|
ONTARIO CLUB OF OSWEGO
CLUB HISTORY
The population of the village of Oswego hovered around 3,000 throughout the
1860s, making it an unlikely locale for a nationally prominent baseball club.
Predictably, the Ontario Club never beat any of the powerhouse clubs who made
stops in Oswego on their way to or from New York City. Yet Oswego’s
representative club did gain a reputation for pluck and perseverance and did
manage one signal victory that allowed them to briefly claim to be champions of
Central and Western New York.
Contemporary
accounts of the Ontario Club are sadly lacking, but retrospective descriptions
allow us to fill in many details. We know, for example, that the club was named
in honor of the nearby Great Lake and that its uniforms also reflected that
theme, being blue with white trim and topped white caps. (Oswego Palladium,
October 18, 1919, letter from George Oliver) Like many clubs of the era, the
Ontario club had a close relationship with a local newspaper, as the publisher
and business manager of the Palladium handled the club’s arrangements and
acted as spokespersons. We also know that club headquarters were in the
Richardson block on East First Street and that the Ontarios played most of their
matches in East Park. (Oswego Palladium, January 19, 1912)
It appears that the
club used a different field when charging admission. Many years later, a former
resident of Oswego recalled attending a match against the famed Red Stockings of
Cincinnati. “The game,” he recollected, “was played up on Orphan Asylum Hill,
as an admission fee was charged to see the game, and up on this far away hill
was the only lot in the city with a fence around it, and I a boy of ten, tramped
from East Seventh to see the game.” (Oswego Palladium, October 18, 1919,
letter from George Oliver)
It is less easy to
reconstruct the history of the club, but we have enough fragments to get a
general overview. The club was formed no later than 1867 and during its career
beat rivals from such nearby towns as Fulton, Sandy Creek, Mexico, Phoenix and
Pulaski. (Oswego Palladium, January 19, 1912; Syracuse Herald, May
19, 1912) But little is known about these contests, and none of these clubs
appear to have given the Ontarios much of a challenge. For a while, the
Ontarios also had a cross-town rival Oswego in a club called the Nationals that
played at West Park. This team, however, soon disbanded and two of its
stalwarts, “Brick” Parker and Charley Lewis, became members of the Ontarios. (Oswego
Palladium, January 19, 1912)
A much better-known
aspect of the club’s history was the many occasions on which a national
powerhouse stopped in Oswego to take on the Ontarios. In 1869, the visitors
included the Eckfords of Brooklyn, the Niagaras of Buffalo and the Alerts of
Rochester, while in 1870, the Olympics of Washington, the White Stockings of
Chicago and the Red Stockings of Cincinnati all came to town. The Ontarios did
not win any of these matches and many of the losses were by lopsided margins.
Nonetheless, there was no quit in the Ontarios, as was shown by the fact that
they continued to schedule professional clubs like the Red Stockings and White
Stockings in 1870 when many other strictly amateur clubs had stopped doing so.
The Ontarios did
have better success against clubs from Canada. When baseball began to catch on
in Canada, a number of clubs traveled south to Oswego to gain experience. One
of the vanquished clubs was the Maple Leafs of Hamilton, a club that later
earned recognition as champions of Canada. (Oswego Palladium, January 19,
1912)
But of all the
triumphs of the Ontario Club of Oswego, none compared to the one that earned the
club the gold ball that was emblematic of the championship of Central and
Western New York. Although the Ontarios retained the gold ball for only a few
weeks, that win remained a fond memory more than forty-three years later when a
retrospective article appeared in the Palladium. Fortunately, while so
many details about this club are lost in the mists of time, a great deal is
known about this particular victory.
The Central City
Club of Syracuse had captured the gold ball in the fall of 1867 and the club
held possession of it for most of the 1868 campaign. During the early months of
1868 the Central Citys had twice beaten the Ontarios, once by the close score of
22-15 but on the second occasion by the decisive count of 65-10. As a result,
when the Ontarios issued a challenge to play for the gold ball, there was no
reason to expect that the championship was likely to change hands.
The match took place
in Syracuse and saw the Central City Club grab a big early lead. After seven
innings, the home side held a commanding 25-15 lead but then the Ontarios staged
an extraordinary rally, scoring ten unanswered runs in the eighth inning and
then counting the only run on the ninth inning to pull out a 26-25 win. A
Syracuse newspaper account attributed the result to the “overconfidence” of the
Central Citys, adding that the late rally was the result of a “streak of luck”
by the visitors, coupled with “terribly loose playing” by the home side. He
added uncharitably, “it is rather humiliating to allow by no means a first class
club to wrest the insignia from them, after successfully defending it against
the attacks of far superior clubs.”
