Were The Morning Stars Active In 1863?

An interesting game of Base Ball came off on Thursday, at Lafayette Park, between the "Morning Star" and "Young Commercial" Base Ball Clubs, resulting in the defeat of the former.

-Missouri Republican, May 3, 1863


I'm not sure why I titled the post in the form of a question given the material that I just presented to you but I have some doubts.  I've shown previously that clubs using the name "Morning Star" were active in both 1861 and 1862.  Here we have a club using the name and active in 1863.  But I'm unconvinced that the old antebellum, Carr Park Morning Stars were still active in 1862 and 1863.  I can see them being active in the spring and summer of 1861 but I know too much about the antebellum club to accept that it was still in existence after that. 

What I think we have here is clubs using the Morning Star name after the original club disbanded, much as you see various versions of a Red Stocking club in St. Louis in the 1880s.  I don't have much evidence to support this other than a hunch and the fact that there is no one in this 1863 game that I can identify as a member of the antebellum club but I think I'm right.        

The Morning Stars Had A Junior Club

A base ball match will come off to-day on Gamble's Lawn, at one-half past 2, between the Morning Stars, jr., and the Empire, jr., base ball clubs.  Thursday, September 11, 1862.

-Missouri Republican, September 11, 1862

I've found evidence that the Morning Stars were still active in 1861 and this seems to suggest that they may have been active in 1862 as well.  If the Morning Stars, jr., was affiliated with the Morning Star Base Ball Club, which doesn't necessarily have to be true, then this is evidence that the club was active into 1862. 

Also, I think it's worth mentioning that Gamble Lawn appears to have been the most popular site for games during the war.  I'd have to go back through my notes to confirm this but I believe that more games were played there during the war than at Lafayette Park or the Fairgrounds.   

The Top Twenty Games In 19th Century St. Louis Baseball History: # 2

2. July 9, 1860: Cyclones vs. Morning Stars

The First Base Ball Match In St. Louis - The first regular game of base ball played in our city will come off between the members of the "Cyclone" and "Morning Star" Base Ball Clubs, on Monday, the 9th inst., at 4 o'clock, P.M., in the field immediately west of the Fair Grounds.  The game, we understand is to be played according to the rules of the National Convention of Ball Players.  As the clerk of the weather has been consulted, everybody interested is anticipating a good afternoon's sport.  We rejoice to see the national game coming into such high favor with our young men.

-Missouri Republican, July 8, 1860

The Great Match of Base Ball-Victory By The Morning Star Club.-The announcement that the first match of base ball ever played in St. Louis would take place on Monday afternoon on the field west of the Fair Grounds, between the Cyclones and Morning Star Clubs, was sufficient to call out a large number of spectators, among whom were several ladies.  A very great interest was manifested by all present, who expressed their delight at the many instances of fine play displayed by both clubs.  The match resulted in the victory of the Morning Star by twenty-six runs...

-St. Louis Daily Bulletin, July 11, 1860


The first baseball match ever played in St. Louis, with the Morning Stars defeating the Cyclones 50-24.  While baseball, as defined by the rules of the National Association, had been played in the city in 1859, this was the first competitive match between two clubs.  In many ways, this is where St. Louis baseball history begins.

Playing for the Cyclones were Peters, ss; Alfred Bernoudy, c.f.; Merritt Griswold, p.; Edward Farrish, 3rd b.; Gamble (either Joseph or Rufus), c.;  Maurice Alexander, 1st b.; Fitch, 2nd b.; Edward Bernoudy, l.f.; and Edward Bredell, r.f.  Playing for the Morning Stars were Robert Henry, c.; Archibald Duff, 1st b.; David Naylor, r.f.; Case, 2nd b.; William Henry, s.s.; Finney, p.; John Henry, c.f.; Wilson, 3rd b.; and Rawson, l.f.  Peters and Fitch of the Cyclones and Case, Finney, Wilson, and Rawson of the Morning Star are all unidentified at the moment.

The scorers for the game were Jonathan Collier of the Cyclone Club and Joseph Franklin of the Morning Stars.  The umpire was S.L. Putnam, "formerly of the Metropolitan Club, New York."   

Martin Burke

Martin Burke

[Martin] Burke, a pitcher for the Morning Stars was born in Canada in 1836.  Living in St. Louis by 1860, he was a partner in a small grocery store and lived on N. 16th Street near Carr Square Park. 

While living in St. Louis, Burke joined the St. Louis Greys, the oldest volunteer militia unit in the city and by 1861 he was the Greys' commanding officer.  The Greys were mustered at Camp Jackson in May of 1861 and it can be assumed that Burke surrendered to Union forces along with the other Missouri militia units at Camp Jackson.  While he was most likely released upon promising not to take up arms against the Union, Burke joined the 1st Missouri Infantry on the Confederate side, serving as Captain.  In "short time [he] was brought home severely wounded.  He did not long survive..."

