Cool Find: David Creagan 1910 Rocky Mount collection

[rhettyeakley]

Recently on ebay there was a seller selling a few different lots that were from the David Creagan estate. They were mostly postcards sent to and from Creagan from/to friends and family members. Creagan played one year of professional baseball with Rocky Mount in the E. Carolina League and luckily for him found his way onto two different card sets (T210-7 & T209-2), I would still very much like to see those two cards if anyone has them to share...

Anyways among the different lots was one that was a bit more interesting to me as it had some random ticket stubs, telegrams, pamphlets, and two RPPC's which I assumed featured Creagan himself. I didn't care too much about the one where he is seated w/ another gentleman but the one that featured him on the field was of interest to me so I threw out a fairly sizable snipe and forgot all about the auction altogether and ended up winning the lot for only a small fraction of my snipe (I also picked up one of the lots of greeting PC's as well).
Ebay scans:
http://starsofthediamond.com/creagan1.jpg http://starsofthediamond.com/creagan2.jpg

Anyways I paid the guy and they arrived yesterday and it turned out to be a pretty cool little collection with several items from his time in NC and later from Troy, NY (where he was from). As I was getting done looking at the small pieces of ephemera I began looking at the PC's and they were mostly from female fans but it also included a few from Creagan himself signed simply "Dave" that may never have made their way into the mail as there was no postmarks on them. I saved the baseball PC for last and really liked the image and the girl "Molly" that had sent it to him had some neat notes on the front written about the image of Creagan. Then I got to the PC where the person I had assumed was Creagan sitting beside an aquaintance. Anyways my jaw just about dropped to the floor...

http://www.starsofthediamond.com/thorpe1.JPG http://www.starsofthediamond.com/thorpe2.JPG

It took me about a milliseond to realize who it was that was sitting next to the guy I had assumed was Creagan (Jim Thorpe). I was pretty shocked and thought maybe I was just imagining things as I was aware when I purchased them that Jim Thorpe had also played on the 1910 Rocky Mount, NC team. Historically this is incredibly significant as it was Thorpe's time with the Rocky Mount team that was the cause of his 1912 Olympic Medals being stripped as he was deemed no longer an "amateur" athlete. So, I turned over the pc and again couldn't believe what I was seeing...
http://www.starsofthediamond.com/thorpe3.JPG

Anyways, this is the "find" that I was referencing in my earlier post and was really looking for an image of Dussault to confirm that it was him sitting next to Thorpe on the postcard and a board member was kind enough to send me the following scan and it couldn't bee more clear that A. J. Dussault is the man seated with Thorpe in the image...
http://starsofthediamond.com/dussault.jpg

Anyways, I am still on cloud nine right now as this appears to be a 1910 image of Thorpe with teammate A.J. Dussault that was given to their teammate David Creagan as a keepsake (a trifecta connection to the 1910 Rocky Mount baseball team). I honestly don't know if I have ever seen any true images of Thorpe that can 100% be attributed to his time with the professional baseball team that caused such a ruckus after the Stckholm Olympics in 1912.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!
-Rhett

[Matt]

Rhett - exceptional find!!

[Joe_G.]

Fantastic stuff Rhett !! Your hard work combing through eBay has paid-off once again. Well done, very neat piece of history.

[19cbb]

Super find.
Congrats!!!

[teetwoohsix]

Awesome Rhett, what a great score !! Congrats and thanks for sharing with us !!

Sincerely,Clayton

[GasHouseGang]

I had quickly scrolled through the photos of your "find", and said to myself that that was an interesting picture of Jim Thorpe. I guess the seller just didn't know what he had. Wow, great find!

[rhettyeakley]

The two pictures at the beginning are the photos from the auction, I tried to email the seller and get some more info and they kinda dismissed me (and I assume anyone else that may have had a question) and stated that they didn't have time to look through everything and/or provide better scans.
-Rhett

[Michael Peich]

Rhett--This is an historically significant find, and thanks for sharing it with us.

Cheers, Mike

[Ladder7]

Outstanding snag!

[TT40391]

Great Find sir, and as always thanks for selling me that fantastic maysville cabinet photo.

TT

[tbob]

Congrats! You are one lucky guy Rhett!

[Wite3]

Wow! Amazing Rhett...congrats!

[Vintagecatcher]

Congrats Rhett!

I recognized Jim Thorpe immediately.

Enjoy,


Patrick

[Kawika]

Holy F-Bomb!! - good on ya, Rhett.

[docpatlv]

Very cool, nice score Rhett...Is the writing on back Dussault's or Thorpe's?

Congrats,

Mike

[Leon]

Wow.....great find ole Rhett...Congrats!!!

[rhettyeakley]

Mike, it looks like two sets of handwriting to me. Whomever wrote "Yours Truly" also signed "James Thorpe" (notice the distinct way the "T's" were wirtten.) However, most telling is the "J" in James and the "J" in A. J. Dussault are distinctly different. I don't claim to be an autograph authenticator but Thorpe did have that very distinct way of writing his "T" in Thorpe.

[sox1903wschamp]

I love it. Nice find Rhett!

[vintagesportflips]

Unbelievable find! And to top it off, probably autographed as well. Wow!

[Matthew H]

I don't think that lot could have been listed/sold any worse by that seller. I can only imagine the surprise opening that package! Congrats!!

