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  Baseball Takes Root in Oregon, 1866–1869, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  The first baseball club in the Pacific Northwest was organized in Portland, Oregon in 1866 as the Pioneer Base Ball Club (BBC). As the only club in the area, games were initially played between teams picked from the members of the club. The Clackamas BBC in Oregon City was organized later that year, and the first intercity baseball game was played between the first nines of these two clubs in Oregon City on October 13. The following year, numerous baseball clubs were organized, and the first baseball championship was held at the State Fair in Salem. In addition, a regional baseball association open to any teams in Oregon and the territories of Washington and Idaho was organized in Portland. These clubs and the association soon gave way to others, but they succeeded in establishing the sport in the region. This essay was originally published in 2020 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).

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  Early Baseball Career of Carl Mays in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Utah, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  Carl Mays was a successful submarine (underhand) pitcher in the major leagues from 1915 through 1929 with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants. He pitched in four World Series. He had 207 wins and 126 losses, with an earned run average of 2.92. His on-field credentials place him among the best pitchers of the time, yet Mays has not been enshrined with his peers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mays had a reputation for pitching inside when batters crowded the plate, and he consequently hit 89 men during his 15-year major league career. Sadly, one of the batters he hit remains the focus of his professional baseball legacy. In 1920, a pitch thrown by Mays hit Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the head. Chapman died at the hospital the following morning, the only major league player to die from an injury received during a game. Other authors have described this tragedy in detail, along with other events in the major league career of Carl Mays. What has been missing is a fuller account of his early days in baseball, when Mays was a dominant overhand pitcher as a teenager for semiprofessional town teams in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Utah. This study focuses on his experiences during this formative period, including his participation in the “flat bat game” in Kansas and his stint as a pitcher in Utah after he was caught riding freight trains west to pursue his baseball career. This essay was originally published in 2019 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume two of the anthology (Baseball Biographies with Kansas Connections).

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  George H. Taylor: From Colorado to the Pinnacle of Black Baseball, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  George H. Taylor was a Black baseball player born in Kansas but raised in Denver, Colorado, where he learned to play the game. From the 1880s to 1894, he played primarily for integrated teams in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, and Iowa, including minor league clubs in Aspen, Colorado and Beatrice, Nebraska. Taylor was also invited to play for otherwise white teams in Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden, Utah after they saw him play on visiting teams from Denver. From 1895 to 1907, Taylor mostly played for Black teams in Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota, including the Page Fence Giants, Leland Giants, and St. Paul Gophers, some of the best independent baseball teams in the country. This essay was originally published in 2023 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume two of the anthology (Baseball Biographies with Kansas Connections).

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  Bud Fowler Beyond the Box Score: Second Edition

  Mark E. Eberle

  John W. Jackson, better known as Bud Fowler (1858–1913), was a Black baseball player, captain, manager, umpire, organizer, and promoter. He was also a barber, playwright, and song writer. His baseball career spanned at least 33 years, from 1877 to 1909. In 1878, Fowler became the first known Black baseball player in the major or minor leagues, and he went on to play for a total of 20 minor league clubs and numerous other teams with rosters composed predominantly of white ballplayers during the era of racial segregation. He played for teams from New England to southern California and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Consequently, he was the most widely known Black baseball player in the country during his lifetime. In 2022, Fowler was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This monograph expands on earlier studies of Fowler’s life outside his performance on the diamond, including topics such as playing for multiple teams each year, confronting racism, occupations other than baseball, financial challenges, and the impacts of his baseball career on others. The second edition has been substantially expanded with additional information in the main narrative, as well as two appendices, one about his immediate family in New York and one about the 15 exhibition games his teams played against major league clubs.

  Originally published April 18, 2024. Second edition released April 3, 2025.

