Transcripts For CSPAN3 Post-Civil 20240706

It is truly an honor to introduce our speaker today. He was born in the bluegrass state that note. We know that party is a man of good sense because he stayed. It is rumored that he wears the color orange around the year, save basketball season. After all, no man is perfect. What dr. Hardy continues to perfect 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. 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. He proved to be an invaluable resource on projects dealing with Abraham Lincoln, the sesquicentennial, the civil war, and most recently the jim crow era in knoxville. It was during this time we started talking about the origins of baseball and how to recreate it in knoxville. Im sure youre going to enjoy that today. Today dr. Hardy serves as an assistant professor of history at Lincoln Memorial university where he is also the executive director of the Abraham Lincoln center for public policy. You should know that dr. Hardy cares equally for his family. He is an avid lover of the mountains, a Founding Member of the knoxville vintage Baseball Club. And he has a strong predilection for chocolate milk donuts and olive garden, in no particular order. You should know he is a dogged researcher, a type that understands the power of place and the importance of individual stories to larger events. 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 retitle as one hot night in knoxville. But enough about the future, our topic at hand is the origins of postwar baseball in knoxville. Please welcome my good friend and colleague, dr. Hardy. Good afternoon, everybody. Its a pleasure to be back at the east Tennessee History Center where i spent eight years here at the Tennessee Historical society. As i said, and 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 and adam walked into my office with a baseball in his hand. He set it down on my desk and had a slight grin on his face. I said whats this . He said this is what we are going to be doing next summer. I said oh, this is interesting. And adam pitched the idea that he was starting a vintage Baseball Club. He is in two clubs playing in the national area. I was excited because i always wanted to play baseball. For a number of reasons, i unfortunately never had the opportunity to play any baseball as a young man. So i was excited, this is great, ill get to play baseball. And adam said well, not exactly. What you mean . And he says i was thinking about rather than playing baseball, you would be what they called the arbiter in vintage baseball. The umpire. And all the excitement drained from my face. Being able to live my childhood fantasies was gone in a heartbeat. No fault of adam, he thought i would be perfect to be the umpire because in the vintage baseball game their role is to explain the rules in the 1864 game that we play, and to also offer any context. I can do that on the civil war era. But i said 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, obviously, getting to play baseball. Number two, well, i needed the exercise, badly. Number three, it would be a great opportunity for the my kids to see their old man play ball, and maybe occasionally not make a fool of himself and do something that looked like a bit of athletic prowess in the garden. And number four, i knew instantly there was a possibility of publication 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 precivil war had not been thoroughly explored by historians. I know there are articles out there by baseball historians working with the society, saber, the society of baseball, ill but to this. The society of american baseball research. Thank you, dr. Feller. I know that they done some studies, but nothing really extensive 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 we were going to be playing, the knoxville host inns, which was a team that existed in 1967, and the dry town boys of tennessee. Which i believe existed a little bit later in the 1870s, if i recall correctly. This is an exciting opportunity to play the game and to do the research, and hopefully produce something. It just took 10 years to do it. A lot on my plate. And 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 baseball. Baseball was founded in the antebellum, urban american environment. It constituted a Sporting Fraternity that emerged in 19th century 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 these early amateurs served as a vehicle to improve ones physical and spiritual well being while providing masculine, rotary, 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 a sprinkling 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 the mid 1850s as rules were laid down and stipulations were on the game. Several of these new yorkbased bowlers would eventually leave gotham and take 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 this continent and is out on the west coast as early as 1858. But, importantly for whats coming, and i will discuss, is that baseball existed in the south precivil war. You can find it in louisville, kentucky. You can find it in macon and augusta, georgia. Galveston and houston, texas. New orleans. It was all across the south. And in memphis and nashville, tennessee. So 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 prisoner of war camps or elsewhere. Maybe on the battlefield during a period in which there was no fighting, in which baseball is played. Now, baseballs growth was not halted by the American Civil War. It was only temporarily slowed. Yes, fewer games were played and many joined the war fighting for union and confederate sources. But they continue to play