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Who’s on First? Kansas City’s Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929 Who’s on First? Kansas City’s Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929

Mark E. Eberle Fort Hays State University, meberle@fhsu.edu

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Eberle, Mark E., "Who’s on First? Kansas City’s Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929" (2019). Monographs. 10. https://scholars.fhsu.edu/all_monographs/10

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Who’s on First? Kansas City’s

Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929

Mark E. Eberle

Who’s on First? Kansas City’s Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929

© 2019 by Mark E. Eberle

Cover image: Original Boston Bloomer Girls baseball team, August 1912. Image courtesy of

Roger Werholtz.

Recommended citation:

Eberle, Mark E. 2019. Who’s on First? Kansas City’s Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929. Fort Hays

State University, Hays, Kansas. 26 pages.

Who’s on First? Kansas City’s Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929

Mark E. Eberle

Abilene has a female base ball club. Well, that knocks us out. We never

knew that a base ball club possessed gender before.

Clay Center (Kansas) Evening Times, 19 November 1886, p 3.

The absence of female players from nearly all formal baseball clubs with male members

has been the status quo since the earliest days of the sport, and it continues today. Most

clubs composed solely or primarily of women in the late 1800s and early 1900s were

ridiculed by newspapers, which reflected the general view of the community. For example,

in 1897, the mayor of Omaha, Nebraska ordered the chief of police to prevent a game

arranged with the Boston Bloomer Girls barnstorming team from taking place. “The mayor

in his letter contends that the exhibition is not conducive to the good morals of the city

and is particularly inadpated for a Sabbath afternoon entertainment.” Despite the

adversity that confronted them, women continued to organize teams—school teams,

independent amateur clubs, and professional teams.1 In addition to female players,

Amanda Clement from South Dakota served as a respected umpire in games between

men’s teams from 1904 to 1911.2

In Kansas, the first independent women’s baseball clubs took the field in the 1870s. The

first club in Kansas and adjacent states was organized in Wichita in 1873, only three years

after the city was incorporated and only two years after the first team of white males was

organized. These early teams predated the arrival of the first barnstorming teams with

female players, most of which included one or more male players who were sometimes

disguised as women. Female players on most of these

early traveling teams wore baggy pants constricted

at the knee known as bloomers, and the teams were

referred to as “bloomer girls.” Women on later teams

wore traditional baseball uniforms and objected to

the name bloomer girls.3

Perhaps the most renowned female ballplayer

(and team owner) was Maud Nelson (sometimes

spelled Neilson). She was best known as a pitcher,

but also played third base. Nelson first toured

Kansas in 1898 with the Boston Bloomer Girls,

managed by W.P. Needham. Her real name was

Clementina Brita. Why she chose to play as Maud

Nelson is unknown, but she was not alone in

adopting a nom de guerre.4 1906 Newspaper Advertisement

2

In addition to misspelled names of players, newspapers sometimes reported incorrect

names or listed only first names (or pseudonyms). The names of famous players were also

used by other players to attract unsuspecting spectators. Likewise, the names of teams

were also copied, and sometimes the teams were only referred to as “the Bloomer Girls.”

The fluid nature of names makes it challenging to track the histories of teams and players.

Yet, sufficient information exists to tell some of their stories.

In addition to pitchers, the best-known early female ballplayers usually played first

base. The most famous was Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” Murphy, who played in New England

from 1909 through 1935, mostly on semipro and professional men’s teams.5 This is the story

of the professional baseball careers of two of these intrepid women from Kansas City who

also gained notoriety at first base.

Mae Arbaugh (sometimes called Carrie Nation) Mae Arbaugh was born in Independence, Kansas, on 28 December 1884. Her family

later moved to Kansas City. In a 1937 newspaper interview, Mae said she got her start in

organized baseball at age 13. She also stated that her professional career began with the

Boston Bloomer Girls under the pseudonym Nellie Bly. Nellie Bly was the nom de plume of

Elizabeth Cochran, whose accomplishments included traveling around the world in 72

days in 1889–1890 (and meeting Jules Verne along the way). Her notoriety in a male-

dominated world was likely the reason her name was used for a baseball player.6

The Boston Bloomer Girls were first organized in Chicago in 1893 by showman Walter

“W.P.” Needham, who managed the team through 1911.* Newspapers listed Nellie Bly on

the team’s roster in 1897 and 1898, but it seems unlikely this was Mae Arbaugh. As the

team played its way west toward the Pacific Northwest and California in 1897, Nellie Bly

was not on rosters published in Nebraska, Montana, or Washington. The team did not

pass through Kansas that summer. The name Nellie Bly first appeared in Oregon in early

October, suggesting one of the players adopted the pseudonym en route or someone

playing under that pseudonym joined the team in Oregon or Washington. It seems

unlikely that 12-year-old Mae Arbaugh would join the team in the Pacific Northwest when

she was living in Kansas. In addition, Nellie Bly was injured during the trip through

California and was asked to umpire a game. However, her own teammates were so upset

with her calls that they forced her off the field.7 Asking a 12-year-old to serve as umpire is

improbable, especially in front of a large audience expecting to get their money’s worth.

* In addition to managing female baseball teams, W.P. Needham dealt in Chicago real estate and ran

other forms of entertainment, such as a tour of bullfighters in 1899. In 1908, he considered having the Boston Bloomers travel by steamboat and barge along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Instead, it was his Cowboy baseball team, who traveled with a Wild West Band on a river steamer named the Nellie. In 1909, Needham purchased a showboat (barge) named the Cotton Blossom and its towboat. His troupe performed plays along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers for several years. The floating theater’s first towboat, the Walter P. Needham, sank in the Ohio River while under the command of an unlucky captain. Its replacement was named the Nellie. In 1920, Needham was managing the Western Bloomer Girls with Kate Becker, who also played for the team. Maud Nelson had founded the team in 1911 with her husband and Kate Becker. Nelson sold her share to Becker after the 1912 season. (Footnote citations are included in the paragraph endnotes.)

3

The Boston Bloomer Girls overwintered in Texas, where they began the 1898 season

before moving north on their first trip through Kansas. A player using the pseudonym

Nellie Bly was still with the team, as were Maud Nelson and Yeula Robertson (whose first

name was spelled several ways in newspapers, including the more traditional Eula).

Robertson apparently joined the team in Washington the previous year, as Nellie Bly

might have done. In 1898, a newspaper in Leavenworth, Kansas, near Arbaugh’s hometown

of Kansas City, described Nellie Bly as a “tall cadaverous maiden who at one time—in the

dim recesses of long ago—was young. … When one of the juveniles in the sun yelled out

‘Nellie, you are getting old,’ she blushingly admitted the sofe [sic] impeachment.” In

California the previous year, Nellie Bly had been described as a “petite little fairy.”8 This

suggests that different individuals used the name each year. As noted in the footnote on

page 2, Needham was enamored with the name, and its use as a pseudonym for the players

was probably his decision.

What seems more likely is that Mae Arbaugh began playing for the Boston Bloomer

Girls in the summer of 1899 at age 14. A roster for the team in Tennessee included “Mary

Arbaugh” in center field. In August 1900, after the team returned from a tour of western

Canada, a roster in Ohio listed “May Arbaugh” in center field. Arbaugh’s first name was

commonly misspelled. Maud Nelson was still on the roster both years, and Yeula

Robertson was on the roster in 1900.9

In May 1901, “May Arbaugh” played left field for the Boston Bloomer Girls in Stockton,

Kansas. By the time the team arrived in Walla Walla, Washington a month later on

another tour of the Pacific Northwest, she was playing under what would be her longtime

nom de guerre—Carrie Nation. The marketing gimmick worked. An announcement in the

Spokane Daily Chronicle on June 15 for a game in that city ran under the headline, “Carrie

Nation To Play.” The actual Carry Nation was gaining national notoriety at the time for

her views on temperance following her initial smashing of saloons in Kiowa, Kansas in

June 1900.10

Mae Arbaugh continued to play for the Boston Bloomer Girls through 1908, traveling

extensively across the country. In her early years, she played in the outfield, but by 1905,

she had settled at first base. In addition to praise for her baseball skills, Arbaugh was

known for her banter during the game. She also had a reputation for putting local hecklers

in their place in ways that amused the rest of the spectators.11

In September 1906, the Boston Bloomer Girls played a doubleheader with the town

team from Kiowa, Kansas at the Barber County Homecoming picnic in nearby Medicine

Lodge, the county seat. Among the other events that day were two speeches by Carry

Nation, the activist, who had been a resident of Medicine Lodge when her national

reputation in the temperance movement began in 1900. There is no record of the two

Nations meeting or of Carry Nation being aware of her baseball namesake.12 The local

newspapers made no mention of a player named Carrie Nation with the Bloomer Girls.

In August 1907, the Boston Bloomer Girls lost a close game, 4–3, to a team from

Davenport, Iowa in the afternoon. That evening, the two teams tried to use a portable

lighting system carried by the Bloomer Girls for a second game. The early lighting systems

4

were weak, which made it necessary to use a larger, softer ball because of the dim light.

