Reliable internet. That is why we are leading the way in taking you to 10 g. Supporting cspan2 as a public service. It is truly an honor to introduce our speaker today, he was born in the bluegrass state that moved to the greenest state in the land of the free as soon as he could. And it was here at the university of tennessee where he completed his phd in history. We know that dr. William hardy is a man of good sense because he stayed. It is rumored he whered wears the color orange throughout the year, save basketball season, after all no man is perfect. What dr. Hardy perfects is his understanding of the past. He and i first met when he was working here for the east Tennessee Historical society in the education department. And he, alongside lisa oakley, who is with us today, worked tirelessly to build a network of teachers throughout the region who understood the power of local history in the classroom. They also worked tirelessly to create a network of students both in high school and middle school who are competing at the highest levels in the National History day competitions. Despite that workload, dr. Hardy was always generous with his time with me and the curatorial department. He proved to be an invaluable resource and projects dealing with him lincoln, the civil war, and most recently the jim crow era in knoxville. And it was really during this time that we first started talking but the origins of baseball and how to recreate it in knoxville. I am sure youre going to enjoy that today. Today dr. Hardy serves as an assistant professor at Lincoln Memorial university where he is the executive director of the Abraham Lincoln center for leadership and public policy. Outside of that you should know that dr. Hardy cares deeply for his family, he is an avid lover of the mountains, a Founding Member of the knoxville holstons a vintage Baseball Club. He has a strong predilection for chocolate milk, donuts and olive garden in no particular order. You should also know he is a dogged researcher, the type that understands the power and importance of individual stories to larger events. And in that vein, his forthcoming title is on the knoxville milliondollar fire which will be an interesting publication, one that i have encouraged him to read, retitle as one hot night in knoxville. But enough about the future, the topic at hand is the origins of baseball in knoxville. Please join me in welcoming mike colleague and friend, dr. William hardy. [ applause ] good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be back in east Tennessee History Center where he spent eight years here at the east Tennessee Historical society as adam said, in the education department. This topic for today really comes full circle in this building because it was approximately 10 years ago when i was working on the second floor when adam walked into my office with a baseball in his hand, set it down on my desk and had this sly grin on his face, what is this . This is what we are doing next summer. I was like, this is interesting. Adam pitched the idea he was starting a Baseball Club. He had seen two clubs playing in the National Nashville area. I was excited because i want to play baseball. For number of reasons, unfortunately, i never had the opportunity to play any baseball as a young man. Was excited and i thought this is great, get the play baseball. Adam said, not exactly. What you mean . He says, i was thinking about rather than playing baseball, in your role you would be will be called the arbiter, the umpire. All the excitement drained from my face. Being able to live my childhood fantasy was gone in a heartbeat. Nofault, adam was right and thought i would be perfect to be the umpire because in the vintage baseball game, the role is to explain the rules of 1864 game we play into also offer any context, i can do that on the civil war era. Blessed no. Adam, youre going to play baseball, i want to play baseball. Come on, captain. Put me in. Im ready to play. And there were four reasons i was excited to play vintage baseball. One getting to play baseball, number two, i needed the exercise. Badly. Number three, it would be a great opportunity for my kids to see their old man play ball. And maybe occasionally, not make a fool of himself and do something that look like athletic prowess in the garden. Number four, i knew instantly that there was a possibility of location opportunities. Being a civil war scholar, i knew that there had been a wealth of knowledge on baseball , but the amateur game in the south postcivil war, even pre civil war hadnt been thoroughly explored by historians. I know there are articles out there by baseball historians working with the society of the saber, society of baseball, im going to butcher this, society of american baseball research. Thank you, dr. Feller. I know they have done some studies, but nothing expensive on postcivil war baseball, and especially in knoxville, i was excited to see, to dig into that story. And adam had already done a little bit of brief history about the two teams that were going to be playing, the knoxville holsteins which was a team that existed in 1867. And the drake town boys of harriman, tennessee, which i believe existed a little later in the 1870s if i recall correctly. This was a really exciting opportunity to play the game and to do the research and hopefully produce something, a lot on my plate. Thats what im going to talk about today. Im excited to share the product of that 10 years of research into baseball history. Now, first, im going to talk about the gentlemans game, the sort of amateur era of baseball. Baseball was founded in the antebellum urban american environment and constituted a Sporting Fraternity that emerged in 19thcentury america. It is middle to upper middle class culture. A culture that emphasized clean sport and exercise to improve ones health. Character, and morality. The sport of baseball for the early amateur served as a vehicle to improve ones physical and spiritual well being while providing masculine, heredity, sociability and entertainment. These early Baseball Clubs sought white gentleman members, respectable young men of good position and good character, often those connected with various mercantile and banking houses, and the spackling of other professional occupations such as lawyers, doctors, Real Estate Agents, et