A Brief Mention Of The Active Club Of Alton

The Active Base Ball Club was organized in the latter part of July of the current year (1866).  Wm. D. Perrin, President, and E.B. Parke, Secretary.

-Gazetteer of Madison County


James T. Hair's history of Madison County was published in 1866 and, while I haven't sat down and read the entire thing, I'm really looking forward to going through it.  I'm pretty sure that I've found the only mention of baseball in its three hundred pages but I was actually pleasantly surprised to find what I did.

Reading the introduction, I did find this quote: "The Mississippi Valley is the garden of the world and (Madison County) is its center."  I don't know about Madison County being the center of the Mississippi River valley but I love that description of the valley.  A bit off topic, I know, but I've never found a more beautiful place on earth than the valley that's formed by the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.