-Base Ball Pioneers 1850-1870


I started reading a biography of John S. Bowen, whose staff Edward Bredell served on, and I quickly came across the name of Martin Burke.  Bowen lived in St. Louis prior to the war and moved in the same circles as some of the city's pioneer baseball players.  He most likely knew the Bredell family prior to the outbreak of the war and, given the nature of their roles at the time of the Camp Jackson affair, he also probably knew Basil Duke.  Burke served under Bowen at Camp Jackson and, later, with the 1st Missouri Infantry.  It appears that the two men were friends.

The above photo of Burke comes from the Missouri History Museum. 

The Morning Stars in 1861

A match of Base Ball came off yesterday afternoon, at the West end of the Fair Grounds, between the Morning Star and the Tiger clubs, which resulted in favor of the former.  The score stood 20 to 6.

-Missouri Republican, July 16, 1861


I believe that this is the first source that shows the Morning Stars playing a game after the Civil War had broken out. 

Known Unknowns

John W. O'Connell...and J.D. Fitzgibbon...say the game was brought here by men who had played baseball in the East, but that the first game ever played here took place in what was then Northwest St. Louis and on the ground now occupied by Carr Square Park.

-The National Game



I can't tell you how many times I've read the above sentence but last night, as I looked at it again, it held new meaning for me.

With the discovery of new primary source material from the Missouri Republican, I've begun to re-evaluate some of the things I believe about the origins of the game in St. Louis and how the game developed in the city from 1859 to 1865.  I've found evidence that conflicts with some of the more important secondary sources and evidence that conflicts with some of the conclusions I've reach after years of research.  I think it's important for me to remember that there are a lot of things that I don't know with any degree of certainty about baseball in St. Louis in the antebellum and Civil War eras.  All I can do is gather all the evidence that I can, weigh that evidence and try to reach logical conclusions.

One of the things that I believed, up until the last week or so, was that the first baseball game was played by the Cyclone Club at Lafayette Park sometime during the summer of 1859.  The weight of the evidence that I had seen supported that idea.  Now, after looking through the Republican, I can say that there is evidence to suggest that the first game wasn't played at Lafayette Park.  O'Connell and Fitzgibbons, two pioneer era players, stated to Al Spink that the first game was played at Carr Park and that testimony is very important.  Why did I dismiss it?

Carr Park was the playing grounds of the Morning Star Club, who we believe were playing town ball at the park as early as 1857.  Richard Perry, a member of the Morning Stars, stated in 1887 that his club was the first to play baseball in St. Louis.  Interestingly, the earliest reference I have to a St. Louis baseball club comes from the St. Louis Daily Bulletin of June 6, 1860, and mentions the organization of the Morning Stars.  The Protoball Chronology has a reference to an unnamed club in September of 1859, that is neither the Cyclones nor the Morning Stars.  I have some problems with the sourcing of that reference but it comes from Craig Waff and therefore should be taken seriously.

My point is that if we just relied on the primary source material, we'd have to argue that either the Morning Stars or Waff's unnamed club was the first baseball team in St. Louis, rather than the Cyclones.  I've yet to find a reference to the Cyclone Club prior to August 1860 and believe me when I tell you that I've looked.  That doesn't mean that the evidence to support my conclusions doesn't exist or that I've exhausted every source but it does mean that I don't have a lot of evidence to support my conclusions other than some secondary sources and logic.  And now I'm finding primary source evidence that is poking holes in my logic.

Another thing: I believe that town ball was played in St. Louis in the 1840s, at the latest.  I have absolutely no primary source evidence of that.  The earliest town ball reference I have for St. Louis comes from 1860.  There are insinuations in the contemporary press and exertions in the secondary sources that support or imply that town ball was played much earlier.  Also, I have plenty of evidence to support the idea that town ball was played in the region as early as the 1820s, so it's not a great leap to believe that it was played in St. Louis at the same time.  But I can't prove it.

And there, as they say, is the rub.  There's a lot of stuff that I believe about the origins and development of the game in St. Louis that I can't prove.  I can argue for a certain conclusion and show you all the evidence that I have that leads me to reach such a conclusion but argument is not proof.  I can argue that O'Connell and Fitzgibbons, when they said baseball was first played at Carr Park, were talking about town ball and the Morning Star Club but I can't prove that.  Somebody else can look at their statement and conclude that they were talking about the New York game.  That argument would be just as valid as mine.  

What I have to accept is the fact that this is a process.  I can sit down right now and write a three volume history of 19th century baseball in St. Louis but the first volume would be out of date by the time I finished writing it.  The research is ongoing and continuing to bear fruit.  It doesn't matter to me that new evidence changes what I believe because my goal is to find the truth.  I will change my beliefs and conclusions to fit the facts that I discover, regardless of whether or not those changes conflict with previously held beliefs and conclusions.  My commitment is to the truth rather than to my own ego or to any historical school of thought.