the game in their camp, whenever weather permitted. Which helped spread the game to those who had never seen it before. Soldiers played here at fort polasky, georgia. This is usually regarded as the first photograph of the baseball game. You can see the 48 new york volunteer infantry in the front, the band. But in the background, that is a baseball game being played back there. As i mentioned amerigo, Union Soldiers would play baseball even in confederate prisoner of war camps, as seen in this 1863 lithograph of a prisoner of war camp in salisbury, north carolina. Now, what the civil war did was help democratize the game by exposing it to a bluecollar class, so to speak, of americans. Who, 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, rotary that the soldiers were used to from four years of serving and fighting alongside each other. Now, after the war, baseball exploded. Americans caught the baseball fever by the tens of thousands. And 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, have an attack of the baseball fever. Which brings us to knoxville, tennessee. And when did baseball arrive, and by whom . The origin stories of knoxville baseball, until more recently, has often been attributed to one man, samuel billings dell, knoxvilles founding father of baseball. And it comes from an article that is been widely available to researchers and those interested in baseballs origins upstairs on the third floor of the mcclung historical collection and its vertical files. It was an article published on november 20th, 1921inthe knoxville sentel the sentinel associate manager penned this article. In which he wrote, quote, 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. Big scores were the rule, and it was no strange thing for 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 home runs out of the polo grounds, but the captain of the old knoxville team says that he always made two or three home runs in a game. He was already widely known, not just around knoxville, but across america. He was not just one of the elder, at this time, merchant princes in knoxville. He was nationally known as an expert sharpshooter. So much so that he featured on a poster by the United States Cartridge 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 sam was Close Friends with the worlds wealthiest man, oil tycoon john b rockefeller. They were golfing buddies, and he would often joke to the press that rockefeller wins all the time but he cant beat me. I can out run for and beat him in the game of golf, that rockefeller could only get four holes and before he was spent for the day. For those who know little bit about rockefeller, he suffered from ill health. Now, dow was a largerthan life personality. This article needs to be read very carefully. It is a collection of memories from an 82yearold man who is purportedly recalling events from 55 years in the past. According to dow , he started the first Baseball Club in knoxville in 1865. And it was the first such Baseball Club in the south. He said 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 a meeting at a local billiards room. Knoxville, though situated in the heart of unionist civil war east tennessee, it was a deeply divided city. Therefore, there is going to be a good mix of unionists and confederates. On the day of the meeting, dow was surprised that only about half of the 60 men showed up. These were all union men. They quickly organized their team, called the knoxville knoxvilles. Elected their officers, and dow was elected captain. They secured a field on the east side of gay street and began to practice. Meanwhile, according to dow, the southern boys who didnt show up, they met elsewhere and organized their own club, called themselves the hosting Baseball Club. They secured a field out along what is now jackson avenue, somewhere near the Railroad Tracks to practice. Now, he goes on to mention some of the names of the baseball others, which is instrumental in getting a list of possible Baseball Players who played. But he goes back to say that the first baseball game was shortly played and happened in 1865. , just after the end of the American Civil War. In his memory, this game was amazing, with several freak injuries in which he identifies unfortunate victims by name and how they came to incur those such injuries. Dow claimed that they won the first match by 17 runs, and that they played a number of games over the years in which they won some but the knoxvilles basically won the most. He closed, noting that he kept the Team Together for a few years until development along gay street made it necessary to abandon the old baseball grounds. Now, writing the history of the origins of baseball in knoxville means, as a historian, i cant rely on one source. I have to go out and corroborate his story. I have to go out and find other evidence. Sure, i could be a journalist, polis of the vertical files, and produce an article very quickly. But as a historian my name is on the publication which i am very proud of, and i have to be able to show my evidence for the story. Up until now, there have been few historians to even delve into this topic, and they must be acknowledged, because of the good historian we stand on the shoulders of those who come before us. I must first say, a debt and honor to the late ron allen, who was a local historian who did considerable research, i imagine, up on the third floor microphone room, going through newspapers. He compiled a number of books on various topics on knoxville history. Which is a wonderful vehicle into any certain topic, going straight to the source to find where he found these