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FOREST CITY OF ROCKFORD
CLUB HISTORY
The Forest City Club
of Rockford came to be remembered almost exclusively for a stunning upset of the
mighty Nationals of Washington and for producing legendary pitcher, executive
and sporting good magnate Albert Goodwill Spalding. Yet the club’s
accomplishments were in fact far more diverse, as it yielded several other stars
and made the transition from amateurism to professionalism so smoothly that it
participated in the first major league.
Spalding later gave
an intriguing account of his introduction to the game. In 1863, at the age of
twelve, he was sent to Rockford to board with a relative and, “became associated
with a number of my school companions in the organization of a junior base ball
club. The way it came about was this. One of our young townsmen, while in the
east, had seen several games of ball played by New York clubs at the Elysian
Fields, Hoboken, N.J., then the home of the game; and becoming interested in it,
on his return home to the west he brought with him some base ball materials, and
a copy of Beadle Dime Book of Base Ball, the standard book of the game at
that period. It was edited by Mr. Chadwick, who was then, as now, the leading
writer of the national game. From the pages of this book, aided by personal
instructions by our teacher, we were initiated in the mysteries of base-ball,
and of course we became infatuated with the sport.” (Chadwick Scrapbooks, vol.
4, handwritten by Spalding)
On other occasions,
Spalding maintained that a disabled Civil War veteran first explained the game
to him. (“Sport’s Progress,” Sporting Life, February 4, 1905, 10; A. G.
Spalding, America’s National Game, 509-511) In addition, it must be
stressed that this is a description of how Spalding was introduced to baseball,
and since he was a recent arrival to Rockford in 1863, it is very possible that
the New York version of baseball had been played there earlier. But Spalding’s
comments represent out only first-hand source on baseball in Rockford prior to
1865, and insofar as they go are probably accurate.
One other
tantalizing fragment also survives, though its original source remains unknown.
According to a much later account, “An old rubber shoe, melted down, became the
core of the first ball manufactured [in Rockford]. Around it, yarn was
wrapped. An orange peel was quartered and used as a model for the leather cover
which was sewn by George Lane, harness maker.” (Edward Prell, “Cities That
Pioneered Sports in Chicagoland: Albert G. Spalding, Horatio Alger Character,
Sports Giant of Rockford,” Chicago Tribune, January 31, 1954, A3.
Prell’s article is largely based on Spalding’s America’s National Game,
but this statement appears to come from some other source.)
By 1865, Rockford
boasted three baseball clubs: the Pioneers, a junior club that included Spalding
and another future major league star in Ross Barnes; the Mercantiles, a club
that as its name suggests was made up primarily of retail sales clerks; and the
Forest City Club. The latter club was formed on August 10, 1865, and quickly
came to be looked upon as the city’s standard bearer. It eventually enlisted
150 members and proved that it was indeed the city’s best club by defeating the
Mercantiles. (Spalding, America’s National Game, 118; Spink, The
National Game, 5) But the Forest City Club was less successful against
rivals from other towns, losing matches to the Empires of Freeport and Atlantics
of Chicago before beating the Shaffers of Freeport for its first and only win
against an outside opponent in 1865.
Rockford’s two senior clubs “both looked on the Pioneers as mere kids,” so it
came as quite a shakeup to the city’s baseball scene when the Pioneers
challenged the Mercantiles in the fall of 1865 and pulled off an upset by the
shocking score of 26-2. (Charles T. Page, quoted in E. C. Bruffey, “Bruffey
Tells of Charles T. Page, Atlanta Constitution, August 10, 1919, A4) The
Forest Citys responded by asking Spalding and Barnes to join their nine for the
1866 campaign. When the club began practicing for the season, Spalding’s
pitching was so impressive that Captain Henry Warner named him starting pitcher
of the Forest Citys. Some of the older club members objected that the
fifteen-year-old Spalding would “go to pieces” against strong competition, but
Spalding won his first game against the Mystics of Belvidere by the score of 123
to 8 and the doubters were silenced. (“Spalding’s Start,” Sporting Life,
June 20, 1908, 16)
The additions of
Barnes and Spalding gave the Forest City Club an extremely strong nucleus made
up entirely of Rockford residents. More new recruits would follow, many of whom
hailed from the surrounding region and who thereby made the club less of a true
town club. The most notable one occurred in the spring of 1866 when the Forest
City Club visited Rochelle, Illinois, and, as Spalding later recalled,
“unearthed Bob Addy, who afterward became a celebrated character. He was
originally a Canadian cricketer. He showed wonderful ability as a ball player
in this game, by practically playing the whole game, captain of the team,
pitcher, catcher, and, in fact, took every position where the player had
developed weakness by making an error. We won the game without difficulty, but
were so impressed with his playing abilities that Addy was afterward invited to
join the Forest Citys and was a member of that club all the time I was connected
with it.” (Chicago Inter-Ocean, April 12, 1896)
Before long, a
foundation had been laid that few towns of Rockford’s size could match. The
Forest City Club, which had adopted a snazzy “uniform consisting of white
shirts, white flannel pants, with blue cord, white caps, and black patent
leather boots,” was now in a position to be competitive with the country’s best
clubs while relying primarily on native sons. (Chicago Tribune, June 21,
1867)
Just as important,
the city of Rockford became loyal supporters. The members of the Forest Citys
