Empire Club Officers For 1861

At a regular meeting of Empire Base Ball club, held April 2d, the following officers were elected for the ensuring year:

President, Lewis P. Fuller; Vice President, Peter Naylor; Secretary, John W. Wiliams; Treasurer, Herman Barklage; Captains, James Yule and John Connell; Directors, Daniel Coyle, Joel Utley and John Reynolds.

-Missouri Republican, April 4, 1861


Is it odd for me to think that it's cool to find the results of the Empire Club's election of officers from 1861?  Okay, it might be but, come on, the Civil War hadn't even started when this took place.  It's cool and I don't care what you say. 

A Civil War-Era Muffin Game

A match came off yesterday afternoon between the Active and the Honorary members of the Empire Base Ball Club, with the following result:  We learn that our lymphatic friend Henry Clay Sexton, Counsellor W.V.N. Bay, Justice Wohlein, Deputy Sheriff George Stevens and others of the honorary department, "shed" their clothing only to come out of the contest losers - the "runs" being against them, 53 to 38.

-Missouri Republican, October 9, 1861


This was actually a fairly close game, with the "active" members only up by four runs after six innings.  Their margin of victory was padded by a ten-run ninth, although the "honorary" nine was helped out by the addition of James Yule to their side.  Sexton actually had a pretty good game, scoring seven runs - a tally that was only exceeded by James Fitzgerald and John Reynolds, two of the Empire Clubs best players.

Also, I think it should be noted that the Republican uses "active" and "honorary" while I believe the more accurate terms, based on what I know about Empire Club membership, would be "playing" and "non-playing" members.    

The St. Louis Cricket Club

There was an exciting match at Cricket yesterday between the married men of the St. Louis Club on one side, and the single men on the other.  Gamble's Addition was the ground chosen, and there was quite a crowd of spectators.  Much interest was manifested by the bystanders throughout.  The single men, after a well contested battle, won a score of six more than the married men.

-Daily Missouri Republican, May 28, 1859

Cricket Match Between The Two First Elevens Of The St. Louis Club.-The long expected match between the two first Elevens of the St. Louis Club, came off yesterday in presence of a large number of friends of the Club and lovers of the game. 

-Daily Missouri Republican, May 28, 1859


We can date the playing of cricket in St. Louis to the mid-1850s, so these matches are not, in and of themselves, that significant.  The significant thing is that playing in both matches, as members of the St. Louis Cricket Club, were James Yule, James Reynolds and David Duffy, all original members of the Empire Club.  It's interesting that we can now say that two of the earliest baseball clubs in St. Louis had their origins in other bat and ball games.  The Morning Star Club was originally a town ball club and part of the original core of the Empire Club played on a cricket club together.

I've always argued that the tradition of various bat and ball games in St. Louis provided an infrastructure that the New York game used to help establish itself.  There were clubs, grounds and a tradition of playing bat and ball games among adults in St. Louis prior to the advent of the New York game in the city in 1859.  The new game latched onto these traditions and the community of ballplayers gravitated to the new game.  The traditions that surrounded the playing of town ball and cricket in St. Louis made it easier for the new game to be accepted and grow in St. Louis.  I think that the fact that some of the original Empire Club members were cricketers supports that argument.

A New Empire Club

The Empire Base Ball Club have organized for the season of 1884 with the following players: J. Yule, c.; W. Fitzgerald, p.; Dougherty, 1b.; T. Stack, 2b.; Tom Gorman, 3b.; R. Nagel, s.s.; W. Noole, l.f.; H. Heine, c.f.; J. Downey, r.f. All challenges should be addressed to T. Gorman, 1430 Market street.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 11, 1884

The Young Brennan Base Ball Club defeated the Empire Club after a hard fought contest by a score of 12 to 8. The features of the game were the work of the Brennan's battery and the batting of Hogan and Dean.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 28, 1884

To the best of my knowledge, the last active season of the Empire Club was 1877. All references between 1878 and 1883 that I've seen refer to the club in the past tense. This 1884 Empire Club is not the same club that existed from 1860 to 1877 and dominated the local St. Louis amateur baseball scene.

However, this new club may have had a connection to the Empires of old. As the Globe noted, the catcher for the new club was J. Yule and James Yule was a member of the old club. Not only was Yule a member, he was a core member of the first nine during the club's championship run, playing the outfield and serving as field captain from 1861 to 1863 and also in 1868.

James Yule was born in 1836 and would have been almost fifty years old in 1884. In 1876, he appeared in what was essentially an old-timers game and had most likely retired from the game. While it's unlikely that a forty-eight year old man was catching for a local amateur club in 1884, it can't be ruled out.

The bottom line is that this 1884 Empire Club is not the champion 1860-1877 Empire Club.