accounts. He writes about dow, and talks about his 1921 article. He says 1865, but i cant find anything in the newspapers. Not until at least 1867. The second person i must acknowledge is adam alfre, who when he was doing his history of the first two baseball teams in our vintage baseball league, he produced his research and gave a presentation here in 2014, i believe, in which he was the first to really push back on the 1865 date and say there is just no evidence for 1865. Its 1867, and heres the newspaper articles. And adam was able to produce a variety of newspaper articles from 1867 with reports of these freak injuries that occurred during that socalled first baseball game the dow mention. And they occurred over a multiple of games. The third person i must acknowledge is mark aubrey, who is a fascinating researcher. Actually, he is an unpaid researcher, i think. He often will send me messages at midnight for a project that shouldve been finished by now. Mark has been one of these great friends that i met through playing vintage baseball, and has been a source, he has been a wonderful source to help me in my research. And he has produced several blogs on knoxville baseball history, i think it is called older knoxville baseball. He has done groundbreaking work on africanamerican baseball here in knoxville, appalachian leagues, featured on w bir recently. And produces research for saber. I stand on their shoulders and launch 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, well, the newspaper articles, thanks to ron allen who found these articles with box scores, which produce names. Often last names only. Adam found a listing of eligible bachelors in knoxville in 1867, and under this list of bachelors the give descriptions of them and list anyone who is playing baseball. These were Baseball Players. That gave me additional names, and in some cases, first names to last names where i could not tell who is this person . You had a name like a smith, ive got a problem. How can i figure out who this smith is . Those eligible bachelor ads were a help. Since his records. City directories. To be able to figure out who these people were, their 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, that i did not know and that i could add another baseball player who played in the military. Now, samuel b 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 correctly argued, a 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. This city badly divided, fought over , occupied by both armies. Maybe only unoccupied for a few days in four years of war. How could they be playing baseball . A lot of these names on this list werent even here in 1865. One good thing came out of adams talk. Well, many things. But adam spoke in 2014, a descendent of dow came and attended the talk. And had given him his information. Adam mentioned in passing that this descendent had been there, and he had given him his personal information. He said he had some stuff. When i finally got the nudge from the journal editor to get this article done, i contacted adam and he gave me the information. I said this is been quite a number of years, ill try this email. Lo and behold, i got a response within a few hours of sending that email. I found him over in north carolina, and he said i have some stuff in my basement. I said ill go. This is the covid summer of 2020, i was ready to get out. I took precautions, but i went over to his house off of lake norman. It is beautiful. He took me down into his basement, that might be a little weird, but hey. Cool things can be found in basements for historians. When i went down, he had this workbench, and cases. Books, documents, all across the desk. Cases of stuff for two prominent knoxville families. Im working on him getting that collection to mcclung, i am trying. There is a wealth of information in there. But he told me, look, i have a lot of salmon dow stuff here, but ive looked through it, but i dont to have any baseball stuff. But you are welcome to go through it. There was no baseball. Nothing related to dow baseball. But there was a wealth of information with which i can now tell a story about dow and get a solid biography of this man. Sam dow was born in bangor, maine in 1829. Out of years of age his family migrated to exeter, New Hampshire. I cant say for certain where he saw baseball played, but i can make some inferences. At the local academy in exeter, the Phillips Exeter academy, baseball was played. Even the president , lincoln son, Robert Todd Lincoln who attended their, played baseball. It is quite possible dow saw baseball played there. He probably did not see the new york game there, because up in new england, they favored the massachusetts game which was a game i am glad we do not play in vintage baseball. Because one way to put you out was by soaking, and 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 it is quite possible he saw baseball there. One of the things this descendent had was a diary of dow. It was before the baseball period and before the civil war, but it was 1859 to 1860. And in that diary, i found that he had left exeter in 1859 and went to louisville, kentucky. My hometown. That was pretty cool. And he followed his brother to go into the grocery business. To learn the grocery trade. And in louisville, kentucky, baseball was very active. There were quite a number of teams. And a gentleman of his class, they were the gentlemen who played that game. I cant say for certain he played baseball there. He didnt say he played a small before this period. But it is quite possible he saw baseball played. The civil war came and dow eagerly