Speaker today. T is an honor to r he was born in the bluegrass state but moved to the greenest state in the land of the free. As soon as he could. And it was here at the university of tennessee, where he completed his ph. D. In history. It is truly an honor to introduce our speaker today. He was born in the bluegrass state but moved to the greenest state in the land of the free as soon as he could. It was here at the university of tennessee where he completed his phd in history. And we know that doctor cardy is a man of good sense because he stayed. He is now in east tennessean and it is rumored that he wears the color orange throughout the years. Safe basketball season. After all, no man is perfect. What doctor cardy continues to perfect is his understanding of the past. He and i first met when he was working here for the east Tennessee Historical society and the Education Department and he alongside lisa oakley who is with us today, worked tirelessly to build the network of teachers throughout the region who understood the power of local history in the classroom. They also worked tirelessly to create a network of students, both in high school and middle school who are competing at the highest levels in the National History day competitions. Despite the workload, doctor cardy was also generous with his time with me and the department. He proved to be an invaluable resource for projects dealing with Abraham Lincoln and the civil war and most recently, the jim crow era in knoxville. And it was really during this time that we first started talking about the origins of baseball and how to recreate it in knoxville. So im sure you are going to enjoy that today. Today, doctor cardy serves as an assistant professor of history at Lincoln Memorial university where he is also the director of the Abraham Lincoln center for leadership and public policy. Outside of that, you should know that doctor cardy cares deeply for his family. He is an avid lover of the mountains. He is a Founding Member of the Knoxville Vintage Baseball Club and has a strong love for chocolate milk, donuts and olive garden, in no particular order. You should also know that he is a dogged researcher, the type that understands the power of place and the importance of individual stories to larger events. And in that vein, his forthcoming title is on the knoxville milliondollar fire, which will be an interesting publication, one i have encouraged him to retitle as one hot night in knoxville. But enough about the future. Our topic at hand is perfect mania, the origins of baseball at knoxville. Please join me in welcoming my colleague and good friend, dr. William hardy. [ applause ] good afternoon everybody. It is a pleasure to be back in the east Tennessee History Center where i spent eight years in the Education Department. And this topic for today really comes full circle in the building. It was approximately 10 years ago when i was working on the second floor when adam walked into my office with the baseball in his hand and set it down on my desk and have this green all over his face like, what is this . This is what we will be doing next summer. I said, this is interesting. And he pitched the idea that he was starting a vintage Baseball Club and he had seen two clubs playing in the National Nashville area. I was excited because i always wanted to play baseball. For a number of reasons. Unfortunately, never had the opportunity to play any baseball as a young man work and so i was excited like this is great. I will get to play baseball. And adam said, not exactly. What do you mean . And he said, i was thinking about, rather than playing baseball, in your row, you would be what we call the arbiter and vintage baseball, the umpire. And all the excitement drained from my face. Being able to live my childhood fantasy was gone in a heartbeat. No fault of him. He thought it would be perfect to be the umpire in a vintage baseball game. The role is to explain the rules of the 1864 game. And to also offer any context. And i can do that in the civil war era but i could know that, adam, you will play baseball and i want to play baseball. Come on, captain. Put me in. Im ready to play. And there were none for reasons i was excited to play vintage baseball. One obviously getting to play baseball. Number two, well, i needed the exercise badly. Number three would be a great opportunity for my kids to see their old man play ball. And maybe occasionally not make a fool of themselves and do something that looked like a bit of athletic prowess in the garden. A number four, i knew instantly that there was a possibility of publication opportunities. Being a civil war scholar, i knew that there had been a wealth of knowledge on baseball. But the amateur game in the south post civil war, even pre civil war, had not been thoroughly explored by historians. I know there are articles out there by baseball historians working with the society of baseball and im going to butcher this. The society of american baseball research. Thank you. I know they have done some studies. But nothing really extensive on post civil war baseball. Especially in knoxville. I was excited to dig into that story. And adam had already done a little bit of brief history about the two teams that were going to be playing knoxville which was a team that existed in 1867 and the dry town boys of harriman, tennessee, which i believe existed a little bit later in the 1870s if i recall correctly. This was a really exciting opportunity to play the game and to do the research and hopefully produce something. It just took 10 years to do it. A lot on my plate. And thats what im going to talk about today. Im excited to share the product of that 10 years of research into baseball history. First, im going to talk about the gentlemans game. The sort of amateur era baseball. Baseball was founded in the antebellum urban american environment and turn into a Sporting Fraternity that emerged in 19th century america. It is middle to upper middle class culture. A culture that emphasized clean sports and exercise to improve ones health. Character and morality. The sport of baseball for the early amateur base wohlers served as a vehicle to improve one pack is the spiritual well being while providing masculine camaraderie, sociability and