were regarded as “social lions” and, “Carriages were provided for them whenever
they went to other cities to play and all sorts of invitations were extended to
them. The fans were as enthusiastic as they are to-day and the spectators used
to become familiar and take the players into their confidences. Batting and
fielding averages formed the small talk at sociables and dinner parties. An
astonishing amount of loyalty to the home team was displayed by business men,
lawyers, judges and the profound thinking economists.” (“Baseball Thirty Years
Ago,” Lima News, July 15, 1899) Before long, the club’s success
regularly attracted spectators from all over the surrounding countryside. (New
York Clipper, August 22, 1868; cited in Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding
Home)
A more difficult
question to resolve is whether the support of Rockford citizens extended to
paying players for their services. Spalding was adamant that it didn’t, at
least in the early years of the Forest Citys. He maintained that he was docked
pay when he had to miss work at a Rockford grocery to play for the club, and
that he left the club briefly in the fall of 1867 and joined the Excelsiors of
Chicago because he had been offered what amounted to a salary to play baseball
for the first time. (Spalding, America’s National Game, 119-122)
In 1884, minor
league manager James F. McKee provided a brief history of the Forest Citys from
1865-1868 in which he stressed that those were the “days when salaries to play
ball was unheard of.” He then quoted an unnamed “eminent writer” who had
written, “The members of the first nine are neither sporting men, gamblers or
hired experts boys who grew to manhood in Rockford, but they are boys who have
grown to manhood in this city, have received liberal educations and every one of
them is engaged in business, filling stations of profit and honor.” (Sporting
Life, April 9, 1884, 4)
Alfred H. Spink,
however, described the Forest City Club as the “first to pay regular salaries to
their players. All other baseball teams, up to August 10, 1865, when the Forest
Citys of Rockford were organized, were playing then and for several subsequent
years on the co-operative plan.” (Spink, The National Game, 5) On
another occasion, Spink repeated this assertion and added that the people of
Rockford objected to the claim that the Red Stockings of Cincinnati were the
first to receive salaries and believed that the Forest Citys had been first.
(syndicated column, Reno Evening Gazette, March 31, 1922)
Yet immediately
after making the above-quoted declaration, Spink proceeds to describe the
playing members of the Forest City Club in the exact same words that had been
quoted by McKee, even adding that the players had “only the hours of evening
after their day’s work was done to practice.” (Spink, The National Game,
5) So had Spink been the “eminent writer” cited by McKee or was he just copying
the same source without attribution? In any case, the words are difficult to
reconcile with the characterization of the players as salaried professionals.
But there are other
sources that suggest that the Forest Citys were not lily-pure amateurs during
the 1860s. An undated article stated that after the upset of the Nationals,
residents of Rockford began “freely forking down their greenbacks to pay their
players for the time spent in practicing.” (Chadwick Scrapbooks, quoted in
Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding Home, 163) Even Spalding’s own mother
recalled that his employer, the editor of the Rockford Register, “was so
much interested in baseball that he was always ready to let Albert off to play
ball.” (Harriet Spalding, Reminiscences of Harriet I. Spalding, 83)
Given the
contradictory evidence and the wide differences in definitions of what
constituted an amateur club, there is no way to be certain of the status of the
Forest Citys. What we do know, however, is that the citizens of Rockford found
a different way of opening their wallets to support baseball in 1866. The city
announced plans to host a major tournament in early July that was billed as
being for the championship of the Northwest. A Rockford dentist named Dr.
Joseph Norman was the primary sponsor, offering the winning club a ball “of full
regulation size, two and three-quarters inches in diameter, of eighteen carat
gold, and put up in a satin-lined Morocco case” and a bat “of solid rosewood,
elaborately mounted with the same quality of gold, and cased the same as the
ball.” Many local businesses and groups chipped in by donating additional
prizes to lure clubs and players. (Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, June
21, 1866)
Baseball tournaments
of the 1860s rarely went smoothly, and the one in Rockford was no exception.
The generous prize fund attracted clubs from cities like Chicago, Detroit and
Milwaukee, but the questionable decision was made to place all the entrants in
one division. This discouraged most small-town clubs from entering, with the
notable exception of the Pecatonica Club, whose fate is described in another
chapter. Another problem was the field at the Rockford fairgrounds, which
prompted widespread complaints. One attendee later recalled that, “a poorer
field, to my mind, has never been known. There was a cluster of five trees
around third base. The catcher was hemmed in by trees with the exception of a
space about 30 by 50 feet. The umpire could not see a foul unless it was hit
back of the plate or a few feet on either side of the base lines. Between the
plate and second base the terrain was fairly level, but approaching third base
there was a notable rise. From third to the plate there was a depression. The
baserunner had to dig in for life. At the edge of the outfield was a deep
gutter that drained a nearly quarter-mile track. Only Providence’s protection
kept more players from breaking legs in that trap.” (Rockford Register,
August 16, 1939; quoted in Michael Benson, Ballparks of North America, p.