That night in Davenport, after several sputters and starts, the lighting system failed. Fans

tore up the ballpark in the chaos of first trying to get rainchecks and then demanding

refunds from the local sponsors. Fifteen police officers arrived in automobiles to restore

order. The players did their best to stay out of the melee.

The Bloomer Girls, during the excitement, sat in their wagon apparently

undisturbed by the mob. One man attempted to crawl into the wagon, and

got a biff on the jaw for his pains. It was Carrie Nation, the big first

basewoman, who landed the blow, and she did not propose to have any of

the crowd “buttin’ in on her,” as she expressed it. “We haven’t got your

money,” said Carrie, and the crowd took her word for it thereafter, when

they saw that she also knew the pugilistic game as well as she does

baseball.13

In early April 1909, Mae Arbaugh and Daisy Hoover, another baseball player living in

Kansas City, were practicing with the American Bloomer Girls, managed by Claude East,

who were in Kansas City preparing for the season. A team using that name played during

1906 and 1908, and they seem to be among the more poorly run bloomer teams. Arbaugh

and Hoover did not stay with the team, which was fortunate. The manager of the American

Bloomer Girls reportedly abandoned the team in Springfield, Missouri in early August.14

Daisy Hoover returned to her former team, the St. Louis Stars, managed by A.P. Gibbs.

A resident of Wapakoneta, Ohio, Gibbs was one of the first and longest running managers

of women’s baseball teams.* Daisy Hoover was also a native of Ohio. She was considered

one of the better players at second base. Her professional career in 1903–1909 was spent

primarily with Gibbs’ Ladies Baseball Club, also referred to as the St. Louis Stars. When

Hoover played for the Stars, the team featured two other players whose skills were praised

in newspapers—Yeula Robertson at first base and pitcher May St. Leon. In 1905, a

Pennsylvania newspaper reported, “The work of Misses Robertson and Hoover was of the

highest order, while May St. Leon showed good form in the box.” Sadly, Hoover passed

away at a Kansas City hospital following a brief illness in October 1909. She was only 24

years old. When she passed away, Daisy Hoover was destitute. Consequently, she was

buried in a potter’s field in Kansas City, Missouri now lost to development.15

Instead of returning to W.P. Needham’s Boston Bloomer Girls, Mae Arbaugh joined a

new team being organized in Des Moines, Iowa. It was named for its business sponsor—

Hopkins Brothers Champion Lady Base Ball Club. The manager of the team was J.L.

Wilkinson, who had played for and managed teams in Iowa for several years. In 1912, he

would manage the integrated All Nations team, which relocated to Kansas City in 1915.

Five years later, Wilkinson would organize the Kansas City Monarchs, who would be

* Al P. “Doc” Gibbs was the name used by Prince Albert Gibbs. He was a showman, who owned and

managed respected women’s baseball teams from 1892 through at least 1914. Gibbs also operated a “vaudeville circus”—the Olympic Shows—and worked for other circuses. He sometimes combined the two groups on tours, with the women’s baseball team playing in the afternoon and a circus performance in the evening.

5

charter members of the first successful Negro

National League. The 1909 Hopkins Brothers

Lady BBC left in mid-May on a tour to the

north and east. Another Kansas City player

on the team, May Fay, arrived in Des Moines

at the end of April. Mae Arbaugh was

scheduled to join the team on June 6, when

they played in Des Moines. As with several

teams at the time, they traveled in their own

railcar hitched to various trains passing

through the towns where they played. The

team carried its own grandstand, canvas

fence, and lighting system. They often played

afternoon baseball games and evening indoor

baseball (softball) games. While the team

was traveling in Minnesota during August,

Daisy Hoover left the Stars to join the

Hopkins Brothers’ roster. The team’s first

season ran through early October, shortly

before Hoover’s death.16

In April 1910, Mae Arbaugh once again took the field in Kansas City before leaving for

the summer. This time it was with L.J. Galbreath’s Original Boston Bloomer Girls (more

on this team later). Among the six women on the team were two other Kansas City

natives—Ruth Egan and May Fay. As in 1909, Mae Arbaugh and May Fay left after this

early season game to rejoin the Hopkins Brothers team. Arbaugh was back at first base,

and Fay was at second base. Before their opening game in Des Moines that May, a photo

of Arbaugh in her Hopkins Brothers uniform was featured in the sports section of the Des

Moines Register and Leader under the headline “Star Lady Player.” This year, the team traveled

north and west, as far as Montana. Manager J.L. Wilkinson even played in some of the

games. The team typically fielded five female players, and the men reportedly did not

disguise themselves as women.17

In 1911, Mae Arbaugh and May Fay returned to the Hopkins Brothers team. Again, the

team played in the upper Midwest after a trip to the Black Hills. They even played a

semipro team in Chicago’s Comiskey Park, losing 5–4. The report in the Chicago Inter Ocean

praised Arbaugh’s skills at first base. “Carrie Nation played first base for the Girls as well

as many of the semi-pros around the circuit, getting ten put-outs and one assist.” In

Michigan, she was similarly praised while playing first base in an afternoon game and third

base in an evening game under the lights. The Hopkins Brothers’ player “who made

especial hits with the fans [was] Carrie Nation, the first base player, whose work was

really good and whose coaching made her the star attraction of the afternoon…. Miss

Nation was active all the time and came back with clever repartee when some of the

spectators seemed inclined to get fresh.”18

6

After 10 years with Needham’s Boston Bloomer Girls and 3 years with Wilkinson’s

Hopkins Brothers Champion Lady BBC, Mae Arbaugh would enjoy a somewhat different

baseball experience in 1912. Instead of a bloomer team, Wilkinson organized the Hopkins

Brothers All Nations team, which was composed of white and black men, an American

Indian, and men of Japanese, Chinese, and Latino heritage—and one woman. In late

March, Wilkinson had made a trip to San Antonio, Texas, where he scouted “Mexican

players for his proposed “team of all nations.’” As with his bloomer teams, the All Nations

team toured the upper Midwest during their first season, and they dominated teams that

had routinely defeated the bloomer teams. Much of the team’s success was due to the

pitching of John Donaldson, a native of Glasgow, Missouri, about 50 miles east of Kansas

City. Donaldson is considered one of the best pitchers of his era, although he could not

play in the major leagues because of the color line that barred black players. Arbaugh

played first base for the All Nations. As the team prepared to play in Minneapolis on

August 11, they reportedly had lost only 19 of their more than 100 games. The Minneapolis

Tribune reminded its readers of Mae Arbaugh’s baseball skills.19

“Carrie Nation,” who visited this city three years ago as a member of the Hopkins lady team of Iowa, will cover the initial sack for the All-Nations,

and if there is any one who doubts her ability to play the great national

game, he’d better take a trip to Nicollet park and be enlightened. She

handles herself like a real leaguer, and in fact she is one, for she has been

playing the game for many years.20

Arbaugh “was taken ill” the night before the game in Minneapolis with an unspecified

ailment, and the attending physician would not allow her to play. However, she returned

to the diamond within a few days.21

Mae Arbaugh did not return to the All Nations team in 1913. Where she played that

year, if she played, is unknown. She was not on the rosters of the Western Bloomer Girls

or Star Bloomer Girls of Indianapolis, two of the prominent teams in the Midwest. May

Fay, Arbaugh’s teammate with the Hopkins

Brothers Lady BBC, spent the season

playing for the Star Bloomer Girls, managed

by F.C. Schmelz. Arbaugh joined her in

1914, and they were on the team’s roster in

February and March as they played in cities

along the southeastern coast, from New

Orleans to Florida, and in Cuba, as noted in

the Tampa Morning Tribune and other

newspapers.22 (The note indicated that the

three batters for the Star Bloomer Girls

flied out to center field, second base, and shortstop. The first batter for the Cuban team

flied out to third, the second batter walked, and the third batter hit into a double play.)

Arbaugh and Fay played for the Stars through 1916.23 It was during this period that the

Kansas State Census for 1915 listed Arbaugh’s “profession, occupation or trade” as “Prof

7

Baseball,” but this was crossed out and replaced with store “clerk.” She worked at

businesses such as the Emery, Bird, Thayer Dry Goods Company and the Jones Store

Company during several offseasons from 1899 through the 1920s.

In 1917, Arbaugh, Fay, and some of the other Star Bloomer Girls played for the American

Athletic Girls. As the First World War stripped the rosters of male baseball teams,

women’s teams began to insist on names other than Bloomer Girls. In addition, Arbaugh

was well known, so she was sometimes asked to play with men’s teams in special games.

In October 1917, Arbaugh and fellow Kansas Citian Ruth Egan were scheduled to join L.J.