entertainment. These early Baseball Clubs sought white gentlemen members, respectable young men of good position and good character. Often connected with various mercantile and banking houses and a sprinkling of other professional occupations such as lawyers, doctors, Real Estate Agents, et cetera. The game of baseball took many forms. But the game that becomes the national pastime, about the time of the American Civil War was the new york game which happened in brooklyn, new york. In this game really born in the mid 1850s as rules were laid down and stipulations on the game. As several of these new york baseball lists would eventually leave gotham for new beginnings to the north, to the south, mostly to the west, they took the new york game with them and organized Baseball Clubs. That is how this game became a National Game in short order. If you look on the slide right here, before the American Civil War, baseball has spread across the continent and is out on the west coast as early as 1858. But, importantly, for what is coming and i will discuss, is that baseball existed in the south precivil war. You can find it in louisville, kentucky. You can find it in augusta, georgia and galveston, houston, texas and new orleans. It was all across the south and in memphis and in nashville tennessee. It did exist before the 1860s. It was not, as often told, a sport that came to the south of a product of American Civil War and appeared when southern soldiers saw the game being played in their prisoner work camps or elsewhere or maybe on the battlefield during a period in which there was no fighting, in which baseball is played. Baseballs growth was not halted by the American Civil War. It was only temporarily slowed. Yes, fewer games were played and many baseball lists joined the war fighting for both union and Confederate Forces but these baseball lists turned soldiers continue to play the game in their camps, whether leisure and weather permitted which helped spread the game to those who had never seen the game before. Soldiers played here at for polasky, georgia. These are Union Soldiers. Usually regarded as the first baseball game. You can see the 48th new york infantry. In the background, is a baseball game being played back there. As i mentioned a minute ago, Union Soldiers would play baseball even and confederate prisoner war camps as seen in this 1863 picture of a prison work camp in Salisbury North carolina. With the civil war did was help democratize the game by exposing it to a bluecollar class so to speak, of americans who in the post civil war era would organize Baseball Clubs of their own as a source of not only entertainment and physical exercise but also to maintain a masculine camaraderie that the soldiers were used to from four years of serving and fighting alongside each other. After the war, baseball exploded. Americans caught the baseball fever by the tens of thousands. And this epidemic struck americans from coasttocoast with such ferocity that in the words of the editor of the Daily National intelligence, it constituted a perfect mania of a masculine persuasion, irrespective of age, station or condition has an attack of the baseball fever which brings us to knoxville, tennessee. When did baseball arrive and by whom . The origin story of knoxville baseball, until more recently, has often been attributed to one man, samuel billings dowd as the knoxville said founder of baseball. It comes from an article that has been widely available to researchers and those interested in baseball and upstairs on the third floor of the historical collection and the vertical files. It was the article published november 20th, 1921 athen knoxville sent the associate editor and manager, nb withers pinned the article in which he wrote, baseball has quite changed a bit since the civil war but the games were just as interestingly and hotly contested back in 1865 as they are today in 1921. In those days, gloves were unknown and overhand pitching was not allowed. Big scores were the rule and it was no strange thing for one team to beat another by a comfortable margin of 30 runs. In these days, babe ruth is willing to call it a good day when he knocks a couple of home runs out of the polo grounds but the captain of the old knoxville team says that he always made two or three home runs in a game. Sb dowd was samuel billings dowd and he was already widely known, not just around knoxville but across america. He was not just one of the older merchants and knoxville but was nationally known as an expert sharpshooter. So much so that he was featured on up poster by United StatesCartridge Company with other expert sharpshooters and on the bottom road dead center, you might notice a female. That is annie oakley. On the right side, you might already recognize sam dowd was Close Friends with the worlds wealthiest man oil tycoon, john d rockefeller. They were golfing buddies. And he would often joke to the press that rockefeller wins all the time but he cannot beat me. I can outrun him. I can beat him in a game of golf and rockefeller could only get four holes in before he was sent for the day. For those who know little bit about rockefeller, he had ill health. Dowd was a largerthanlife personality. This article from 1921 in which he tells the origins of knoxville baseball, needs to be read very carefully. It is a collection of memories from the 82yearold man who is reportedly recalling events that are from 55 years in the past. According to dowd, he started the first Baseball Club and knoxville in 1865. And it was the first such Baseball Club in the south. He said he had gotten the names of about 60 men, a mix of northern and southern boys from the civil war who are possible candidates to join his Baseball Club. And he set a date for a meeting at a local billiards room on j street. Knoxville, although situated in the heart of unionist civil war east tennessee, it was a deeply divided city during the war. So therefore, there is going to be a good mix of unionists and confederates. On the day of the meeting, dow was surprised that only half of the men showed up. These are all union men. They quickly organized the team called the knoxville knoxvilles. Dow was elected captain and the security field on the east side of j street and began to practice. Meanwhile, according