cetera. Now, the game of baseball took many forms, but the game that becomes the national pastime, about the time of the American Civil War, was the new york game which happened in brooklyn new york. And, this game born in really the mid1850s as rules were laid down in stipulations behind the game, as several of these new york lists would eventually leave gotham for new beginnings to the north, to the south, mostly to the west, they took the new york game with them. And organized Baseball Clubs. That is how this game became a National Game in short order. If you look on this slide right here, before the American Civil War, baseball has spread across the continent and is out on the west coast. As early as 1850. But, importantly, for what is coming, and i will discuss, baseball existed in the south precivil war. You can find it in louisville, kentucky. You can find in macon and augusta, georgia. Galveston and houston, texas. New orleans. It was all across the south. And in memphis and nashville tennessee. It did exist before the 1860s. It was not as often has been told, a sport that came to the south is a product of the American Civil War and appeared when southern soldiers saw the game being played in their person of war camps or elsewhere maybe on the battlefield during sort a period in which there was no fighting in which baseball is played. Now, basals growth was not halted by the can civil war. It was only temporarily slowed. Yes, fewer games were played in many joined the war fighting for both union and confederate forces. But these soldiers continued to play the game in their camps, whether leisure which helped spread the game to those who ver seen again before. Soldiers played here in georgia, these are Union Soldiers, this is regarded as the first photo graph of the baseball game. You can see the 48 york volunteer infantry, in the band. In the background that is a baseball game being played. As i mentioned a minute ago, Union Soldiers would play baseball evening confederate prisoner of war camps as seen in this 1863 lithograph of a prison war camp in southbury, North Carolina. Now, what the civil war did was help democratize the game by exposing it to a bluecollar class, so to speak. Americans in the postcivil war era would organize Baseball Clubs of their own as a source of not only entertainment and physical exercise, but also to maintain a masculine, heredity of soldiers were used in four years of fighting alongside each other. Now, after the war, baseball exploded. Americans caught the baseball fever by the tens of thousands. In this epidemic struck americans from coast to coast. With such ferocity that in the words of the editor of the Daily National intelligence, it constituted a perfect mania. Of the masculine persuasion, irrespective of age, station, or condition. Has attacked of the baseball fever. Which brings us to knoxville, tennessee. And when did baseball arrive and by whom . The origin stories of baseball until more recently have often been attributed to one man, samuel billings tao, as knox boils founding father baseball. It comes from an article widely available to researchers and those interested in baseballs origins come upstairs on the third floor in the colonial historical selection in the vertical files. It was an article published number 20th 1921 in the knoxville sentinel. Thsentinels and editor pended thise he wrote, baseball has quite changed a bit since the civil war. But the games were just as interestingly and hotly contested back in 1865 as they are today. In 1921. In those days gloves were unknown and overhand pitching was not allowed. Biggs scores were the rule and it was no strange thing to one team to beat another by a comfortable margin of 30 runs. In these days, babe ruth is willing to call it a good day when he knocks a couple of homeruns out of the polo grounds, but captain of the old knoxville team says he always made two or three homeruns in the game. Sb tao was samuel billings and he was widely known but just around knoxville, but across america. He was not just one of the elder merchant of knoxville, he was nationally known as an expert sharpshooter. So much so that he featured on a poster by the u. S. Partridge company with other expert sharpshooters and on the very bottom row in the dead center, you may notice a female that is annie oakley. On the right side you may already recognize samuel billings dow was Close Friends with the worlds wealthiest man oil tycoon, john d rockefeller. They were golfing buddies. Tao would often joke into the press that rockefeller, he wins all the time but he cant beat me, i can outrun him, i can be him in the game of golf, rockefeller could only get four rounds, four holes in before he was spent for the day. For those who know about rockefeller, he suffered from ill health. Now dow was a largerthanlife personality. But this article from 1921 in which he tells the origins of knoxville baseball needs to be read very carefully. It is a collection of memories from an 82yearold man who is purportedly recalling events that are from 55 years in the past. According to dow, he started the first Baseball Club in knoxville in 1865. It was the first such Baseball Club in the south. He said that he had gotten the names of about 60 men, a mix of northern and southern boys, from the civil war who are possible candidates to join his Baseball Club. And he set a date for meeting at a local billiards room. Knoxville, though situated in the heart of unionist civil war east tennessee, it was a deeply divided city. During the war. Therefore, theres going to be a good mix of unionists and confederates. On the day of the meeting, i was surprised that only about half of the 60 men showed up. These were all union men. The quickly organized their team , called the knoxville knoxvilles. Elected their officers, i was elected captain. And he secured a field on the east side of the street and began to practice. Meanwhile, according to dow, the southern boys who didnt show up met elsewhere and organized their own club. They called themselves the holston the Baseball Club. They secured a field along what is now jackson avenue somewhere near the Railroad Tracks to practice. Now, dow goes on to mention some of the names which are instrumental in getting the list of possible Baseball Players who played, but he goes back to say that the first