Galbreath’s World Nations team from Kansas City for a game in St. Joseph, Missouri. The

World Nations team was a less talented copy of J.L. Wilkinson’s All Nations team. As was

common at the time, proceeds from the game were donated to the mess fund supporting

local National Guard units being called to service in Europe. Arbaugh played in the game,

but Egan did not.24

Following the war, there was a resurgent interest in baseball, but women’s

barnstorming teams were fading. Mae Arbaugh and, occasionally, May Fay were

mentioned on the rosters of some of the remaining teams, mostly the American Athletic

Girls through 1929, but also the Western Bloomer Girls and others. In 1922, Arbaugh led

a team named Carrie Nation’s All Stars. The team worked with Western Booking Agents

in Kansas City, Missouri, seeking games only on weekends and holidays, not the full-week

schedules of the early days. Arbaugh continued to play first base.25

In October 1937, Mae Arbaugh was interviewed in New York, where she was attending

the World Series between the New York Yankees and New York Giants (now the San

Francisco Giants). She was also scheduled to participate in a radio interview. A photo of

her holding a baseball bat and wearing a Yankees cap was distributed to newspapers

across the country. In at least some of the newspapers, she appeared under the headline,

“An Original ‘Bloomer Girl.’” In the story of the interview sent through the wire service,

Arbaugh was said to have played in 6,486 games as a professional before she retired in 1930.

“When the boys started hollering ‘Grandma’ at me I figured it was time to fold up.” At her

peak, she recalled earning $80 per week.26

In November 1929, shortly after the initial drop in the stock market, later viewed as

the beginning of the Great Depression, newspapers carried a Ripley’s Believe It or Not

installment that showed a sketch of Mae Arbaugh, wearing a standard baseball uniform

(without a cap) and leaning forward, as if to catch a ground ball. The caption read, “Carrie

Nation (Mae Arbaugh), Famous Lady Baseball Player — Has Played More Games Than Ty

Cobb. Miss Arbaugh Played 4600 Games During the Last 33 Years” (punctuation

inserted). The source of Ripley’s information is unknown. In April 1945, as the Second

World War was nearing its end, the same sketch of Arbaugh was published in an updated

installment of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, with an altered caption. “Mae Arbaugh, Famous

Woman Baseball Player, Played More Ball Games Than Ty Cobb! 4000 Games in 33 Years.”

Gone was Carrie Nation, and Arbaugh went from being a “lady” in 1929 to a “woman” in

1945. The number of games also dropped from 4,600 to a still impressive 4,000. Did

someone question the original number? Documenting the number of games over a career

8

that spanned at least 31 years (1899–1929) and took Arbaugh to hundreds of towns across

the continent (plus Cuba) would be a challenge, even considering that the number of

games she played each year diminished after the First World War. However, 4,000 games

would certainly be a substantial total for any professional ballplayer. It is even more

impressive in light of the fact that Arbaugh accomplished this feat under the adversity that

confronted female baseball players.27

Mae Arbaugh never married. During the 1930s, she lived in Kansas City, Missouri and

worked for the WPA. She passed away on 21 June 1941, a victim of ovarian cancer. She was

buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in her adopted hometown of Kansas City, Kansas. Mae

Arbaugh was only 56 years old, but she lived a life full of stories as one of the nation’s

biggest stars on barnstorming baseball teams.

Advertisement for the American Athletic Girls baseball team supplied to newspapers.

This copy was published in the Caruthersville (MO) Twice-A-Week Democrat, 6 July 1917, but the same photo was still in use through 1925. The team was active through 1929. Though not pictured, men also played for the American Athletic Girls. The women pictured did not play for the team every year the photo was distributed. Top row, left to right: Marie Dierl, Harriet Murphy, Elizabeth Pull, Marguerite Cunningham. Bottom row, left to right: Carrie Nation, May Fay, Anna McCann, Selma Walbaun, Mable [Mabel] Bohle.

9

Ruth Egan Is “Some Ball Player” It all started with a rather innocent newspaper story about a 12-year-old girl named

Ruth Egan, who lived on Belleview Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. In spring 1905, she

was participating in her second season with an organized baseball team of boys ranging in

age from 10 to 14 years old, the Belleview Blues. In fact, Egan was the captain of the team.

During a contest with a team of boys 12–16 years old, she had just taken over for her

starting pitcher, a 12-year-old boy who allowed nine runs in the first two innings. In the

third inning, Egan inherited three baserunners with no outs. She struck out the next three

batters, and the opposing team would score no more, losing 32–9.

They thought I was easy because I am a girl but I showed them a few things

that fooled them. The first one that came to bat after I went into the box

laughed at me, but I soon put him out. He didn’t laugh any more because I

was laying for him every time and I fixed him so he wouldn’t laugh at me

any more. They think girls can’t do nothing but play with dolls, so I did my

best to let ‘em see that a girl could do as much as a boy.28

Ruth Egan was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 9 September 1892, the last of five

children born to Patrick and Annie Egan. Her father was a stonemason who immigrated

to the United States from Ireland. Her mother was from Pennsylvania. Ruth’s parents

supported her interest in baseball, as long as it did not interfere with her education.

However, the newspaper coverage of her interest in baseball, viewed as a strictly male

sport, reportedly led the Sisters at Sacred Heart School to expel her. Newspapers across

the country carried the stories of her exploits on the diamond and her expulsion from

school.29 They probably had no expectation there would be anything further to report

about Ruth Egan. Anyone entertaining those thoughts would be wrong.

Offers soon came from independent teams looking to capitalize on Egan’s newfound

fame. Initially, her mother was reluctant to accept any offers to sign her young daughter

to a contract to play professionally. In July 1905, however, her parents finally agreed to let

Ruth play for the Cleveland Bloomer Girls barnstorming team. Despite the name, the team

was based in Kansas City, but they perpetuated the ruse, even listing their hometown as

Cleveland, Ohio at a hotel in Neodesha, Kansas. Nevertheless, operating out of Kansas City

meant the team would be playing in Missouri and Kansas, not far from Egan’s home. Her

mother would travel with the team as Ruth’s chaperone.30

The Cleveland Bloomer Girls was managed by Logan J. Galbreath. He moved to Kansas

City from West Plains, Missouri in about 1899.31 In addition to being involved in the

organization of several leagues and baseball teams of white males, Galbreath offered to

organize a national league of black baseball teams in 1912.32 Mostly, he organized

barnstorming bloomer teams of women and men. His teams were based in Kansas City,

but they sometimes traveled to California late in the year. Each one had a misleading

name—the Cleveland Bloomer Girls in 1905, the National Bloomer Girls in 1906–1908, and

the (Original) Boston Bloomer Girls in 1909–1916.33 The names sometimes carried over

after a change, perhaps because old promotional materials were being used to save money.

In 1908 and 1909, Galbreath also managed a barnstorming team named the Texas

10

Cowboys.34 In 1915, he managed three novelty teams—the integrated World Nations, the

Sioux Indians, and the Boston Bloomer Girls. The World Nations and Boston Bloomer

Girls were active again in 1916. Players were moved among the rosters of all of these

teams.35 In 1920, Galbreath managed a team named the Chicago Legioneers, reportedly

composed of returning veterans and one female player, Ruth Egan.36 In short, Galbreath

promoted his barnstorming teams in whatever way seemed most likely to draw paying

spectators. Other than the Bloomer Girls, his interest in the projects never lasted long.

The 1905 Cleveland Bloomer Girls, advertised as a team with only female players, began

scheduling games in southeastern Kansas in late May. A want ad in the Kansas City Star on

May 25 for “girls of age, willing to learn [to] play baseball en route” gave a hint of

impending problems. By June 1, the team had disbanded. A similar want ad—“several girls

wanted for female baseball club”—appeared in the Star on July 19. The following day, it

was amended to read, “several experienced female ball players.”37 This time, the Cleveland

Bloomer Girls played games.

One of those new players was 12-year-old Ruth Egan, who joined the team in early July.

However, her first season as a professional baseball player was cut short. She was unable

to pitch in a game on July 30 in Kansas City because she was “seriously ill at her home.”

The nature of the illness was not mentioned, but Egan did not appear on the team’s roster

the rest of the season.38

In her absence, another want ad was placed in the Kansas City Star on August 4 seeking

“several stout, good looking, experienced female ball players.”39 However, the number of

female players who took the field for games dropped from five to four immediately

following Egan’s departure, and it was soon down to only three, plus at least one male

player who wore a wig. The Cleveland Bloomer Girls did not fare well in their short season,

which ran from July through early September. Of 24 games in Missouri and Kansas for

which the outcomes were found, the Cleveland Bloomer Girls had 3 wins and 20 losses.

An additional game in Pomona, Kansas was canceled because an objection to Sunday

baseball was raised in the community. Despite the abysmal record, the team apparently

made money. Specific payments to the team were rarely mentioned, but Galbreath

arranged for his team to take most of the gate receipts. Nevertheless, at least some of the

opponents were pleased with their shares, because they still earned more money from the

bloomer girl games than from contests against local clubs. As noted in the Kansas City Star,

“The ‘Bloomer Girls,’ who are playing through Southwest Missouri, never get the game,

but they always get the gate receipts.”40

Following her shortened inaugural season, Ruth Egan rejoined Galbreath’s bloomer

girl team in 1906. Several teams of bloomer girls played in Kansas and adjacent states that

year, including W.P. Needham’s Boston Bloomer Girls, the New York Bloomer Girls, the

Star Bloomer Girls, and apparently two National Bloomer Girls teams from Kansas City.

Oftentimes, local newspapers referred to the teams simply as Bloomer Girls, so following

the geographical paths of the teams across the state is the only way to distinguish them in

many instances.