to dow, the southern boys who didnt show up, they met elsewhere and organized their own club and called themselves the host Baseball Club. They security field out along what is now jackson avenue. Somewhere near the Railroad Tracks to practice. Now dow goes on to mention some of the names of the base bowlers which are instrumental in getting a list of possible baseball players. But he goes back to say that the first baseball game was shortly played in 1865. Just right after the end of the American Civil War. And in dows memory, this game was amazing with several freak injuries in which he identifies unfortunate victims by name and how they came to incur these injuries. Dow claimed that the knoxvilles won the first match by 17 runs and they played a number of games over the years in which the host won some but then knoxvilles basically won the most. He closed noting that he kept the Team Together for a few years until Development Made it necessary to abandon the old baseball grounds. Now, writing the history of the origins of baseball in knoxville means, as a historian, i cant rely on one source. I have to go out and corroborate dows story. I have to go find other evidence. I can be a journalist and use this and pull it out of the files and produce an article rather quickly. But as a historian, my name goes on the publication which im very proud of and i have to be able to show my evidence for the story. And up until now, there have been few historians who even delve into the topic. And they must be acknowledged because a good historian stands on the shoulders of those who came before us. I must say an honor to the late ron allen who was a local historian who did Considerable Research i imagine on the third floor of the microphone room going through newspapers and he compiled a list, a number of books of various topics of knoxville history. Which is a wonderful vehicle into any certain topic having you go straight to the source to refine these accounts. He writes about dow and talks about this article and acknowledges that she says 1865 but i cant find anything in the newspapers, not until least 1867. The second person i must acknowledge is adam alfre, and when he was doing his history of the first two baseball teams in the vintage Baseball League on the hosts and the dry tomboys of herriman, he produced his research and gave a presentation in which he was the first to really push back on the 1865 date and say, there is no evidence for 1865. It is 1867 and here are the newspaper articles. And adam was able to produce a variety of newspaper articles from 1867 with reports of these freak injuries that occurred during that socalled first baseball game that dow mentioned. And they occurred over multiple games. The third person i must acknowledge is mark aubry, who is a fascinating researcher. Actually, an unpaid researcher i think. He often will send me messages at midnight for a project that should have been finished by now, the fire book adam mentioned. Mark has been one of these great friends that i have met through playing vintage baseball and has been a source of that she has a wonderful source to help me in my research and he has produced he has several blogs on knoxville baseball. He has done some groundbreaking work on African American baseball, the negro leagues in knoxville and appalachian leagues. Featured on wbir recently and produces research for sabre. I stand on their shoulders and launched this project in which i had to go out and find a number of sources to be able to tell a much more complete story. Those sources include the newspaper articles, thanks to ron allen and his familys articles and box scores which produce names. Often last names only. Adam found a listing of eligible bachelors in knoxville in 1867. Under the list of bachelors, it gives a description of them and lists anyone playing baseball that these were baseball players. This gave me an additional name and in some cases, first names. Last names, i could not tell. If you have name like smith, i have a problem. How can i figure out who smith is . So the eligible bachelor ads would help. Census records, city directories. To be able to figure out who these people were and their occupations. Their net worth, photographs. Maps, to be able to discover where they played baseball and i loved going to cemeteries. Cemetery visits have provided additional information. Like military ranks that i did not know and then i can add another like this is another baseball player who played in the military. Samuel b dow. His article, for the most part, is pretty good. But he exaggerates a little bit about his athletic prowess and the dates are, as adam correctly argued, were little bit off. And go figure. 1855. It begins in the spring of 1865. The civil war is still going on. Knoxville is a disaster. The city, badly divided. Fought over. Occupied by both armies. Maybe only unoccupied for a few days and four years of war. How can they be playing baseball . A lot of these names on the list were not even here in 1865. One good thing came out of that. Will many things, but adams spoke in 2014 of a descendent of dow came and attended the talk. And had given him his information and i mentioned in passing that the descendent had been there and he had given him his personal information and he said he had some stuff. So when i finally got the nudge from the journal editor to get the article done, i contacted adam and he gave me the information and i was like, wow. This has been quite a number of years. I will try this email. And low and behold, i got a response within a few hours of sending the email and found him over in North Carolina he said, i have some stuff in my basement. This was the covid summer of 2020. I was ready to get out. I took precautions but i went to his house off of lake norman. It is beautiful. He took me into his basement. That might be a little weird. But cool things can be found in basements for historians. When i went down, he had this workbench and cases, books, documents all across the desk. Cases of stuff for two prominent knoxville families working on him getting the collection. There is a wealth of information in there. But he tells me, i have a lot of sam dow stuff here. I looked through it. I dont think i have any baseball stuff but