|
DAYBREAK OF JACKSON
HISTORY
The Daybreak Club of
Jackson, Michigan, was one of many pioneer clubs whose history was inextricably
tied to the Civil War. Like so many of those clubs, at the war’s end the
Daybreak Club was succeeded by ones that included new players and earned greater
glory. Yet in many ways, those later clubs merely built on the tradition
established by the Daybreak Club.
The date of the
formation of the Daybreak Club is unknown. In 1858, a local reporter wrote
dismissively, “We that the lawyers, doctors and gentlemen of Detroit, Pontiac
and other towns are forming ‘cricket clubs’ for amusement, recreation, etc. It
may do for the people of those ‘dull towns’ to engage in such things, but the
people here are always too busy to engage in play of any kind.” (Jackson
American Citizen, May 6, 1858) But by 1860, the mood in Jackson had changed
and the club had its first baseball club.
With Michigan still
having very few organized clubs, the Daybreak Club played only three matches in
their first season of competition, all of them against clubs from Detroit. The
historic first match was a “very spirited” 62-38 defeat at the hands of the
Detroit Base Ball Club on July 20, 1860. (Detroit Free Press, July 21,
1860)
The opponent in the
other two matches was the Early Riser Club. The Early Risers traveled to
Jackson on August 28 and the Daybreaks eked out their first victory by a 21-20
count. Jackson went all out to prove themselves excellent hosts and the
Detroit Free Press wrote that their “gentlemanly courtesy and generous
hospitality will long be remembered.” (Detroit Free Press, August 31,
1860) A rematch in Detroit in September was just as closely fought, with the
Early Risers pulling out an 18-16 win. There were hopes of playing a third and
deciding game, but it couldn’t be arranged and that ended the inaugural season
for the Daybreaks. (Detroit Free Press, September 19, 1860)
The spring of 1861
saw the Civil War break out, which put an abrupt halt to the activities of many
baseball clubs, including the Early Risers and the Detroit Base Ball Club. The
Daybreaks did still have enough members in town to field a club, but it was a
challenge to find competition. As a result, their opponents were mostly ones
like the newly formed Red, White and Blue Club of Marshall. The Daybreaks
traveled to Marshall on June 17, 1861, and barely eked out a 24-23 win.
Accounts of this
game made it very clear that it was the spirit that mattered and not the
result. “It was gratifying to observe so many spectators gather to witness the
sport,” observed one Marshall journalist, “and doubly gratifying to see so many
ladies. The nine men selected by the Daybreak Club, of Jackson, showed
themselves superior players, both at the bat and in the field, and for their
kind and courteous treatment to our club, as beginners, they have the sincere
thanks of our club. The first nine of the Red, White and Blue Club, although
beaten by one run, did nobly for beginners, every man both in batting and
fielding, acting his part well. With a little more practice they will not fear
to cope with any nine players in the state … Previous to the commencement of the
game, the Jackson Club were welcomed to our city in appropriate remarks by
William Powell, Esquire, President of the Marshall Club, which were handsomely
responded to, by Mr. Proudfit of the former. After the game the Jackson players
presented ours with a splendid bat, with appropriate ceremonies. The sport was
highly entertaining, and we hope our Jackson friends were well pleased with
their visit to our city.” (Marshall Democratic Expounder, June 20,
1861)
An account in
another Marshall newspaper noted that, “nothing occurred to mar the pleasure of
the meeting.” It also reported that after the match had ended and the ball
presented to the winners, the two clubs divided their members up and played a
“promiscuous” game. (Marshall Statesman, June 19, 1861)
Later that summer, a
Grand Rapids newspaper reported that the Daybreak Club was the best in the state
and had been challenged by one from Kalamazoo. (Grand Rapids Eagle, July
31, 1861) It appears that the Daybreaks did face this new rival and several
others, as they were later said to have compiled a 6-0 record in 1861. (Jackson
Eagle, June 28, 1862) The details of these matches, however, are lost to
history. We do at least know that the Daybreaks concluded the season in October
with a game between their first and second nines for an oyster supper. (Jackson
American Citizen, October 17, 1861)
By 1862, Jackson had
sent several more regiments to fight in the war, including many local
ballplayers. By June, it was reported that seventeen of the thirty-four members
of the Daybreaks were now away at war, including one captain, two lieutenants,
three orderly sergeants, one hospital steward, two corporals, and six privates.