11

In addition, names of the players on the bloomer girl teams were rarely published,

apparently because they were rarely provided to local newspapers. Even when they were,

surnames were often omitted for players because a few men wore wigs, and the team

wanted to reinforce the subterfuge of more female players than there actually were. Even

in the “Hotel Arrivals” in a Neodesha, Kansas newspaper, the names were reported as

“Maude, Kate, Jesse, Agnes, Pearl, Foster, Decker, Morris, Chambers, L. J. Galbreath, Mrs.

Galbreath.” Thus, Ruth Egan was sometimes listed simply as Ruth in box scores. On other

occasions, because of the recent newspaper stories of her baseball abilities, Egan was a

marquee player, so her last name would be mentioned, though sometimes misspelled in

various ways, such as Eagan, Eagens, and so on. Nevertheless, her first full season in

professional baseball was an eventful one for the 13-year-old, who was not only learning

how to cope with life on a professional barnstorming baseball team, but doing so as a

female player in what was considered strictly a male sport. Ruth’s first year is even more

eventful when viewed through historical hindsight.

The reason Galbreath changed the team’s name from the Cleveland Bloomer Girls to

the National Bloomer Girls in 1906 was not reported. It might have sounded better for

marketing. It is also possible he wanted to evade the poor reputation of the 1905 team.

Earning money was important to both the barnstorming team and the local sponsors, but

the barnstorming team had to be competitive. The novelty of watching a team with female

players would quickly fade and take the gate receipts with it. In 1906, the team typically

claimed 75% of the gate receipts, win or lose, but a few teams apparently insisted on the

traditional 60–40 split for winners and losers, respectively.

The season for the two National Bloomer Girl teams was underway in late April and

early May, beginning with games in Missouri.41 Ruth and her mother traveled with the

team that toured through southeastern Kansas in mid-May.42 The other National Bloomer

Girl team (sometimes referred to as the Cleveland Bloomer Girls) started its tour in

northeastern Kansas at the end of the month.43 Egan occasionally pitched, and not

surprisingly, the young teenager seemed overmatched against talented town teams. If she

read newspaper accounts of the games, she would have been confronted with the sexist

attitudes directed at female ballplayers. “Ruth Eagen [sic], pitcher for the Bloomers does

good work for a girl, but girls can’t play ball.”44 Perhaps she heard similar talk at the

ballpark.

Egan mostly played first base as the tour moved through southeastern and then

southwestern Kansas.45 To compensate for her small size, she was given a catcher’s glove

to help her hold onto the baseball.46 It was at first base that she earned praise. “The first

base girl is only fourteen years old, quick as a cat and the star attraction of the nine.”

Perhaps the longest write-up of a National Bloomer Girls game was in the Leoti Standard in

western Kansas. Other than advertisements, the baseball story covered most of the front

page. In the inning-by-inning account is an anecdote that illustrates the baseball maturity

of 13-year-old Ruth at first base (with sexist embellishment). “Scott’s hit went to Susie

[the male shortstop], forcing Campbell out at second. Susie threw to Ruth to catch Scott

but was too late. Ruth hid the sphere in the recesses of her bloomers and as Scott stepped

12

off the base to admire her pretty curls, she tagged him with the ball.”47 Her widely

respected defensive skills would make first base Ruth Egan’s signature position.

During July, both of the bloomer teams experienced difficulties. After a game on July 4

in Florence, Kansas, part of the northern team, referred to as the National or Cleveland

Bloomer Girls, “decamped at Florence with the funds and costumes. Some of the Florence

players came here [to Peabody the next day] and helped fill out the team and a fairly good

game resulted.” Peabody won, 9–6, and it was the last report of the bloomer team.48 The

southern team, playing as the National Bloomer Girls, with Ruth Egan at first base, began

a five-week break in late July for unspecified reasons. They resumed their tour on August

24, and Logan Galbreath accompanied the team.49

On 30 August 1906, 10 days before her fourteenth birthday, Ruth Egan played first base

for the National Bloomer Girls in Hays, Kansas. The team had just picked up a new pitcher

from the town team in nearby Ness City who would turn 18 years old on October 25. He

is best known by his nickname, “Smoky Joe” Wood. Ness City had just defeated the

bloomer girls, 23–3, so Galbreath took the opportunity to shore up his team. Wood later

enjoyed a successful major league career in 1908–1915 and 1917–1922. He was as an

excellent pitcher, winning 34 games in 1912, but an arm injury forced him to play mostly

in the outfield after 1917. Hays defeated the National Bloomer Girls, 5–2, but the Hays Free

Press remarked on two players. “Lady Ruth on the initial sack certainly played the game.

She made one safe hit, scored once and fielded her position well. … Three Hays men

walloped the atmosphere in the first inning. Woods [sic] isn’t so bad for a boy of

seventeen.” Wood left the National Bloomer Girls when the team arrived in Wichita in

mid-September. Years later, Wood recalled, “There was one girl, Ruth Egan, who was real

good. She was from Kansas City and she played first base with a catcher’s mitt, but she

could really catch the ball.”50

In later years, stories were told about the young Smoky Joe Wood posing as a woman

while playing for the National Bloomer Girls. This is only partially true. The difference in

uniforms worn by the women was the bloomers, which were also worn by most male

players. However, Wood recalled that he refused to wear a wig. In addition to their attire,

some male players used female pseudonyms. Yet, in the “Notes of the Game” in the Hays

Free Press, a line score in the Sedgwick Pantagraph,

and a box score in the Moundridge Journal, Wood

is clearly identified as a male player under his

own name—a “boy” named Woods [sic] in Hays

and “Joe” in Sedgwick and Moundridge. This

contrasts with “Sue,” which was the pseudonym

for a male player who usually played shortstop

and pitched. His full pseudonym, published in

the Wichita Eagle, was the appropriately obvious

“Sue Malarkey.” Catcher Charley Heimple from

Wichita played under the name “Flora.”51

13

The 1906 season ended earlier than planned for the National Bloomer Girls, although

no reason was reported. Games scheduled in Kansas during the latter half of September

were canceled, including a game announced in Swedish in the Lindsborgs–Posten. “Den 18 de

september spelar ‘the national bloomer girls’ boll med våra bollspelare här.” (The 18th of

September the “National Bloomer Girls” play ball with our ball players here.) The final

mention of the team was the announcement of an upcoming game between the Fitwells of

Kansas City and the National Bloomer Girls on September 30.52

After barnstorming through Missouri and Kansas for two years, the National Bloomers

moved to new territory in 1907. Few details of the players were published throughout the

season, but Egan was back at first base. They started in northern Missouri in April and

May. The team then traveled through Nebraska and Iowa during June and July. In a rare

box score, a newspaper in Norfolk,

Nebraska attempted to set the record

straight as to the sex of each player.53 In

August, the National Bloomer Girls played

in South Dakota. A game scheduled for

Sunday afternoon in Centerville had to be

moved two miles beyond the city limits

under threat of arrest for violating the

municipal ban on Sunday baseball. Despite

the move, “A large crowd attended.” In

September, the team retraced its path through Iowa and Nebraska back to Missouri.54

In 1908, the National Bloomer Girls, now sometimes referred to as the National Boston

Bloomer Girls, made another circuit through the north. They began in May and early June

with games in northeastern Kansas, eastern Nebraska, and western Iowa en route to South

Dakota.55 This year, however, their destination was the Black Hills.

Just when Egan played on the team is uncertain. She was with the team in northeastern

Kansas. However, a game summary in Sioux City, Iowa raved about a woman with a

different last name who played first base. “Ruth Chance Tenney was the sensation of the

game.” While Galbreath was in Deadwood, South Dakota arranging games, the local

newspaper reported, “On first base [the Bloomers] have a phenomenon, by the name of

Miss Gussie Chance Tenney.” Perhaps Galbreath was toying with other names for Egan or

maybe she was absent from the team for part of the summer. Whatever the reason, later

newspaper stories mentioned Ruth Egan, still reportedly accompanied by her mother.

Two other female players joined her on the field at second base and in the outfield.56

The National Bloomer Girls played their way west across South Dakota in late June.

They remained around the Black Hills through mid-July. From there, the team made its

way south through western Nebraska into early August before turning east across

northern Kansas. In Alliance, Nebraska, the local newspaper offered typical praise for

Egan’s skills at first base. “The first base player was a genuine ‘cyclone,’ and the audience

cheered her most enthusiastically. She was certainly there with the ‘big mit’ [sic] when the

ball came her way.”57

14

As they made their way east toward Kansas City, the team disbanded at the end of

August, cancelling several games, including three in Junction City, Kansas during Labor

Day weekend. The second game on Labor Day was to have been played in the evening

under the light of arc lamps. The National Bloomer Girls were to provide the lights, which

is the only mention of them during the tour. Then, on September 22, there was a notice in

the Kansas City Star for an unusual series of games. Galbreath’s “Texas Cowboy baseball

club, with Ruth Egan playing first base, will play four games at Shelley park [in Kansas

City, Missouri], Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and nights with electric lights.” There

was also a want ad placed in the Star. “Want 5,000 baseball fans to see the Oklahoma full

blood Indians play ball by electric light, Shelley park, opposite courthouse, Saturday and

Sunday afternoon and night, September 26 and 27.”58 It is unknown just which teams were

scheduled to play or whether the games were even played. If they were, the revenue

generated would have been decidedly more important to Galbreath than reporting the

outcomes to local newspapers.