baseball game which was shortly played happened in 1865. Just right after the end of the American Civil War. And his memory of this game was amazing. With several freak injuries in which he identifies unfortunate victims by name and how they came to incur such injuries. Dow claimed they won the first match with the holstons by 17 runs and played a number of games over the years in which the holstons won some but the knoxvilles basically one the most. He closed noting that he kept the Team Together for a few years until development on longstreet made it necessary for us to abandon the old baseball. Now, writing the history of the origins of baseball in knoxville means, as historian, i cant rely on one source. I got to go out and corroborate dows story. Got to find other evidence, sure i could be a journalist and use this and pull it out of the vertical files and produce an article quickly but its a story my name goes on this publication in the journal of east tennessee history wouldve been proud of, and i have to be able to show my evidence. Now there have been few historians who have delve into this topic and they must be acknowledged because we stand on the shoulders of those who come before us. I must first say, honor to the late ron allen who was a local historian who did considerable research, i imagine going through newspapers and he compiled a list of a number of books on various topics on knoxville history. Which is a wonderful vehicle into any certain topic, having to go straight to the stores in founding or he found these accounts. He writes about dow and talks about this 1921 article and he acknowledges, 1865, but i cant find anything in the newspapers. Until at least 1867. The second person i must acknowledge his adam alfrey, when he was doing his history of the first two baseball teams on the holstons and dry town boys, he produced his research and gave a presentation here in 2014 i believe, summer of 2014, in which he was the first to really push back on the 1865 day. And say theres no evidence for 1865. It is 1867 and heres the newspaper articles. And adam was able to produce a variety of this paper articles from 1867 with reports of these freak injuries that occurred during that socalled first baseball game that dow mentioned. They occurred over multiple games. The third person i must acknowledge is mark aubrey. A fascinating researcher, actually he is an unpaid researcher, i think you often send me messages at midnight for a project that shouldve been finished by now. Mark has been one of these great friends that i have met through playing vintage baseball and has been a source he is been a wonderful source to help me in my research. And he has produced several blogs on knoxville baseball history. He has done some groundbreaking work on African American baseball here knoxville, featured on recently. And produces research for saber. I stand on their shoulders and launched this project in which i had to go out and find a number of sources to be able to tell a much more complete story. Those sources include the newspaper articles, things like ron allen whod found these articles with box scores the produce names. Often last names only. Adam found a listing of eligible bachelors in knoxville in 1867 and under this list of bachelors they give descriptions of them and list anyone whos playing baseball. These were Baseball Players. That gave me additional names and in some cases, first names to last names, i cannot tell who is this person. You have name like smith, i got a problem. I get to figure out who this smith is. So those eligible bachelor ads were a help. Census records. City directories. To be able to figure out who these people were, the occupations. Their net worth. Photographs, maps to be able to discover where they played baseball. And, i love going to cemeteries, cemetery visits have provided me Additional Information like military rank i did not know and this is another baseball player who played in the military. Now, samuel dow, his article, for the most part pretty good, but he exaggerates a little bit about his athletic prowess and the dates are, as adam quickly argued were little bit off. And go figure, 1865, it begins in the spring of 1865, the civil war is still going on. Knoxville is a disaster. The city badly divided five over occupied both armies, maybe only unoccupied for a few days in four years of war. How could they be playing baseball . A lot of the names on this list or even here in 1865. One good thing came out of adams talk, well, many things, while adam spoke in 2014, a descendent of dow came and attended the talk. And had given him his information. At a mentioned in passing that this descendent had been there and he had given him his personal information and said he had some stuff. When i finally got the nudge from the journal editor to get this article done, i contacted adam, he gave me the information they said, this is been quite a number of years, i will try the email. Lo and behold i got a response within a few hours of sending the email. And found him in North Carolina and he said, ive got some stuff in my basement. This is the covid summer of 2020, i was ready to get out. I took precautions, but he went to his house right off of lake norman, it is beautiful, and he took me down into his basement. That may be a little weird. But hey, cool things can be found in basements for stories. When i went down, he had this workbench in cases, books, documents, all across the desk, cases of stuff for two permanent knoxville families. And working on him getting a collection to, there is a wealth of information. He told me, i have a lot of samuel dow stuff, i dont think i have any baseball stuff. You are happy to go through. There was no baseball. Nothing related to dow and baseball but a wealth of information i can now tell a story about dow and get a brief solid biography of this man. Sam dow was born in bangor, maine in 1839. At a few years of age his family migrated to New Hampshire. I cant say for certain where he saw baseball played, but, i can make some inferences. At the local academy, baseball is played. Even president lincolns son who attended their played baseball. It is quite possible dow saw played there. He probably didnt see the new york game there, because up in new england, they favored the massachusetts game which is a game im glad we do