Our understanding of what was happening in St. Louis during the pioneer era is much, much greater than it was just two years ago.  I've discovered all kinds of primary source evidence over the last few years that have really shed light on the subject and have enabled us to work with facts rather than supposition.  If I was writing the St. Louis chapter of the Base Ball Pioneer book today, it would be a bit different than the one I submitted two years ago.  And I think it would be different again if I was writing it two years from now.  The research is ongoing and my shifting of the evidence never stops.

In the end, I have to continuously remember what I know and what I know I don't know.  I have to remember that there is fact and there is supposition.  At the moment fact and truth are destroying some of my suppositions and assumptions.  And that is a good thing.  Does it mean that I have to go back and rewrite a bunch of stuff that I thought I was finished with?  Yes, it does.  But that's okay because I'm just trying to get the thing right.        

The Fourth Of July 1861

Married vs. Single.--This match which took place at Gamble Lawn, on the morning of the 4th, resulted in a decided victory for the married men.  The players were selected from all the senior organizations of the city, which fact imparted an unusual interest in the result of the game, as was shown by the large number of spectators present.  The play on both sides was highly commendable-in the field, as well as at the bat-and resulted in a score of 55 for the married and 32 for the single men...

-Missouri Republican, July 7, 1861


So much interesting stuff here.

First, there were a number of games played between the married and single club members in 1861.  There were at least three games played between the married and single members of the Cyclones, Commercials and Morning Star clubs and there was actually a bit of 19th century trash talking going on in the press after the single men won the first two games.  I think it's significant that the majority of games that I have a record for in 1861 were not games between senior clubs but either matches between junior clubs or a muffin game between a conglomeration of senior clubs.  I would imagine that, as May 1861 ended, the senior clubs had a difficult time finding enough men to stock their nine, as club members began going off to war.  The Civil War did not end baseball in St. Louis but there is no doubt that it made it more difficult to organize a senior club.

The second thing here is the mention that the Cyclones, Commercials, Morning Stars and Empires were the only senior clubs in St. Louis in the summer of 1861.  That's a very useful piece of information.  I have a list of about ten clubs that were competing in the summer of 1860 and the fact that there were only four in the summer of 1861 is again evidence of the negative effect of the war on baseball in St. Louis.  There were numerous junior clubs playing in 1861 but I think it's obvious that the older ballplayers had more important things to deal with in that summer.  Neither the Cyclones nor the Morning Stars survived the 1861 season.  

The last thing I want to point out is the significance of this game.  It was played on the Fourth of July 1861.  Fort Sumter was attacked on April 12, Camp Jackson fell on May 10 and, by early June, it was obvious that the war was going to be contested in Missouri.  The battle of Boonville was on June 17, the battle of Carthage would be fought on July 5 and the first battle of Bull Run would be fought in a few weeks.  It must have been a rather bittersweet holiday.  Clubs had already started to dissolve as political division and military recruitment and responsibilities began to take their toll.  I look at that box score and see men who would fight on both sides of the war.  But for one day, and possibly for the last time, they came together to celebrate the birth of their country and play the game they loved.                     

The Carr Place Nine

Carr Place nine play the Lucas Amateurs a game at the Union Grounds at 10 o'clock this morning.  

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 25, 1884


I mention this little tidbit about a Carr Place baseball club simply to note the tradition of ball-playing in the Carr Park neighborhood.  The original Carr Place nine was the Morning Star Club, who was playing town ball at Carr Park in the late 1850s, was introduced to the Regulation game by Merritt Griswold and played the Cyclones in the first match game in the history of St. Louis baseball.  The tradition of bat and ball games in the Carr Park neighborhood was almost thirty years old when the above game was played.    

The Return Match

Base Ball-Empire vs. Morning Star.-The return match was played between the Empire and Morning Star Clubs last evening, between Twenty-first and High streets, and resulted in favor of the former.  The large crowd in attendance seemed to take great interest in the game, and frequently applauded the players when an extra play was made, but we regret to say that a great many boys and others, of whom we should have expected better conduct, crowded around the scorers so as to make it almost impossible for them to keep an account of the game.  It was utterly impossible for them to make a correct report of the fielding, and they soon abandoned the attempt.  We give below a list of the runs made, and believe it to be correct.  Soon after the game began, two of the players attempted to catch a ball on the fly, and one of them, Mr. W.A. Hudson, was struck in the pit of the stomach by the other player's knee, and was so disabled that he had to quit, and his place was filled by Mr. D.H. Naylor.

-St. Louis Daily Bulletin, September 15, 1860

The final score of the game was 37-18 in favor of the Empire Club.  Playing for the Empires that day was Henley, Reynolds, Williams, Higgins, Coyle, Walton (who made seven outs), F. Kern, Barret, and Connell.  Playing for the Morning Stars was R. Henry, Burke, Naylor, Duff, Case, W. Henry, J. Henry, Rawsot, Franklin, and the injured Hudson.  The batting record of the Morning Stars is incomplete because there is no mention of Hudson, who may have scored runs and who definitely made three outs in the game.  So the Morning Stars could have actually scored more than 18 runs.  William Sanford, of the Commercial Club, was the umpire.