(Jackson Eagle, June 7, 1862) But this still left enough members to
field a nine and the Daybreaks decided to elect a board of officers and organize
for another season. (Jackson American Citizen, July 2, 1862)
Finding opponents to
play proved a bigger challenge than ever in 1862, but the club did play two
matches against the Hickory Club of Howell, winning both. (Jackson Eagle,
June 21, 1862) The Daybreaks also suffered their first defeat since the start
of the war, losing 28-14 to the Monitor Club of Ann Arbor in Jackson on June
23. In a revealing detail that tells us much about the spirit of baseball at
the time, the match was umpired by John H. Weller of the Daybreak Club, but
nobody seems to have found that a conflict of interest. (Jackson American
Citizen, June 25, 1862)
By 1863, a
significant number of Jackson’s enlisted men had completed their war services
and baseball activity picked up. In April, the club held a series of meetings
to reorganize for the season, elect officers, and make other arrangements. (Jackson
Eagle, April 4 and 18, 1863)
When the club hit
the field for the 1863 season, it soon became evident that there would be more
competitiveness than ever before. By June, the Brother Jonathan Club of
Detroit, the University nine of Ann Arbor and the Daybreak Club were all
claiming to be champions and challenges were flying. In particular, a claim by
a member of the Brother Jonathans that his club was the state champion ruffled
the feathers of the Daybreak Club and prompted an indignant response. (Jackson
Eagle, June 13, 1863; Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, April 8 and 14,
June 12, 15, 18, 19 and 20, 1863; Jackson American Citizen, June 17,
1863; Michigan State News, June 23, 1863. See chapter 7 of my Baseball
Fever for a detailed discussion.)
The exam schedule of
the university nine made it impossible to schedule a match with them, but a
series between the Daybreaks and the Brother Jonathans was arranged. The first
contest took place in Detroit on August 5 and was close until the late innings,
when the defense of the Brother Jonathans collapsed and allowed the Daybreaks to
win 43-16. The result led one Jackson resident to boast, “We trust that Detroit
will fling out no more championship banners until he has earned the right to do
so.” (Jackson Eagle, August 8, 1863) The second game was played in
Jackson on September 3, and saw the home side squeak out a 23-22 win that earned
them recognition as state champions.
Despite the
bickering that had preceded these showdowns, they were contested in a spirit of
harmony. The Daybreaks brought close to a hundred friends with them to Detroit
for the first game, and the Jackson players were hosted and accommodated in
style by their Detroit counterparts. The rematch witnessed similar hospitality,
and concluded with “three rousing cheers” from “the Detroit boys for their
conquerors.” (Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, September 5, 1863)
Signs of a new
competitiveness were also in evidence after a July match in which the Daybreaks
beat the Monitor Club of Niles. But a dispute arose over the calls of the
umpire, which led a member of the Monitors to complain, “we do not claim it [a
victory], nor do we care for it, but we have made these statements for the
purpose of showing that if we were beaten, we were not beaten by the Day
Breaks as a club but by a single member of the club and that member the
Umpire.” A representative of the Daybreaks responded that his club “cared
very little … to win the game” and “regret exceedingly that anything occurred to
mar the pleasure of the game.” (Niles Republican, July 25, 1863)
It is a revealing
exchange, for despite the lip service, there can be no question that both clubs
did care about the result of the game and that that new emphasis jeopardized the
harmony of the matches. It also made it apparent that having a member of one of
the clubs serve as umpire – a practice that had gone unquestioned a year earlier
– was no longer viable.
Nevertheless,
courtesy and good will prevailed in most of the series played by the Daybreaks
in 1863. A match against a new club from Concord that was “looking to learn”
from the more experienced Jackson club was characterized by harmony and followed
by a hearty meal. (Jackson Eagle, June 6, 1863) Two victories against
the Dowagiac Club were played in a similar spirit. The second contest, played
in Dowagiac, prompted a member of the Daybreaks to write that the members of his
club would “long remember the hospitality extended to them by the Club and
Citizens of Dowagiac, and with them will be associated the humorous sayings and
caprices of T. H. Campbell.” (Jackson American Citizen, August 19, 1863;
Jackson Eagle, August 29, 1863) Although a new spirit of competitiveness
had begun to manifest itself, the members of clubs like the Daybreaks clearly
still looked at themselves first and foremost as ambassadors for their native
cities and for the game of baseball.
In 1864, references
to baseball almost entirely disappeared from Michigan newspapers and the
Daybreak Club played no recorded matches. What remains unknown is whether that
means that the Daybreaks stopped their practices, or whether they couldn’t find
rivals to play, or whether match play continued and the results were just not
reported by newspapers with more serious war news to report. When the war
finally did end in the spring of 1865, the decision was made to represent
Jackson with the newly formed Central Club. (Jackson Daily Citizen, May
25, 1865)
The history of the Daybreak Club of Jackson was thus a brief one and both the
club and its members were buffeted by the war. Moreover, with the Civil War
foremost in everyone’s mind, there is much about the club that we don’t know.