not plan vintage baseball because one way to put you out was by soaking. That is hitting you with the baseball, you could hit a baserunner and they would be out. Thankfully we do not have those rules. But its quite possible he saw baseball there. One of the things this descendent had was a diary of dow. It was before the baseball period before the civil war. 1859 to 1860. In the diary i found it left exit door in 1859, went to louisville, kentucky, my hometown. And he followed his brother to go into the grocery business. To learn the grocery trade. And in louisville, kentucky, baseball is reactive. There are quite a number of teams. And gentlemen of his class with a gentleman who played that game. I cant say for certain he played baseball there, he didnt say he played baseball before this period, but its quite possible he saw baseball played in louisville. The civil war came, and dow eagerly wanted to do his part and join the war effort. He was in kentucky which was neutral, so he crossed the ohio river, made his way to indianapolis to see the governor of indiana and asked, i will raise a regiment to do our part in indiana meeting president lincolns quote of 75,000 troops to be raised across the country to put down the rebellion. The governor said, thank you, mr. Dow, but we have enough troops, we have met the quote. He said okay. He returned back to louisville kentucky, and then soon thereafter joined the second kentucky cavalry just outside, just across the ohio river in jeffersonville, indiana, that is where they form the second kentucky cavalry. Not inside kentucky state border. Civil war didnt last long. He was at the bottom shiloh, he cut illness, so severely, he had to go back home to New Hampshire to recover. With his parents. Once he recovered, he got a desk job basically with the Us Government and Revenue Service. He found his way to knoxville, tennessee in 1864. Shortly after the city was liberated in the fall of 1863. It is there in knoxville he lay down his roots, got into the grocery business and he made fast friends in the masonry. He gathered up a network of gentlemen just like himself. Now, we fastforward to 1867, a transformative event in knoxville history, a transformative event along the entire east Tennessee River valley, when the Holston River flooded. We know it is a Tennessee River here today but it was the Holston River at that time down past knoxville. The designation wasnt changed i believe in the General Assembly until late 1890s or Something Like that. Where becomes the Tennessee River just north of the city. Heres an image of the flood of 1867. It was a flood that washed out many homes, flooded the city via its creeks, first and second creek, turning Downtown Knoxville which set on a bluff if theres any flat ground in knoxville, and business sort of came to a standstill. It was during this period as the water slowly began to reseed the dow started thinking about and talking to some of his friends about the idea of, lets play baseball. Lets organize a Baseball Club. Therefore, on march 19, 1867, sandow called the meeting together at joseph coopers star billiards saloon. This was an article that i found in the paper, it was very small print. Easily to be overseen when someone is going through microfilm looking at it with their eyes and getting a migraine as a result looking at microfilm. I benefit from todays technology and be able to do an Online Search a home and use ocr to pop in baseball and found this, which i dont think anyone ever found. This is the first notice published march 20 that the baseball meeting had occurred the night before. Heres a photograph of Downtown Knoxville. That is sandow on the right at approximately 1867. This image, has always been published his 1869, used the city directories and newspapers and you can find out this picture is earlier than 1869. Is somewhere between the late summer of 1867, sorry, late summer of 1866 in spring of 1867. We are right in that period of baseball being organized. If you see the red arrow its pointing it star billiards located in ramsey hall just underneath the gallery. It was here that night that dow organize that meeting and it was, just as he had said, approximately mostly northern men who had shown up. Union soldiers. Now, in this meeting dow will organize it and again, dow on the right, he will be elected captain of this club. The gentleman on the far left is Spencer Munson and there he is in his union uniform. Spencer munson was from mentor, ohio and for a brief period of time later in his life, his nextdoor neighbor was in ohio congressman by the names of james carville. Future president of the united states. If we move over to the right, second from the top left, that is william Bill Chamberlain as he was known, he served in the 23rd ohio and he served under the command of two future u. S. President s, Rutherford B Hays and william mckinley. Is also known as being a druggist, part of the firm of sanford, albert and chamberlains, maybe i got that backwards how the firm went. Sanford, alfredson chamberlains drug from. The gentleman to his right, third from the left is homer Charles Squire who also was a Union Officer and in the Revenue Service which dow worked in the Revenue Service , close friend. Mason. All these connection through the masonry, union army, professional occupation class. s judgment. Lower left is Luther Stephen trowbridge. Brigadier general in the u. S. Army. The highest ranking officer among any of the baseballists. There is a common theme. These are officers. Squire was a surgeon. Munson was a surgeon. Chamberlain was a first lieutenant. I will skip over to the gentleman on the third from the left, that is ec camp who also served in the union army, owned the greystone mansion, home of w a te today. Was a member of the grant administration. Another connection, republicans. All of these unionists who were republicans. Highly supportive, unconditional unionists who supported Abraham Lincolns policies, not just preservation of the union but emancipation. The outlier in this group is a gentleman on the far right, on the bottom underneath dow , that is john paxton who was a mason and a lone confederate on this team. Captain of the 19th tennessee, the paxton grazes they were known, and sort of when dow says this is a clear distinction between union and confederates, he neglects one