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MISSING PIONEERS -- MOST WANTED LIST!
1. Edward M.
Atwater. Atwater played a key role in one of the greatest upsets of the era,
pitching the Niagaras of Buffalo to a stunning win over the Atlantics of
Brooklyn. His father, also named Edward M. Atwater, was a wealthy Buffalo oil
refiner. But the younger man only shows up in the 1870 census in Cincinnati and
never lives with his father. In addition, his father’s wife is too young to be
his mother, so presumably she was his stepmother. UPDATE: FOUND
2. Patsy Dockney. Dockney was born in 1845 in Ireland,
grew up in Hoboken and became one of the most notorious revolvers of the late
1860s. He was dead by 1893 but there’s no record of his death despite his
having served for three years in the Civil War.
3. Waddy Beach. This prominent member of the Eckfords was
reported to have vanished by 1887, though he was apparently still alive.
4. John Horn Jr. Horn was a key member of the Detroit Base
Ball Club and, in 1874, earned a Congressional Gold Medal for having saved more
than 100 people from drowning. He was born in England in 1843, served as a
Detroit alderman and was apparently still living there in 1915.
5. Aleck Pearsall. Pearsall was the star first
baseman for the Excelsiors, but was expelled when he enlisted with the
Confederates. UPDATE: FOUND
6. Joe Leggett. Another of the stars of the Excelsiors,
Joe Leggett absconded with several thousand dollars from his job at City Hall.
A family genealogy says he died in Galveston on July 25, 1894, but that has
never been confirmed.
7. Richard H. Thorn. Thorn pitched for several of the
important early clubs. He later worked in the Washington Market as a fruit
dealer and was still working there in 1887.
8. George Fox. Fox was a Georgetown graduate who was lured
into joining the Nationals on their 1867 tour by the offer of a job in the
Treasury department. A 1902 note said he was working as a lawyer in Nome,
Alaska, and then he was reportedly living in San Francisco in 1906.
9. Holmes Hoge. Hoge was captain of the Atlantics of
Chicago and then of the Cincinnati Base Ball Club before it became known as the
Red Stockings. He was living in Los Angeles in 1920.
10. Frank J. Phelps. Phelps was one of the best players of
the Detroit Base Ball Club of the 1860s and his store on Jefferson Street hosted
some of the club’s meetings. A 1903 article said he had died 14 years earlier,
but details have proven elusive.
11. James Malcomb was president of the Excelsiors of
Chicago in 1860, but the only listing I’ve ever found for him is: 1850: James
Malcom, 25, engineer, Ill Scotland Scotland.
12. A. J. Bixby. Bixby was the pitcher for the Eagles
while Gelston was catcher. I think his name was Andrew and that he died in
1889, but need to pin this down.
13. Charles Thomas. Thomas helped organize the Eureka Club
of Newark in 1859, and his play at shortstop earned him a reputation as “the
‘crack player’ in his position outside of Brooklyn, occupying an equal position
as short stop to that of such noted players as Pearce.” He worked as the
paying-teller at a leading “city bank” (Newark or New York?). Middle initial
seems to have been E.
14. Billy Boyd was a key member of the Pastime Club of
Brooklyn. He was still alive and living in Brooklyn in 1889, and another note
described him as an official in the penitentiary.
15. Sim/Symes (Simon?) Burns. Burns was the pitcher of the
Mutuals of New York. According to one note, possibly from the late 1890s,
“Symes” Burns, the old Mutual pitcher, was now dead. Another article in the
Chadwick Scrapbooks stated that Simon Burns “patriotically went to the war in
’61, and was at the battle of Roanoke Island, and since his return he has not
taken the position in the club that he once had, that terrible scourge to
athletes and ball players, rheumatism, preventing him from being as active in
body as he was wont to be in the old days of the club.” And an 1879 note
indicated that Simon Burns resided in Charleston, SC. On January 22, 1898,
Sporting Life ran an obituary for “Mark Burns” of the Mutuals, who had died in
Middletown, Ct. Could this be him?
16. A. Goodrich of the Excelsiors of Chicago became a
lawyer. I suspect he is the Alphonso Goodrich who died in Chicago on January 9,
1915, but have not been able to prove it. UPDATE: PROVEN
17. Raymond Burr. Not to be confused with the actor, Burr
was the man who represented the African-American Pythian Club in their
unsuccessful attempt to join the NABBP.
18. Charles Hunt of the Mutuals of New York was the brother
of Richard Hunt, who played in the major leagues. Charles was born around 1839
and was living in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1910.
19. Leonard G. Cohen. Leonard G. Cohen, not to be confused
with the poet and songwriter, was a key figure in the Gotham club. He was born
around 1840 and, like Thorn, became a fruit dealer. He appears to have been
living in Union, NJ, in 1910. But then he donned his famous blue raincoat
and disappeared.
20. Gustavus Smith of the Mansfields of Middletown was, as
of 1902, living at the Old Soldier’s Home in Tyrus [?], Maine, along with
another former club member, Thad. Noble.
21. Albro Aiken, the shortstop of the Unions of Morrisania,
reportedly became a prosperous metropolitan lawyer.
22. Raphael Rua. This guy will be tough, but it would be
sure be nice to learn more about him. He was a student at Renssalaer
Polytechnic Institute who joined the Haymakers of Troy in 1868. The only person
by that name who ever appears on the census was living in Massachusetts on the
1860 census and was listed as being twelve years old and born in Cuba.
23. Harrison Brainard, brother of Asa: : three years
younger than Asa, may be a Civil War vet. Hotel keeper in Suffolk in 1870, but
hard to trace after that.
24. Tice Hamilton of the Atlantics was living in the
“country” in 1879. Most likely, he’s Stephen Tyson Hamilton, b. 7/32 Jamaica,
Queens, who later lived in Southold, Suffolk County. Stray notes from the
Eagle: BE 6/18/91 Tice Hamilton of Matituck, L.I. BE 6/15/61 S. Tice Hamilton,
the milkman. BE 4/18/02 Mrs. Tyson L. Hamilton of Matituck, L. I.
25. Bernard J. Hanigan. Possibly a Civil War veteran, we
have no trace of him after his playing career ends in the late 1860s.
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