wanted to do his part to join the union war effort. He was in kentucky, which was neutral. He crossed the ohio river, made his way up to annapolis to see the governor of indiana, and asked i will raise a regiment to do our part in indiana meeting president lincolns quota 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 met the quota. He returned back to louisville, kentucky, and soon thereafter joined the second kentucky cavalry just across the ohio river in jeffersonville, indiana. That is where they form the second kentucky cavalry, not inside kentucky state border. His civil war did not last long. He was at the battle of shiloh. He caught an illness so severely he had to go back home to exeter, New Hampshire to recover with his parents. Once he recovered, he got a desk job, basically, with the United States government in the revenue service. He found his way to knoxville, tennessee in 1864, shortly after admiral burnside had liberated this city in the fall of 1863. There knoxville he laid down his roots, got into the grocery business, and he made fast friends in 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 Houston River flooded. We know it as Tennessee River in knoxville, tennessee, but it was the Houston River down at that time passed knoxville. That designation was not changed in the General Assembly until the late 1890s or Something Like that, where it becomes the Tennessee River just north of the city. Here is 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 Street turning down to knoxville virtually into an island. They would set up a 60 foot bluff, a little plateau, so to speak. If there was any flood ground in knoxville. Business sort of came to a standstill. It was during this period as the water slowly began to recede, that dow started thinking about and talking to some of his friends about the idea of lets play baseball. Lets organize a Baseball Club. And therefore, on march 19th, 1867, sam dow called a meeting together at joseph coopers star billiard saloon. This was an article that i had found in the paper, it was very small print, easily overseen when someone is going to microfilm looking at it with their eyes and getting a migraine as a result of looking at microfilm. I benefit from todays technology and being able to do an Online Search at home and use ocr to pop in baseball and found this. Which i dont think anyone ever found. This is the first notice, published in the knoxville rig on the 20th the baseball meeting had occurred the night before. Here is a photograph of downtown knoxville. That is salmon dow on the right at approximately 1857. Using the signs, the city directories and newspapers, you can find out that this picture is actually earlier than 1869. Its somewhere between the late summer of 1866 and the spring of 1867. We are right in that period of baseball being organized. If you see the red arrow, it is pointing at star billiard located in ramsey hall just underneath flyers gallery. It was here, that night, that dow organize that meeting. And it was, just as dow had said, approximately mostly northern men who had showed up. Union soldiers. Now, in this meeting, dow will organize it , and again, dow on the right will be elected the 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 in his life, his nextdoor neighbor was in ohio congressman by the name james garfield, future president of the United States. If we move over to the right, the second from the top left, that is william chamberlain. He served in the 23rd ohio, and he served under the command of two future United States president s, rutherford b hayes, and william mckinley. He is also known, he was a druggist, part of the firm of sanford, albert, and chamberlains. Maybe i have that backwards, how the firm went. It sanford, albert, and chamberlains drug firm. The gentleman to his right, third from the left, is homer charles squire. He also was a union officer, and in the revenue service. All these connections through the masonry, through the union armory, through their professional occupational class. These gentlemen. Lower left, that is a Luther Stephen trowbridge, a Brigadier General in the United States army. The highest ranking officer among any of the baseball, but there is a common thing. These are officers. Munson was a sergeant. Chamberlain was a first lieutenant. I will skip over to the gentleman on the third from the left, that is ec camp, who also serve in the union army, owned the greystone mansion, was a member in the grant administration. Another connection, republicans. All of these unionists who were republicans. Highly supportive, unconditional unionists, i should say, who supported Abraham Lincolns policies, not just preservation of the union, but also emancipation. The outlier in this group is the gentleman on the far right, on the bottom underneath dow. That is john w paxson, who was a mason and a lone confederate on this team. He was captain of the 19th tennessee, the paxton grays, as they were known. And when dow says this is a clear distinction between union and confederates, he neglects one of his closest friends who is a confederate. For the most part, these are Union Soldiers, unconditional unionists who 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 on gay street , what is today 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. They dumped their trash there. It was overgrown. It had weeds and everything in this area. And the mcclungs owned it. They were eager to sell it to begin further development so the city would march its Business District for the north to the railroad. And dow and his close friend, charles seymour, a