of his closest friends who is a confederate. But for the most part, these are Union Soldiers. Unconditional unionists will be the future Republican Leaders of knoxville tennessee. They chose a baseball ground. This, dow would say in his 1921 article, this was, at that time the present location of woodruffs store that is the 400 block of gay street. Finding a vacant land in knoxville was tough in the business district, the only area left was todays 400 and 300 blocks of gay street. The problem was the land was a dump. The dumped trash there, it was overgrown, it had weeds and everything in this area. The mccallums audit. They were eager to sell it to begin further development in the city would march forward further north to the railroad. Dow and his close friend Charles Seymour and lawyer, Real Estate Agent and close personal friend of mccallums went to the family, Charles Mccallum and Frank Mcclung the to ellis in the family and they were the grandchildren of Charles Mcclung who basically laid out knoxville tennessee and hence they got a lot of land as a result of that, when they laid out the city in 1791 the got there blessing to play baseball. They cleared the land for baseball ground to play. But the mccallums made one condition, when we are ready to sell this, we are going to sell this property and you have to find somewhere else. Fine. So they quickly Work Together to clear the land and prepare for baseball. What about the other gentleman, the socalled southern gentleman the dow mentioned who didnt show up . There was a group of men who did not show up didnt want to play with the knoxvilles. These men organize their own Baseball Club called themselves the holston Baseball Club. Im gathering the got the name possibly thinking about the flood the recently happened at the Holston River. Is my inference. They put together club. Now, they chose, as our captain, Robert Armstrong and his brother frank armstrong. Was interesting about this team is, whereas the knoxvilles are mostly union men from the north, gentleman who had come into the city at the end of the and civil war, i should go ahead and say, not carpetbaggers. That mythology of a lost cause of carpetbagging northern yankees coming in and exploiting the Natural Resources of the south, here knoxville they were wealthy. They look fondly on knoxville. They had served here. If you read their letters the talk about it being the most beautiful ended ever seen and east tennessee being the most beautiful women on gods green earth. They came here eager, invited to come here. Married those southern daughters. They were welcome because they had energy and vision of a new south they wanted to build. And yes, that meant to tap into Natural Resources. And they wanted to diversify the south economy, not just be an agricultural base to help east tennessee and tennessee growing progress. They dont fit the carpetbagging mythology because one thing they did recognize, the smart thing was marrying said southern daughters, but they didnt bring a radical social agenda. They did support emancipation. But these are more moderate republicans who didnt necessarily advocate for greater several liberal rights for africanamericans. Having done that, they were suitable stock to say. There were some radical republicans who showed up they were driven out real quick in knoxville, tennessee. But back to the holstons. Were these southern soldiers . They werent really southern soldiers. They came from southern supervising families and part, these were very young men, on average about 22 years of age. One player, 14. The knoxville knoxvilles were an older group, 25. 5 on average. Holstons were a mix. They had two Union Veterans and two confederate veterans. One of those Union Veterans was basically a medical cadet, he didnt see action and one of the confederate veterans was a courier. Who passed messages. These were men who were too young to fight. What i found in a research, connected them was politics. Like the knoxville knoxvilles, republicans, these are democrats in the postcivil war period. A mix of southern supervisors who sympathized with confederate army, confederacy during the civil war but theres also a bunch of unionists, unconditional unionists from families as old as the williams, the gentleman in the upper right photograph is jc williams. He comes from the John Williams family. His dad was a close friend of president andrew johnson. Of these gentlemen were unionist supporters at the beginning of the civil war, they supported lincolns preservation of the union but the moment emancipation was on the table they were done, they didnt sign up for social change. At the end of the civil war these conditional unionists gravitated to the point they were breaking bread with their initial former enemies, these rebels were southern sympathizers. These become democrats. John c williams is a prominent lawyer, defended coal miners in the coal mine wars. And played a prominent role in a couple of democratic administrations, president ial demonstrations. The gentleman on the bottom is colonel William Quesnel with his twomonthold pony. He was a wealthy gentleman. He was a confederate career, the confederate career and mentioned. The gentleman in the upper left is samuel bella trial. He was the mayors son. The mayor of knoxville during the American Civil War. This was his son. He was a union captain during the American Civil War. But when he came back in the postcivil war period the policies were radical policies in the State Government drove luttrell to the democratic party. But i mentioned his brother who also played, he was a confederate officer during the American Civil War. So, politics is what brings these together. Where dow says these are Union Confederate men, is not so much that, it is postwar politics the united them, holstons being the democrats and knoxvilles being the republicans. Where do these players play . With long known about dowse knoxvilles playing but this is pathbreaking in the research, there had been mentioned they played along jackson avenue is. I cant say for certain exactly the holstons played, but there was in 1895 article i found the mentioned cripple creek. That is first creek. Cripple creek gets its name according to i believe Lucy Templeton many moons ago who said it had to do with the bend in the creek, that is why the cold cripple creek. It