[iggyman]

Great Caesar's ghost!!! And to think, I almost dismissed this thread, thinking it was just a few more T207 Red Cross cards. Fantastic pickup Rhett, I'm sure your patients were wondering why you had that silly grin on your face.

P.S. You better hurry-up and watermark those pictures before the guys in the Full Count FC board find out :)!

Lovely Day...

[Orioles1954]

Where's the link to this badness?

[Kawika]

http://tinyurl.com/28bcsj6
Boy, Rhett! I can't believe you paid thirty-seven bucks for a couple of no-name minor leaguers. Maybe you can get your money back.

[Bicem]

wow.

[uffda51]

Great Caesar's Ghost, indeed! Well done.

[Jacklitsch]

Fabulous!!

[rc4157]

Congratulations Rhett - Great pick-up/find!
RC

[FrankWakefield]

I'm glad you won that lot. It is good that those items are now in the hands of someone who appreciates them. That's exactly the kind of stuff that could have been thrown away by someone... and now it is saved, preserved.

[celoknob]

http://tinyurl.com/28bcsj6
Boy, Rhett! I can't believe you paid thirty-seven bucks for a couple of no-name minor leaguers. Maybe you can get your money back.

I thought they were two no name minor leaguers. That's why I bid $27.67.:mad:

What's strange is that the seller carefully identified four or five very obscure minor league players on another Creagan postcard lot that I won (and paid more than Rhett did) but did not recognize Jim Thorpe on this lot ???

[rhettyeakley]

If it helps, like I said before I had no inclination that that was Thorpe in the image from the auction (why would I from that little scan?). When I was looking at the individual lots they had for sale I picked out the lot you won and this one as the two best ones and put a moderate bid on the bigger PC lot (that you won and outbid me on) and put a much more significant bid on this one ONLY because of the baseball player RPPC as I was hoping it was Creagan himself.

I'm never this lucky so this is uncharted territory for me!
-Rhett

Also in the sellers defense if you look at Thorpe sig on back to the untrained eye it looks more like "James Hufe" or something along those lines

[DixieBaseball]

Simply Incredible, Rhett. Significant for sure. Dussault has a nice head of hair as well. :D

[Rickyy]

That's one of the nicest and cleanest images of JT I've seen...Wow!

[Dalkiel]

As eluded to in an earlier post, I'd guess that is signed by Thorpe. I'm no autograph authenticator, but I've had a few Thorpe autographs in my day and that looks intriguingly similar.

[barrysloate]

Wow- that is an incredible photo. Big time find!

[Oldtix]

Tremendous! Congratulations!

[martyogelvie]

Very cool find and good read. Thanks for sharing!

[Brian Weisner]

Hi Rhett,
Great pickup..... Here is a quick picture with my cell of Creagan....



I will try to scan some over the weekend.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q257/hogan6g/jan2010007-1.jpg



Be well Brian

[nebboy]

Hats Off to you for such a wounderful find.
Love it when luck is on your side also.

[rdixon1208]

Very very cool. Congratulations

[bijoem]

wow! great stuff.

congrats Rhett!

[GoSoxBoSox]

Very cool. Congrats Rhett.

Do you plan to keep these or sell them? Do you plan to get the autograph authenticated?

[GoSoxBoSox]

I find the picture on the postcard to be interesting. I am wondering why such a postcard would be made? Exactly how popular were these guys in 1910 when they played for this team and if they were popular enough for someone to make a postcard of them it seems odd to me they would pick this picture? Why not one of them in uniform?

I'm not trying to put the piece down. I think it's awesome. I'm just trying to understand their star power which I would have thought to have been relatively low at the time. It seems to me the stardom was yet to come.

Any thoughts on that?

[thegashousegang]

I just spent the last 5 minutes trying to find my jaw that I dropped onto the floor...

[rhettyeakley]

Tom,

Thorpe's best years were definitely ahead of him in 1910, as he really started making headlines as a football player in 1911. That being said, Thorpe may have NOT WANTED his playing pro baseball to be known as he was still in college competing as a college athlete in 1910 which is why I suspect he doesn't show up in either of the card sets T209-2 or T210-7 (He may have refused to okay that b/c he didn't want to jeopardize his amateur status if it became known)--all speculation by me but I think it has merit.

RPPC's became very popular in 1906-1920's as souveniers. You could sit for a photo and they would print it directly on a postcard and you could use that to send to relatives or friends. It is highly unlikely (although possible) that this postcard was mass produced for profit.

-Rhett

[celoknob]

As Rhett pointed out these types of individualized postcards were common. Often they are posted on this forum with someone asking who the person is, usually without an answer. I think a lot of these players on postcards were not even professional and there is no info to go with them. They were not mass produced--I very seriously doubt this was.

As Rhett mentioned, his best case scenario when he bought the lot was that the postcard would be of the minor leaguer Creagan and that he would be able to identify him. Even that was not a guarantee, which is why I bid so low. It could have been his cousin or some semi-pro player. Who would have thought that big lug in the 2nd photo was Jim Thorpe? That is astounding with a signature on the back !

I am truely glad someone like Rhett got it, but I am still beating myself up for not bidding higher, even though I couldn't have known. That's called envy.
Kell

[edhans]

Congrats Rhett. Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

[Marckus99]

congrats, Rhett!

[ethicsprof]

a monumental find!
congratulations, Rhett.

best,
barry