Still More About The Missouri Glass Company

The Missouri Glass Company's Works are situated in the First Ward of the city of St. Louis, west of the Arsenal.  The Company was incorporated by an act of the Legislature and went into operation under their charter on the 29th day of May, and elected Edward Bredell, President, and Edward Daly, Secretary; and  now, having erected their additional buildings and completed their furnaces, cutting and mould rooms, are prepared to furnish the trade of St. Louis with a superior quality of Flint and Green Glassware equal to any manufactured in the United States, and will furnish it on such terms as if will be advantageous to the trade to purchases of them.  Having the facilities for manufacturing their own moulds, will continue to introduce all new styles and patterns that may be desirable.  They will keep on hand a stock of all the staple articles sold by Druggists, Grocers, Glass and Lamp Stores. 

Persons wishing ware made from private moulds are particularly requested to give orders at least 30 days before they wish the goods, to insure prompt delivery. 

A large assortment of Black Bottles, viz.: Hocks, Brandies, Schnaps, Claret, Champagne and Bitters.  They will be continually adding to their stock.  Samples of ware can be seen, and orders left at their office, No. 33 North Fifth street, between Pine and Olive streets, and at their works, corner Lemp and Utah streets, South St. Louis, west of the U.S. Arsenal. 

-Daily Missouri Republican, December 26, 1859


The significant thing, as far as baseball is concerned, that we find in this classified advertisement for the Missouri Glass Company is the relationship between the company and druggists, something I forgot to point out yesterday.  This is significant because Cyclone Club members Maurice Alexander, Leonard Matthews and William Matthews all worked in the apothecary business.  One can image that they met Merritt Griswold and Ed Bredell by buying bottles from the Missouri Glass Company.  

Griswold Resigns The Presidency Of The Cyclone Club

The game of base ball now so popular in this as in Eastern cities, was ushered in yesterday afternoon, by the Cyclone Base Ball Club, on their old grounds in Lafayette Park, on which occasion they had the pleasure of having united with them in the game, representatives of the Morning Star, Empire and Commercial Clubs.  As was the case last season, a jolly time was had, especially when a member in his eager endeavors to catch the ball would step into some sunken hole, (left to ornament the park,) thereby changing his movement into that of the Zouave drill, or more properly speaking, lofty tumbling of a gymnast.  But we are happy to say this is soon to be remedied, as the clubs have petitioned the Common Council for the privilege of leveling the same at their own expense, which petition has been referred to the Park commissioners, and only awaits their action, when the improvements will be immediately commenced, provided the Commissioners do not delay the matter until it is too late in the season for starting the grass on places that are to be filled.  We notice the Club is composed of the same members as last year, but a slight change has been made in the officers, caused by Mr. M.W. Griswold resigning the Presidency, which is now filled by the promotion of the Vice President, Mr. Leonard Matthews, and the election of Mr. Benteen as Vice President, Mr. M.W. Alexander, Secretary, Mr. F.L. Garesche, Treasurer, and Messrs. Wm. Matthews, J. Riggin, Jr. and E. Bredell, Jr., Trustees.  The Cyclones play every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon.

-Missouri Republican, March 7, 1861


There is some very important information in this brief article from the Republican.  The mention of Lafayette Park as the Cyclones' "old grounds" should lay to rest any debate about whether or not they were playing in the park prior to 1861.  Now that debate was mostly (or only) taking place in my own mind but I'm back to being comfortable in stating that the Cyclones played at Lafayette Park in 1859 and 1860.

More important is the reference to Griswold resigning the presidency of the club prior to March 1861.  There are a couple of secondary sources that state that Leonard Matthews was the club's first president and I always found that to be odd.  I always wondered why Griswold wouldn't have been elected president.  He basically formed the club and introduced the New York game to St. Louis.  Why wouldn't he have been president of the Cyclones?  Now, in any club and election, there is politics involved and I just figured Matthews was a more popular figure among the club members.  But this article implies that Griswold was president in 1860 and that leads me to question whether or not he was president in 1859.  That would make more sense than Matthews being president and Matthews election to the club presidency in 1861 would explain the references in the secondary sources, which date to the mid-1890s at the earliest.  Matthews was remembered as being the president because he was the last president.   

The 1884 Maroons: Ticket Information

According to an ad in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 28, 1884, reserved seats at the Union Grounds were fifty cents, general admission was twenty-five cents and boys got in for ten cents.  Reserved seats could be purchased at a cigar store on the south-east corner of Fifth and Olive and at Monarch Billiard Hall, which was located in the Merchants' Exchange.  For the ladies, who probably didn't wish to visit a cigar store or a billiard hall, tickets could be purchased at Alexander's Drug Store.

I know that I've posted a lot of this information already but ticket information for the first few Maroons' games was a bit different, due to the fact that the Union Grounds weren't completed and all the reserved seating wasn't in place.  This is most likely what ticket prices were like for the remainder of the 1884 season.

Plus the information about where you could buy tickets was kind of neat and I wanted to post that.    