In 1909, the name used for the team was the Original Boston National Bloomer Girls or

some abbreviated version of this cumbersome moniker. Despite the word Original in their

name, they had no connection with W.P Needham’s Boston Bloomer Girls. A team photo

published in a newspaper in the hometown of Galbreath’s family (West Plains, Missouri),

showed the players in uniforms with National Bloomers written across the fronts of the

jerseys.59 A later set of uniforms would have “Originals” across the jerseys.

15

From 1909 through 1911, Ruth Egan was a drawing card for the Original Boston

Bloomer Girls as they traveled around Kansas, Missouri, and other states in the center of

the country. She continued to earn praise from reporters for her skills, which occasionally

received a little help from the opposing team. During a game in August 1909, with runners

on second and third bases, Egan laid down a squeeze bunt that ended up scoring both

runners. However, most of the praise in newspapers was for her defensive skills.60

The feature of the game, however, was the work of Miss Ruth Egan at first

base for the visitors. Miss Egan is touted by her team mates as the world’s

champion ball player, and from the game she put up yesterday she certainly

is entitled to the honor. … She “ate up” everything. The hottest ball knocked

the entire contest was a grass cutter right at the little first sacker, and she

went down and got it as easy as if it had been a rolling bunt.61

In October 1909, Galbreath took the team to California, but the 17-year-old Egan, who

was still accompanied by her mother when traveling with the team, did not make the long

road trip. Presumably, she was attending school. She was not alone in her absence, as

several new names appeared in box scores. Games in Los Angeles reportedly drew 1,000–

2,000 fans, but other clubs were skeptical of bloomer teams and refused to play them. The

team made its way back to Kansas City in December, playing in Arizona on the way.62

Also in 1909, three “Wichita boys” signed “under an alias” with the Original Bloomer

Girls of Kansas City. One was Harry Chester Adamson, who mostly played third base. On

occasion, he was listed as Adams in box scores. In September 1911, Ruth Egan married

Adamson and a son, Harry Egan Adamson, was born in July 1912.63

During the 1912 and 1913 seasons, Galbreath’s Original Boston Bloomer Girls continued

to play while Ruth Egan took a break from professional baseball after seven seasons.* As

it turns out, it was a good time for her to stay home, professionally as well as personally.

In September 1912, Galbreath was accused of abandoning the female players in Guthrie,

Oklahoma, taking the team’s uniforms and cash on hand. He was arrested the next day in

Kansas City but released on a technicality. By October, he was in California with a

reorganized Boston Bloomer Girls. The team returned to the center of the country in 1913.64

After two years off, Ruth Egan rejoined Galbreath’s Boston National Bloomer Girls as

the team toured the northern plains from May through September, winning most of their

games. Egan was once again the team’s marquee player, picking up where she left off in

1911. “Ruth Egan, at first, played a classy game.”65

In 1915, Egan led a team through southeastern

Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma. The reason for

the split from the Boston National Bloomer Girls is

unknown. Several bloomer teams played in the area

that spring, and newspapers sometimes simply

* Like Smoky Joe Wood in 1906, Rogers Hornsby, future member of the National Baseball Hall of

Fame, also played briefly in 1912 for Logan Galbreath’s Boston Bloomer Girls while the team was in Texas (Alexander 1995, page 15). Unlike Wood, Hornsby did not play alongside Ruth Egan.

16

referred to “the Bloomer Girls,” so it is difficult to follow Egan’s group. However, her new

team apparently lost more games that it won. Ruth Egan’s Bloomer Girls disbanded in late

July, and three of the players joined the town team in Cleveland, Oklahoma. “[T]he

Bloomers played in Cleveland and as Cleveland was weak in three spots, pitching, third

base and first base, Ruth, her husband Adamson and Brown, a crack spitball artist, were

signed.”66

The name of Galbreath’s teams were rather fluid, and this was again true in 1916. He

managed a barnstorming team called the World Nations. That summer there were

occasional references to “Ruth Egan’s World Nations” baseball team. She was Galbreath’s

principal star, and her name would distinguish his team from J.L. Wilkinson’s All Nations

team, both of which were now operating out of Kansas City. Nevertheless, potential

opponents confused the teams, and Galbreath exploited this confusion. For example, he

told people in Pleasanton, Kansas that he would not be able to bring John Donaldson, “the

famous negro pitcher, with him on Saturday, but will bring his brother.” Newspapers also

referred to the woman playing first base as “Miss Murphy.”67 It is uncertain if Ruth Egan

played baseball early in 1916, but in December, she gave birth to her second son, Hugh

James Adamson. Thus, it is not surprising that Egan apparently did not play from 1916 to

1918. She later recalled that she played in 1919, but she did not mention the name of the

team. However, in 1920, she returned to the diamond one final year as a professional player

and performed as well as she ever had.

Original Boston Bloomer Girls baseball team, August 1912. The man in the white shirt is Logan J. Galbreath, the team’s business manager. Ruth Egan gave birth to a son in July, so she did not play for the team that season. Image courtesy of Roger Werholtz.

17

Following the First World War, Galbreath organized a barnstorming team named the

Chicago Legioneers in 1920. The team was reportedly composed of former servicemen,

including Harry Adamson at third base, and one woman, Ruth Egan. Initially, newspapers

announced that Egan would only pitch the first inning and perform stunts, such as

catching a baseball dropped 300 feet from a hot-air balloon and throwing a baseball while

“sitting on home plate to the second baseman just like men catchers throw standing up.”

However, on June 12, the Topeka State Journal provided a game summary of the Legioneers

9–3 loss to the Topeka Santa Fe team under the headline, “Ruth Star of the Game.”68

The only redeeming feature of the Chicago Legioneer baseball team is its

first baseman, or basewoman, as it were. Ruth Egan, at the initial station,

was easily the star player of the semi-pro aggregation…. Ruth started to

pitch. She probably thought the local boys rude, as they landed on her

choice offerings for five hits and as many runs before Williams relieved her.

From that time on, however, she was the heroine of the afternoon. She

scooped the ball out of the dust, reached far and wide after the erratic

throws of her team mates and was the first visitor to hit safely. The

grandstand was partial in its rooting for the feminine player. Perhaps the

novelty had something to do with it. More than likely the “fannies” in the

crowd were loyal to their sex and rooted at every opportunity, often when

there was no special occasion for it.69

Newspapers in many towns where the team played across Kansas and Colorado

similarly praised Egan’s skills at first base. Often the praise included indirect criticism of

other female players. One example is the summary of a game against the Beloit (Kansas)

Leaguers, lost by the Legioneers, 5–0. “Ruth Egan, the little lady who played first base for

the visitors put up a good game throughout, and showed at least one woman is a real ball

player.” Adamson continued to play third base and occasionally pitched. He was also the

team’s captain. During a game in Newton, Kansas, which the Legioneers won, 6–2,

Adamson and Egan, who often batted first and second in the lineup, worked together to

produce a run.70

A feature of the game was a squeeze play pulled off by Adamson, who

started home with [pitcher] Erritte’s arm. His wife, Ruth Egan, was at bat,

and laid down a neat bunt, her husband scoring without a struggle. Mrs.

Egan, by the way, was of course the attraction of the game. She plays ball

like a professional, being able to whip the pill across the diamond with ease,

and receiving the pegs from the infield with accuracy and freedom.71

Frank Newhouse of the Denver Post wrote a game summary that was printed under the

headline, “Ruth Egan Is Bright Star.” The story led with an assessment of her baseball

skills. “Miss Ruth Egan, advertised as the best baseball woman in the world, came up to

all expectations and showed many of the semi-pro players she knows how to play first

base…. She did not show up at the bat, but at throwing and fielding she was good.” The

Post and the Rocky Mountain News both published photographs purported to be Ruth Egan,

18

but they do not appear to be the same person. The person in the photograph published in

the Post looks like the person in post cards of Egan from the time.72

The tour by the Chicago Legioneers in 1920 was the end of Ruth Egan’s days as a

professional baseball player. A third son, Robert Walter Adamson, was born in August

1921. The family continued to live on Belleview Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, where

Ruth had gotten her start in baseball as a young girl with the Belleview Blues. Ruth and

Harry Adamson were divorced in 1940. He remarried, but she did not.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Egan was an excellent bowler, who competed in local,

state, and national tournaments, but baseball

remained in her heart. In September 1954, three

days after her sixty-second birthday, she

attended a softball doubleheader. “Mrs. Ruth

Egan Adamson, one of the greatest women

baseball players of all time, worked out at first

base and in the outfield before the second half

of the twin bill.” The following summer, she

ran a baseball school in Kansas City for women

only.73 Ruth Egan Adamson died of heart

failure on New Year’s Day 1957 at age 65. She

was buried at Mount Saint Marys Cemetery in

her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri.