But such slights
didn’t matter to the jubilant new champions. According to the same Syracuse
reporter, “The Ontarios had not the remotest idea of winning the ball, and the
surprise attendant upon the favorable result, for a few seconds, fairly
dumbfounded the club, but remembering their victory, they made the air resound
with demonstrations of joy at their unexpected good luck.” (Syracuse Journal,
undated clipping)
The Central Citys
immediately issued a challenge for a rematch, and arrangements were made to play
it in Oswego on September 15, 1868. When the big day arrived, it was clear that
the Syracuse club would not underestimate the Ontarios again. A special train
had to be run from Syracuse to Oswego to accommodate the hundreds of spectators
anxious to watch the two clubs compete for the gold ball. Then the match almost
had to be canceled because the Central Citys protested the Ontarios’ use of
pitcher Gerrit Miller, who had recently returned to the area after studying at
Harvard.
To prevent
disappointment, the match was finally played under protest and it lived up to
the advance billing. The Central Citys jumped out to an early lead but the
Ontarios clawed their way back to within a run. With the lead slipping away,
the Central Citys staunched the bleeding by employing tactics that were not
specifically described but were referred to as “sharp practice”.” They also
tried switching pitchers, but the deliveries of the replacement were ruled
illegal and the original man was forced to return. When the dust finally
settled, the Central Citys had hung on to win 30-27 and reclaim the gold ball. (Syracuse
Journal, September 14, 1868; Oswego Advertiser, reprinted in the
Syracuse Journal, September 17, 1868; Syracuse Journal, September 16
(?), 1868)
Although the gold
ball returned to Syracuse to stay, the Ontarios of Oswego had left no doubts
that they were worthy rivals. “Now that the thing is over,” wrote one Oswego
reporter proudly, “the Ontarios can see various points in which they might have
made a stronger game, but they did all and even more than could have been
expected. They certainly demonstrated their ability to play with any of the
crack clubs of this section of the state.” (Oswego Advertiser, reprinted
in the Syracuse Journal, September 17, 1868)
Baseball’s amateur
era soon ended and the members of the Ontario Club moved on to new phases of
their lives, but in the years to come, they were able to look fondly back on
those days – and in particular on their short but sweet tenure as champions of
Central and Western New York. As of 1912, six of the club’s regulars were
reported to be living, and they kept alive memories of their long-ago glory on
the baseball diamond. As the account in the Palladium that year put it,
“Oswego has had many baseball teams since and will undoubtedly have many more,
but the Ontarios’ victories and records will long be remembered.” (Oswego
Palladium, January 19, 1912)
By 1921, all were
said to be dead (although that did not include Miller, who lived for another
sixteen years) and the Ontarios were gradually forgotten. (Oswego Palladium,
March 5, 1921) They deserve, however, to be remembered as an important
pioneer club.
Sources: The primary
source was a long article that appeared in the Oswego Palladium on
January 19, 1912 (and was later reprinted with some changes in the Syracuse
Herald on May 19, 1912). Also valuable were a letter from George Oliver
printed in the Oswego Palladium on October 18, 1919, a brief article in
the Oswego Palladium that appeared on March 5, 1921, and the few
contemporaneous accounts that are available, especially the ones in the clipping
collection of the Onondaga Historical Association.
MEMBERS
George W. Cooper:
George Cooper, who was described as being “a catcher of State reputation,” was
raised in Oswego by his widowed mother. He became a tinsmith and got married in
the late 1870s. He and his wife moved to Rochester where they were still living
in 1920.
George Henry Dodge:
George Dodge was born on January 10, 1845, in Saratoga Springs, New York. Upon
turning eighteen, he enlisted in the Union Army and over the next two years he
served in the New York 76th, 91st and 147th
Infantry regiments. After the war he settled in Oswego and got married, working
first as a machinist and later as the proprietor of a hat and cap store. He
died on July 1, 1907.
Simeon Golding:
Presumably this player was the 23-year-old man in Oswego on the 1870 census who
was listed as “Simon Golding,” a boiler maker. The 1912 article stated that
Golding was living in Jersey City, but I’ve found no trace of him there or
anywhere else after 1870.
Dan Havel/Havil/Havill:
This man’s name appeared on several lists of the club’s first nine, but he was
apparently dead by 1912 and I have found no man any such name in Oswego.
Simeon Holroyd:
Simeon Holyrod was born around 1845 and grew up in Waterford, New York. He
settled in Oswego after the war and became business manager of the Palladium.
He also served as secretary of the Ontario Club and, as one later account put
it, became “a prominent factor in everything that pertained to baseball during
those days.” After many years with the Palladium, he moved to Albany and
became a successful manufacturer of knit goods. In 1896, Holyrod was the
Democratic candidate for the House of Representative in New York’s 20th
District. He was still living in Albany in 1915, but had died by 1920.
Charles Lewis:
Charles Lewis was apparently dead by 1912, and little is known about him. The
only plausible candidate to be him on the 1870 census of Oswego was a
twenty-five-year-old traveling agent named Charles F. Lewis.