343)
Things also went
badly for the Forest Citys, who lost a 14-13 nail-biter to the Cream City Club
of Milwaukee and were knocked out of the single-elimination tournament. But a
one-run loss to a club from a much big city was a minor setback and the Forest
City Club soon rebounded. The club did not lose another match in 1866, and were
particularly exhilarated when they gained revenge on the Cream Citys by the
decisive margin of 24-10. A challenge was even issued to the Excelsiors of
Chicago, the club that had won the Rockford tournament and had earned
recognition as the best club in the Midwest. But the response was
unsatisfactory, prompting the Forest City Club to pass a resolution stating that
“we regard the reply of the Excelsior Base Ball Club, of Chicago, deferring the
acceptance of our challenge till next spring, as a virtual refusal to play with
us.” (Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1866)
When the spring of
1867 finally did roll around, the Forest City and Excelsior Clubs did indeed
play two matches. The Excelsiors won both times, but the margins were narrow
and the Forest Citys were invited to participate in an historic event. The
Nationals of Washington had embarked on the first-ever trans-Allegheny tour and
were due to arrive in Chicago at the end of July. To welcome them, three days’
worth of matches were scheduled at Dexter Park, with the opponents being the
Forest Citys, the Excelsiors and the Atlantics of Chicago.
The match against
the Forest Citys was widely viewed as a warm-up contest for the Nationals, and
few expected it to be competitive. Spalding, the now sixteen-year-old pitcher
of the Forest Citys, had similar expectations. “A great lump arose in my
throat,” he later recalled, “and my heart beat so like a trip-hammer that I
imagined it could be heard by everyone on the grounds.” His teammates shared
his apprehension, and although they tried to reassure him, “I recognized the
fact that everyone of them was so scared that none could speak above a whisper.
The fact is, we were all frightened nearly to death, with possibly the exception
of Bob Addy, who kept up his nerve and courage by ‘joshing’ the National players
as they came to bat with his witticisms.” (Spalding, America’s National Game,
109-111)
But to everyone’s
surprise, the Forest City Club surged to the lead and clung to it. The
Nationals redoubled their efforts, but their bats continued to be subdued by
Spalding’s pitching and by a steady drizzle that forced two interruptions. By
the seventh inning, time was running out and in desperation the club’s president
loudly reminded star player George Wright that “to lose this game would be to
make our whole trip a failure.” His words spurred on the Forest Citys, and they
completed the historic upset, ending up on the long end of a 29-23 score.
(Spalding, America’s National Game, 112)
The embarrassed
Nationals bounced back in their next game and thrashed the Excelsiors 49-4.
This prompt allegations that the loss to the Forest Citys had been fixed, but
the charges were heatedly denied by the Nationals and were withdrawn. Meanwhile
the Forest Citys followed the huge upset with a surprising loss to the
Bloomingtons of Bloomington, Illinois. They suffered an even bigger loss when
Spalding departed, having been offered a $40-a-week clerkship for a Chicago
grocery with few duties, as long as he agreed to pitch for the Excelsiors.
(Spalding, America’s National Game, 119)
By the spring of
1868, the Chicago grocery that employed Spalding had gone bankrupt, and the
young pitcher returned to Rockford. He found work for an insurance agency and
the Rockford Register, both of which – by coincidence or perhaps not –
were managed by officers of the Forest City Club. Not surprisingly, he also
resumed his old role as the club’s pitcher.
The 1868 season
proved an up-and-down one for the Forest Citys. The highlights came when they
finally beat the rival Excelsiors of Chicago on June 12 and then repeated the
feat on July 4. These wins, along with eleven other decisive triumphs over
clubs from Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, firmly establish the Forest Citys as
the top club in the state and the surrounding area.
But when eastern
clubs came for visits, the Rockford club proved incapable of repeating the
signal triumph it had achieved in 1867. The first such opponent, the Athletics
of Philadelphia, overwhelmed the Forest Citys by a 94-13 margin. Subsequent
matches against the Atlantics of Brooklyn, the Buckeyes of Cincinnati and the
Unions of Morrisania were much closer, but all ended in defeats.
The match against
the Unions of Morrisania was especially frustrating. The visitors were the
defending national champions and, according to first baseman Fred Cone,
anticipation was so high in Rockford that, “the banks closed, business men shut
up their stores and the judge of the county court gravely informed his lawyer
friends that the court had to sit en banc with a number of other estimable
judges – of baseball – in a well-known stand out in the remote part of the city
given over to baseball players.”
But as Cone related
wistfully, “That game with the Unions was one of the best we ever played,
although we lost. We had a new man that showed up so well in practice that we
let him play first base in my place – I had broken my wrist in a game. He was
unable to hold the ball and in desperation Stires was called in to supplant him
by our captain. Stires was little better. There were fourteen bad plays at
that bag that game, and with that for a handicap we were only beaten by a narrow
margin.” (“Baseball Thirty Years Ago,” Lima News, July 15, 1899)
After the 1868
season, clubs like the Forest City faced a crucial dilemma. The National
Association of Base Ball Players finally recognized professionalism that
off-season, giving clubs the choice of amateurism or professionalism, as well as
of whether to use local players or import outsiders.
Like many clubs, the
Forest Citys opted for a compromise. They remained amateurs (at least
nominally) and brought in no eastern professionals. Instead, they added three
players from rival Illinois Clubs: Scott Hastings and Lee Cheney of the
Bloomingtons and Tom Foley of the now-defunct Excelsiors of Chicago.
Unlike most of the
clubs who faced this dilemma, the course of the Forest Citys proved a success in
1869. The club managed 20 wins and only 4 defeats during the season, with all
four losses coming at the hands of the Red Stockings of Cincinnati, including
one by the narrow margin of 15-14. The gaudy record of the Forest Citys is made
less impressive by the reality that the demise of the Excelsiors meant that none
of the top Eastern clubs paid visits to Illinois. Nevertheless, a season that
includes losses only to a legendary undefeated club remains quite an
accomplishment.
