Mystery Solved: 1904 Cubs Chinatown Spring Training Tintype - Lundgren, Jones. more
 

NOTE: I updated the story of this photo thanks to the help of everyone who posted in this thread. The final version is in post 17.

------------

This photo was discussed here a long time ago:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=64899

Attachment 419883

Attachment 419887

Summary of that thread:

• The players on the bottom row are Del Howard, George Moriarty, and Carl Lundgren. The guy on the top right is Davy Jones
• The names on the top are left is illegible.
• The guy in the middle says “Guide who took us through Chinatown tonight”
• This is pretty late for a tin type to have been made and not many feature major leaguers.
• This was initially sold in a Gaynor Auction of some items that came from a player’s estate (Scoot told me he recalls it being Lundgren’s estate) and that it was identified as being the 1904 Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

The things that still don't add up:

• These guys were not on the Brooklyn Bridegrooms together. There is a Chicago Cubs connection, but Howard didn’t join that team until well after 1904.
• There isn’t a Chinatown in Brooklyn, though there is one nearby in Manhattan.

So, we are left with several questions:

1. When was this photo taken?
2. Who is the guy on the left?
3. Where were these guys?
4. Why were they together?

I like a mystery, so I started digging.

WHEN WAS THIS PHOTO TAKEN

The first thing I did was to try to figure out the year as this might go far in helping to ID the mystery player. If the Bridegrooms connection might be wrong, then perhaps the 1904 date is off as well.

I created a table of their teams by year from 1901-1906:

Attachment 419884

This shows that it is highly unlikely that this photo dates from 1901 as Lundgren and Howard weren’t even in the minors yet. 1902 is a bit more likely, but still not terrific as Howard is still two years away from organized ball.

1903 is possible, 1904 looks pretty good, but then by 1905 these guys are pretty spread out again. So, I settled on this probably being 1903 or 1904 – and 1904 matches the original description, so that seems like a good bet.

WHO IS THE GUY ON THE LEFT?
This one is a bit tougher. The 2004 Net54 post suggests that it might be Bobby Lowe. However, this face clearly is not a match for Lowe.

Attachment 419886

What the 2004 post missed is that it does not say Lowe, but appears to say “Maham” with an M matching the M used to write Moriarty on the photo.

Attachment 419888

“Great!” you might be thinking. But Maham is a bit of a dead end. Baseball reference shows 0 players named Mahan. A search for “Maha” in case that last letter is wrong yields four guys from the period:

??Mahan (1900)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahan-003---
Frank Mahar (1902)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...aharfr01.shtml
??? Mahan (1901)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahan-010---
??? Mahan (1902)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahan-011---
Charles Mahan (1902-1903)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahan-002---

Frank is the only one of this group that ever made it to the majors, for Philadelphia for 1 game, so he seems unlikely. I do not recognize this face from Cubs’ team photos from the period, so we are at a bit of a dead end. Though I still have a guess for who this is.

WHERE WERE THESE GUYS?
The 2004 thread guessed Chinatown in Brooklyn, but there are other Chinatowns. And this one is not Brooklyn, but San Francisco. The image in the background is a painted background of The Cliff House, a San Francisco landmark that burned down in 1907.

I started looking into the Cliff House and came across a site I almost cannot believe exists:

http://www.cliffhouseproject.com/introduction.htm

In addition to a ton of history, they have also compiled photos of Cliff House and of studio photos with Cliff House backgrounds.

My photo is not in their gallery of tintype images, but scrolling through there are clearly a number of different painted Cliff House backgrounds that were in use by different studios.

A single one of these backgrounds is a perfect match for what is in the photo:

Attachment 419881

And fortunately is mounted with the studio name and address. This backdrop was found at CH Vitalini Foto. 271 Montgomery Ave, SF Cal. The studio is found in, you guessed it, San Francisco’s Chinatown (red X is the location of the studio):

Attachment 419882

So, we know where they were, but….

WHY WERE THEY THERE?
The Chicago Cubs held their spring training in California several times in this era:

• 1903-1904: Los Angeles, CA
• 1905: Santa Monica, CA

So, the guys we know are in the photo would have been in San Francisco for spring training and likely decided to take a weekend trip up to San Francisco.

WHAT IS LEFT?
We still have not firmly established the year or the player on the back left.
Given that Del Howard was not in pro ball in 1903, it seem unlikely that he would have been invited to spring training that year so we can probably rule out 1903. However, in 1904 he plays his first season in Omaha, so it is entirely possible that he got a tryout for the Cubs, didn’t make the team that year, and then went to Omaha after being cut. This seems likely given everything else.