was an area prone to flooding. And had flooded significantly. Looking at the maps at this period of 1867, looking at the maps trying to find vacant land, the best guess is where you have placed the burgundy looking baseball. In a vacant area. First street has changed its path since then. What is interesting is where they played. It is quite possible they played on the very ground where randy boyd today is building will be the next smokies stadium. That is an interesting connection of knoxvilles baseball past bringing it back into the urban environment and linking it with baseball today. That was an interesting find. Again i cant say exactly but they say its along the creek so they will possibly be being playing baseball on the veholst played baseball in 1867. Now, to wrap this up, im going to talk about some baseball, some of the stories of the early baseball games. We know the first baseball game based on newspaper, what is available researchis may 4, 1867, reported here may 8, 1867 in the knoxville wig. The early games we get little tidbits. This is Parson Browns paper. He is more interested in political affairs. Baseball as a novelty, its interesting, who are these guys being idle and lazy on the weekends when they should be in charge, there is Little Information but we do get is during that first game in 1867, it was attended by hundreds of spectators, men and women, and women play a part of spectators in this game. It was believed by women being on the ball field that they would calm the men and that they would not get out of hand, not get overly competitive and remember that they are gentlemen first and foremost. During that game, the brass band led the procession of these two teams, the knoxville knoxvilles in the holstons, to the knoxville baseball grounds and it is said by dow that they won the first game by 17. I cant confirm it from another source. But does hold true that the knoxvilles prevailed in the first game. An immediate challenge was issued the next week for a game. That game, the holstons won in the second match. What i have found through the records, only four games that the holstons and knoxvilles played. Dow said they won most. Holstons won some. My Research Shows knoxvilles just won the first game. The holstons got better and better with each game and stomped the knoxvilles in the city championship in november 1867 by a score of 9025. Im sure of those 25, dow got two or three homeruns. Those injuries, such a lovely game, baseball. Lots of injuries, a lot of freak injuries. Our friend on the left, Spencer Munson, neighbor of james garfield, he was playing in the outfield when a ball was hit deep. He caught it, lovely catch, and as he was going to throw the ball into the infield, people heard a bone snap. His elbow dislocated. I think playing vintage baseball i can offer an explanation. They werent good on calisthenics and stretching and everything before game. I can see how such a freak injuries may have occurred. Especially after having broken an arm having rotator cuff surgery a couple years ago, i know my arm needs a lot of warm up before game these days. The two figures on the center and right, and another game chamberlain for the knoxville steps up to the plate, hits a massive shot to the outfield. Samuel the mayors son gets under it, he is ready to catch it, lose it in the sun, i can also attest to this happening, the ball went right into his four head and he dropped on the ground. Unconscious and had to be carried from the field. I have seen baseballs temporarily tattoo for heads, right adam . Adam when he was practicing vintage baseball before forming our team went over to and they carried the college, i think he was pitching in the ball was delivered right into his four head. He showed up on monday morning with it tattooed to his four head still. There were these freak injuries that occurred in 1867 during these early games. I do want to tell you those holstons got better with each game. I can attest to that because i think we lost the first five games until we got our pace in the first season and then we went on a terror. The holstons got better with each game. They limited their opponents to less runs with each game. They quickly became regarded as a powerhouse across the state. In the summer and into the fall of 1867, the holstons were challenged by the state champions of 1866, the Mountain City club of chattanooga. Let me say a quick word about championships. These were bestofthree series, and they could be called any moment two teams agreed. Although usually played and regarded as a two better teams in the area, the holstons were challenged by Mountain City because they had sort of sensed the holstons were probably the next best team in the state. They played a bestofthree series and the knoxville holstons won in the third and finagame to claim a series to be the state champions and the knoxville whig gave them three cheers in the paper. They went on to defeat in the 9025 game the knoxvilles for the city championship. They were riding high in 1867. And then, they got too big for their trousers and sent a challenge to the date city club of atlanta. Also a gentleman club, much like these amateur era baseball teams, undefeated. A traveling team. I call them the forerunners of the Cincinnati Red stockings. Although they become professional, these are sort of the last hurrah of amateur great teams. The Gate City Club said we will come to knoxville to play you guys. Thanksgiving day, this paper man colonel john fleming, newspapers were very important for boosting the game, the reputation of the citys at stake. On thanksgiving day this game is going to play and we expect an exciting game. We are not playing saying the proper way to play respect to the holidays playing baseball. But the boys think so let them play thinks. Back and ending, reports abetting was recurring during the game. Showing the game was evolving rather quickly knoxville to adopt more unseemly six of the game that was developing elsewhere across the nation. In the last inning holstons had gate city, they had to hold them off in the bottom of the ninth. The Gate City Club went on a run and won the game. What happened next is a source of contention between the people of knoxville, tennessee and atlanta, georgia. Knoxville tennessee they reported is a wonderful affair after the game with a