The strong
performance in 1869 inspired the excited Rockford public raised $7,000 to fund
the club’s first Eastern tour. (Spalding, America’s National Game, 125)
It seems almost certain that the influx of money led the Forest Citys to begin
paying salaries in 1870 (if they weren’t already doing so). Nevertheless the
club continued to describe itself as an amateur nine, maintaining that all
profits were donated to charity. These claims are difficult to believe in light
of references to the players having “business connections, which are prosecuted
in their absence and to which they return at the close of the baseball season.”
(Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding Home, 163; citing New York Clipper,
November 5, 1870)
Even with the
ability to pay salaries, the club’s roster was already so strong that only two
new players were brought in – first baseman Joe Doyle, a Washington native who
had been playing for the Buckeyes of Cincinnati, and New Yorker Joe Simmons, an
outfielder who was another former Excelsior of Chicago. Simmons had been
driving a horse car in Chicago when a Rockford director tracked him down and
offered a job in Rockford that allowed him to be absent for ball games. (New
York Clipper, June 4, 1870; quoted in Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding
Home, 163) Simmons lived that year at a hotel operated by club member Harry
Starr and was joined there by numerous other club members, including Bob Addy,
James Manny, Fred Cone, Gail Barstow, Rufus Bailey, and Scott Hastings (who,
oddly, was listed as a hotel clerk!).
The 1870 campaign
proved another successful one for the Forest City Club, as it compiled 42 wins
and a tie in 56 outings. Most impressively, in a year that produced no
clear-cut national champion, most considered the Red Stockings and the White
Stockings of Chicago to be the best clubs and the Forest Citys managed wins over
both of them.
The impressive
season led the Forest City Club to join the first major league, the National
Association, in 1871. Alas, they had to do so without Spalding, Barnes and
Cone, all of whom had signed to play for Boston. But club manager Hiram Waldo
enlisted some capable replacements, including Chick Fulmer, Denny Mack, Cherokee
Fisher a young player named Adrian Anson. The Forest Citys finished the year
with an 8-17 record, only to have four of the wins turned to losses because of
the use of an ineligible player. The club was still using the ill-suited fair
grounds for its home games, with the result that the field has been described as
the “strangest major league ballpark in history.” (Phil Lowry, Green
Cathedrals, 196)
The Great Chicago
Fire forced the White Stockings to drop out of the National Association at the
end of the 1871 season, making it inevitable that the Forest Citys of Rockford
would do the same. Many of the club’s players joined other major league clubs
and fashioned impressive careers. But the club that had produced them and had
managed one of the greatest upsets of baseball’s era had essentially come to the
end of the road. (It appears that other clubs called the Forest Citys
represented Rockford in subsequent years, but without stars like Spalding and
Barnes, these were to all intents and purposes new clubs.)
In later years,
Spalding and other members of the Forest City Club of Rockford looked back on
the club’s heyday with great fondness. Spalding, for example, later told of a
memorable trip from Rockford to Rochelle that was made “in an old-style picnic
side-seat wagon. On our return from Rochelle in the evening after the game, it
rained very hard. The harness broke, and it took us about half an hour to fix
it with the assistance of a neighboring farmer. The wheels of the wagon had
struck a log, imbedded in the mud, lying across the road. It was suggested that
we all get out and help it over the obstruction, and I remember Major Sine, a
fleshy man, weighing about 250 pounds, then chief of police of Rockford,
objected to getting out because he had on low shoes and white stockings. It
took us about a half hour to fix the harness. In the meantime Major Sine had
fallen asleep and when the wagon started up the lurch in crossing the log tipped
Sine out in the deep mud, soiling not only his white stockings, but considerably
more of his person as he went out of sight. Before we had missed him we heard a
voice asking us to hold up, and then Sine climbed in, covered with mud, uttering
expletives which do not look well in print.” (Chicago Inter-Ocean, April
12, 1896)
No doubt the smooth
manner in which the club navigated the transition from amateurism to
professionalism was one of the main reasons that the memories were so fond.
Appropriately, in 1896 when Harry Wright Day was celebrated with reunion
matches all across the country, it was in Rockford that the most celebrated game
was played. There was a great turnout of the club’s former members, and while
rain washed out the game after only an inning, it didn’t put a damper on the
good spirits and the reminiscences of bygone days.
MEMBERS
Note: I have only
included men who belonged to the club before its 1871 entry into the National
Association.
Bob Addy: Bob Addy,
the player whose memorable discovery was chronicled by Spalding, remained a
regular for the Forest Citys for several years and became known as quite a
character. One writer aptly described him as “big hearted, bow legged, profane
Bob Addy.” He played professionally for several years after leaving Rockford,
but according to Cap Anson he was “an odd sort of a genius and quit the game
because he thought he could do better at something else.” Addy headed west and
lived in Wyoming for a while before settling permanently in Pocatello, Idaho.
There he ran a hardware and sporting goods store and raised cattle as a
sideline. He died in Pocatello in 1910. The circumstances of his birth are
confusing, and he is usually listed as being born in Rochester, New York. But
the evidence suggests that Spalding may in fact be right and he was actually
born in Canada.
Rufus C. Bailey:
Rufus Bailey, the secretary of the Forest Citys from 1865-1872, was born in
Auburn, Maine, on July 28, 1833. After graduating from Amherst College in 1853,
he headed west and settled in Rockford. He worked as a railroad engineer for
several years, but then desired to study law. After passing the bar, he worked
as a city attorney. As of 1870, the single Bailey was living with many of his
fellow club members at Henry Starr’s hotel. In 1873, Bailey was elected a
county judge and he served in that position for more than thirty years. As of
1910, he was still living in Rockford.