Acknowledgements I accessed newspapers online through Newspapers.com and Genealogy Bank. I also

viewed newspapers on microfilm at the Central Library of the Kansas City, Missouri

Public Library. I thank Roger Werholtz for use of a digital copy of the 1912 Original Boston

Bloomer Girls team photo. Jan Johnson provided information about Ruth Egan. The

subtitle for the Mae Arbaugh section was taken from a newspaper story in the Des Moines

(Iowa) Register and Leader on 30 May 1909. The subtitle for the Ruth Egan section was a

newspaper headline in the Pratt (Kansas) Daily Tribune on 17 July 1920.

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22

1 Omaha Daily Bee, 8 August 1897, p 5. For overviews, see Berlage (1994). Eberle (2017, pages 45–63). Gregorich (1993). Shattuck (2017).

2 Berlage (1994, pages 59–65). Eberle (2018, pages 21–22). Gregorich (1993, pages 17–21). 3 Nebraska State Journal, 11 July 1879, p 4. Wichita City Eagle, 13 February 1873, p 3. Wichita Tribune, 25

May 1871, p 3; 3 August 1871, p 3. Berlage (1994). Eberle (2017, pages 45–63). Gregorich (1993). Shattuck (2017).

4 Berlage (1994). Eberle (2017, pages 57–63). Gregorich (1993). Shattuck (2017). 5 Berlage (1994, pages 53–57). Gregorich (1993, pages 27–31). Mills (2006). 6 Winnipeg Evening Tribune, 6 October 1937, p 14. Kroeger (1995). 7 Alexandria Town Talk, 6 January 1908, p 5. Anaconda Standard, 7 September 1897, p 3. Belvidere Daily

Republican, 12 August 1913, p 1. Butte Miner, 6 September 1897, p 5. Nebraska State Journal, 2 August

1897, p 2. Chicago Tribune, 29 March 1919, p 11. Owensboro Messenger, 5 May 1908, p 4. Paducah

Evening Sun, 15 September 1910, p 8; 22 December 1910, p 8. Parsons Daily Sun, 17 July 1920, p 6.

Pittsburgh Gazette Times, 27 January 1909, p 13. Raleigh Times-Visitor, 13 April 1899, p 1. Sacramento

Daily Record-Union, 30 October 1897, p 4. Salem Daily Capital Journal, 5 October 1897, p 2. San

Bernardino Daily Sun, 18 November 1897, p 3. San Francisco Chronicle, 25 October 1897, p 5. Spokane

Spokesman-Review, 12 September 1897, p 5. Visalia Daily Delta, 7 November 1897, p 1. Gregorich (1993, pages 32–36).

8 Arkansas City Daily Traveler, 27 June 1898, p 8. Leavenworth Times, 2 August 1898, p 4. Visalia Daily

Delta, 7 November 1897, p 1. Wichita Daily Beacon, 11 July 1898, p 5; 12 July 1898, p 8. 9 Clarksville Daily Leaf-Chronicle, 8 July 1899, p 7. Regina Leader, 26 July 1900, p 1. Sandusky Star, 13

August 1900, p 3. Vancouver Daily Province, 9 July 1900, p 8.. 10 Rooks County Record, 3 May 1901, p 1. Spokane Daily Chronicle, 15 June 1901, p 2. Spokane Spokesman-

Review, 6 June 1901, p 4. Grace (2001, pages 138–149). 11 Arizona Republican, 31 July 1901, p 4. Attica Independent, 7 September 1906, p 6. Belvidere Daily

Republican, 6 May 1904, p 6. Daily Oklahoman, 11 August 1906, p 7. Davenport Daily Times, 5

October 1903, p 9; 28 August 1907, p 8. Garden City Herald, 22 August 1903, p 1. Garland Globe,

22 August 1908, p 1. Maysville Public Ledger, 5 July 1907, p 1. Nebraska State Journal, 26 September

1905, p 9. Reno Evening Gazette, 27 August 1908, p 6. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 28 April 1902, p 2.

Salem Daily Journal, 24 June 1901, p 3. Winfield Daily Courier, 16 September 1901, p 3. 12 Barber County Index, 12 September 1906, p 1. Grace (2001). 13 Davenport Daily Times, 28 August 1907, p 8. 14 Coshocton Daily Age, 6 August 1906, p 8. Kansas City Kansas Globe, 27 March 1909, p 1; 31 March

1909, p 1; 2 April 1909, p 1; 3 April 1909, p 1. Salem Monitor 12 August 1909, p 5. York Gazette, 1 September 1906, p 3.

15 Canonsburg Daily Notes, 28 July 1909, p 2. Columbus Evening Republican, 6 May 1904, p 5. Coshocton

Daily Age, 12 July 1909, p 7. Crowley Daily Signal, 20 June 1906, p 5. Davenport Daily Times, 28

August 1907, p 8. Dayton Daily News, 2 June 1926, p 3; 3 June 1926, p 8. El Paso Herald, 29 June

1914, p 7. Fairmount West Virginian, 24 August 1909, p 6. Greenville Evening Record, 12 August 1903,

p 1. Houston Daily Post, 28 June 1908, p 18. Kansas City Gazette Globe, 9 April 1910, p 1. Kansas

City Kansas Globe, 31 March 1909, p 1; 3 April 1909, p 1. Kansas City Times, 7 April 1910, p 12.

Liberty Vindicator, 3 July 1908, p 2. Los Angeles Herald, 19 November 1909, p 12. Louisville Courier-

Journal, 12 May 1905, p 7. New York Clipper, 28 September 1907, p 863. Philadelphia Inquirer, 30

July 1905, p 14; 7 August 1905, p 10; 1 September 1905, p 13; 5 September 1905, p 10. Pittsburgh

Post, 30 September 1905, p 6; 16 July 1909, p 8. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 26 August 1903, p

12. Shreveport Times, 3 July 1908, p 5. Wilmington Evening Journal, 30 August 1905, p 2. York

Gazette, 13 September 1905, p 3. Eberle (2017, page 62).

23

16 Davenport Democrat and Leader, 4 October 1909, p 2. Des Moines Evening Tribune, 28 April 1909, p 6; 5

May 1909, p 6; 15 May 190, p 8; 5 June 1909, p 8; 10 June 1909, p 6; 24 August 1909, p 6. Des

Moines Register and Leader, 30 May 1909, p 5 (second section); 18 May 1909, p 4. Iowa City Citizen, 1

October 1909, p 8. Little Falls Herald, 13 August 1909, p 1. Minneapolis Tribune, 15 July 1909, p 9; 29 July 1909, p 12; 1 August 1909, p 2; 5 August 1909, p 6.

17 Bismarck Daily Tribune, 17 July 1910, p 5; 19 July 1910, p 5. Denison Review, 28 September 1910, p 12.

Des Moines Evening Tribune, 26 February 1910, p 8; 5 May 1910, p 8; 9 May 1910, p 5. Des Moines

Register and Leader, 12 April 1910, p 5; 8 May 1910, p 1 (sporting section). Fremont Evening Tribune,

12 September 1910, p 5. Kansas City Gazette Globe, 9 April 1910, p 1. Kansas City Times, 7 April 1910,

p 12. Kearney Daily Hub, 26 August 1910, p 2. Yellowstone Monitor, 28 July 1910, p 8. 18 Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 14 July 1911, p 3; 15 July 1911, p 3; 18 July 1911, p 3. Calumet News, 28 August

1911, p 3, 7. Chicago Inter Ocean, 7 August 1911, p 4. Escanaba Morning Press, 24 August 1911, p 1; 25

August 1911, p 1. Lead Daily Call, 5 June 1911, p 1. Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, 27 July 1911, p 8.

Rapid City Daily Journal, 4 June 1911, p 1. Sioux City Journal, 14 May 1911, p 1 (sporting section). 19 Des Moines Evening Tribune, 28 March 1912, p 10. Des Moines Register and Leader, 19 August 1912, p 2.

Minneapolis Tribune, 12 August 1912, p 8. Sioux City Journal, 19 May 1912, p 3 (sporting section); 20

May 1912, p 3; 22 August 1912, p 10. Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader, 27 May 1912, p 7; 21 August

1912, p 5; 26 August 1912, p 7; 27 August 1912, p 6. Virginia Enterprise, 21 June 1912, p 7. Flaspohler (2019).

20 Minneapolis Tribune, 8 August 1912, p 12. 21 Minneapolis Tribune, 12 August 1912, p 8. 22 Des Moines Register and Leader, 28 June 1914, p 1 (sports section). Louisville Courier-Journal, 4 May

1913, p 8 (section 3); 8 September 1913, p 7. New Orleans Times-Democrat, 16 February 1914, p 7.

Olean Evening Herald, 11 August 1913, p 15. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 5 June 1913, p 6. Tampa Daily

Times, 21 March 1914, p 16; 24 March 1914, p 11. Tampa Morning Tribune, 4 April 1914, p 11; 19 April 1914, p B2.