you are welcome to go through it. There was no baseball. Nothing related to dow baseball but there was a wealth of information which i can now tell stories about dow and getting good and solid brief biography of this man. Sam dow was born in bangor, maine in 1849. At a few years of age, the family migrated to exeter, New Hampshire. I cant say for certain where baseball was played. But i can make inferences. The local academy, the Phillips Exeter academy, baseball was played. Even president lincoln son, robert todd lincoln, who attended there, played baseball. It is quite possible dow so baseball played there. He probably did not see the new york game there. In new england, they favor the massachusetts game which was a game im glad we do not play in vintage baseball. Because one way to put you out was by soaking. That is hitting you with the baseball. You can hit a baserunner and they would be out. Thankfully, we do not have those rules. But it is quite possibly baseball there. One of the things the descendent had was a diary of dow. It was before the baseball period and before the civil war. But it was 1859 until 1860. In the diary, i found that he had left exeter in 1859 and went to louisville, kentucky, my hometown. Pretty cool. And he followed his brother to go under the grocery business and learn the grocery trade. And in louisville, kentucky, baseball was very active. There were quite a number of teams. And gentlemen of his class were the gentleman that played the game. I cant say for certain he played baseball there. He did not say he played baseball before the period but it is quite possible that he saw baseball played in louisville. The civil war came and dow eagerly wanted to do his part and join the union war effort. He was in kentucky, which was neutral, so he crossed the ohio river and made his way to annapolis to see the governor of indiana and asked, i will raise a regiment to do our part and meeting president lincolns code of 75,000 troops to put down the rebellion. The governor said, i think you mr. Dow but we have enough troops. We met the quota. Dow said okay. He returned back to louisville, kentucky and then soon thereafter, joined the second kentucky calvary just across the ohio river in jacksonville, indiana. That is where they formed the second kentucky calvary not inside the kentucky state border. His civil war did not last long. He was at the battle of shiloh. He caught illness so severely that he had to go back home to exeter, New Hampshire to recover with his parents. When he recovered, he got a desk job basically with the United States government, at the service. He found his way to knoxville, tennessee in 1864, shortly after the burns site had liberated the city in the fall. It was they are knoxville that he laid down his roots, got into the grocery business and he made fast friends in the masonry and he gathered up a network of gentlemen just like himself. Now, we fastforward to 1867, a transformative event in knoxville. A transformative event along the entire east Tennessee River valley. When the host and river flooded now, we know there is the Tennessee River in knoxville, tennessee but at the time it was the holston river. The designation was not changed i believe in the General Assembly until the late 1890s or Something Like that where becomes the Tennessee River just north of the city. Here is an image of the flood of 1867. It was a flood that washed out many homes. Flooded the city via its creeks. First and second creek. Turning Downtown Knoxville virtually into an island which set up on a 60foot bluff, plateau so to speak if there is any flat ground in knoxville. And business sort of came to a standstill and it was during this period as the water slowly began to recede, that dow started thinking about and talking to some of his friends about the idea of, lets play baseball. Lets organize a Baseball Club. And therefore, on march the 19th, 1867, sam dow called the meeting together at joseph coopers saloon and this was an article that i found in the paper. It was very small print. Easily to be overseen when someone is going through microfilm and looking on it with their eyes and getting a migraine as a result. I benefit from todays technology and being able to do an Online Search at home and use ocr to pop in baseball and found this which i dont think anyone ever found. This was published in the knoxville wave on march 20th at a baseball meeting had occurred the night before. Here is a photograph of Downtown Knoxville. That is sam dow on the right at about approximately 1867. This image has always been published as 1869. Use the signs and the city directory and newspapers and you can find out that this picture is actually earlier than 1869. It is somewhere between the late summer of 1867 sorry. Late summer of 1866 and the spring of 1867. We are right in that period of baseball being organized. You can see the red arrow pointed at the store billiards located at ramsey hall just near flyers gallery. It was here that night that dow organized the meeting and it was, just as dow said, mostly northern men that had shown up. Union soldiers. In this meeting, dow organized it and on the right, he will be elected captain of the club. The gentleman on the far left is spencer munson. And there he is in his union uniform. Spencer munson is from mentor, ohio. And for a brief period of time later in his life, his next door neighbor was an ohio congressman by the name of james garfield, future president of the United States. If we move over to the right, second from the top left, that is William Chamberlain, william Bill Chamberlain as he was known. He served in the 23rd of ohio. And he served under the command of two future United States president s, Rutherford B Hayes and william mckinley. He also is known as being a druggist, part of the firm of sanford, albert and chamberlain. Maybe i have that backwards, how the firm went. But sanford albers and chamberlain drug from. The general into his right, third from the left, is homer Charles Squire who also was a Union Officer and in the Revenue Service which dow worked in the Revenue Service and mason. All these connections to the masonry and the union army and through their professional occupation class, these gentlemen, lower left is Luther Stephen trowbridge, a