William Blakney
Barbour: William Barbour was born around 1848 in Ireland and immigrated two
years later. He became a prominent Rockford businessman, owning a dry goods
store, being in business with fellow club member Henry Price and eventually
becoming president of the Rockford Insurance Company. He was also involved in
the management of the Forest City Club and after he died in Rockford on January
26, 1921, an account book was found in his possession that included entries from
1871 like “Mending Fisher’s shoes – 25 cents; bat for Anson – 50 cents; shirt
for Ham -- $1.75.”
Alfred L. Barker: Al
Barker was born on January 18, 1839, in Lost Creek, Indiana. After being a
regular for the Forest Citys in 1868 and 1869, he was relegated to backup duty
in 1870. He then played one game for the Forest Citys in 1871, good enough to
earn him a place in the baseball encyclopedias. A 1912 article reported that
Barker “was for years a choir leader and prominent in civic life in Rockford,
where he still resides.” He died there later that year.
Charles Roscoe
Barnes: Ross Barnes was born in Mount Morris, New York, on May 8, 1850, but grew
up in Rockford. Like Spalding, he graduated from the junior Pioneers to the
senior Forest Citys and then went on to become a major league superstar. He
averaged an extraordinary .397 between 1871 and 1876, leading the National
Association in batting twice and the National League once. He became known for
his adeptness at hitting fair-fouls, leading one sportswriter to observe that
Barnes “studies up the position, and makes his hits according to circumstances …
In fact, as ‘a scientific batsman’ - one who goes in to place a ball
advantageously – we never saw his superior.” In 1877, Barnes fell seriously ill
and was never the same player. He eventually moved to Chicago and pursued
business. He died in Chicago on February 5, 1915.
Galen W. Barstow:
Gale Barstow was the main backup for the Forest Citys in 1868. On the 1870
census, he is listed in Morris, Illinois, (as a base ball player), but also in
Rockford. He soon moved to Chicago where he remained until his death on May 14,
1900, at the age of 49.
Royal Miller Buckman:
R. M. Buckman was born on September 4, 1846, in Morristown, New York. He moved
with his family to Illinois and became a starter for the Empire Club of Freeport
after the war. He joined the Forest Citys in 1867, but remained a regular for
only one year before losing his spot to new players. He returned to Freeport
for a few years, then moved to Chicago and became an insurance adjuster. He
passed away in Wilmette on February 27, 1918.
Owen Lee Cheney: Lee
Cheney was born in Cheney’s Grove, Illinois, a community founded by family
members, in January of 1848. After seeing sporadic duty for the Forest Citys in
1869, he settled in Bloomington, where he continued to play baseball and became
a close friend of an up-and-coming player named Charley Radbourn who was
destined for a Hall of Fame career. Lee Cheney bounced around from job to job,
becoming better known as a fine billiards player. He was still in Bloomington
in 1910 but appears to have died soon thereafter.
Joseph Frederick
Cone: Fred Cone was born in May of 1848 in Rockford. He was the regular first
baseman of the Forest Citys in 1868 and 1869, but moved to the outfield in 1870
when Joe Doyle was signed. He joined Spalding and Barnes in signing with Boston
in 1871, but spent only one year in the major leagues. He then became the night
manager of the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago and his reminiscences about the
Forest Citys appeared in the July 15, 1899, issue of the Lima News. Cone
died in Chicago on April 13, 1909.
Joseph E. Doyle: Joe
Doyle was born around 1849 and was a native of the District of Columbia. He
grew up in a sporting family, having one brother who was a major leaguer and
another who became a noted sportswriter. He joined the Buckeyes of Cincinnati,
and then became the first baseman of the Forest Citys in 1870. His signing
moved Fred Cone to the outfield, but Cone would graciously acknowledge that to
be a good move, saying of Doyle: “He wore no big glove to protect his hands, yet
he was lightning on thrown balls, no matter how badly they broke. Up in the
air, down on the ground, in fact any old way, he would get them and save many an
error. In getting into fast double plays, he was a wonder.” After baseball,
Doyle lived for a while in Cincinnati and New York but eventually returned to
Washington. As of 1920, the widowed Doyle was living at a home for the aged and
infirm.
Elisha C. Dunn: Dr.
E. C. Dunn was a Rockford physician who was born in New York State in July of
1840. He was the second baseman of the Forest Citys in 1865 and was till
representing the club at the time of the 1866 Rockford tournament, as he came
second in a base-running contest staged at the tournament. Dunn was also a club
director in 1866, but soon lost his place on the first nine. He was later a
member of the Rockford city council. He was still living in Rockford in 1910,
but appears to have died soon afterward.
Thomas J. Foley: Tom
Foley was a future major leaguer whose life is described more fully in the entry
on the Excelsiors. According to Cone, Foley “kept a sort of book bindery and
did well” while playing for Rockford in 1869-70.
Edward H. Griggs:
Edward H. Griggs, who was born in Massachusetts, was the associate editor and
publisher of the Rockford Register. He also served as secretary of the Forest
City Club, so perhaps it was no coincidence that he employed Spalding. Griggs
also played a prominent role in the National Association of Base Ball Players.
By 1880, he had moved to near Chicago, where he worked as a bookkeeper and as
an actuary for an insurance company. He died on October 25, 1909.