huge banquet put on by knoxville. Judge baxters daughter, julia baxter made a beautiful cake for the Gate City Club and they were happy with the facilities. And big events like this were part of the after party for these games. When these gentlemen came together and drank alcohol and had a lot of great desserts they would report. Knoxville says it was a wonderful event. But a few days later atlanta, one of the Gate City Club members quickly denounced knoxville hostesses as unseemly gentlemen who were bruised and battered after the game and hurt feelings and they had insulted them during this festivity. Knoxville, there is an exchange back and forth between the captains of these two clubs and either side agreed to disagree in what happened. In 1868 the holstons began their title defense rather late. In fact, the club had sort of gone on for the winter and went to their occupations. John fleming keeps writing in the paper, what are the holstons going to organize, bring on the defending champions. Finally in the late summer of 1868 they get a challenge from a national Baseball Club, holstons are like now we are going to get together and get serious about baseball. They play scrimmages against boys. Teenage boys, even some boys under the age of 13 in the streets of knoxville on the holstons ground as well. Showing baseball had democratized. Quickly people of all ages playing and white and black. There were already three black baseball teams in this area. But in these matches, the young boys beat the holstons bad. And john fleming was livid. He wrote in one of these, after this the holstons had better hang their bats on the willow tree and if they feel they must of exercise, they can probably find some kindhearted farmer that will give them a job at hosking corn and pay them in shucks which would be more than their services are worth. If they are no better than that at playing ball. We will let them advertise for a job at halfprice, we will also help the afflicted, downtrodden and oppressed within our power to do so. Fleming could be biting in his language. He took shots at sandows knoxvilles all the time in the paper. The holstons got their act together and played the Nashville Club in 1868 state championship. But in the bestofthree, holstons were defeated by the Nashville Club. Shortly after that, the holston club disbanded. There are reports another holston club in 1870s playing, but its not the same team anymore. This team disbanded. The knoxville stayed together for one more year. One last game on the gay street baseball grounds in 1869. It was the bottom of the ninth he is convinced that this man is imitated. Im going to step into the box and get the ball. But he got the end of his bet on it and wouldnt you know . Home run he reported that ball went all the way down almost to the Railroad Tracks. It is a long ball. But, by the time they got it back in, he circled the bases and won the game. And that was one of the last match is played on those grounds because shortly thereafter, offers were being made. They were selling lots on that property. Over in the far left, you can see the first few buildings being built on what was the street baseball grounds. And, on the building, the third building from the far left, the Sanford Chamberlain and albers drugstore. To put a twist on the Johnny Mitchell 1970 hit song vapes paradise, and put up a bunch of fourstory brick warehouses. Thank you. [ applause ] if there are questions, come up to the microphone and ask your questions. Nice shirt thank you, i thought it was appropriate for the occasion. I just came back from the Jimmy Buffett convention. Just kidding. I wonder if you running into a picture of rufus oliver moore. He was playing a little bit later. Probably 1880s, 1890s. Have i run into a picture . Rufus oliver moore . Pitching in the 1880s . 1890s. I have not. Now, i have limited myself to the 1860s with the two baseball teams and what was going on at the time. However, there is another publication out there, that really tells the story of knoxville, and tells a story that fills in what is going on in the civil war baseball and the self. And that could be i could come across it, but i have not. I can throw to the crowd and look to my good friend, researcher, mark aubry, have you heard that name . Hes looking. And that is why he is such a dependable friend. Im trying to track him down because he is the grandfather of the individual i think is probably the greatest baseball player to come from knoxville, tennessee. Doris sammy sams, who played eight years with the all american girls professional baseball league. Sixtime all star, two time mvp. Excellent. Singleseason record setter for home runs at 12, not particularly impressive to contemporary times, favorably compared to both ted williams and babe ruth, yes. She was a picture first. When she quit, she started hitting over 300 and hitting home runs. So, i am a longtime knox hill person. Ive heard about the ball field at woodruff on the east side of the street. I am just skeptical that there is enough level space there that they can play that game. Will you tell us about the size of the field they were playing on at the time . The question was about the skepticism of the baseball grounds, and the level of the field because Everybody Knows in knoxville, i joked, there is no level ground here. It falls off significantly when you go towards state street and central and what is first great. It did create a natural and theater, for spectators. That was mentioned in the articles. I suspect thats how sam dao could get home runs in these big scores. Thats how the ball could roll on forever. That makes them play on the baseball grounds, a lot of fun with the doctors the balls will take. But, looking at maps, looking at newspaper articles. Well into the eighth 19 century. You find those stores opposite of the baseball grounds on the west side of the 400 block. There is a lot of cooperating sources, the puts it right there on the spot and looking at birdseye map of 1871, and nextel, which is available, in the shop, you can see that there is some buildings, and some houses. But, all of that developed post 1871, when they started laying in the street, only up to what was mulberry street which was around generally i guess close to where summit is now. Or thereabouts. Yeah. Background was open. There is an