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  Carson City Mints a Base Ball Club, 1869–1870, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  Baseball clubs had been organized in Nevada since at least 1866, but the organization of the Silver Star Base Ball Club (BBC) in Carson City in 1869 marked a change for the sport in the state. Some of the employees at the newly constructed Carson City Mint had experience playing for top ball clubs in the East, and other experienced ballplayers lived in the nearby mining community of Virginia City. The Silver City and Virginia clubs initiated intercity competition in 1869. In 1870, the Silver Star BBC picked up players from the Virginia BBC and played six games on a tour in California against teams from San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and Stockton. The ball clubs, games, and associated events are described. This essay was originally published in 2021 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).

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  Alfred “Army” Cooper: A Baseball Career with the 25th Infantry, Negro Leagues, and Tournament Teams, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  Lefthanded pitcher Alfred “Army” Cooper was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1899 and had a long career with Black baseball clubs between the First and Second World Wars. He played baseball while serving with the 25th US Infantry Regiment in Nogales, Arizona during most of the 1920s. After his discharge in February 1928, he pitched for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League until 1930. The following year, he played for several weeks with Gilkerson’s Union Giants, a prominent barnstorming team, before rejoining the independent Kansas City Monarchs as they barnstormed through the end of the summer. Cooper spent his final season in Negro Leagues baseball with for the Cleveland Stars of the East-West League in 1932. In 1933 and 1934, he played for semipro teams that entered the state semipro baseball tournament in Wichita, Kansas. Integrated teams were not allowed to participate in the tournament, but in both years, Cooper was selected to pitch for integrated tournament all-star teams. In 1935, he pitched for the Denver White Elephants, who entered the Denver Post Tournament. In each of the tournaments, Cooper’s team finished in third or fourth place, high enough to earn a share of the prize money. Through 1939, he played for various teams and lived in multiple states before retiring in Kansas City, where he passed away in March 1966. Cooper was buried in Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. This essay was originally published in 2022 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume two of the anthology (Baseball Biographies with Kansas Connections).

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  Baseball Career of Andy Cooper in Kansas, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  Andrew Lewis Cooper was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. He was a lefthanded pitcher, who played and managed in the Negro Leagues from 1920 until his death in 1941, mostly for the Detroit Stars and Kansas City Monarchs. Cooper also played baseball in California, Cuba, and the Far East. However, his life before 1920 has been little studied. Andy Cooper was born in Texas, probably in 1897. Although he was a resident of Waco and began playing baseball in northern Texas, contemporary newspaper reports document an African American pitcher from Texas named Andrew “Lefty” Cooper playing for baseball teams in Wichita, Kansas during the summers of 1917 and 1919. In addition, Andy Cooper lived in Wichita during parts of the offseason while he played in the Negro Leagues during the 1920s and 1930s. He also wrote about baseball and his extensive travels in a series of columns for a Wichita newspaper, the Negro Star. This monograph recounts Cooper’s experiences in Wichita and frames some of the questions about his early life still in need of thorough research. This essay was originally published in 2021 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume two of the anthology (Baseball Biographies with Kansas Connections).

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  Baseball Takes Root in Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  The spread of baseball during the mid-nineteenth century is sometimes associated with soldiers and former soldiers who served during the US Civil War. This association is partly true in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. However, white settlers from the Northeast and Midwest also brought baseball and similar ball games to the region before the Civil War began, and civilians played ball during the war. The first team organized in the region was the Denver Base Ball Club (BBC) in March 1862, although it disbanded as warmer weather permitted mining activity to resume. Increasing numbers of baseball clubs were organized in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska soon after the war ended, and tournaments were held for the championship of each state or territory by 1871. The Otoe BBC of Nebraska City and the Omaha BBC also hosted the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, in 1869. These and other aspects of baseball as it took root in Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska are recounted. This essay was originally published in 2020 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).