lawyer , real estate agent, and close personal friend of the mcclungs, went to the mcclung family, Charles Mcclung and frank mcclung, the two eldest in this 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. They got their blessing to play baseball, that they would clear that land for a baseball ground to play. But the mcclungs made one condition, they said we are ready to sell this we are going to sell this property and you will have to find somewhere else. Find. So they went quickly together to clear this land and prepare it for baseball. What about the other gentleman, the socalled southern gentleman that dow mentioned who did not show up . There was a group of men who did not show up, who did not want to play with the knoxville team. These men organized their own Baseball Club. I gather they got the name possibly thinking about the flood, it is just recently happened, of the Houston River. And they put together a club. They chose as their captain, Robert Armstrong and his brother, Frank Armstrong played. Whats interesting about this team is, whereas the knoxvilles are mostly union men, mostly from the north, gentleman who had come into the city at the end of the American Civil War. I should go ahead and say, not carpetbaggers. That mythology of the lost cause of carpetbagging northern yankees coming in and exploiting the Natural Resources of the south, here in knoxville they were wealthy. You know, they look fondly on knoxville. They observed here. If you read their letters, they talk about east tennessee being the most beautiful land they had ever seen. And east Tennessee Women being the most beautiful woman on gods green earth. They came here, eager, invited to come here. Married those southern daughters. They were welcome because they had those energy and vision of a new south they wanted to build. And yes, that meant to tap into our Natural Resources. They wanted to diversify the south economy, not just being an agricultural base, to help east tennessee and tennessee grow in progress. They dont fit the carpetbagging mythology, the myth, because one thing they did recognize, the smart thing, marrying southern daughters here. But also, they didnt ring a radical social agenda. They did support emancipation. But these were more moderate republicans. They did not necessarily advocate for greater civil and Political Rights for African Americans. Having done that, they were suitable stock in the state. There were some radical republicans who showed up here and got driven up real quick in knoxville, tennessee. But back to the holstons. Where the southern soldiers. They were really southern soldiers. They came from southern sympathizing families on part. These were very young men. On average, about 22 years of age. One player, 14. The knoxville knoxvilles were an older group, about 25. 5 on average. The holstons were a mix. They had two Union Veterans and two confederate veterans. One of those Union Veterans was basically a medical cadet who did not see any action, and one of the confederate veterans was a courier. He passed messages. These were men who were too young to fight. What i found in my research, what connected them with politics. These are our democrats in the postcivil war period. They were a mix of southern supervisors who sympathize with the confederate army, confederacy during the civil war. But there was also a bunch of unionists. Conditional unionists. From families as old as the williams. The gentleman in the upper right photograph, that is jc williams, who comes from the John Williams family. His dad was a close friend of president andrew johnson. Now, these gentlemen wear unionist supporters to begin the civil war. He supported lincolns preservation of the union, but the moment emancipation got on the table they were done. They did not sign up for any social change. So at the end of the civil war, these conditional unionists gravitated to the point that they were breaking bread with their initial former enemies, these rebels or southern sympathizers. These become democrats. John c williams here is a prominent lawyer, defended the coal miners in the coal mine wars. Plato dominant role in a couple of democratic administrations, president ial administrations. The gentleman on the bottom is colonel William Caswell with his twoyearold pony there, sorry, twomonthold pony there. William caswell was a very wealthy gentleman. He was a confederate courier during the, he is the confederate courier i mentioned. The gentleman on the upper left, that is samuel bell luttrell. He was the mayors son. 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, more radical policies and State Government from William Parson brownlow drove him to the democratic party. About to mention 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 and confederate men, it is not so much that. Is the postwar politics that united them. Knoxville knoxvilles being the republicans, and the holstons being the democrats. Where do these players play . We have long known about dows playing on the gay street baseball grounds. This was sort of pathbreaking in this research. There had been mention that they played along jackson avenue now on the railroads. I cant say for certain exactly where the holston splayed. But there was in 1895 article i found that mentioned cripple creek. That was first creek. Cripple creek gets his name according to, i believe i saw an article from Lucy Templeton many moons ago who said it had to do with the bend in the creek. That is why they call the cripple creek. It was an area prone to flooding. And it had flooded significantly. In looking at the maps in this period of 