The reference to the attempted fly catch is interesting but I really can't speak intelligently about what it means.  I have no idea how rare a fly catch would have been in an 1860 St. Louis baseball game.  If I had to guess, I'd say that they were uncommon.  However, I think the reference is really meant to highlight the injury of Hudson rather than the attempted fly catch.  

I also like the fact that it's September 1860 and we're already have problems with the rowdies.   

The Empire Club Plays The Winner

A number of friends of the Empire and Morning Star Base Ball Club collected on the Laclede grounds on Twenty-seventh and Biddle streets, yesterday morning, to witness a match game between the two clubs.  Each club displayed a great deal of skill during the three hours they played, at the end of which the Empire Club was declared victorious.

-St. Louis Daily Bulletin, July 18, 1860

The score of the game, which one has to assume was the second match game played in St. Louis, was 41-33.  Playing for the Empires was John Barrett, John Williams, William Henley, B.J. Higgins, James Fitzgerald, John Waltour, Dan Coyle, John Reynolds, and Pat Cooney.  Playing for the Morning Star was Robert Henry, Charles Scudder, David Naylor, Joh Henry, Case, Martin Burke, William Henry, R. Wilson, and Finney.

The Laclede Grounds, according to Tobias, was the home of the Laclede Club "an early club made up from master mechanics." 

What really stood out to me when I first read this game account was the fact that the match lasted three hours, which is pretty much how long a baseball game lasts today.  Of course if two modern clubs scored seventy runs between them, the game would last about thirty hours.      

The Great Match Of Base Ball

To-day a great match between the Sycamore (sic) and Morning Star base ball clubs will take place in the field immediately west of the Fair Grounds.  The game will be played according to the rules of the National Convention of ball players.  The match will commence precisely at four o'clock p.m., and will undoubtedly be the greatest game ever played in this city.

  -St. Louis Daily Bulletin, July 9, 1860

The Great Match of Base Ball-Victory By The Morning Star Club.-The announcement that the first match of base ball ever played in St. Louis would take place on Monday afternoon on the field west of the Fair Grounds, between the Cyclones and Morning Star Clubs, was sufficient to call out a large number of spectators, among whom were several ladies.  A very great interest was manifested by all present, who expressed their delight at the many instances of fine play displayed by both clubs.  The match resulted in the victory of the Morning Star by twenty-six runs...

-St. Louis Daily Bulletin, July 11, 1860

The score of the match, as given by the Bulletin, was 50-24.  Playing for the Cyclones was Peters, ss; Alfred Bernoudy, c.f.; Merritt Griswold, p.; Edward Farrish, 3rd b.; Gamble (either Joseph or Rufus), c.;  Maurice Alexander, 1st b.; Fitch, 2nd b.; Edward Bernoudy, l.f.; and Edward Bredell, r.f.  Playing for the Morning Stars was Robert Henry, c.; Archibald Duff, 1st b.; David Naylor, r.f.; Case, 2nd b.; William Henry, s.s.; Finney, p.; John Henry, c.f.; Wilson, 3rd b.; and Rawson, l.f.  Peters and Fitch of the Cyclones and Case, Finney, Wilson, and Rawson of the Morning Star are all unidentified at the moment.

The scorers for the game was Jonathan Collier of the Cyclone Club and Joseph Franklin of the Morning Stars.  The umpire was S.L. Putnam, "formerly of the Metropolitan Club, New York."

This account of the game is similar to the one in the July 17, 1860 edition of Porter's Spirit of the Times, although they gave the final score as 49-24.  Since I haven't posted that account, I will now rectify the situation:

Base Ball At St. Louis, Mo.-The first game of base that was ever played West of the Mississippi, under the rules of the National Association, was played at St. Louis, on Monday, the 9th inst; between the Morning Star  and Cyclone Clubs.

We now have three contemporary sources for the Cyclone/Morning Star match, including the notice of the game in the Daily Missouri Democrat.  All three essentially agree that it was the first match game played in St. Louis under the rules of the National Association.  So I'm thinking we can call that a settled fact.  

The Good Old Social Game Of Base Ball

The good old social game of base ball, which we used so much to delight in when a student, and which, semi-occasionally, we have indulged in since arriving at man's estate, is fast becoming one of the most popular pastimes among us.  On Monday night a base ball club was organized, with twenty-four members, under the style of the "Morning Star Club."  The following officers were elected: President-J.R. Naylor; Vice-President-R. Henry; Secretary-Geo. Franklin; Directors-C.C. Ferguson, R.H. Franklin and Chas. Scudder.

The club will meet every morning for practice.  We wish them much enjoyment, and shall accept their kind invitation to take a game when convenient.