Brigadier General in the United States army. The highest ranking officer among any of the baseball us. But there is a common theme. These are officers. Munson was a sergeant. Chamberlain was the first lieutenant. I will skip over to the gentleman on the third from the left. That is ec camp who also served in the union army and owned the greystone mansion, the home of wate today. Was a member in the grant administration. Another connection, republicans. All of these unionists who were republicans. Highly supportive unconditional unionists i should say, who supported Abraham Lincolns policies. Not just preservation of the union but the emancipation. The outlier in this group is the gentleman on the far right on the bottom underneath dow. That is john w paxton who was a mason and a lone confederate on the team. He was the captain of the 19th tennessee, paxton grays, as they were known. And when dow said it is a clear distinction between union and confederates, he sort of neglects one of his closest friends here who was a confederate. For the most part, these are Union Soldiers. Unconditional unions will be the future Republican Leaders of knoxville, tennessee. They chose the baseball ground. This dow would say in his 1921 article that this was, at that time, the present location of woodruffs store on j street which is the for hundredth block. Finding a vacant land in knoxville was tough in the Business District. The only area left was todays 300 blocks of gay street. The problem was the land was the dump. People dumped trash there. It was overgrown. It had jumps in wheat and everything in the area. And the mccombs owned it. And they were eager to sell it to begin further development in the city marching forward the Business District further north to the railroad. And dow and his close friend charles see more, a lawyer, Real Estate Agent and close personal friend of the mccombs, went to the family, the Charles Mcclellan and face mcclellan, the two oldest in the family and they were the grandchildren of Charles Mcclung who basically is laid out in knoxville, tennessee and they get a lot of land as a result of that when they laid out the city in 1791. They got the blessing to play baseball. That they would clear the land for baseball ground to play. But under one condition. They said, when we are ready to sell this, we are going to sell this property and you have to find somewhere else. So fine. So they quickly went together to clear the land and prepared for baseball. What about the other gentlemen, the socalled southern gentleman that dow mentioned that didnt show up . There was a group of men who did not show up who did not want to play with dows knoxville men. These men organize their own Baseball Club. I gather they got the name possibly thinking about the flood that recently happened at the river. That is just my and friends. They put together a club. They chose as their captain, Robert Armstrong and his brother, Frank Armstrong played. What is interesting about this team is, where is the knoxvilles are mostly union men and mostly from the north, gentlemen who had come into the city at the end of the American Civil War. I should go ahead and say, not carpetbaggers. That mythology of the lost cause of carpet bagging and northern yankees coming in and exploiting the Natural Resources of the south. Here in knoxville, they were welcome. They looked fondly on knoxville. They had served here. If you read the letters, they talked about east tennessee being the most beautiful man they had ever seen and east Tennessee Women being the most beautiful women on gods green earth. And they came here, eager, invited to come here and married those southern daughters. They were welcome because they had the energy and the vision of a new self that they wanted to build. And yes, that meant to tap into unNatural Resources and they wanted to diversify the souths economy and not just be an agricultural base to help east tennessee grow and progress. They dont fit the carpet bagging mythology myth because one thing they did recognize the smart thing was marrying southern daughters. But also, they did not bring a radical social agenda. They did support emancipation. These were more moderate republicans who didnt necessarily advocate for greater and civil Political Rights for africanamericans. Having done that, they were suitable to stay. There were some radical republicans that showed up here that were driven out really quick and knoxville, tennessee. But back to the host. Were these southern soldiers . They were not really southern soldiers. They came from southern sympathizing families and part. They were very young men. On average, 22 years of age. One player was 14. Then knoxville knoxvilles where an older group over 25 and a half on average. The holstons were a mix. They had two Union Veterans and two confederate veterans. One of those Union Veterans was basically a medical cadet. He did not see any action in one of the confederate veterans was a career who passed messages. These were men who worked too young to fight. What i found in my research, what connected them was politics. Like the knoxville knoxvilles were republicans, these were democrats. They were a mix of southern sympathizers who sympathized with the Confederate Army and confederacy during the civil war but there was also a bunch of unionists, conditional unionists from families like williams. The gentleman in the upper right photograph is jc williams who comes from the John Williams family. His dad was a close friend of president andrew johnson. These gentlemen were unionist supporters and supported lincolns preservation of the union. But the moment emancipation got on the table, they were done. They did not sign up for any social change. And so at the end of the civil war, these conditional unionists gravitated to the point that they were breaking bread with their initial enemies, the rebels or southern sympathizers. These become democrats. John c williams is a prominent lawyer and defended coal miners in the coalminer wars. And played a prominent role in some democratic administrations, president ial administrations. The german on the bottom is colonel william caused well with his twomonthold pony. William caused what was a very wealthy gentleman and was a confederate