1916 New York Lincoln Giants Negro League Wallet Rare Find

[smokelessjoe]

I thought I would share this over here because I believe it is extremely rare and little is ever mentioned about the Tri-County league in the History of Negro league baseball. In fact, I do not believe I had ever read about it until now? Leon, I completely understand if you wish to move it to the "other side" .

I just have to believe this is such an unusual item... The tintype of an African American woman stuck inside the wallet, conjures up so many questions of who, what, where etc. I have tried to do some online digging and below you will see some of the articles I have found. It seems the New Jersey Tri-County League was short lived. Dover hired the New York Lincoln Giants and competed against Newton, Morristown & Madison. Madison hired the Long Branch Cubans, Newton had the Degnon Grays and I am not sure about Morristown. With the likes of Cyclone Joe Williams & Cannonball Dick Redding on the Lincoln Team, the Giants easily won the title of Champion.

I would love to hear any input. Any others known?

[Runscott]

Pre-1920 black baseball memorabilia doesn't get the recognition it deserves. I'm biased because that's the era I collect, but it's very cool stuff - so much was going on before Foster and the Negro National League kicked off. It's true that the teams were not usually of the calibre of the pro teams of the '30s and '40s, but the greatest players of their generation played on teams like the Lincoln Giants, because they had nowhere else to play. As tough as things were for the pro black leagues and Jackie Robinson in 1947+, imagine what black teams went through barnstorming across the country during the pre-1920 period.

Great, great find!

[Den*nis O*Brien]

Thank you for sharing this very special treasure

Congrats, that is a great find.

[EvilKing00]

Great find thanks for sharing

[jerseygary]

Wow! As a New Jersey native and Negro League historian that is a heck of a find! The Tri-County League is one of those neat parts of baseball history that has fallen by the wayside. Historian Gary Ashwill wrote a nice piece on it a few years ago Here's a LINK. I figured all there is left of that short lived league is some newspaper articles and never thought a real memento would come to light. Nice find!

[smokelessjoe]

Thanks guys,

Wouldn't it be neat to match the tintype... I have actually started looking for family members of the team players... Girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers but I am fairly certain this will prove futile... Its fun to look though.

I did find this Blog on Cyclone Joe that pictures a woman (I am certain it is not a match) but it is not clear to me who the author is saying the woman is related to? Cyclones grandmother? Not a relative at all? Here is the link:

http://cyclonejoe.blogspot.com/

[bcbgcbrcb]

Very cool piece, Shawn.

Here is a team photo of the 1914 New York Lincoln Giants with all of the names printed on it so you can have an idea who some of the stars were from that era. The print is a little small so here are all of the names from right to left: Smokey Joe Williams, Doc Sykes, Bill Gatewood, Doc Wiley, Louis Santop, Cannonball Redding, Leroy Grant, Spotswood Poles, Joe Hewitt, Johnny Pugh and the player standing far left is very hard to make out...........

[asphaltman]

Shawn -Very interesting find, and all the better not just having a Lincoln Giants logo, but the personalization with it having been a player's makes it really unique.

Phil - fantastic photo.

[ramram]

Very nice! For what it's worth, I would suspect the tintype is "Mom" as it is likely an 1880's image of a woman in her 20's/30's.

Rob M.

[smokelessjoe]

In reading the write up by Gary Ashwill he states that not much is known about the games / score etc and that a fun project would be had by researching the Tri-County league. I just wanted to post these and any others I find in the future.

August 14 1916
August 28 1916