  -St. Louis Daily Bulletin, June 6, 1860

This is the earliest contemporary reference that we now have of the formation of a St. Louis baseball club.  While there are sources that place the founding of the Cyclone Club in the summer of 1859 and the Empire Club in April of 1860, Richard Perry, a member of the Morning Star Club, stated in 1887 that his club was "the first club organized" in St. Louis and, as of now, I can't conclusively prove that he's incorrect.  I do believe, however, that the weight of the evidence still supports the Cyclone and Empire Clubs forming prior to June of 1860.  The true significance of this information from the Bulletin is that it is contemporary evidence confirming some of what we already know based on secondary sources as well as the fact that it fills in some of the gaps of our knowledge regarding the Morning Star Club.  

The real interesting thing here is the reference to the "good old social game of base ball" that the author of the piece played in his youth and what that means in the context of the May 4, 1860 reference to town ball and the 1858 Alton references to base ball.  If we parse the text, what we have is a reference to an old game, played previous to 1860, that the author refers to as base ball.  We've already seen, in the Alton references, that there was a bat and ball, safe haven game called base ball played in the St. Louis area in 1858 and, given the geographical, cultural, and economic connections between Alton and St. Louis, I always assumed that if this game was being played in Alton then it was also being played in St. Louis.  This reference may be confirmation of that assumption.  

However, there are at least two things that complicate the matter.  The first is the earlier reference to town ball in the Bulletin.  Speaking of the game as "old" and referring to a "revival" of the sport, the reference gives the impression that a sport called town ball was played in St. Louis and had been for some time.  So the question becomes whether or not we're talking about one game or two.  Were the terms town ball and base ball being used interchangeably in the St. Louis area?  If this is unlikely then we're possibly looking at two different forms of American base ball, town ball and base ball, played in the St. Louis area prior to the arrival of the New York game.        

The second complication is the identity of the author.  Edmund Tobias wrote in The Sporting News that the "first newspaper man to hold out a helping hand to the 'infant industry' of base ball reporting was Col. W.H. Swift, then the editor of the St. Louis Daily Bulletin, who magnanimously consented to publish the reports if gratuitously furnished his paper.  And this was done."  If William Henry Swift was the author of the above reference to base ball then this puts the reference in a different light and it's much easier to explain.  Swift was born in Cayuga Co., New York in 1832, educated in New York public schools, and apprenticed at the Auburn (New York) Advertiser from 1844 to 1849 before moving to St. Louis in 1850.  If he was the author then the reference to the "old social game" and to student play would be to baseball in New York rather than St. Louis.  

Let's see if I can be a bit more clear in my thinking.  Here are the facts:

1. We have an 1858 reference to base ball in the Alton papers.  The description of the game leaves no doubt that it is not the New York game.  

2. We have an 1860 reference to town ball in St. Louis that implies that the game had been played in St. Louis in the past.  We also know that there were clubs organized to play this game.

3. We have an 1860 reference to base ball in St. Louis that directly refers to a club organizing to play the New York game while at the same time implying that the game was played by the author of the article in his youth.  

4.  Since the best available evidence suggests that the New York game was first played in the St. Louis area in the summer of 1859, any references to base ball in St. Louis prior to that is to the St. Louis version of base ball rather than the New York version.    

Trying to reconcile these facts, I could argue that in the antebellum era, prior to the advent of the New York game in the area, various bat and ball games were played in St. Louis and clubs were organized around the playing of those games.  In Alton, the game went by the name of base ball while in St. Louis it was known as town ball.  The reference to the "old social game of base ball" is W.H. Swift speaking about his experiences playing base ball in New York.  

However, we could also possibly argue that we're talking about one bat and ball game referred to by different names.  While certainly this game was malleable and lent itself to rule-change variations, in general there was one bat and ball game around which clubs were formed and this game was known variously, around St. Louis, as town ball or base ball.  Under this theory, the game played in Alton in 1858 and called base ball was the same as that played in St. Louis in 1860 and called town ball.  The main reasoning behind this argument would be the economic, social, and cultural connections between St. Louis and the various satellite communities that sprung up around it.  I find it unlikely that entirely different forms of bat and ball games, going under different names and being played by adults, would develop at the same time in St. Louis and Alton.  It's possible but I just can't imagine any type of evolutionary trend taking place in one of the cities without it immediately impacting the other. 

I was looking through David Block's Baseball Before We Knew It last night to see if there might be anything which could address some of the questions that I have and found this:

From all available indications, the term "town-ball" was simply one of several regional aliases for baseball before 1845.  In those years, the game was a localized and generally unorganized activity.  Two teams in neighboring communities might have called their respective games town-ball but played under different sets of rules.  By the same token, their rules could have been identical, but one might have called it "town-ball" and the other "base ball."

I think that this lends some support to the idea that we could be looking at one game under two names.  Certainly it isn't conclusive or any kind of smoking gun but it at least touches on the possibility.  