There is one other connection between the players in the photo – Illinois:

• Del Howard: Born December 24, 1877 in Kenney, IL
• George Moriarty: Born July 7, 1885 in Chicago, IL
• Carl Lundgren: Born February 16, 1880, in Marengo, IL
• Davy Jones: Born June 30, 1880 in Cambria, WI (pretty close to IL)

So these four guys may have played against each other locally and been friends because of where they grew up.

This might explain Howard’s possible invitation to camp in 1904. There were lots of players telling management “You really need to get a look at this guy!” back then, and one or more of the Illinois contingent may have gotten Howard an invitation before he later joined his first team, Omaha.

Knowing all of this, I decided to take another crack at the mystery player.
I went back to my “Maha” results and added some more details:

???Mahan (1900)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahan-003---
No info

Frank Mahar (1902)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...aharfr01.shtml
Born MA. Played for Philadelphia – 1 at bat

??? Mahan (1901)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahan-010---
Davenport River Rats ILL in 1901

??? Mahan (1902)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahan-011---
1902 Troy New York State League

Charles Mahan (1902-1903)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahan-002---
Michigan League (Muskegon, Sagniaw, Jackson, Anderson, Grand Rapids)[/LIST]
One of these guys isn’t like the other. ???Mahan (1901) played his lone season for the Davenport (IL) River Rats. If we add him to the team/year breakdown we see:

Attachment 419885

Moriarty and Mahan were teammates on the 1901 Davenport River Rats. There is no birthplace info for this player, but this is as good a guess for this player as I can find.

WHAT ABOUT THE GUIDE?
I contacted the San Francisco Historical Society and they had some interesting info to add, including (from two different people):

“There is one guy specifically that you see pictured on tour photos of group tours taken out at the Cliff House. Maybe it’s him? I think he was a bit of a well-known personality in his day. There was also a guy who did “underground” tours of Chinatown complete with Opium Dens and such, that I have seen a photo of.”

“The tour of Chinatown was a big deal, and usually the tour guide promoted that as another tourist package available during the day tour of San Francisco’s highlights. So until we can see an image of the tintype, I can only tell the usual way those tours worked. The Chinatown tour, usually twice a night, was the twilight tour at 6:30 and the night tour at about 7:30, to add to the mystique of being escorted though this exotic labyrinth of alleys, often by a man who identified himself as an ex-police officer from the Chinatown Squad. In 1904, we assume the guide met his group outside one of the Market Street hotels and the group walked about 3-4 blocks up Grant or more likely Kearny Street to the heart of Chinatown. The idea was to maximize the allure of the danger as well as exploit the exotic stereotypes of the tourists of being in the midst of the local Asian residents, selling the idea you saw the real Orient without leaving the United States. ”

Given that the guide has a large fake badge on, he lines up pretty well with the ex-police officer guide mentioned. The location of the photo studio in Chinatown also fits with this having been a tour of Chinatown, as does the handwritten note on the photo.

WHAT IS THE FINAL STORY?

Over the winter of 1903-1904, returning Chicago Cubs Moriarty, Jones, and Lundgren were getting ready for spring training. They managed to secure either an invitation to training camp for their friend Del Howard or met him for the first time in San Francisco. There may also have been an invitation for Mahan, but he may also have been Moriarty’s friend just along for the trip.
The guys took a weekend off and hopped the train from LA to San Francisco, got all dressed up for a night on the town, hired a guide, and snapped this photo at the edge of Chinatown on the way into/back from their night on the town.

Great job! I’m not sure that I buy the weekend trip to SF. That’s a 400 mile train trip each way. Is it possible that the Cubs went to SF to play an exhibition game against the Seals?

Definitely could be an exhibition game. Or maybe they had to transfer trains in SF and had a night in town for it? I would love to know the reason they ended up there!

Del Howard was with the Cubs in spring training in 1904.

February 6, 1904, edition of Sporting Life: Selee has signed a kid named Dell (sic) Howard, from a little Illinois town. Bob Wicker recommended him, and says that for a beginner Howard is a wonder. He is an outfielder, and is touted as the goods. According to Jim Hart, the lad will be given a fair chance, and may make the team as a utility outfielder.