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  Baseball Takes Root in New Mexico, 1867–1883, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  The first known baseball club in New Mexico was organized in Santa Fe in 1867 as the Santa Fe Base Ball Club (BBC). As the only club in the area, games were initially played between teams picked from the club’s members. In November 1868, the Bradley BBC at Fort Union in northeastern New Mexico challenged the Santa Fe BBC to a game. Given the distance between Santa Fe and Fort Union, they met for the game in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Originally scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, the game was postponed two days because of snow. This was the first known baseball game in New Mexico between clubs from different locations. Baseball clubs were organized sporadically in the territory during the 1870s, but baseball and intercity competition became more widespread after 1881. This essay was originally published in 2020 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).

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  Bert Wakefield and the End of Integrated Minor League Baseball in Kansas, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  Bert Wakefield was a lifelong resident of Troy, Kansas, where he was an active member of the community—business owner, member of social organizations, and musician. Wakefield was also an African American who played on several integrated and Black baseball teams through the 1890s and early 1900s, including the Chicago Unions, Chicago Union Giants, Algona (Iowa) Brownies, Renville (Minnesota) All-Stars, and the original Kansas City Monarchs. In addition, Wakefield served as the captain of the predominantly white Troy minor league team in the Kansas State League in 1895. In this role, he joined Bud Fowler as the only Black players to captain minor league teams during this era. Wakefield also umpired at least one ballgame between two white teams. This biography recounts Bert Wakefield’s varied experiences in baseball. This essay was originally published in 2018 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume two of the anthology (Baseball Biographies with Kansas Connections).

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  Captain George W. Bradley, A.Q.M., and the Bradley Base Ball Clubs, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  George W. Bradley served as a quartermaster for the New York Volunteers during the US Civil War. After the war, he became an assistant quartermaster (A.Q.M.) in the regular army with the rank of captain. Captain Bradley served at several posts, mostly in the West. While serving at Fort Harker, Kansas in 1867 and at Fort Union, New Mexico in 1868, teams from the forts were organized under the name Bradley Base Ball Club (BBC). In Kansas, the Bradley BBC defeated the Smoky Hill BBC from Ellsworth, but in New Mexico, they lost to the Santa Fe BBC in a game played at Las Vegas. The contest in Las Vegas is currently the earliest documented game played by two clubs from distant localities in New Mexico. Captain Bradley was transferred to Philadelphia in 1880, where he passed away in 1882 at age 51. His daughter, Kate Mickles Bradley, and her mother, Agnes, eventually moved to Washington, DC. Kate became well known as a professional art model and a teacher and performer of the Delsarte method of expression, which influenced acting and modern dance. Agnes and Kate both passed away in New York in 1920 and were buried with George in Arlington National Cemetery. This essay was originally published in 2020 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).

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  George William Castone: An Integrated Baseball Life at the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  George William Castone was a Black baseball player during the 1880s and 1890s. He pitched for integrated town teams and minor league teams, as well as Black clubs, such as the Lincoln Giants in Nebraska and the Cuban Giants in the northeastern United States. Most of his time on the diamond was spent in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, but Castone also played on an otherwise white barnstorming team organized in Salt Lake City that traveled through Montana, Oregon, and California. He was among the few Black players on minor league teams in the Colorado State League in 1889 and the Nebraska State League in 1892, before the color line barring Black players from organized baseball was firmly drawn. In the early twentieth century, Castone was a waiter and an artist, best known for his oil-on-canvas paintings. He passed away in St. Paul, Minnesota in January 1967, just a few days before his 100th birthday. This essay was originally published in 2019 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume two of the anthology (Baseball Biographies with Kansas Connections).