Winfield Scott
Hastings: Scott Hastings was born on August 10, 1847, in Hillsboro, Ohio. His
family moved to Illinois and Hastings served in the Illinois 145th Infantry,
Company B, during the war. He spent the 1869 and 1870 seasons with the Forest
Citys, playing second base initially but eventually showing an aptitude for
catching. He again played for Rockford in 1871, but he was ruled ineligible and
the Forest Citys forfeited four of their eight wins as a result. Hastings
played in the majors for several more years, and his catching skill prompted one
observer to maintain that he was “the only man who could catch” hard-throwing
pitcher Jim Devlin. When his major league career ended, Hastings moved to
California. He died at a Veterans’ Home in Sawtelle, California, on August 14,
1907.
Isaiah Smith Hyatt:
Isaiah S. Hyatt was born in Chemung County, New York, in 1829. At the tender
age of 19 he was put in charge of the Cortland Democrat. He then moved to
Illinois and became the publisher and editor of the Rockford Register. He was
also vice president of the Forest Citys in 1866 and according to Harriet
Spalding, “was so much interested in baseball that he was always ready to let
Albert off to play ball.” In 1868, Hyatt’s brother John read that a $10,000
reward was being offered to anyone who could find a substance that would replace
ivory in billiard balls. The two brothers began to work on the problem, and on
June 15, 1869, they received a patent for an “Improved Method of Making Solid
Collodion.” Isaiah Hyatt eventually gave the product the name of celluloid, and
it came to be recognized as the first industrial plastic. They formed the
Celluloid Manufacturing Company to produce their invention and Isaiah Hyatt
moved to Albany and then to Newark to help with its development. In 1884, the
two brothers designed and patented a system of water filtration that was the
first to make use of a coagulant. This invention is now recognized as a
milestone in water filtration, and began to be used in municipal water supplies
in 1885. But I. S. Hyatt didn’t live to reap the rewards, as he died on March
18, 1885, in Eden, Florida.
George E. King:
George King was born in New York State in August of 1844. He was the regular
catcher of the Forest City Club in 1867 and 1868, including the celebrated upset
of the Nationals. He later became a bank cashier, a Rockford alderman and was a
bank president by the time of the 1896 Harry Wright Day celebrations. The
following year, however, he and his wife Alice moved to Circle City, Alaska, to
become an Alaska agent for the North American Transportation and Trading
Company.
Wallace “Fred”
Lighthart or Lightheart: Wallace Lighthart was born in January of 1849 and
played for the Empire Club of Freeport before joining the Forest Citys in 1867.
By 1870, he was back in Freeport working as a grain buyer, but he later moved to
St. Louis and became a railway man. A Wallace Lighthart died in Hennepin
County, Minnesota, on November 16, 1917, and given the uncommonness of his name,
it is almost certainly the same man.
James H. Manny: J.
H. Manny, one of the club’s two scorers, was born in New York State in October
1838. During the Civil War, he served in the 11th Illinois Infantry
for three months. In 1870, Manny and his wife were living at Henry Starr’s
hotel along with many other club members. Manny worked as an agent for a reaper
manufacturer and was still living in Rockford in 1880 but appears to have died
before the 1896 Harry Wright Day reunion.
William Ballard
Osborne: Ballard Osborne was born in February of 1848, right around the time
that his parents moved from New York State to Byron, Illinois. In 1868, he
became the regular third baseman of the Forest Citys and he remained a backup in
1869. By 1900, he was living in Rockvale, Illinois.
Charles T. Page:
Charles Page was born in Hillsdale, Michigan, on April 18, 1849. His name does
not appear in any club records I have found, but his name did appear in later
accounts. Page claimed that he was the first baseman of the Forest Citys in
1865, but lost his starting position when younger players like Spalding joined
the club. That’s a bit odd, because Page was only 16 in 1865, but is certainly
possible. Page and Spalding remained close friends, and Spalding eventually
married Page’s niece. Page became a successful banker and the president of
the Englewood Lumber Company. He lost both his wife and son in the Iroquois
Theatre Fire tragedy of 1903, and then moved to Atlanta. He died in Atlanta on
May 20, 1921.
Henry W. Price:
Henry W. Price, the other scorer of the Forest Citys, was born in New York State
in May of 1837. He became a very successful Rockford businessman, serving as
president of the Manufacturers’ and Merchants’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company and
also owning the Henry W. Price Company, which at one time was the largest glove
manufacturer in the United States. The glove firm made the “Price” line of
gloves and Price even patented a catcher’s glove on October 27, 1891. But he
suffered financial reverses when his investments in a watch company and a
railway were busts and by 1896 he was struggling to avoid bankruptcy. He
apparently died between 1900 and 1910.
Denton F. “Danny”
Sawyer: Dent Sawyer was born around 1850 in either Illinois or Wisconsin. He
joined the Forest Citys in 1868, primarily as a backup. When the 1870 census
was taken, he was living at the American House in Springfield. He was listed as
a base ball pitcher and was rooming with a young man named Amos B. McKay, who
was listed as a base ball catcher. Sawyer got married around 1878 and moved to
Iowa City, where he worked for the Iowa City power company and as a clothier.
By 1910, he had retired and was still living in Iowa City.
Joe Simmons: Joe
Simmons was another transplanted New Yorker who came to the Forest Citys by way
of the Excelsiors of Chicago. Simmons had been driving a horse car in Chicago
when a Rockford director tracked him down and offered a job in Rockford that
allowed him to be absent for ball games. He had a long involvement with
baseball that is described more fully in the entry on the Excelsiors.