interesting was in 1877, cooper biller, the cider and hang out for both clubs, when they had the meetings. He offered a special cigar box. And, i think adam and i had conversations about this. We would love to find this. It had an image on the top of the baseball game. Supposedly, it shows a home run being hit over a im going to forget his first name. It was located on the baseball grounds. So, at some point, his house was located within the ability of a baseball home run to go over the roof and on the box, the mayor of knoxville, james churchill, was featured. Not sure if he was the run or not. But, there is a lot of corroborating sources. Im sure. Thats where they played. What im curious about, 90 foot base pads, or 30 foot base pads. It had to be a smaller field than we are playing today. What field you guys play on . They play on 90 feet. 90 feet . He said home plate was put where woodruff was located. We dont know exactly. But yeah, they played 90 feet race pass. The pitcher was 60 feet. 45 feet or so from home plate. The dimensions were there. The picture is a little bit closer than today. A little bit closer. Adam can attest to that. I can attest as well. I played in our last game, and, six balls ended up tilting me. But, i put my body on the line to stop the ball. I have a question for you. Let me preface my question by talking about a project we are doing to honor integrated baseball games played on the southern field back in the 1940s. If you go to the southern kitchen, you can see banners we put up. In your research, was there an opportunity for the black athlete to play those games . Very great question. This is in my article. In the 80s, were there any opportunities for both African Americans to play. They appealed to play, there was at least three teams in the area. In 1867, city championship played in november of 1867. They appealed to play and, they were rejected. So the game that these gentlemen played was a very segregated game. Yeah. And, these gentlemen. My Research Found it was common on it, and sunday afternoon, to share a picnic lunch and then watch a very diverse gaming plate. I appreciate your efforts. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. To comment on the existence of blacks clubs. There were, going in the 70s going forward. I dont know if you run into them. There was one club that i know we are still trying to figure out who they were and where they were playing. The manager was joseph mayer. A colored man, not the man from the haze in house, but, im sure he was 20 tracked him down. They played as early as 1871. African americans in the 1870s, one of the images i had that i did not mention, asa hayes and attributed to the family. Was a very good star player for the houston. Now, women, women are playing baseball at this time as well. But, the first report that i have found, and ive done some digging outside of the 1860s. Theres an article in 1884 where womens Baseball Club wanted to come to knoxville and they asked, is there anyone to play us . Nobody plays them. But, i cannot figure out where they were located. The article does not say if they were a tennessee team, i would love to know that information. Women also would actively play baseball. Somebody online asks about where they can experience baseball games. The question is where can somebody experience a baseball game vintage. We play as part of the Tennessee Association of vintage baseball. And as members of the host and club and the other team, machinist works a team that also played in 1867. Which further democratizes the game, these were machinists and laborers and worked around the labor alliance. On 1867 on july 4th, independence day. You can watch these games in the historic ramsey house. The Tennessee Association of baseball, when education is an important core part of our mission, and the important part is the storage sites, and for us, we had the benefit of playing in the ramsey house. Usually playing on saturdays, 10 or so times per year. You can find that information at the Tennessee Association of vintage baseballs website. Im going on, the historic ramsey house as well. All right. I think we are done. Thank you so much for attending today. [ applause ] if you are enjoying this American History tv, sign up for the newsletter, to receive the weekly schedule like lecturers of history, the presidency, and more. Sign up for the American History tv newsletter today and be sure to watch American History tv or anytime online at cspan. Org history. Heres a look at significant moments in history during the month of october. October 28th, 1929, remember as black monday. The Dow Jones Industrial average continued falling at a stock crash that eventually led to billions of dollars lost and the great depression. Critics in the nuremberg trials of leading officials were handed down on october 1st, 1946. The trials culminated in 19 of the defendants being convicted of charges including crimes against humanity. 12 were sentenced to death. Three others were acquitted. October 16th, 1962, the cuban missile crisisben with the u. S. Discovered Nuclear Missile sites under construction in cuba. For 13 days, president kennedy and is a ministration navigated the confrontation with soviet premier nikita khrushchev, and the soviet military. After tense negotiations, a diplomatic resolution was reached. And the soviets agreed to dismantle the arsenal in cuba. The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards. As all paths are. But, it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation, and our commitment around the world. The cost of freedom is always high. But americans have always hated it. And, the one path we should never choose, that is the path of surrender. Or submission. Our goal is to not the victory of might, but the vindication of bright, not peace at the expense of freedom, but peace and freedom. Here in this hemisphere. And we hope around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved. Thank you, and good night. And that is a look at some significant moments in American History in october. American history tv has programs available to watch online on all of these topics. Cspan. Org history. Thank you. Weekends on cspan 2 intellectual ceased. Every thousand eight, america is a story. And on sundays, but tv brings you the latest nonfiction authors. Funding for cspan