There is one more point I'd like to mention before wrapping this up.  If Swift was the author of the article and had some familiarity with the New York game before moving to St. Louis then it appears that he recognized the game that Morning Star Club was playing as the New York game.  However, if Swift was not the author or he had no familiarity with the New York game then the reference to base ball becomes even more interesting because the author is using one term to refer to both the New York game and the St. Louis variation of American base ball.  The implication is that the author did not see enough difference between the two games to distinguish between them.  I think that would be significant in that it would speak to the subtleness of the evolutionary development of baseball.  Not only was there a subtleness to the development of the game itself, as it distinguished itself from other forms of bat and ball games, but also to the spread of the game.  An event which we might see as significant, the advent of the New York game in a specific city or region, was most likely a non-event to those who participated in the game or observed its playing.  The New York game was just one more bat and ball game being played at the time; just one variation of base ball among many.  There was nothing special about it.               

Giants On The Ball Field, Part Five

John W. O'Connell, who served long enough in the School Board to entitle him to a pension, was one of the original founders of the Empire Club and was a good, all-around player.  He was president of the club several terms and still retains all his youthful love of the game.

E.C. Simmons, president of the largest hardware company in the world, was a player in the Commercial Club in antebellum days.

Joe P. Carr, the Merchants Exchange caller, was one of the Union Club's most enthusiastic, if not one of its crack players.  He could play any position equally well, but that of spectator was more to his own liking as it afforded opportunities to display his manly form as well as to take in or drop a few shekels.  

Harry Carr was, par excellence, a ball player in every respect.  He was one of the best of fielders and a safe batter.  With him, it was just as much a matter of business to win as it now is to keep straight the books of the Simmons Hardware Company.

William Medart of the Medart Pulley Company was prominent in ball affairs and did as much to promote the game as anyone.  He was the organizer of several clubs and was always in great demand as umpire, in which capacity he witnessed many matches and proved a most correct and satisfactory arbiter.

P.J. Cooney, the Cass avenue carriage and wagon manufacturer, was an Empire player from "way back."

William C. Dyer, principal of the Madison Public School, belonged to the Union Club and kept a neat score.

Robert Franklin, resident manager of the William Barr Dry Goods Company, played in the Morning Star Club, as also did George M. Wright, the cashier.

Chas. F. Gauas, wholesale hat and cap dealer, was one of the Commercial's players.

Louis Schrader, the Franklin avenue cigar manufacturer, was a reliable fielder in the Rowena club and a fine umpire.

C. Orrick Bishop of the Circuit Attorney's office was an active member of the Union club and was managing director at the original organization of the Brown Stocking Club.

Thomas C. Doan, the tenor singer, was secretary of the Union club for a time.

Archie Easton achieved great distinction as a baseman and safe batter in the same club, and Rufus J. Lackland, Jr., played well in right field.  Matt F. Prouty had charge of first base for one or two seasons, and Wm. Freeman, son of W.P. Freeman, a leading commission merchant, was at home in the field or batting, but catcher was his strong position.

Wm. Gorman, whose father was one of the best-known river captains, was a splendid catcher.

-St. Louis Daily Republic, February 9, 1896  

More On Charles Scudder

(Charles Scudder), city treasurer of St. Louis, is one of the city's representative men, and through the changes of many years he has been identified with its growth and history in various ways. He is of that virile Kentucky stock which has played such a conspicuous part in the development of America, and is himself a native of that State, having been born at Mayslick, Mason county, November 1, 1833.

His father, Charles, was a native of New Jersey, while his mother, Mary (Hood), came from Virginia. His father was a physician, and when the subject of this sketch was two years old, he emigrated to Indiana, removing from that State to St. Louis in 1837. His three sons, John A., Charles and Wm. H., all became leading citizens and successful men of this city. Wm. H. is now dead. John A. is very wealthy, while Charles is rising toward the zenith of a most active and honorable career.

The latter was educated in the public schools of the city, which he attended until he was seventeen years old, being at one time a pupil of the late Colonel David H. Armstrong, who was, as we have already seen, a teacher in the first public school opened in St. Louis. When he left school he entered a retail dry goods store as clerk, but the work proving not to his taste, he secured a position as a clerk on a steamboat, and this was the beginning of a most eventful career on the river, whose trade was then at its greatest activity.

He next became the captain of a Keokuk boat, then became identified with the Lower Mississippi and the Missouri river trades. Throughout the war he had charge of a boat store at Cairo, and at the end of the contest returned to St. Louis and became indentified with Messrs. Griswold and Clement in the management of the Lindell Hotel. The arrangement continued for twelve years, or until 1888, when he was elected to the office of public administrator on the Republican ticket. The next public trust conferred on him was the one he now holds as city treasurer, to which he was elected in 1893.

He has proved in every capacity that he is a citizen who can be trusted, and that his fellow citizens have not erred in conferring honors upon him. Mr. Scudder was married in 1860 to Miss Sarah V. Rogers, of Marion county, Missouri. Nine children have been born to them, eight of whom are still living.