Not a single description of the club’s uniform, for example, is extant. Doubt
also remains about where the club played – one article mentioned that the club
was to practice at the old race track and it seems likely that was where the
Daybreaks usually played, but even that cannot be said with confidence. (That
sole reference to playing at the race track appeared in the Jackson American
Citizen on July 2, 1862)
Even so, the
accomplishment of the Daybreak Club was impressive. The club compiled a 14-1
record in known matches played during the war and were hailed as “the Champions
of the state.” (Niles Republican, July 4, 1863) The club also paved the
way for Jackson to become one of Michigan’s foremost cities for baseball. When
the Central club was formed after the war, several of the Daybreaks were
selected for the first nine. The Unknowns of Jackson, an amalgam nine that won
the Detroit “world’s championship” tournament of 1867, include no fewer than
four Daybreaks – Hooker Deland, Thomas Conely, Melville McGee, and Stephen
Welling. Even the Mutuals of Jackson, a powerhouse of the 1870s, enlisted
Welling’s services as club secretary.
Perhaps most
important, the Daybreak Club of Jackson served as ambassadors for the game of
baseball in Michigan. Clubs in towns like Marshall, Niles, Kalamazoo, Howell,
Concord and Dowagiac received instructions in the New York rules from their
matches with the Daybreak Club, and the familiarity that they gained was
important in the post-war baseball boom.
MEMBERS
Billie J. Billings,
Jr.: Billie J. Billings, Jr., was born in Batavia, New York, in 1838. His
father was a wealthy hardware merchant who moved the family to Jackson in 1853.
Billings was a regular for the Daybreaks throughout the club’s existence, also
serving as club treasurer and being elected treasurer of the state baseball
association in 1865. The family business was sold in 1867, and the younger
Billings subsequently moved to Chelsea, where he continued to work as a retail
merchant. He later moved to Toledo and appears to have died shortly after the
turn of the century.
Thomas Jefferson
Conely: Thomas J. Conely was born in New York City on July 12, 1836. He was the
catcher for the Daybreaks in 1860, then enlisted in the Union Army in 1861. He
served for three years, including five months as a prisoner of war at Libby
Prison, and was promoted from lieutenant to captain. His letters from the Civil
War are archived at the Bentley Library of the University of Michigan. After
the war, he got married and became the recorder of the city’s common council and
the chief of the fire department. Yet he still found time for baseball, serving
as treasurer of the Central Club and playing for the Unknowns of Jackson when
they captured the 1867 Detroit “world’s championship” tournament. After growing
too old for baseball, he turned to cricket. In 1872, Conely accepted a position
as a railroad superintendent and moved to Ionia. But he eventually returned to
Jackson, where he died on July 2, 1899.
Hooker Ashton DeLand:
Hooker DeLand was born in 1843 in Speedsville, New York, around 1843, and played
the outfield for the Daybreak Club in 1860. The following year, he enlisted in
the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters, under the command of his cousin,
Charles V. DeLand. The regiment was decimated by casualties and desertions, and
in 1864 Hooker DeLand was court-martialed and convicted of cowardice. In
addition to being dishonorably discharged and losing his shoulder insignia,
Deland had the humiliation of having his name and a list of the charges printed
in the Jackson paper. In 1867, he was selected to the first nine of the Central
Club but declined due to illness. Later that year, however, he was a member of
the Unknowns of Jackson when they captured the 1867 Detroit “world’s
championship” tournament. He got married in 1868 and soon moved to Grand Rapids
to work in the press room of the Grand Rapids Democrat. He even resumed playing
baseball in 1875. But new sorrows awaited him four years later when DeLand
alleged that his wife, while in Berlin to study music, had been seduced by her
pastor. Eventually DeLand moved back to New York and, as described in Raymond
J. Herek’s book These Men Have Seen Hard Service, he spent many years
unsuccessfully trying to clear his name of the courtmartial conviction. He died
on April 5, 1931, in Seneca Falls, New York.
Howard Hampton
Gridley: H. H. Gridley was one of the oldest members of the Daybreaks, having
been born in 1824 in New York State. But he played in several matches for the
club, and continued to umpire after the war. Gridley owned and operated a
livery stable and omnibus line. In 1870, he became involved in an argument and
struck and killed a farmer named Abel Williams. But his conviction for
manslaughter brought him only a fine of $200. Gridley died in Jackson on March
20, 1882.
Harrington: This
man, who played for the Daybreaks in 1860, has not been positively identified
because his first name was never given. But he never returned to the club and
was specifically described as being away fighting the Civil War. As a result,
it seems highly likely that he was George L. Harrington, who enlisted as a
private on August 22, 1861, at age 18 and was assigned to the Michigan 8th
Infantry, serving until September 22, 1864. After the war, he became a farmer
and remained in the Jackson area until his death around 1911.