courier. The confederate courier i mentioned. The gentleman on the upper left is samuel bell luttrell. He was the mayors son. The mayor of knoxville during the American Civil War. This was his son. A union captain during the American Civil War. When he came back in the postwar period, the radical policies and state governments from William Parson brown drove luttrell to the democratic party. And mentioned his brother who also played dreams luttrell junior during the American Civil War. Politics brings us together. So its not so much that. It is the postwar politics that united. The knoxville knoxvilles being republicans and then being the democrats. Where did these players play . We have long known about them playing on the gay street baseball ground. They mention jackson avenue there was a 1995 article i found that mentioned cripple creek. That is first creek. Cripple creek gets its name according to i believe an article from Lucy Templeton from many moons ago and has to do with a bend in the creek so they call it cripple creek. It was an area prone to flooding. It had flooded significantly. Looking at the maps from the spirit of 1867 trying to find a vacant land. The best guess i can get is where he placed the burden for baseball. In a vacant area. First street changed its pathway since then, since the 1867 map. What is interesting is where they played. It is quite possible that they played on the very ground where randy boyd today is building the next smoky stadium. And a interesting connection of knoxville baseball past bringing it back into the urban environment and linking it with baseball today. So that was an interesting find. They say it is along the creek. So they will possibly be paying baseball on the very ground that the knoxville team played baseball in 1867. To wrap this up, im going to talk about some baseball. Some of the stories of the early baball games. We know that the baseball game, the first baball game, based on the newspaper available, is may 4th, 1867. Reportedn may 8th, 1867. The early games, we just get little snippets. This is parson brown. He is more interested in political affairs. Baseball is a novelty. It is interesting. And my gosh, who are these guys that want to be idle and lazy on the weekends when they should be in church playing baseball. There is little information. What we do get is during the first game in 1867, it was attended by hundreds of spectators, both men and women. And women play a part as spectators in the game and it was believed women being on the ball field, that they would not get out of hand. Not get overly competitive and remember that they are gentlemen first and foremost. During the game, a brass band led the procession for the two teams to the knoxville baseball grounds. It is said, by dow, that they first won the game by 17. I can confirm it from another source but it does hold true that the knoxvilles prevailed in that first game. And an immediate challenge or issue, the next week for the game, that game they won in the second match. What i found through the records, only four games that they played. And they won most. My Research Shows the knoxvilles won the first game. The hostens got better and better with each game and stomped the knoxvilles in the city championship in november of 1867 by a score of 9025. Im sure the 25 dow got two or three home runs. The injuries, such a lovely game of baseball. A lot of injuries. A lot of freak injuries. A friend on the left, spencer munson, neighbor of james garfield, he was playing in the outfield when the ball was hit deep. He caught it. A lovely catch. As he was going to throw the ball into the infield, people heard a bone snap. His elbow dislocated. I think adam, playing vintage baseball, i can maybe offer an explanation. They were not good on calisthenics, stretching her everything before the game. I can see how such freak injuries may have occurred. Especially after i had broken an arm and have an rotator cuff surgery. I know my arm needs a lot of warm up before a game these days. But two figures on the center and the right, William Chamberlain and samuel luttrell. Another game, chamberlain for the knoxvilles stepped up to the plate, hits a massive shot out to the outfield. Samuel bell luttrell, the mayors son gets under. He is ready to catch it. He loses it in the sun. I can also attest to this happening. And the ball just went right into his forehead and he dropped on the ground. Unconscious and had to be carried from the field. I have seen baseballs temporarily tattoo for heads, right adam . Adam, when he was practicing vintage baseball before forming the team, went to nashville or to state Community College and i believe he was pitching in a game and the ball was delivered back right to his forehead. He showed up on a monday morning staff meeting with it tattooed to his forehead still. There were these freak injuries that occurred during 1867 during these early games. I do want to tell, that the hostens got better with each game. I can attest to that. I think we lost the first five games until we really got paced in the first season and then we went on a terror. The hostens got better with each game. They limited their opponents to less runs with each game. And they quickly became regarded as a powerhouse across the state. In the summer and in the fall of 1867, the hostens were challenged by the Mountain City club of chattanooga. I want is a quick word about championships. These were best of three series and it could be called at any moment the two teams agreed. Often regarded as a two better teams in the area. But the hostens were challenged by Mountain City. They were probably the next best team in the state. They played a best of three series and then the knoxville hostens won in the third and final game to claim the series to be the state champions and they got three cheers. They went on to defeat at the 9025 game. The hostens were riding high in 1867. And then they get too big for their trousers and they sent a challenge to the Gate City Club of atlanta. Also Gentlemens Club much like these amateur baseball teams. Undefeated. A traveling team. I call then the forerunners of the Cincinnati Red stockings and they become professional. But these are sort of the last of the amateur great teams. And the city club