Maurice Alexander

(Maurice W. Alexander), merchant and pharmacist, was born February 9, 1835, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died in St. Louis, June 6, 1898. His parents were John and Mary (Rittenhouse) Alexander, both natives of Philadelphia, and his paternal grandfather, William Alexander, and his maternal grandfather, Joseph Rittenhouse, were also born in that city. Reared in Philadelphia, Maurice W. Alexander obtained both his academic and professional education in the schools of the Quaker City. After completing his course of study at the high school, he entered the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, one of the oldest and most noted institutions of its kind in the United States, and was graduated from that college in the class of 1854. Immediately after his graduation he came to St. Louis and entered the employ of Bacon, Hyde & Co., wholesale druggists, engaged in business on Main Street. Leaving their employ in August of 1856, he began business on his own account, purchasing the drug store located at the southeast corner of Fourth and Market Streets, of which he was owner for twenty-three years thereafter. While operating this drug store, noting the trend of trade toward Olive Street, he also opened another store on the northwest corner of Broadway and Olive Streets, in a building then owned by Stilson Hutchins, connected then with the newspaper press of St. Louis and famous later as an Eastern newspaper publisher. This store, which was at that time the handsomest in the West in furnishings and the most complete in its equipment for every branch of the drug business, was destroyed by fire in 1877. A year later, however, Dr. Alexander opened a new drug store at the same location, in a building which had been erected by J. Gonzelman, who had purchased the ground from Hutchins. In this building, which later passed into the hands of Erastus Wells and is still owned by his son, he continued to conduct a large and profitable drug business until 1892, in which year he purchased the stock of goods belonging to the Mellier Drug Company and consolidated the two stores. For forty-two years and more he was a recognized leader among the retail druggists of St. Louis, and for many years his establishment had few rivals in its line in Western cities. Entering the drug business a thoroughly well educated pharmacist, and realizing fully the important responsibilities resting upon those engaged in this trade, Alexander was all his life conspicuous among those who sought to surround it with all the safeguards possible, and to obviate the dangers to life and health resulting from the employment of incompetent persons in the business of compounding drugs and medicines. For nine years he served as Commissioner of Pharmacy for the State of Missouri, and he was long one of the most active and useful members of the American Pharmaceutical Association, and was honored with the presidency of that organization, composed of the leading pharmacists of the United States. A good business man, he was also a good citizen in all the relations of life, and churches, charities and educational movements at all times received his kindly encouragement and support. From 1861 until his death he was a member of St. George's Episcopal Church, and for twenty-one years he was a vestryman of that parish, serving also during the same period as its treasurer. He affiliated with fraternal organizations as a member of the order of Knights of Honor. In 1857 he was married to Clara Virginia Long, whose father was Parks Long, a son of General Gabriel Long, one of the first settlers of Missouri. His widow and four children, two sons and two daughters-all of whom have grown to maturity-survive him.

-Encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis


Alexander was a member of the Cyclone Club and, according to Tobias, the records of the club were lost in the fire that destroyed Alexander's pharmacy at Broadway and Olive.

Alexander's Drug Store

Above is an ad for Maurice Alexander's Drug Stores. Alexander, of course, had been a member of the Cyclone Club in 1860 and the records of the club were lost when one of his stores burnt to the ground. This ad appeared in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat on February 25, 1876.

Alexander's Drug Store: where you can purchase unrivaled cologne and handkerchief extracts from competent clerks.

The First Meeting Of The Cyclone Club

In the summer of 1859 a meeting was held in the office of the old Missouri Glass Company, on fifth street between Pine and Olive. M.W. Griswold, a clerk in the company's store, who had lately moved to St. Louis from Brooklyn, N.Y., an enthusiast on baseball, aided by the exertions of Ed Bredele, had gathered together the nucleus of a club, and after one or two preliminary meetings, the Cyclone Baseball Club was formed, the first in St. Louis, and the first west of the Alleghanies. The uniform adopted was blue flannel cap, blue flannel pants, with white stripe and white leather belt. Leonard Matthews was elected president; M.W. Griswold, field captain; Rufus Gamble, catcher; Fred Garesche, shortstop, and the positions of pitcher, basemen and fielders were filled by first one and then another of the players.

-St. Louis Republic, April 21, 1895

This article in the Republic, based on the recollections of Matthews, Garesche, and Maurice Alexander, is significant because it pushes back the beginnings of the regulation game in St. Louis into the summer of 1859. My assumption, based on Griswold stating that he was playing with the Hiawathas of Brooklyn in 1859, was that the Cyclone wasn't founded until the fall of 1859 and game play was limited until the spring of 1860. Now, however, we have a source that explicitly states that the Cyclones were active in 1859.

This is in line with Tobias' statements that the regulation game was being played in the city in 1859. However, there is an interesting problem here. There is no byline on the Republic article and we can't be certain who wrote it. But I would bet dollars to doughnuts that Tobias wrote this article. I've spent way to much time with the Tobias source and know the idiosyncrasies of his writing. The style, the punctuation, the spelling, the phrasing-it all screams Tobias to me. Also, note the date. Tobias began to publish his letters (or, more accurately, his series of epistolary articles) in The Sporting News in October of 1895, just a few months after this article appeared in the Republic. One would assume that Tobias had been doing the research and putting the series together prior to October and this article was the result of his interviews with former members of the Cyclone Club as he was putting together his longer work. If this is true then Tobias is still the only source that makes the claim of regulation games in 1859.

Still, this is a significant source that's rich in details about the club. I want to thank John Maurath from the Missouri Civil War Museum for sending me a copy.