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  Inaugural Season of Intercity Base Ball in Leavenworth and Kansas City, 1866: Frontiers and Antelopes, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  The inaugural year for baseball played among formally organized base ball clubs (BBC) in Kansas and in Kansas City, Missouri was 1866. Little has been written about the events of that year other than retellings and embellishments of a myth created in 1927 about James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok umpiring a game between the Kansas City Antelopes and Atchison Pomeroys to prevent violence during the contest. In truth, the first club organized in the area by local business owners and other professionals was the Frontier BBC of Leavenworth in November 1865. The first club organized in Kansas City, Missouri was the Antelope BBC in July 1866. Members of these clubs initially participated in intramural games, but challenges were soon issued and accepted through newspaper announcements. The first intercity matches were arranged in October and November 1866. The top two teams that year were the Frontiers and Antelopes, who played a home and home series of one game in each city. Each of the games was followed by a sumptuous dinner and other entertainment hosted by the home club. The era of gentlemen’s base ball clubs in Kansas lasted only a few years before town teams composed of the best local players and possibly a few hired ringers became widespread. This monograph describes the inaugural season of intercity baseball in Kansas and adjacent Kansas City, Missouri. This essay was originally published in 2018 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).

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  Integrated Baseball in Kansas during the Sport's Era of Segregation, 1865-1945, second edition

  Mark E. Eberle

  Black athletes were barred from playing baseball in the major and minor leagues prior to 1946 with few exceptions. Less studied is integrated baseball among independent town teams, and this research has focused on particular players or circumstances rather than an entire state or region across a long span of baseball history. Most newspapers published in Kansas prior to 1923 and several published after that year have been digitized, providing a substantial amount of information that makes the state well suited to serve as a case study of the broader history of integrated baseball from 1865 to 1945. This book begins with biographies of more than 80 Black baseballists who played in or umpired games with white or predominantly white town teams and minor league clubs. With the foundation provided by these experiences, the questions of why, when, and where these integrated teams took the field are examined and placed within the context of segregation and exclusion across the broader community. The second edition of the book has been updated with new information about the players in Kansas and across the continent.

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  Seventh US Cavalry Base Ball in Kansas, 1868–1870, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  From 1868 through 1870, the Seventh US Cavalry and other military units played baseball in Kansas at their various posts and in the field. Details of several games were reported in local newspapers, as well as the New York Clipper. The Seventh Cavalry clubs, most notably Captain Frederick Benteen’s Company H, continued to play through 1875 while stationed in the South and the Dakota Territory, before the regiment was decimated at the Battle of Little Bighorn (Greasy Grass) in 1876. This essay focuses on the Seventh Cavalry’s baseball experiences in Kansas. A list of known games played by the regiment from 1868 through 1875 and several newspaper clippings of box scores are provided. This essay was originally published in 2019 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).

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  Eisenhower, Wilson, and Professional Baseball in Kansas, Revised

  Mark E. Eberle

  Ever since General Dwight David Eisenhower mentioned in 1945 that he had played professional baseball under the pseudonym Wilson sometime after his 1909 graduation from Abilene High School, there have been attempts to document this assertion. Yet, he offered little detail for researchers to follow, not even the team or year. If true, however, it has been speculated this would have made him ineligible for intercollegiate competition in 1911–1915 while he attended the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he played on the football team. Thus, interest in the story has persisted. Newspaper accounts of baseball mention a professional ballplayer named Wilson, who was a member of the minor league teams in Abilene and other towns in the region from 1909 through 1914. It was during 1909–1911 that the recently graduated Eisenhower waited in Abilene, seeking opportunities to earn money that would help pay for a college education. Superficial research has led to speculation that this ballplayer named Wilson, at least in some instances, was actually Dwight Eisenhower. However, it is impractical to try making sense of Eisenhower’s sparse comments about his baseball career without a thorough consideration of the historical context. This study examines Eisenhower’s experiences in baseball, his statements about playing professional baseball, and the contemporary intercollegiate eligibility rules. A biographical summary for the ballplayer named Wilson associated with baseball in Abilene is also provided. This essay was originally published in 2017 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume two of the anthology (Baseball Biographies with Kansas Connections).