they would do so they would come to knoxville to play you guys. Thanksgiving day, newspaperman colonel john fleming. Said the reputation of the city is at stake. On thanksgiving day, the game will play and we expect an exciting game. We are not saying the proper way to play and pay respect for the cities to play baseball but lets give thanks. The game was a fiercely fought contest. Back and forth, ending to ending. The game was evolving rather quickly and knoxville to adopt some unseemly characteristics of the game developing elsewhere and across the nation. They gate city went on a run. What happened next was a source of contention between the people of knoxville tennessee. In knoxville, tennessee, they reported it is a wonderful fair. A huge banquet was put on by knoxville. Judge baxters daughter, julia baxter, made a beautiful cake for the Gate City Club and they were happy with the festivities and big events like this are part of the after party for these games when the gentleman came together and drink alcohol and had a lot of great desserts that they would report. Knoxville said it was a wonderful event. A few days later, in atlanta, one of the members publicly denounced the knoxville hostens. Between the captains of these two clubs and either side agree to hurt feelings. They had insulted them during the festivities. Knoxville has the exchange back and forth between the captains of these two clubs and either side agreed to disagree. In 1868, they began their title defense rather late. In fact, the club had gone on for the winter and went to their occupations and john fleming is writing the paper. Finally, in the late summer of 1968, they get a challenge from the national Baseball Club and they are like, we will get together and get serious about baseball and they Start Playing scrimmages against boys. Boys. Teenage boys, even some boys under the age of 13 in the streets of knoxville, showing baseball democratized. Quickly, people of all ages are playing and, white and black. There were already three black baseball teams in this area. In these matches, the young boys beat them bad. John fleming was livid. After this, they better hang their bats on a willow tree and if they feel that they must have exercise, they could find some kindhearted farmer who would give them a job hosking corn and pay them with the shucks which will be more than their services are worth. They are no better at that than playing ball. We will let them advertise for job at have price. We are depressed. Fleming could be fighting in his language and he was all the time in the paper. Hope is that he got his act together and played the National Club in the 1986 state championship. In the bestofthree, the holstons were defeated by the National Club. Shortly after that, the club disbanded. There are reports of another club in the late 70s playing but it is not the same club anymore. N this team disbanded. They stayed together for one last year, one last game. Herbert hall recollecting on t this game, the bottom of the ninth. H. They were down one run to their arrival, the greenville city college club. Runner was on first. The tying run, sam dowell comes to the plate. The pitcher throws the first three pitches to the right of the plate. He is going to throw it white again. Im going to step into the box. On that hit, it was low but he got the end of the bat on it. Wouldnt you know . Home run. That ball road all the way down next to the Railroad Tracks. By the time he got the ball back, he had circled the bases. That would be one of the last matches played on the grounds because shortly thereafter, offers were being made and they were selling lotson the property. You can see the first few buildings being built on what was the baseball ground send that building on the very edge is the drugstore. To put a twist on the Joni Mitchell 1970 hit song, we paved paradise and put up a bunch of three or four story brick warehouse is. Thank you. If there are questions, you can come up to the microphone and ask a question. Nice shirt. Thank you. I thought it was appropriate for the occasion. From one researcher to another, good job. I am wondering if you ran into a pitcher by the name of rufus oliver moore. He was playing a little bit later, 1880s, 1890s. The question is, have i run into a pitcher, rufus oliver moore . He went by only. Pitching in the 1880s, 1890s. I have not. I have limited myself to the 1860s with these two baseball teams. However, there is another publication out there that tells a story of knoxville and tells a story that fills in what is going on with baseball in the south. I have not come across it. I could throw it to the crowd and look to my good friend, researcher, mark. Have you heard back in . He is looking. T i am trying to track him down because he is the grandfather of the individual i think is the greatest baseball player to come from knoxville, tennessee, doris sammy sams, who played eight years with thet allamerican girls professional Baseball League. Six time allstar, two time mvp. And, set the singleseason record for home runs at 12. Not particularly impressive to our time favorably compared, she was a pitcher. She started hitting over 300 and hitting home runs. I am a longtime knoxville person. I have heard about the ballfield on the east side of gate street. I am skeptical that there is enough level space there that they could play that game. Will you tell us about the size of the field they were playing on at that time . The question is about the skepticism of the baseball grounds and the level of the field. Anyone that has been to knoxville i joke. It falls off significantly as they go down to central and into what is the creek. It did create a natural amphitheater feeling for spectators and that was mentioned in articles. I suspect that is how sam could get home runs. The ball would just roll on forever. Looking at maps, looking at newspaper articles, well into pu the late 19th century, stores that say opposite of the baseball grounds, you find those on the west side of the 300 block of gate street. There is a lot of corroborating sources which put it back in that spot. Looking at a birdseye map of os 1871, in knoxville, which is available on the new zealand shot, you can see there is starting to be some buildings and some houses