Awesome - thanks for posting that!! It is gratifying to see that my speculation was right. :)

I hope that this source info will help with your research, the clipping is coming from The Daily Californian on March 2nd 1904. All of the players you have identified were scheduled to make the trip. Assuming a departure from the Raisin City on the 17th, I would probably make the safe assumption that your image was most likely taken over the weekend of March 18th-20th 1904.

Here’s my contribution. Information from San Francisco Call newspaper. Due to rain, the initial exhibition game versus San Francisco was postponed. The Cubs agreed to stay in town and try to play, since they didn’t have to play Seattle ( at Sacramento ball field) until Wednesday March 23. Cubs played San Francisco on March 21 and won 5 to 4. I couldn’t find results for the next day, so that may have been rained out. The Cubs played Seattle on March 23 and lost 8-2. I’m looking for a box score. So the kicker....a Eugene Mahon played for Seattle and Portland in 1904. Unfortunately, I can’t find out anything about him.

Michael

Very cool!

Damn fine detective work ya’ll.

I think you guys solved all the unknowns! Great detective work!

A game or two in SF and Eugene Mahon sure fill out the remaining weak spots better than what I offered! Thanks guys!

I have reached out to a few people to see if they might have a photo of Mr Eugene Mahom to really lock down the last piece. It sure is looking like Mr. ??? Mahan from the 1901 Davenport River Rats is going to remain in obscurity.

Eugene Mahon appeared in the 1907 Spalding Guide with the Aberdeen team. I've put his image from 1907 next to the 1904 image, and it looks like a good match to me:

Eugene Mahon and Mahan of Davenport could still be the same person. Eugene was not on the 1903 Seattle nor Portland roster. So, he could have been in a lower league prior to that. Another thing to keep in mind is that people of Irish decent interchangeably use Mc or not, so we could be looking for a Eugene McMahon or a McMahan.

Michael

This is a great thread -- awesome work, Bryan! Great follow-ups, everyone.

It does look like good weather on March 21, 1904 and then some precipitation on March 22.


https://toolkit.climate.gov/tool/sc-acis

http://scacis.rcc-acis.org/

Nice detective work, guys. I am always a sucker for a good top hat!!

Fantastic research! This is awesome.

I want to say THANKS again to everyone who helped me put the final pieces together for this photo - this is what makes Net54 a great place!

I have updated the text to include the new info. I decided to leave the original post so that the info people added makes sense, so the final story is below.

---------

This photo was discussed on Net54 a long time ago:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=64899

Attachment 423316

Attachment 423315

Summary of that thread:

• The players on the bottom row are Del Howard, George Moriarty, and Carl Lundgren. The guy on the top right is Davy Jones
• The names on the top are left is illegible.
• The guy in the middle says “Guide who took us through Chinatown tonight”
• This is pretty late for a tin type to have been made and not many feature major leaguers.
• This was initially sold in a Gaynor Auction of some items that came from a player’s estate (Scoot told me he recalls it being Lundgren’s estate) and that it was identified as being the 1904 Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

The things that still don't add up:

• These guys were not on the Brooklyn Bridegrooms together. There is a Chicago Cubs connection, but Howard didn’t join that team until well after 1904.
• There isn’t a Chinatown in Brooklyn, though there is one nearby in Manhattan.

So, we are left with several questions:

1. When was this photo taken?
2. Who is the guy on the left?
3. Where were these guys?
4. Why were they together?

I like a mystery, so I started digging.

WHEN WAS THIS PHOTO TAKEN


The first thing I did was to try to figure out the year as this might go far in helping to ID the mystery player. If the Bridegrooms connection might be wrong, then perhaps the 1904 date is off as well.

I created a table of their teams by year from 1901-1906:

Attachment 423317

This shows that it is highly unlikely that this photo dates from 1901 as Lundgren and Howard weren’t even in the minors yet. 1902 is a bit more likely, but still not terrific as Howard is still two years away from organized ball.

1903 is possible, 1904 looks pretty good, but then by 1905 these guys are pretty spread out again. So, I settled on this probably being 1903 or 1904 – and 1904 matches the original description, so that seems like a good bet.

It also turns out that Howard was in camp with the Cubs in 1904. From the February 6, 1904, edition of Sporting Life: “Selee has signed a kid named Dell (sic) Howard, from a little Illinois town. Bob Wicker recommended him, and says that for a beginner Howard is a wonder. He is an outfielder, and is touted as the goods. According to Jim Hart, the lad will be given a fair chance, and may make the team as a utility outfielder.”