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  Integrated Baseball in Ohio, 1883-1900: Sol White and Richard Male

  Mark E. Eberle

  Two essays amend and expand what has been published about two Ohio natives who played baseball in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the sport became increasingly segregated. The first essay clarifies the early years of Sol White, a Black ballplayer from Bellaire, Ohio, who played on integrated amateur teams in his hometown beginning in 1883, as well as the integrated first nine in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1886-1887 and the segregated Pittsburgh Keystones in 1887-1888. About this same time, Richard Male, who was born in Columbus but was a longtime resident of Cleveland, played under the pseudonym Richard Johnson for white town teams in Ohio before joining low-level minor league clubs in Zanesville, Ohio and in Illinois. However, he was not signed by a high-level minor league or major league clubs after stories spread that he was Black. As with his contemporary, Charles “Bumpus” Jones of Cedarville, Ohio, another ballplayer with light skin, the question of whether Male was Black or white was answered differently in his hometown than in the world of organized baseball.

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  Integrated Baseball in Ohio, 1891–1907: Chavous, Harrison, Fountain, and Follis.

  Mark E. Eberle

  In addition to Moses Fleetwood Walker, Welday (Weldy) Walker, John “Bud” Fowler, and Grant “Home Run” Johnson, other Black baseball players were members of integrated teams involved in intercity competition in Ohio during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when racial segregation was widespread. The experiences of four of these players are described. James Chavous was a native of Marysville who pitched for Marysville and several other teams, including the Page Fence Giants. In 1904, an injury to his hand limited his role on the diamond to serving as an umpire, primarily in games between white teams. Edward Webster “Webb” Harrison also played for Marysville and other teams before moving to Lima, where he eventually became a police officer. William Fountain (Fountaine) and his younger brothers, Fred and Andrew, also played for teams in their hometown of Lima. Charles Follis was a native of Wooster and is primarily remembered as the first Black professional football player. He also played for baseball teams in Wooster and several other cities, as well as Wooster University, before moving to Cleveland and later joining the Cuban Giants of New York. Their stories contribute to the growing knowledge of the early history of integrated baseball.

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  John W. "Bud" Fowler in Colorado, California, and Ohio

  Mark E. Eberle

  John W. Jackson Jr., better known as John W. “Bud” Fowler (1858–1913), was a Black baseball player, captain, manager, umpire, and promoter. His baseball career spanned at least 33 years, from 1877 to 1909. In 1878, Fowler became the first known Black baseball player in the major or minor leagues, and he went on to play for a total of 18 minor league clubs with rosters composed predominantly of white ballplayers during the era of racial segregation. He played for numerous teams from New England to southern California and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Consequently, he was the most widely known Black baseball player in the country during his lifetime. In 2022, Fowler was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He has been the subject of two full biographies, the latest of which was published in 2013. Nevertheless, substantial gaps remain in what has been documented about Fowler’s career and his life outside baseball. This is due, in large part, to the limited availability of digital newspapers and other resources from across the broad geographic area in which he lived and played. As additional information becomes available, it is possible to fill some of the gaps and refine some of what has already been published about him. The three essays included here are part of that process. They describe and document Fowler’s time in Colorado (1885), southern California (the winter of 1888–1889), and Ohio (periodically from 1880 to 1905). The Ohio essay also focuses on his professional relationship with dentist William H. Drake in Findlay.

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  Early Integrated Baseball in Missouri

  Mark E. Eberle

  Beginning in the years before the US Civil War, African Americans fled or emigrated from the South to northern and western states and territories. Descendants of these emigrants occasionally had the opportunity to play baseball for predominantly white town teams and minor league clubs prior to 1946 under circumstances documented in states such as Kansas and California. Those same opportunities were virtually nonexistent in states where slavery had been legal at the outset of the Civil War. A few instances of integrated baseball teams involved in intercity competition in Missouri, a border state that remained in the Union, have been documented between 1886 to 1901. All of the teams identified so far represented cities and towns in northwestern Missouri, near the borders of Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. The stories of these teams and Black ballplayers are described from available information published in contemporary newspapers.