23 Columbus Evening Republican, 18 May 1916, p 6. Louisville Courier-Journal, 13 June 1915, p 11 (section 3).

24 Albany-Decatur Daily, 28 May 1917, p 4. Caruthersville Twice-A-Week Democrat, 6 July 1917, p 5.

Kansas City Gazette Globe, 28 October 1915, p 4. St. Joseph Gazette, 4 October 1917, p 7; 7 October

1917, p 14. St. Joseph News-Press, 8 October 1917, p 10. 25 Atlanta Constitution, 20 June 1921, p 6. Bismarck Daily Tribune, 26 June 1919, p 8. Brainerd Daily

Dispatch, 27 August 1927, p 5. Brazil Daily Times, 5 May 1923, p 3. Chippewa Daily Gazette, 15

August 1923, p 6. Columbus Daily Telegram, 19 August 1925, p 4. Corsicana Daily Sun, 31 August

1925, p 1 (section two). Kansas City Kansan, 28 May 1922, p 11B. Kokomo Tribune, 20 August

1929, p 12; 22 August 1929, p 14. Lansing State Journal, 26 July 1923, p 13. Leavenworth Post, 19

June 1922, p 3. Parsons Daily Sun, 17 July 1920, p 6. St. Joseph Gazette, 26 June 1922, p 3. St. Joseph

News-Press, 22 May 1922, p 10. 26 Dayton Herald, 8 October 1937, p 14. Winnipeg Evening Tribune, 6 October 1937, p 14. 27 San Francisco Examiner, 9 November 1929, p 19; 5 April 1945, p 10. 28 Lincoln Evening News, 16 May 1905, p 6. 29 Seattle Sunday Times, 20 August 1905, p 17. Topeka Daily Capital, 10 May 1905, p 1. Washington Post,

15 May 1905, p 8. 30 Kansas City Journal, 2 July 1905, p 8. Butte Inter Mountain, 21 July 1905, p 7. 31 Howell County Gazette, 23 June 1899, p 3. 32 Indianapolis Freeman, 10 February 1912, p 7.

24

33 Albuquerque Morning Journal, 3 October 1909, p 3. Florence Bulletin, 5 October 1911, p 1. Fort Scott

Daily Republican, 12 August 1905, p 1. Howell County Gazette, 3 November 1910, p 8. Iola Daily

Register, 27 May 1905, p 8. Kearny County Advocate, 19 July 1906, p 1. Los Angeles Herald, 14

October 1909, p 12; 15 October 1909, p 13. Oakland Tribune, 3 September 1911, p 35. Reading

Herald, 22 July 1910, p 1. West Plains Journal, 11 May 1911, p 8. Wichita Beacon, 3 August 1912, p 15 34 Hutchinson News, 14 April 1908, p 3; 18 April 1908, p 3. Kansas City Star, 31 March 1908, p 14; 7

April 1908, p 6. Kansas City Times, 1 March 1909, p 12. 35 Kansas City Journal, 17 August 1915, p 8. Pleasanton Observer-Enterprise, 28 September 1916, p 7. St.

Joseph News-Press, 20 April 1916, p 14. 36 Denver Post, 13 July 1920, p 13. Pratt Daily Tribune, 17 July 1920, p 4. Pratt Republican, 7 September

1920, p 4. 37 Chanute Sun, 27 May 1905, p 4. Independence Daily Reporter, 26 May 1905, p 1; 2 June 1905, p 1. Iola

Daily Register, 26 May 1905, p 5. Kansas City Star, 25 May 1905, p 12; 19 July 1905, p 12; 20 July

1905, p 10. Moran Herald, 26 May 1905, p 1. Mound City Torch of Liberty, 25 May 1905, p 4. 38 Altoona Tribune, 17 August 1905, p 1. Daily Illinois State Journal, 6 August 1905, p 15. Kansas City

Journal, 2 July 1905, p 8. Kansas City Kansas Globe, 31 July 1905, p 4. Mulberry News, 25 August

1905, p 8. Neodesha Daily Sun, 16 August 1905, p 1. Shelbina Democrat, 12 July 1905, p 1. 39 Kansas City Star, 4 August 1905, p 14. 40 Allen County Herald, 21 August 1905, p 2. Altoona Tribune, 17 August 1905, p 1. Arcadia Times, 31

August 1905, p 2. Buffalo Advocate, 24 August 1905, p 5. Burlington Republican, 4 August 1905, p 3.

Chanute Daily Tribune, 22 August 1905, p 3. Fredonia Daily Herald, 18 August 1905, p 1. Garnett

Journal, 18 August 1905, p 8. Henry County Republican, 31 August 1905, p 1. Howell County Gazette, 7

September 1905, p 1. Kansas City Kansas Globe, 31 July 1905, p 4. Kansas City Star, 7 September

1905, p 6. LeRoy Reporter, 18 August 1905, p 1. Mulberry News, 25 August 1905, p 8. Neodesha

Daily Sun, 16 August 1905, p 1, 2. Neosho Falls Post, 13 August 1905, p 4. Neosho Valley Times, 11

August 1905, p 1. Ottawa Evening Herald, 1 August 1905, p 3; 2 August 1905, p 3. Plattsburg Leader,

28 July 1905, p 1. Pomona Republican, 10 August 1905, p 1. Quenomo Republican, 10 August 1905, p

3. Shelbina Democrat, 12 July 1905, p 1. Weir City Journal, 25 August 1905, p 5. Woodson County

Advocate, 18 August 1905, p 2. 41 Lexington Intelligencer, 5 May 1906, p 1. Ness County News, 5 May 1906, p 6. Morgan County

Democrat, 4 May 1906, p 5. 42 Fredonia Daily Herald, 29 May 1906, p 3. Neodesha Daily Sun, 31 May 1906, p 1. Pleasanton Observer,

17 May 1906, p 8. 43 Abilene Daily Chronicle, 30 June 1906, p 4. Belleville Telescope, 22 June 1906, p 5. Blue Rapids Times,

14 June 1906, p 5. Burr Oak Herald, 21 June 1906, p 5. Clyde Republican, 14 June 1906, p 4. Downs

Times, 28 June 1906, p 1. Herington Sun, 5 July 1906, p 1. Holton Recorder-Tribune, 7 June 1906, p 8.

Osborne County News, 28 June 1906, p 5. Perry Mirror, 31 May 1906, p 4. Salina Evening Journal, 28

June 1906, p 3; 29 June 1906, p 8. Seneca Courier-Democrat, 7 June 1906, p 4. Stockton Western

News, 28 June 1906, p 8. 44 Fredonia Daily Herald, 29 May 1906, p 3. Neodesha Daily Sun, 31 May 1906, p 1. Pleasanton Observer,

17 May 1906, p 8. Topeka State Journal, 16 July 1906, p 2. 45 Anthony Republican, 29 June 1906, p 1. Augusta Daily Gazette, 9 July 1906, p 4. Buffalo Advocate, 24

May 1906, p 5. Caney News, 8 June 1906, p 8. Cherryvale Daily Republican, 4 June 1906, p 1. Dodge

City Globe-Republican, 19 July 1906, p 10. Elk City Sun, 1 June 1906, p 1. Elk County Citizen, 6 June

1906, p 3. Ellinwood Leader, 12 July 1906, p 1. Elsmore Enterprise, 25 May 1906, p 3. Erie Sentinel,

25 May 1906, p 4. Eureka Democratic Messenger, 31 May 1906, p 5. Fort Scott Daily Tribune and Fort

25

Scott Daily Monitor, 21 May 1906, p 3. Fredonia Daily Herald, 29 May 1906, p 3. Garden City Herald,

21 July 1906, p 2. Havana Harp, 15 June 1906, p 1. Iola Daily Register, 28 May 1906, p 4. Moran

Herald, 25 May 1906, p 8. Mount Hope Weekly Clarion, 13 July 1906, p 1. Neodesha Daily Sun, 31 May

1906, p 1. Pawnee Rock Herald, 12 July 1906, p 6. Pleasanton Observer, 17 May 1906, p 8. Stafford

Courier, 19 July 1906, p 4. Syracuse Journal, 20 July 1906, p 4. Wichita Eagle, 4 July 1906, p 7; 5 July 1906, p 7.

46 Kansas City Star, 13 July 1941, p 13C. 47 Hays Free Press, 1 September 1906, p 1. Lacrosse Chieftain, 7 September 1906, p 5. Leoti Standard, 30

August 1906, p 1. Ness County News, 1 September 1906, p 5. Stafford Courier, 19 July 1906, p 4.

Syracuse Journal, 20 July 1906, p 4. Wichita Eagle, 3 July 1906, p 7. 48 Peabody Gazette, 12 July 1906, p 5. 49 Leoti Standard, 30 August 1906, p 1. McCracken Enterprise, 31 August 1906, p 4. Ness County News, 1

September 1906, p 5. Scott County News, 23 August 1906, p 1; 30 August 1906, p 1. Stafford

Courier, 19 July 1906, p 4. 50 Hays Free Press, 1 September 1906, p 1. Moundridge Journal, 14 September 1906, p 1. Ness County

News, 1 September 1906, p 5; 22 September 1906, p 5. Sedgwick Pantagraph, 13 September 1906, p 1.

Wichita Eagle, 3 July 1906, p 7. Eberle (2017, pages 61, 145, 285). Gershman (1987). Wood (2013).