Albert Goodwill
Spalding: A. G. Spalding moved from the junior Pioneers to the senior Forest
Citys in 1866 and went on to a Hall of Fame career. He was born on September 2,
1850, in Byron, Illinois, but was sent to Rockford in 1862 after the death of
his father. In the first half of the 1870s, he was the best pitcher in
baseball, relying on a devastating change of pace to lead Boston to four
straight National Association pennants. In 1875, he was the key figure in
Chicago’s signing of Boston’s “Big Four,” a move that was crucial in the
formation of the National League and in Chicago’s winning that league’s first
pennant. But by then the curveball was changing baseball, and Spalding chose to
play first base in 1877 and then retire. He had meanwhile started a sporting
goods firm that would make him a millionaire. But he remained involved in
baseball as president of the Chicago team, and his reminiscences about baseball
– often not very accurate – are one of the best-known sources of anecdotes about
the early years of baseball. He eventually moved to San Diego, where he died on
September 9, 1915. His life story is told in much greater detail in his own
book, America’s National Game, and in Peter Levine’s A. G. Spalding
and the Rise of Baseball and Mark Lamster’s Spalding’s World Tour.
Chandler Starr:
Chandler Starr was born around 1852 and was Spalding’s first catcher on the
Pioneers. He does not appear to have ever been a member of the first nine of
the Forest Citys, but was prominent in the Harry Wright Day festivities so he
may have belonged to the second nine. He was the younger brother of Harry
Starr, and their father Melancthon was a pioneer settler and banker. Chandler
Starr graduated from East Hampton College in Massachusetts and then returned to
Rockford, where he worked as cashier at his father’s bank, the Winnebago
National Bank. He later became vice president and director of the Rockford
Trust Company. He passed away on October 9, 1930.
Henry Nevins Starr:
Like his brother Chandler, Harry N. Starr does not appear to have ever played
for the first nine of the Forest Citys but was prominent in its doings. He was
born in New York State around 1840 but when he was ten his father moved to
Rockford to run the Winnebago National Bank. Harry Starr went into the dry
goods business and then became the proprietor of the Holland House, the hotel
where many players and club members lived. In 1891, he was elected to a
two-year term as mayor. He died in Rockford on the last day of 1920.
Warren S. Stearns:
W. S. Stearns was born on September 18, 1846, and grew up in Bloomingdale,
Illinois. I believe he was a starter for the Forest Citys in 1867, but there
were a ridiculous number of men named Stearns who played for the top two clubs
in Illinois and it is very difficult to be sure of who was who. Several notes
referred to the 1867 player as George, but the preponderance of evidence
suggests that he was in fact Warren. He joined the Excelsiors in 1868, but
eventually returned to Rockford, where he manufactured bags and hosiery. Warren
Stearns died in South Beloit, Illinois, on July 30, 1931.
Garrett Stires: Gat
Stires was born on October 13, 1849, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. His
father moved the family to a stock farm and ranch near Byron, Illinois. Gat
Stires joined the Forest Citys in 1868 and became one of the mainstays of the
club. He remained with the club when they joined the National Association in
1871 but then his services were needed on the ranch and he retired from
baseball. Long after his retirement, however, stories continued to be told
about Stires’s phenomenal hitting. Stires was only 5’8” but weighed 180 pounds
and descriptions suggest that every one of those pounds was sheer muscle. One
writer recalled that Stires was known “as the ‘terrible hayseed.’ Stires was
the phenomenon of those days. He knew nothing of headwork, but he had the
strength of a giant. The places under the arms where the shoulders join the
body are usually hollow. In Stires’ case they were filled with muscles. The
man could run like a deer, and had hands like hams covered with hide. No fly
passed him, and his field record was generally errorless save in the matter of
throwing. When he returned the ball to the diamond it was always at lightning
speed, and no one could tell whether the sphere would reach the catcher or go
over the fair ground fence. But it was at the bat that Stires won his name as
the ‘terrible hayseed.’ He was not like Anson or Barnes a sure base hitter, but
when his club and the ball did meet the result was nearly always a home run. I
once saw Harry Wright, the Philadelphia veteran, who then played center field
for the Bostons, wade Kent’s creek and toil up a bluff beyond to recover the
sphere after it had collided with Stires’ six pound bat.” Fred Cone similarly
recollected, “Many a time I have heard Al Spalding say Stires could hit the ball
harder and send it further than any man on earth.” Stires did not possess
similar gifts in other aspects of the game, and reportedly “always was lame and
had to have somebody run for him.” Stires continued to work on his ranch for
many years and became quite wealthy. He never married, and when his health
began to fail in the 1920s he was placed in a home in Byron. He died there on
June 13, 1933.
Charles James Swasey:
Charles J. Swasey was born in New Hampshire in September of 1847. He moved to
Chicago when young and in 1864 served a six-month stint in the Illinois 134th
Infantry. He became a member of the Excelsiors in 1865 but could not crack the
first nine. In 1866, he moved to Rockford and was a member of the Forest Citys
for the next three years. Once again, he did not become a regular, but he
filled in at third base in quite a few games. In 1873, Swasey moved to Fort
Worth, Texas, where he became a cigar and liquor wholesaler and lived for the
rest of his long life. Swasey never married and remained an avid follower of
baseball until the end. He enjoyed reminiscing about his long-ago days on the
baseball diamond and he was interviewed by several reporters. Some of the
accounts that resulted confused Swasey with Charles Sweasy, who was a starter
for the undefeated 1869 Red Stockings of Cincinnati. This appears, however, to
have been the fault of the reporters and not an attempt by Swasey to take credit
for the other player’s achievements. In 1922, Swasey was described as being “in
feeble health” and in “his last days.” Nevertheless, he lived until March 24,
1939.