John Henry Mattoon:
John Henry Mattoon was born on August 17, 1845, in Brooklyn. His father Abner
rose from humble beginnings to become a state senator in 1868-69. John Mattoon
became a lumber merchant and real estate agent. He never married and died in
Oswego on September 7, 1916.
Gerrit Smith Miller:
Gerrit Smith Miller was born on January 30, 1845, and named in honor of his
grandfather, a wealthy social reformer and abolitionist who ran for president
three times. He grew up on the family’s large estate near Peterboro, New York.
In 1860, he was sent away to Boston to attend Epes Sargent Dixwell’s School.
While there, Miller organized the Oneida Foot Ball Club, which played its games
on the Boston Common. According to a monument erected at the Common in 1925,
this pioneer club took on all comers between 1862 and 1865, never losing a game
and never having its goal line crossed. The ball used by the club is now
displayed at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta and Miller has
occasionally been referred to as “the father of American soccer.” The problem
with this, however, is that descriptions by Oneida Foot Ball Club member James
D’Wolf Lovett make it clear that the game they played borrowed generously from
rugby, with the result that Miller is sometimes claimed as a football pioneer as
well. Along with Lovett, Miller was also a member of the Lowell Base Ball
Club. He entered Harvard in 1865 and during the next few years played for the
Harvard nine and the Lowells. On October 4, 1867, pitched Lowells to victory
over famed Excelsiors, which James D’Wolf Lovett described as the first-ever win
by a New England club against a prominent New York club. One month later, he
married Susan Dixwell, the daughter of his former schoolmaster. His grandmother
died the shortly thereafter, and Miller decided to leave Harvard and attend to
the estate. His return also allowed him to pitch for the Ontarios of Oswego,
although the Central Citys of Syracuse protested his involvement in the
gold-ball match on September 15, 1868. One later account maintained that “for
three years [Miller] pitched for the Ontarios and did not lose a game. The only
trouble was it was very difficult to find a catcher who could hold his terrific
speed.” While the statement that he was never beaten seems very unlikely, the
claim that his pitches were hard to corral seems more plausible. Miller
continued to attend to the estate for the rest of his life, but his farming
practices were far from routine. He established the first registered American
herd of Holstein cattle herd, later explaining, that he was “interested in
‘making two blades of grass grow where one grew before’ and in producing two
quarts of milk where one was produced before. In October, 1869, I established a
herd of Holstein cattle imported from Holland on my farm, with the intention of
improving the dairy cattle of the country. At that time a cow that would give
six thousand pounds of milk per year and twelve pounds of butter per week was
considered a good cow. We now have Holstein cows which under official tests
have given over thirty thousand pounds of milk per year, one thousand pounds in
seven days, one hundred and fifty pounds in one day, over fifty pounds of butter
in seven days, and fifteen hundred pounds in three hundred and sixty-five days.
Most of the cows making the above-named records trace back to my herd.”
Miller’s son and namesake inherited this fascination with the Holstein cattle.
Gerrit Smith Miller, Jr., was educated at Harvard and became one of the
country’s best-known zoologists and mammalians. He was perhaps best known for
his involvement in the Piltdown Man controversy. Gerrit Smith Miller, Sr., died
on his beloved Peterboro estate on March 10, 1937, at the age of 91.
Clark Morrison:
Clark Morrison, the publisher of the Oswego Palladium, served as
president of the Ontario club and also officiated as umpire in many of the
contests. He arrived in Oswego on March 17, 1864, to work for the Palladium
and soon purchased a controlling interest and remained involved with the
newspaper for more than sixty-five years. He also served two terms as mayor of
Oswego. He celebrated his ninetieth birthday on December 12, 1929, and died
less than a month later, on January 3, 1930.
Charles Adelbert
“Brick” Parker: C. A. “Brick” Parker was born in July of 1846 and became a
railroad man. Around 1878, he moved to New York City to work for the Manhattan
Railway Company. He was transferred to Boston a few years later and settled in
Somerville, Massachusetts. He was still living there in 1912, but had died by
1920.
Dave Torry: Dave
Torry (sometime spelled Torey or Torrey) was reported to be living in Brooklyn
in 1912 but has not been identified.
Martin V. “Mart”
Wadleigh: Mart Wadleigh was born around 1843 and the hard-hitting first baseman
was said to be such a fine ballplayer that he received many offers to play
professionally. Instead he remained in Oswego and became a marble dealer. He
never married and retained his love of baseball throughout his life. An article
in the Palladium on October 17, 1916, noted that Wadleigh and several
other old-time ballplayers were among those following the World Series on the
newspaper’s bulletin board. (Others included Tom Cunningham, Tom Dalton and
Billy Finley, who was said to have pitched for the Ontarios.) Wadleigh died in
1919.
Others: Philo Knox
(mentioned in a couple of retrospective accounts but apparently not a member of
the first nine), Watson (played shortstop when the Ontarios captured the gold
ball but was not mentioned in later accounts)
|