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  Black Pioneers of Integrated Baseball in California

  Mark E. Eberle

  During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Black athletes were barred from playing baseball in the major and minor leagues, as well as other teams of white players, with relatively few exceptions. Research on baseball’s color line has primarily focused on organized baseball (the major and minor leagues). The nine essays in this monograph are an introductory exploration of integrated baseball in California at various levels, from amateur to professional teams. The first six essays are biographies of seven Black ballplayers who played on predominantly white teams engaged in intercity competition for multiple years from 1886 to 1909. The seventh essay presents information about Black umpires in the state who officiated games involving one or two white teams. The eighth essay is the story of William Carroll and the Trilbys of Los Angeles, a prominent Black baseball club at the turn of the century. The final essay examines possible patterns associated with where and when the integrated teams played in California, supplemented by descriptions of the experiences of three Black soldiers of the 24th and 25th US Infantries who integrated teams west of the Rocky Mountains after their discharges from the army.

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  William Lewis Eagleson and the Origins of African American Newspapers in Kansas

  Mark E. Eberle

  From July to November 1876, Reverend Thomas W. Henderson of the A.M.E. Church, edited a newspaper (“campaign paper”) in Leavenworth and Lawrence, Kansas named the Colored Radical. The following year in Fort Scott, Kansas, William L. Eagleson edited a newspaper named the Colored Citizen. While these were the first two African American newspapers published in the state, both were printed by the white publishers in Lawrence and Fort Scott. In February 1878, William and his brother, James, purchased their own printing equipment and restarted publication of the Colored Citizen, making it the first newspaper in Kansas written, edited, and printed as a Black-owned enterprise. In July 1878, the Eaglesons moved their printshop to Topeka and continued to publish the Colored Citizen. William Eagleson remained the editor and was joined in this role by Reverend Henderson. This monograph summarizes the history of the Colored Citizen and its successors in Topeka during the nineteenth century, which serves as a prelude to a biography of its editor, William Lewis Eagleson (1835–1899). In addition to establishing the Colored Citizen, he was the editor of the first weekly African American newspaper in Oklahoma and the first Black columnist hired by a white-owned newspaper in Kansas.

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  “What’s in a name?" Baseball Goes to Town in 1886

  Mark E. Eberle

  In 1886, the St. Louis Browns of the American Association defeated the Chicago White Stockings (now the Chicago Cubs) of the National League in a postseason series, the only time an American Association club won the series played from 1884 to 1890. Also in 1886, the Missouri Pacific railroad organized the construction of a rail line in Kansas from Council Grove through Osage City to Ottawa. To commemorate the Browns’ season, the Missouri Pacific named two new stations after Browns’ players: Bushong in Lyon County and Comiskey in Morris County. Albert “Doc” Bushong was a catcher for the Browns, and Charles Comiskey was the club’s first baseman and captain (player-manager). Early reports of the towns named after baseball players contained incorrect information, but more recent publications have correctly described the events. This monograph provides additional details of the events and documents contemporary sources. The town of Comiskey no longer exists, but the small community of Bushong recently became a trailhead on the extensive Flint Hills Trail State Park, which follows the final alignment of the Missouri Pacific railroad bed.

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  Memories: The Crew of the USS Abner Read DD-526 (Second Edition)

  Mary Elizabeth Downing-Turner and Michael Davis

  Memories: The Crew of the USS Abner Read DD-526 captures the experiences of sailors who served aboard the USS Abner Read. Collected over the course of decade, this collection features more than 120 interviews with sailors who fought aboard the Abner Read during the War in the Pacific. First-hand accounts of life on the ship, the incident at Kiska, and the sinking of the ship during the Battle of Leyte Gulf all feature prominently in this edited volume. There are amusing anecdotes, mundane details, and graphic descriptions of the horrors of war. Though only in service for twenty-one months, the experiences aboard the USS Abner Read changed the lives of everyone who served on her.