Frank Trumbull:
Frank Trumbull, who saw sporadic duty for the Forest Citys in 1868 and 1869, was
born in New York State in August of 1849. He remained in Rockford and was
described in later accounts as a manufacturer and as a clothing store clerk. He
was still living in Rockford in 1910, but appears to have died within the next
few years.
Hiram Henry Waldo:
Hiram H. Waldo was born in Elba, New York, on November 23, 1827, and moved to
Rockford in 1846. After working as a post office clerk, he opened a book store
in 1855 and ran it until his death in 1912. He became the president of the
Forest Citys and once the Forest Citys began charging admission, tickets were
sold at Waldo’s bookstore. Spalding described Waldo as “Rockford’s Grand Old
Man” and recalled how he advised him to accept a better-paying job and join the
Excelsiors even though Waldo was then president of the Forest Citys. When
Rockford joined the National Association in 1871, he remained very active in the
club’s doings and was credited with discovering Cap Anson. In addition, Hiram
Waldo was an active civic leader who served as the county’s school
commissioner. He also helped organize Rockford’s Church of Christian Union and
didn’t miss a single service for more than thirty years. He remained devoted to
baseball until the end of his life, although he had to stop going to games in
his later years because he became too excited. Waldo died in Rockford in April
of 1912.
Henry S. Warner:
Henry Warner was born in Pennsylvania around 1845. He was the shortstop of the
Forest Citys in 1865 and club captain in 1866, but like many early regulars he
lost his starting status when new players joined the lineup. He later worked as
a bookkeeper for a distillery. He died in Rockford on May 23, 1921, just a week
after Page.
Ernest Waxham:
Ernest Waxham was born in La Porte, Indiana, on February 5, 1848. He had moved
to Rockford by 1868 and was a semi-regular for the Forest Citys that year. The
1870 census found Waxham and Charles Page living in the home of Hiram Waldo,
with Waxham working as a clerk in Waldo’s bookstore. He later became a
commercial traveler for the Henry W. Price Company, the glove firm owned by his
fellow club member. He and his wife later traveled extensively in Europe and
Northern Africa before settling in Los Angeles. That is where Waxham died on
June 9, 1928.
Martin L. Wheeler:
M. L. Wheeler was born in Illinois in 1846 and was living in Rockford by 1860.
He was a starter on the Forest Citys from 1865-67. As a young man, he worked as
a music teacher and as a clerk in a boot and shoe store. But by 1880, he had
become an attorney and was practicing law in Chicago. When the 1900 census was
described as working in real estate. He died in Chicago on September 27, 1908.
Others: Horace
Baker, J. Brown (65), L. F. Farwell, Thomas Galt (club vice president), M. H.
“Joe” or “Mique” Golden (Rockford), J. W. Hall (treasurer), G. H. Hitchcock
(joins Janesville in 1868?), S. Lakin (1865 player), George W. LaRue, C. G.
Manlove (director), A. N. Nichols (secretary, employed Spalding in insurance
office), Dr. Joseph Norman (main patron of 1866 tournament and no doubt a club
member), W. B. Thomas (Freeport), T. T. Webster (2b in 1865), Hon. C. A. Works
(Rockford)
A couple of puzzles:
The April 29, 1899, issue of Sporting News reported that Robert J. Martin of the
Forest Citys of Rockford had died recently at the age of 52. But I’ve found no
record of such a player. In America’s National Game, A. G. Spalding
claimed that a man named Dr. S. J. Sawyer was the club’s pitcher before he
assumed the role. But I’ve found no record of such a player, nor of a man by
that name, and believe Spalding was confused.
Sources: The Forest
City Club of Rockford is mentioned in countless books and articles, but most of
them offer brief descriptions of the club’s celebrated win over the Nationals.
As a result, this entry relies primarily on these sources: A. G. Spalding,
America’s National Game; A. H. Spink, The National Game; Peter
Levine, A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball; Harriet Spalding,
Reminiscences of Harriet I. Spalding (East Orange, N.J.: 1910);
William Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding Home; David Fleitz, Cap Anson;
Mark Lamster, Spalding’s World Tour; Harvey T. Woodruff, “Forest Citys a
Noted Team,” Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1912, C2; “Spalding’s Start,”
Sporting Life, June 20, 1908, 16; E. C. Bruffey, “Bruffey Tells of Charles
T. Page, Atlanta Constitution, August 10, 1919, A4; “Sport’s Progress,”
Sporting Life, February 4, 1905, 10; “Baseball Thirty Years Ago,” Lima
News, July 15, 1899; an untitled piece in the Chicago Tribune on
February 4, 1877; and a history of baseball in Rockford written by James McKee
that appeared in Sporting Life on April 9, 1884, 4. Many other pieces
contributed toward identifying the players, including descriptions of the Harry
Wright Day reunion in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Inter-Ocean and New York
Times between April 8 and 14, 1896, and pieces in the Bismarck Daily Tribune,
July 7, 1891, the Atlanta Constitution of March 14, 1909, and the
Brooklyn Eagle of December 6, 1885.
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