-From Old and new St. Louis by James Cox

Charles Scudder

Charles Scudder was a member of the Morning Star Club and played second base in their match against the Cyclone Club in July of 1860, the first documented match game in the history of St. Louis baseball. Born in Kentucky in 1834, Scudder was living in St. Louis by the 1850's and was one of the first graduates of Jones Commercial College. By 1860, he was a partner in Weirick, Scudder & Co., a wholesale grocery store in St. Louis, and was playing town ball with the Morning Star Club at Carr Square Park.

After the Civil War, Scudder was a partner in the Memphis Packing Company and was one of the owners of the Lindell Hotel. He also became involved in St. Louis city politics, serving on the school board and as city treasurer.

In August of 1880, Scudder was vacationing in Minnesota with some friends from St. Louis when, according to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, he played in a "very exciting and closely contested game of ball." Scudder's team, for whom he played the outfield, won the game 11 to 10. According to reports, the game was umpired by Gen. William T. Sherman.

The above portrait comes from James Cox's Notable St. Louisans in 1900.

An 1887 Reference To The Morning Star Club

Several of the boys on the floor have laughed at me because I played ball with the flour men's nine, but I want it understood that there is no older ball player in the city than I, and there are very few who have played the game as long as I have. About two years before the war there was a town-ball club that played every morning on the Carr square. I could not call the names of any of the others except Joe Franklin, but he and I were both members of the club. It was called the Morning Star, and we played from 5:30 o'clock until 7 o'clock every morning. Nearly all of us moved to the neighborhood of Twenty-second and the Pacific Railroad, and we continued our game there. Then base-ball was started in the East, and our secretary wrote on for the rules of the game. We received a little book that told how it was played, and we changed our name to the Morning Star Base-Ball Club, and that was the first club organized, and we played the first game of base-ball west of the Mississippi River.

-Richard Perry, quoted in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 24, 1887


Perry, according to Tobias, played shortstop for the Morning Star Club in the match against the Cyclone Club in July of 1860. Born in 1838 in England, in 1860 he was working as a "reporter" for the Merchant's Exchange in St. Louis. Later in life he achieved some success as a flour importer.

Perry's account of how the Morning Stars came to play baseball is at odds with Merritt Griswold's, who claimed that he found the club playing town ball one day and taught them the Regulation Game, and his recollections regarding the origins of the game in St. Louis certainly muddies the waters up a bit. However, it came eight years before Tobias wrote his history of St. Louis baseball for The Sporting News, almost twenty-five years before Griswold wrote his letter to Al Spink, and is the oldest source I've come across containing a first-hand account of baseball during the antebellum period. It's not a contemporary account but, for now, it's the best we have.

There are several things in Perry's account which are confirmed by Tobias and/or Griswold. Tobias mentions Joe Franklin as a member of the Morning Stars. Griswold mentions that the club played at Carr Park in the early mornings. Both state that the club was active prior to the Civil War. In many ways, Perry's account fits with the other sources we have regarding baseball in antebellum St. Louis.

How seriously do I take Perry's claim that the Morning Stars were the first baseball club in St. Louis? The claim certainly can't be dismissed out of hand but, at this point, the best available evidence still suggests that the Cyclone Club, organized in the summer of 1859, was the first baseball club in St. Louis. However, I have nothing personally invested in that claim and I'm more than willing to go where the evidence takes me. And in the end the important thing is not whether the Cyclones or the Morning Stars or the Unions were the first club-all of these clubs were significant in their own right and it's almost irrelevant if they were the first club or the third club. What's important is getting to the truth of the matter. Perry's account is significant because it adds to our knowledge and gets us that much closer to an understanding of the truth.

Some Pictures of 19th Century St. Louis

I was browsing the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog the other day and found some great pictures of St. Louis taken during the 19th century. Since I think it gives a nice feel for what life was like in St. Louis during the 19th century and helps put the history of St. Louis baseball in context, I thought I'd share them with you.

First up is a picture of downtown St. Louis that was taken sometime between 1860 and 1865. This is basically where the Missouri Glass Company, where Merritt Griswold and Ed Bredell worked, would have been located. It's now essentially the northwest section of the Arch grounds and the Laclede's Landing area. This is what the city looked like when the earliest baseball clubs were being formed.



This is a print from 1874 showing the St. Louis Fairground just north of downtown. If you look at the far left of the picture, you'll see the beginning of an open field. According to most sources, this is where the first match game, between the Cyclone and Morning Star baseball clubs, was played.



Here's a picture of the Eads Bridge under construction that must have been taken around 1873. The first bridge that spanned the Mississippi at St. Louis, the bridge was opened in 1874. I think that the bridge is a symbol of the growth and maturity of the city that can also be seen in the entry of two professional teams into the National Association less than a year after the bridge was opened.




Another picture from the 1870's, this one shows the Olympic Theater.



Here's a series of pictures of the riverfront taken between 1870 and 1899 that give you a nice sense of the economic vitality of 19th century St. Louis.








Finally, a series of street scenes taken in the 1890's.