1867, looking at the maps trying to find vacant land, the best guess i can get is where i placed that sort of raggedy looking baseball, in a vacant area. And first creek has changed its path since then, since this 1867 map. But whats interesting is where they played. It is quite possible they played on the very ground where randy boyd today is building the , i guess will be the next smokies stadium. That is an interesting connection of knoxvilles baseball past, bring it back into the urban environment and linking it with baseball today. So that was an interesting find. Again, i cant say exactly there, but they say its along the creek. So that will possibly be paying baseball on the very ground that the knoxville holstons played baseball in 1867. Now, to wrap this up, im going to talk about some of the stories of the early baseball games. We know that the first baseball game, based on newspaper, whats available, research, is may 4th, 1867. Reported here on may 8, 1867. Now, these early games, we get just little snippets. This is parson brownlows paper. He is more interested in political affairs. Baseball is a novelty, this is interesting, and my gosh, who are these guys want to be idle and lazy on the weekends when they should be in church playing baseball . Get competiti. And remember that they are gentlemen, first and foremost during that game, a brass band led the procession of these two teams, the knoxville knoxvilles and the holsteins, to the knoxville baseball grounds. Foremost. During that game, a brass band led the procession of these two teams led them to the knoxville baseball grounds. It is said they won by 17 i cannot confirm it, from another source, but it does hold true that the knoxvilles prevailed in that first game. And immediate challenge was issued the next week and that game the holstons won in the second match. What i found through the records , only four games that the holstons and the knoxvilles played. My Research Shows knoxvilles won that 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 90 to 25. I am sure of those 25 dowell got two or three homeruns. The 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. As he was going to throw the ball in the infield people heard a bone snap. His elbow dislocated. I think adam playing vintage baseball i can offer an explanation. They were not good on calisthenics and stretching before the game. I can see how such freak injuries may have occurred, especially after broking a arm and having rotator cuff surgery a couple of years ago, i know my arm needs a lot of warmup before a game. Sh the two figures in the center and the right, Bill Chamberlain and samuel bell littrell. Bill chamberlain steps up to the plate, hits a massive shot out to the outfield, samuel bell littrell, the mayors son gets under it, he loses it in the sun back, i can also test this happening, and the ball went right into his forehead and he dropped like a beef 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 to nashville, or Roane State Community college and i think he was pitching and the ball was delivered right back into his forehead. He showed up at a monday morning staff meeting with a tattooed on his forehead still. There were freak injuries that occurred during 1867, during the early games. I do want to tell, the holstons got better with each game. I think we lost our first five games before we really got our pace and that first season and then we went on a tear. 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 fall of 1867, the holstons were challenged by the state champions of 1866, o the Mountain City club of chattanooga. Let me say quick word about championships. These were bestofthree series and they could be called at any moment two teams agreed. Although usually played by the two better teams in the area, the holstons were challenged by Mountain City because they sensed the holstons were probably the next best team in the state. They played a bestofthree g series and the knoxville holstons won in the third and final game to claim the series to be the state champions and brownvilles knoxville gave them three cheers. The holstons went on to defeat, i mentioned the 9025 game. The holstons were riding high in 1867. And then they got two big brother trousers and they sent a challenge to the Gate City Club of atlanta, also a gentleman club, much like these amateur era baseball teams, undefeated. A traveling team. I called them the forerunners of the Cincinnati Red stockings. Although the Cincinnati Red stockings become professional, these are the last hurrah of amateur great teams. The Gate City Club said we will come up to knoxville to play you. Thanksgiving day. Newspaperman, colonel jon fleming, baseball booster said the reputation of the city is at stake. On thanksgiving day this game will be played and we expect an exciting game. We are not saying that the proper way to pay respect to National Holidays to play baseball, but lets give thanks. This game was a fiercely fought contest back and forth, ending two ending, reports are betting was occurring during the game, it was evolving quickly in knoxville to adopt unseemly characteristics of the game developing elsewhere and across the nation. In the last inning the holstons just had to hold them off to the bottom of the ninth and 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 a wonderful affair after the game and a huge banquet was put on by knoxville. Judge baxters daughter, julia baxter made a beautiful cake for the Gate City Club and they were happy with the festivities. Big events like this were part of the after party for these games. These gentlemen came