of what have developed post 1871 when they started laying the street all the way up to what was maybury street which was generally close to where they are now, or thereabouts. That ground was open. There is an interesting newspaper article where joseph cooper, the leading side that o became hangout for both clubs, when they had their meetings, he offered a special cigar box. I think adam and i have had conversations about this. We would love to find the cigar box. This box had an image on top of the baseball game and supposedly it shows a home run being hit over a house which was located on the baseball grounds. At some point, his house was located within the ability of baseball, home run, to go over the roof. On the box, the mayor of knoxville was featured. I dont know if he was hitting the home run or not. There is a lot of corroborating sources. I am not doubting the location. What i am curious about, 90 foot base or 30 foot base . It had to be a smaller field than what we are playing today. What field do you play on . They were playing on 90 at feet. The question is, he said home plate was where woodruff was located. That lot they played there. They played 90 feet, pitcher was 60 feet no, 45 feet or so from home plate but the dimensions are there. So a little bit closer than today. Yes. Adam can attest to that. Thank you. I can attest too. I think about six balls ended up pelting me but i put my body on the line to stop the ball. I will preface my question by talking about a project we are doing to honor integrated baseball game play back in the 30s and 40s. If you go down to the restaurant, you can see banners we put up. In your research, was there any research for black ethnics to play at that time . The question is, in any of these early games, was there any opportunities for African American baseball ors to play . They appealed to play. There was three teams in the area. In 1867, city championship played in november of 1867. They appealed to play and they were rejected. The game that these gentlemen played was a very segregated game. What my research has found, it brought the neighborhood together. It was common on a sunday afternoon to see them share a picnic lunch and watch very diverse games being played. I appreciate your efforts. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. Just to comment on the er existence of black clubs, there were black clubs in the 1870s. I dont know if you have run into them. There was one club i know we are still trying to figure out where they were and where they were playing. Their manager was a colored man, not the man from i know patrick has been trying to track him down. They were playing as early as nt 1871. One of the images i have is asa hasting, attributed to a very stark player. I will say this. One thing about women, women are playing baseball at this time as well but the first report that i have found i have done a little bit digging outside of 1860. There was an article in 1884 where a womans a small club wanted to come to knoxville and they said would anyone play us . No one agreed to play them. I cannot figure out where they were located. The article does not say. They were a tennessee team. I would love to know that information. Women also were actively playing baseball. Someone online asked about where they can experience a vintage baseball game if they wanted to see one. The question is, where Consumer Experience a vintage baseball game . We play at the it tennessee association. They were also a team that played in 1867 which further democratizes the game because they were machinists that worked along the Railroad Lines in 1867. You can watch these games out at the historic ramsey house. One of the things is, education is an important part of our mission. For us, we have had historic usually play out on saturdays 10 or so times a year. You can find it at the vintage website. All right. Thank you all so much for attending. If you are enjoying American History tv, signup for our newsletter using the qr code on your screen. Sign up for the American History tv newsletter today and be sure to watch American History tv every saturday or anytime online. Here is a look at some significant moments in history during the month of october. October 28, 1929 is remembered as black monday when the Dow Jones Industrial average continued falling at a stock market crash that eventually led to billions of dollars lost. And, the great depression. Verdicts in the nuremberg trials were handed down on october 21, 1926. The trials culminated in 19 of the defendants being convicted of charges including crimes against humanity. 12 were sentenced to death. Three others were acquitted. On october 16, 1962, the cuban missile crisis began when the u. S. Discovered Nuclear Missile sites under construction in cuba. For 13 days, president kennedy and his administration navigated the confrontation with soviet premier and the soviet military. After tense negotiations, a diplomatic resolution was reached and the soviets agreed to dismantle the arsenal in cuba. The path we have chosen is one of hazard as all paths are but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage and our commitment around the world. The cost of freedom is always high but americans have always paid it. One path we shall never choose is the path of surrender or submission. Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right, not peace at the expense of freedom but both peace and freedom here in this hemisphere, and we hope around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved. Thank you and good night. That is a look at some significant moments in october. American history tv has programs available to watch online on all of these topics in our archives. Weekends on cspan 2 are an intellectual feet. Every saturday, American History tv documents america story. On sunday, book tv brings you the latest on authors. Funding comes from these television offers and more. The greatest town on earth is a place we call home. Right now, we are all facing our greatest challenge. That is why we work around the clock to keep you connected. Wa roberts, who is a professor of history and Africana Studies and the Nathaniel Stevenson chair in history and biography at Scripps College all the wa this evening, we are happy