
H. L. Fairchild: Fairchild was the second baseman for the Cliftons and one of
the two players who left the club to join the Niagaras. The 1897 article
reported that he had left Buffalo and headed west, but efforts to identify him
have been unsuccessful.
Benjamin
J. Holloway: Holloway was born in New York state around 1847 and as of 1870 was
working as a foreman. He died during the next decade.
Le Dran
B. Lamphier: Lamphier was born in New York state around 1848 and worked as a
painter, fireman and foreman. He was still in Buffalo in 1890.
George
Edward Laverack: Laverack was born on October 10, 1846 in Buffalo. His father
was one of Buffalo’s first grocers and he became a partner in the business in
1865. He took over full control after his father’s death in 1888 and also
acquired several other businesses. He was very prominent in Buffalo’s civic and
cultural affairs, being one of the founders of the city’s country club and
serving one the volunteer fire company for many years. He died in Buffalo on
March 1, 1924.
Henry
Leslie Lyman: Leslie Lyman, the founder of the club, was born in Lynchburg,
Virginia on April 20, 1848. He moved to Buffalo and became a confidential clerk
to H. L. Lansing. He got married in Buffalo in 1871, but after becoming the
father of four children he returned to Virginia in the late 1870s. He died in
Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 6, 1933.
Cyrenius
Chapin Pickering: C. C. Pickering was born on November 30, 1849, in Buffalo and
became a manufacturing chemist and wholesale liquor dealer. He was still living
in Buffalo in 1910.
Clark
Wilder Rice: Rice was born around 1850 and worked as a bookkeeper. He died in
Buffalo on February 10, 1907.
George W.
Robertson: George Robertson was the older brother of Richard, born around 1846,
but nothing else is known about him.
Richard
L. Robertson: Richard Robertson was born in New York state around 1848, the son
of a well-to-do hat and cap maker, and he eventually succeeded his father in the
business. He married in 1883 and had one child. He was still living in Buffalo
in 1920.
William
Stimpson: Stimpson was the original pitcher of the Cliftons and later the club
secretary. His identity remains a mystery.
William
E. Tanner: Tanner, one of the two players who left the Cliftons to join the
Niagaras, was born in New York around 1848, the son of a wealthy merchant. As
of 1870, he was working as a telegraph operator and the 1880 census shows him as
a city fireman with his wife Cora and their baby. But soon after that he headed
west for parts unknown.
Edward
Bennet Townsend: Townsend, the club secretary was born on April 10, 1846, in
Lafayette, Indiana. His parents, however, had previously lived in Buffalo and
they soon returned there. Edward Townsend got married in 1868 and worked as a
bookkeeper, passing away on October 15, 1898.
Albert B.
Young: Young was the official scorer of the Cliftons and preserved the photo of
the club that was published in 1897. He was born in New York state in October of
1848 and eventually became president of the Cling Surface Company. Young was
still living in Buffalo as late as 1930.
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