together and drank alcohol and had a lot of great desserts. Knoxville said it was a nt wonderful event and the Gate City Club went home. A few days later in atlanta, one of the eight City Club Members publicly denounce the knoxville holstons as unsettlingly gentlemen who were bruised and battered and hurt feelings and that they had insulted them during the festivities. Knoxville, there is an exchange back and forth between the captains of these two clubs and the sides agreed to disagree on what happened. In 1868, the holstons began their title defense rather late. In fact, the club had gone home for the winter and went onto their occupations and jon fleming kept writing, when are the holstons going to organize . They are the defending champions. In the late summer of 1868 there was a challenge from a national Baseball Club. The holstons are like now we will get together and get serious about baseball. They started scrimmaging against boys. Boys, teenage boys, even some under the age of 13 in the streets of knoxville on holston ground. Showing that baseball had democratized. People of all ages were playing , white and black, there were already three black baseball teams in this area. Hi in these matches, the young boys beat the holstons bad. Jon fleming was livid. He wrote in one of these, after this the holstons better hang their bats on a willow tree, la and if they feel they must have exercise, they could probably find a kindhearted farmer who would give them a job at husky and corn and pay them what the shucks which will be more than what their services are worth. They are no better than that at playing ball, we will let them advertise for a job at half price. We would also like to help the afflicted, downtrodden and oppressed. Fleming could be biting his language and he took shots at sam dowells knoxvilles all the time. The holstons got their act together and played the National Club in 1868 championship but in the bestof three holstons were defeated. Shortly after that the holston club disbanded there are reports of another holston club in the 1870s but it is not the same team. The knoxville state together for one more year. One last game in 1869. Herbert hall recollected on this event this 1869 game, it was the bottom of the ninth, the knoxvilles were down by one run to their rifle the greenville city college club. The runner was on first, tying run sam dowell comes to the plate. The pitcher throws the first three pitches wide. Dowell is convinced the guy is intimidated. He will throw wide again and i will step in the box and that ball. On that pitch them it was low but dowell got the end of his bat on it and wouldnt you know, home run. He reported that ball rode all the way down almost to the Railroad Tracks. By the time they got the ball back dowell had circled the bases and won the game. Shortly thereafter offers are being made and they were selling lots on that property on the far left you can see the first few buildings being built on what was the gay street. The far left is the Sanford Chamber and alberts drugstore. To put a twist on the Johnny Mitchell 1970 hit song pay paradise and put up a bunch of o threestory brick houses. Thank you. If there are questions you can come up to the microphone and ask those questions. Nice shirt. Thank you i thought it was appropriate for the occasion. As one researcher to another, good job. I wonder if you have run into a pitcher by the name of rufus oliver moore. He was playing later, 1880s, 1890s. The question is have i ran into a pitcher rufus oliver moore . D he went by all he or how. Pitching and maybe the 1880s . 1880s and 90s. I have not. I have limited myself to the 1860s with these two baseball teams and what was going on. However, there is another publication out there to really tell the story of knoxville, it fills in what is going on with civil war baseball in the south. There could be, i could come across it that i have not. I could throw it to the crowd and look to my good friend and researcher mark, have you heard that name . He is looking. That is why he is dependent. I am trying to track him down because he is the grandfather of the individual who i think is probably the greatest baseball player to come from knoxville, tennessee, doris, sammy sams. He played eight years with the allamerican girls professional baseball league. Six time all star, twotime ndp. And set the singleseason record for home runs in 12, not particular impressive to our contemporary times favorably compared to both ted williams and babe ruth. She was a pitcher first, when she quit itching she started hitting over 300 and hitting home runs. I am a long time knoxville person, i have heard about the ballfield on the east side of gay street. I am skeptical that there was enough level space that they could play that game. Will you tell us about the size of the field that they were playing on at that time. The question was about the skepticism of the gay street baseball grounds and the lovell field. Anyone who knows knoxville, i joked there is no level ground. It falls off significantly as you go down towards state street and central and towards first creek. It did create a natural amphitheater feeling for spectators and that was mentioned in the articles. Maybe that is how sandow could get some home runs is that the ball would roll on forever. Which makes sometimes going on e vintage baseball grounds a lot of fun with the bounces that the balls will take. Looking at maps and newspaper articles, well into the late 19th century, stories that say opposite of the baseball grounds, we find those stores on the west side of 400 block or 300 block of