1908 RPPC Cap Anson-related postcard story

[gracecollector]

Thought I'd share my recent acquistion and the story behind it. Two weeks ago, a real photo postcard got listed on eBay. I found it doing my regular Cap Anson search. I got excited because the postcard featured Anson's Colts, the semi-pro team Cap owned and played for in his retirement. Anson's Colts played in the Chicago City League and would also barnstorm local teams. The postcard had the handwritten notation "Marengo Athletics 5, Anson's Colts 4."


Hi-Res Scan

I noticed that the seller lived very close to me, so I contacted him and explained that I'm a big Cap Anson fan and run the website www.capanson.com. He had seen my website while trying to research the card, so he was familar. After talking awhile, he agreed the postcard belonged in my collection. I drove over that night and purchased it from him. Then the research began.

I first did an internet search and found a similar postcard in the book "Marengo - The First 100 Years." That gave me a great place to start, since it made reference to a "game played in Marengo with 750 in attendence" and a date. There was no mention of Anson's Colt, but the postcard was obviously from the same game (placement of cars, umbrellas in same spots in stands).

I also researched the building in the background. Found out it was a stove factory that burned in the fall of 1907. That explained the boarded up and broken windows and placed the game to 1908, since Anson only owned the team from 1907 to the spring of 1909.

Marengo is only 10 miles from my home town, so I drove over and visited the area where the field once stood. It's interesting that it still is an athletic field with a baseball diamond and soccer fields. Marengo is the home town to Cubs pitcher Carl Lundgren of the 1907-1908 Cubs World Series teams, and there is a historic marker on the site as well.



Then, at the Marengo Public Library, I hit the jackpot of my research. The library had microfilm of the Marengo Republican-News newspaper dating back to the period. I started with the date in the book, August 28, 1908 and sure enough that was the date of the game when Cap Anson and the Colts came to town! The paper, which was distributed weekly on Friday morning, did three separate front page articles on the game, the week before, day of, and week after the game was played. There's a wealth of information and description of the game - billed as the "greatest base ball game in Marengo history."

I wrote up a full report of my research and retyped the hard-to-read microfilm prints of the 3 articles. Some great period reporting and language! Here's a link to the full report in .pdf format if you'd like to read more.

Anson Postcard Research

Sadly, I've concluded that Anson is most likely not pictured in the postcard, but it still is a remarkable piece of history and very exciting to me for its local history.

Brad W.
www.capanson.com