51 Hays Free Press, 1 September 1906, p 1. Moundridge Journal, 14 September 1906, p 1. Sedgwick

Pantagraph, 13 September 1906, p 1. Wichita Beacon, 14 September 1906, p 6. Wichita Eagle, 3 July 1906, p 7. Gershman (1987). Wood (2013, pages 35–37).

52 Gypsum Advocate, 21 September 1906, p 4. Kansas City Star, 27 September 1906, p 12. 53 Columbus Telegram, 5 July 1907, p 5. Des Moines Register and Leader, 21 July 1907, p 1 (second

section); 24 July 1907, p 6. Fremont Evening Tribune, 6 June 1907, p 7. Lincoln Daily Star, 30 May

1907, p 9; 2 June 1907, p 2. Marshalltown Evening Times-Republican, 23 July 1907, p 2. Norfolk

Weekly News-Journal, 5 July 1907, p 7. St. Joseph Gazette, 19 May 1907, p 3; 21 May 1907, p 3. St.

Joseph News-Press, 25 April 1907, p 3; 30 May 1907, p 5. Sioux City Journal, 27 June 1907, p 9; 20 July 1907, p 9.

54 Omaha Daily Bee, 10 September 1907, p 6. St. Joseph News-Press, 27 September 1907, p 8. Sioux City

Journal, 21 August 1907, p 2, 3; 27 August 1907, p 3; 2 September 1907, p 3; 3 September 1907, p 3; 4

September 1907, p 7; 9 September 1907, p 3. Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader, 5 August 1907, p 5; 8

August 1907, p 1; 12 August 1907, p 1. Wichita Eagle, 3 October 1907, p 5. 55 Alma Enterprise, 15 May 1908, p 1. De Soto News, 7 May 1908, p 6. Lawrence Daily Gazette, 4 May

1908, p 3. Rossville Reporter, 8 May 1908, p 1. Sioux City Journal, 29 May 1908, p 7; 31 May 1908, p

11; 1 June 1908, p 3; 4 June 1908, p 7. Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader, 17 June 1903, p 3; 19 June 1908, p 2; 20 June 1908, p 2.

56 Deadwood Daily Pioneer-Times, 28 June 1908, p 1. Junction City Sentinel, 3 September 1908, p 1.

Rossville Reporter, 8 May 1908, p 8. Sioux City Journal, 31 May 1908, p 11. 57 Alliance Herald, 16 July 1908, p 1. Colby Tribune, 20 August 1908, p 1. Deadwood Daily Pioneer-Times,

28 June 1908, p 1; 2 July 1908, p 1; 4 July 1908, p 6; 7 July 1908, p 4; 8 July 1908, p 4; 9 July 1908, p 1.

Hill City People’s Reveille, 20 August 1908, p 8. Hot Springs Weekly Star, 17 July 1908, p 2. Lebanon

Times, 27 August 1908, p 4. Lincoln Daily Star, 10 August 1908, p 4. McCook Tribune, 7 August

1908, p 1. Nebraska State Journal, 30 August 1908, p 6. Queen City Mail, 8 July 1908, p 1. Rapid City

Daily Journal, 2 July 1908, p 3; 3 July 1908, p 1. St. Joseph Gazette, 20 September 1908, p 3. Sherman

County Record, 20 August 1908, p 1. Smith County Messenger, 27 August 1908, p 5. 58 Junction City Sentinel, 2 September 1908, p 3; 3 September 1908, p 1. Kansas City Star, 22 September

1908, p 12.

26

59 Howell County Gazette, 3 June 1909, p 4. West Plains Journal, 27 May 1909, p 8. 60 Burlington Republican, 25 April 1910, p 8. Hamilton Grit, 21 July 1910, p 3. Houston Herald, 11 May

1911, p 9. Howell County Gazette, 3 June 1909, p 1; 2 September 1909, p 1. Independence Daily

Reporter, 3 May 1910, p 8; 11 July 1910, p 6. Independence Evening Star, 3 May 1910, p 1. Leonardville

Monitor, 14 September 1911, p 1. Oak Hill Gazette, 14 September 1911, p 4. Springfield Republican, 6

May 1911, p 4. West Plains Journal, 10 June 1909, p 8. 61 Independence Daily Reporter, 11 July 1910, p 6. 62 Arizona Daily Star, 12 October 1909, p 2; 15 December 1909, p 13. Bakersfield Californian, 7 October

1909, p 5. Los Angeles Herald, 11 October 1909, p 6; 14 October 1909, p 12; 17 October 1909, p 6; 20 October 1909, p 12; 1 November 1909, p 8; 11 November 1909, p 12; 28 November 1909, p 7 (Part

II). Woodland Daily Democrat, 29 September 1909, p 4. Yuma Examiner, 2 December 1909, p 1. 63 Burlington Republican, 25 April 1910, p 8. Council Bluffs Sunday Nonpareil, 24 May 1914, p 8. Eudora

Weekly News, 30 April 1914, p 1. Hamilton Grit, 21 July 1910, p 3. Hutchinson Daily Gazette, 2 March

1909, 3. Independence Daily Reporter, 3 May 1910, p 8; 11 July 1910, p 6. Independence Evening Star, 3 May 1910, p 1.

64 Chillicothe Constitution, 7 September 1912, p 7. Guthrie Daily Leader, 3 September 1912, p 1; 4

September 1912, p 1; 7 September 1912, p 1. Hutchinson News, 4 September 1912, p 1. Oakland

Tribune, 5 October 1912, p 15. Omaha Daily Bee, 9 July 1913, p 4. Tulsa Daily World, 7 July 1912, p 6.

Wichita Beacon, 3 August 1912, p 15. Wichita Daily Eagle, 11 September 1912, p 3 65 Atchison Daily Globe, 4 May 1914, p 2; 11 May 1914, p 6. Council Bluffs Sunday Nonpareil, 24 May 1914,

p 8. Eudora Weekly News, 30 April 1914, p 1. Minneapolis Tribune, 4 August 1914, p 9. Omaha Daily

Bee, 13 September 1914, p 1-S (sports section). St. Joseph Gazette, 21 September 1914, p 6. Sioux

City Journal, 18 August 1914, p 11. Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader, 8 June 1914, p 8. Topeka Daily

Capital, 4 May 1914, p 2. 66 Crawford County Enterprise, 18 June 1915, p 1; 25 June 1915, p 1. Girard Press, 24 June 1915, p 1.

Oswego Democrat, 25 June 1915, p 1. Pittsburg Weekly Headlight, 24 June 1915, p 8. Pleasanton Herald,

4 June 1915, p 3; 11 June 1915, p 3. Tulsa Daily World, 6 July 1915, p 1, 10; 30 July 1915, p 6; 17 August 1915, p 6.

67 Pittsburg Sun, 26 September 1916, p 6. Pleasanton Observer-Enterprise, 21 September 1916, p 7. St.

Joseph Gazette, 2 September 1916, p 6. Summerfield Sun, 20 July 1916, p 1. 68 Abilene Daily Chronicle, 12 June 1920, p 4. Topeka State Journal, 12 June 1920, p 3, 7. 69 Topeka State Journal, 12 June 1920, p 3. 70 Abilene Daily Chronicle, 25 June 1920, p 4. Beloit Daily Call, 26 June 1920, p 4; 29 June 1920, p 1.

Chase County Leader, 2 July 1920, p 4. Coldwater Talisman, 22 July 1920, p 1. Emporia Weekly Gazette,

17 June 1920, p 4. Enterprise Push and Enterprise Journal, 8 July 1920, p 1. Greeley Daily Tribune-

Republican, 9 August 1920, p 8. Herington Times, 24 June 1920, p 11. Hutchinson News, 12 July 1920,

p 3. Kinsley Mercury, 8 July 1920, p 1. Little River Monitor, 15 July 1920, p 1. Lyons News, 22 June

1920, p 1. Manhattan Daily Nationalist, 26 July 1920, p 1. Newton Evening Kansan-Republican, 19 July

1920, p 6. Pratt Daily Tribune, 17 July 1920, p 3, 4. Pratt Republican, 17 July 1920, p 1. Western

Times, 26 August 1920, p 1. 71 Newton Evening Kansan-Republican, 19 July 1920, p 6. 72 Denver Post, 14 August 1920, p 8. 15 August 1920, p 9. Rocky Mountain News, 12 August 1920, p 11. 73 Kansas City Times, 14 January 1952, p 10; 13 September 1954, p 19; 1 July 1955, p 36. St. Louis Post-

Dispatch, 15 November 1938, p 17.

You can learn more about the early history of

baseball played by teams throughout Kansas,

including women’s teams, in the book Kansas

Baseball, 1858–1941, published in 2017 by the

University Press of Kansas and available in

paperback or e-book through bookstores and

online retailers.

The book explores the early game played by

hundreds of town teams composed of white

males, as well as teams of women, African

Americans, American Indians, and Mexican

Americans. Also described are the regional

minor leagues and major league tours, along

with the histories of towns still playing

baseball in the state’s oldest ballparks

constructed between 1924 and 1940.