gay street. There are a lot of sources that put it right there in that spotu looking at a birdseye map of 1871 in knoxville, which is available in the museum shop, you can see that there is starting to be some buildings and houses. All of that developed post 1871 when they started laying the street all the way up to what is mayberry street. I guess it is close to where summit is now, or thereabouts. That ground was open. There is an interesting newspaper article in the summer of 1867 where joseph cooper, which is the site of the knoxville, and where they had their meetings, he offered a special cigar box. I think adam and i had special conversations about this, we would love to find this cigar box. It had image of the baseball game. Supposedly it shows a home run being hit over, im going to forget his first name, his house that was located on the gay street baseball grounds. Apparently his house was located within the ability of a baseball home run to go over the roof. On the box the mayor of knoxville was featured. I dont know if he was the one hitting the home run or not. There is a lot of corroborating sources that that is where they played. I am not doubting the location, what i am serious about, 90 foot base pads are 30 foot base pads . It had to be a smaller field than what we are playing on what field do you guys play on . They were playing on 90. The question is, he said home plate was put at where woodrows was located, if that is exact we do not know. Sources point that they played there. They played 90 feet base pads, pitcher was 60 feet, no 45 feet or so from home plate. The dimensions are there. Pitchers are closer than today . Yes, closer. Adam can attest to that. Me i can attest. I played pitcher in our last game and i think about six balls ended up helping me, i o put my body on the line to stop the ball. I have a question but let me preface it first by telling about a project we are doing to honor integrated baseball games played on southern fields in the 30s and 40s, if you go down to emma southern Kitchen Restaurant you can see the banners we put up. In your research, was an opportunity for black athletes to play in those games at the time . Thats a great question. The question is, in any of these early games was there an opportunity for African American baseball is the play . They appealed the play. There were at least three teams in the area and in 1867 city championship, played in november 1867, they appealed to play and they were rejected. The game that these gentlemen played was a very segregated game. What my research has found it was common on a sunday afternoon to see black and white family sharing a picnic lunch and watched diverse games being played. The seventies, going forward, playing in nashville, i dont know if youve run into them there. There was one club that just to comment on the existence of black clubs, there were black clubs in the 1870s going forward. I do not know if you have run into them. There was one club, i know we are trying to figure out who they were or where they were playing. Their manager player was joseph a mabry a colored man, not the man from the hayes inhouse. I know patrick has been trying to track him down for some time. They were playing as early as 1871. I mentioned the teams playing an 1870s. One of the images i had up and i did not mention, a set hayes and contributed to that family was a star player for the holstons. I want to add about women, women are playing baseball at this time as well. The first report that i found, i have done a little digging outside of the 1860s, there was an article in 1884 were a womens Baseball Club wanted to come to knoxville and they were asking will there be anyone to play us . Unfortunately no one wanted to play that. I cannot figure out where they were located. It does not say if they were a tennessee team. I would love to know that information. Women were also actively playing baseball. Someone online asked where they could experience a vintage baseball game. The question is, where can someone express a vintage baseball game . We play as far as the Tennessee Association of vintage baseball. As member of the knoxville holston club, and as a machinist, we were a team that played in 1867 which further democratizes the game because they were machinist and laborers who worked along Railroad Lines who played the holstons around 1867. You can watch these games at the historic ramsey house. One thing about the Tennessee Association of baseball is one of education and it is an important part of our mission and the important part is playing at historic sites. For us, we have had the benefit to play at the historic ramsey house. We usually play at saturdays about 10 or so times a year. You can find that information at the Tennessee Association of vintage baseball website and going on the historic ramsey house as well. A thank you all so much for attending. Marquette University Political science professor on the life and presidency of jimmy carter. At 9 30 on the presidency, a luncheon remembering first ladies pat nixon and betty ford who served back to back terms in the white house from 1969 to 1977 hosted by the Gerald R Ford president ial foundation. Speakers include mrs. Nixon son inlaw, mr. Fords daughter. Watch American History tv saturdays on cspan 2 , find the full schedule online or watch any time at cspan. Org history. Weekends on cspan 2 are an international feast. Every Weekend International tv documents america story. And book tv brings you the latest nonfiction books and authors. Funding comes from these Television Companies and more, including comcast. Good evening. Im nina