William P. Hewitt:
William P. Hewitt was president of the Daybreak Club and a member of the first
nine. He and fellow club member Stephen Welling purchased the Jackson grocery
owned by C. L. Mitchell in 1863. Nonetheless, I have not been able to pinpoint
him on the census.
Melville McGee:
Melville McGee was born in Bolton, New York, on January 24, 1828, but the family
moved to the Jackson area when he was four. The area was then very sparsely
populated, and he would later reminisce about playing ball at barn raisings. As
he put it, “It seems to me now as I look back and recall those early days that
the young people enjoyed their sports and games and entered into them with far
more zest then young people do at the present day. There was no feeling of envy
or superiority, or the feeling that you don’t belong to my set. All were on a
level, and everyone was just as good as any other.” McGee became a
distinguished judge when he grew up, but continued to play baseball and scored
the tying run for the Unknowns of Jackson in the championship game of the 1867
Detroit “world’s championship” tournament. He also earned recognition as a hard
hitter who reportedly once batted a ball clear over a sturdy oak at the corner
of Fourth and Franklin. McGee died in Jackson on February 20, 1909.
Hiram B. Pierson:
Hiram B. Pierson was born in Vermont around 1834. When the war broke out, he
enlisted in the 10th Michigan Infantry and served for more than a
year. When he returned home, Conely enlisted and Pierson became the club’s
regular catcher. Pierson retained his interest in baseball after the war,
playing for the Central Club while holding the office of president in 1865 and
later that of vice president. He moved to Grand Rapids during the 1870s and
worked as messenger. His obituary appeared in the Grand Rapids Herald, March
11, 1918, page 4.
George Proudfit:
George Proudfit was born in Hopewell, New York, on January 28, 1838. He became
a lawyer and was practicing in Jackson when the Civil War erupted. Proudfit
enlisted in the 8th Michigan Infantry and served for fifteen months.
After the war, he returned to the practice of law and in 1878 was elected
Circuit Court Commissioner. He was enumerated for the 1880 census on June 9,
1880, and was listed as being sick with consumption (tuberculosis). Nine days
later the disease claimed his life.
Francis A.
Sharpsteen: Francis Sharpsteen was one of the mainstays of the 1863 Daybreaks,
but two years later he died in Jackson on December 2, 1865, of tuberculosis. He
was still several weeks shy of his twenty-third birthday.
Henry W. Shipman:
Henry W. Shipman enlisted in the Civil War in 1861 at the age of 30. He died on
September 11, 1864, at Nashville of wounds suffered at Peach Tree Creek on July
21.
Stephen Allen
Welling: Stephen Welling, the pitcher of the Daybreaks, was born on October 24,
1830. He owned a saddle and harness business on Main Street in Jackson until
1863, when he and fellow club member William P. Hewitt bought a Jackson grocery
store. Welling later owned a men’s furnishings store. Despite the demands of
business and his age, Welling remained very involved in Jackson baseball after
the war. At the 1865 state fair, he was elected secretary of the state baseball
association. He also served as secretary of the Central Club and played for the
Unknowns of Jackson when they captured the 1867 Detroit “world’s championship”
tournament. After his playing days ended, he served as secretary of the Mutual
Club of Jackson in the early 1870s. Welling died in Jackson on July 29, 1908.
Charles B. Wood:
Charles B. Wood was the vice president of the Daybreak Club in 1862 and its left
fielder in 1863. He was born in October of 1839 in New York, but the family
moved to Jackson in 1844. His father, James B. Wood, was a lawyer and became
the first mayor of Jackson under the city charter. Charles B. Wood also became a
lawyer and joined his father’s practice. In 1862, he enlisted in the Union
Army, serving for more than three years in the 17th and 4th
Michigan infantries. He practiced law in Jackson until the 1890s, but then
divorced his wife and moved to Chicago.
Others: Charles E.
Barker (scorer), H. W. Camp (scorer), Case (likely N. Case, later a member of
the first nine of the Centrals, the successors of the Daybreaks), Crittenden,
(likely George Crittenden, also a member of the Centrals’ first nine), L. J.
Curtiss (scorer, on the board in 1862), Hall, D. Holder, Hulbert or Hilbert,
Kassick, McConnell, Saulpaugh, G. Shiverton, Van Horn, John H. Weller (board in
1862), Woodworth
Sources: This entry
is based on my book, Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan, which in
turn relied primarily on contemporary accounts in the newspapers of the era.
Also helpful were later reminiscences, such as one that appeared in the
Jackson News on September 22, 1918.
|