WHO IS THE GUY ON THE LEFT?


This one is a bit tougher. The 2004 Net54 post suggests that it might be Bobby Lowe. However, this face clearly is not a match for Lowe.

Attachment 423321

What the 2004 post missed is that it does not say Lowe, but appears to say “Mahon” with an M matching the M used to write Moriarty on the photo.

Attachment 423322

According to Baseball Reference, there was one guy active in the majors and minors in 1903-1904, Eugene Mahon:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mahon-001eug

A comparison from the 1907 Aberdeen team photo with Mahon looks pretty good:

Attachment 423318

WHERE WERE THESE GUYS?

The 2004 thread guessed Chinatown in Brooklyn, but there are other Chinatowns. And this one is not Brooklyn, but San Francisco. The image in the background is a painted background of The Cliff House, a San Francisco landmark that burned down in 1907.

I started looking into the Cliff House and came across a site I almost cannot believe exists:

http://www.cliffhouseproject.com/introduction.htm

In addition to a ton of history, they have also compiled photos of Cliff House and of studio photos with Cliff House backgrounds.

My photo is not in their gallery of tintype images, but scrolling through there are clearly a number of different painted Cliff House backgrounds that were in use by different studios.

A single one of these backgrounds is a perfect match for what is in the photo:

Attachment 423319

And fortunately is mounted with the studio name and address. This backdrop was found at CH Vitalini Foto. 271 Montgomery Ave, SF Cal. The studio is found in, you guessed it, San Francisco’s Chinatown (red X is the location of the studio):

Attachment 423320

So, we know where they were, but….

WHY WERE THEY THERE?

The Chicago Cubs held their spring training in California several times in this era:

• 1903-1904: Los Angeles, CA
• 1905: Santa Monica, CA

The Daily Californian newspaper on March 2, 1904 ran the following story:

Attachment 423323

All of the guys in the photo appear in the article, apart from Eugene Mahon, but the Cubs played exhibition games against Portland, the team that employed Mahon for a portion of 1904. So the photo was likely taken during a night out on the town after a game the weekend of March 18-20, 1904.

WHAT ABOUT THE GUIDE?


I contacted the San Francisco Historical Society and they had some interesting info to add, including (from two different people):

“There is one guy specifically that you see pictured on tour photos of group tours taken out at the Cliff House. Maybe it’s him? I think he was a bit of a well-known personality in his day. There was also a guy who did “underground” tours of Chinatown complete with Opium Dens and such, that I have seen a photo of.”

“The tour of Chinatown was a big deal, and usually the tour guide promoted that as another tourist package available during the day tour of San Francisco’s highlights. So until we can see an image of the tintype, I can only tell the usual way those tours worked. The Chinatown tour, usually twice a night, was the twilight tour at 6:30 and the night tour at about 7:30, to add to the mystique of being escorted though this exotic labyrinth of alleys, often by a man who identified himself as an ex-police officer from the Chinatown Squad. In 1904, we assume the guide met his group outside one of the Market Street hotels and the group walked about 3-4 blocks up Grant or more likely Kearny Street to the heart of Chinatown. The idea was to maximize the allure of the danger as well as exploit the exotic stereotypes of the tourists of being in the midst of the local Asian residents, selling the idea you saw the real Orient without leaving the United States. ”

Given that the guide has a large fake badge on, he lines up pretty well with the ex-police officer guide mentioned. The location of the photo studio in Chinatown also fits with this having been a tour of Chinatown, as does the handwritten note on the photo.

WHAT IS THE FINAL STORY?

In spring 1904 the Cubs headed out to California for spring training and some exhibitions games, including Del Howard who managed to get an invitation to camp thanks to Bob Wicker, who was in the majors from 1901-1906. On the way back home, they played a game or two in San Francisco, apparently against Portland given the presence of Eugene Mahon (Gene Mahon). That weekend, the guys got all dressed up for a night on the town, hired a guide, and snapped this photo at the edge of Chinatown on the way into/back from their night on the town.

Given that Spring Training is upon us, I thought I'd bump this thread about a Spring Training trip in 1904.

+1
It's nice when the team comes together (pun intended) like this! Great research.
.

Thank you Bryan and all. This kinda stuff is soooo, up my alley. I was driving my wife nuts as each chapter was unfolding before me; she would come running out to the TV room, thinking she missed a big play on the NCAA tourney coverage. This was better than a great novel for me.

Ben

"I love baseball history backstory; especially when it involves cards."