Bat And Ball Games In St. Louis Prior To The Advent Of Baseball

It was in the latter years of the '50's that base ball found a permanent lodgement here and in 1860, 1861, and 1862 it became quite "the craze," and assumed definite proportions. This was not accomplished without considerable opposition and the overcoming of much prejudice. Cricket had long had a strong hold on lovers of out door sports and St. Louis possessed several good clubs, notable among them being the Jackson, which enjoyed quite an extended reputation and deservedly so too. The advent of base ball was met with sneers and derision, denouncements and obstructions. But its votaries or "cranks" had the "craze" bad, very bad, and they stood in to win, which they did and their success proved the downfall of cricket. Upon the disbandment of these clubs quite a number of cricketers enlisted in the ranks of base ball and proved skillful players.

-E. H. Tobias, writing in The Sporting News, October 26, 1895


Tobias also wrote, in the next installment of his series on the history of baseball in St. Louis, that "Prior to the starting of any of (the first baseball) clubs, what was called 'Town ball' had quite a footing in St. Louis." One would imagine that the popularity of bat and ball games such as town ball and cricket in St. Louis in the first half of the 19th century helped pave the way for the spread of baseball in the city. While there is no doubt that Tobias is correct when he says that there was resistance to the new game from those who played the old, a solid tradition of bat and ball games in the city helped create an infrastructure that baseball could co-op.

This is one possible explanation for why the game, once it first appeared in the city in 1859, took hold so quickly. By the summer of 1860, there are at least six base ball clubs already playing in St. Louis and there may have been as many as ten. Players, clubs, ball grounds, equipment, etc. were already in existence when the game first arrived in St. Louis. While this infrastructure may not have been perfectly and completely co-opted by the new game, it certainly had to have helped facilitate the introduction and acceptance of a new bat and ball game.

While I look at the prior existence of bat and ball games in St. Louis as something that had a positive impact on the introduction and growth of baseball in St. Louis, this didn't necessarily have to be the case. In one sense, baseball, town ball, and cricket were natural competitors for the time and loyalties of people in St. Louis. As Tobias wrote, there was opposition to and prejudice against the new game. Merritt Griswold wrote about his interactions with the Morning Star Club when they were still playing town ball and the efforts that it took to get them to try the new game. While it appears that the existence of a bat and ball game infrastructure helped in the establishment of the game in city, it could have just as easily impeded that establishment and crushed the game in its cradle. While that didn't happen, it certainly could have and there was no reason to believe in 1859 that baseball would plant its roots in St. Louis as deeply as it did.

The Morning Star Club

One of the earliest match games played was between the Cyclone and Morning Star Clubs on grounds just back of where now stands the amphiteatre in the Fair Grounds and resulted in the Morning Stars winning the game, by a score of 36-21. The players on the Morning Star nine were: Wm. Henry, 1b; Robt. Henry, c. and captain; Jno. Henry, lf; David Naylor, rf; Dolf, 3b; Chas. Scudder, 2b; Richard Perry, ss; Martin Burke, p; H. H. Franklin, cf...Capt. Martin Burke, pitcher of the Morning Star Club, went into the war of the Rebellion on the Confederate side and in a short time was brought home severely wounded. He did not long survive and was buried here. The ball won by the Stars on this occasion was sent East to be gilded and inscribed and on its return the defeated gave a supper to the victors at the Planter's House. A legend is extant that a few years after Jerry Fruin borrowed the ball and forgot to return it. Both (the Morning Star and Cyclone Clubs) were disorganized by the war, most of the Stars going into the Union Army under Maj. Zagonyi, in command of Gen. Fremont's Body Guard...

-E. H. Tobias, writing in The Sporting News, November 2, 1895

Tobias' account of what happened to the trophy ball from the first match game played in St. Louis appears to be supported by Merritt Griswold. In his letter to Al Spink, Griswold wrote that "the ball used in that first match game was for years used as the championship trophy, it going from one club to the other, and the last the writer ever heard of it, it was in the possession of the Empire Club." Fruin, of course, was a long-time member and captain of the Empire Club. Griswold also wrote that he was the person who sent the ball East to be gilded and engraved.

The Morning Star Club was a town ball team that played at Carr's Park and were convinced by Griswold to try baseball. After a bit of coaching, the Morning Star Club "never played town ball" again.

Griswold's Notice

I posted before about the notice that Merritt Griswold placed in the Missouri Democrat regarding the game between the Cyclones and the Morning Star. The notice is a rather substantial piece of evidence supporting the claims that Griswold made in his letter to Al Spink regarding the origins of baseball in St. Louis.

The above image is a copy of the notice as it appeared in the Missouri Democrat in July of 1860. Interestingly, while several sources have the game being played on July 8, the notice states that the game was to be played on the 9th.

The image was taken from the January 2007 newsletter of the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association, which can be downloaded here. The SLABA newsletter is one of the few sources on the internet that doesn't regurgitate the Fruin myth when talking about the origins of baseball in St. Louis.