T206 Player Autographs - Examples Needed

[T206Collector]

I have spent many weeks combing through old auctions and the World War I draft card registry and am having trouble finding scans/pics of autographs for several players in the T206 set. Not surprisingly, most of the missing names are Southern Leaguers, Minor Leaguers and/or those who died young. When I first started posting here, I needed 70; but, thanks to all of the great responses, I am now down to just 12 missing!

If anyone has visual examples of any of the players listed below, I would appreciate if you could send me an image. You can PM me, post it here, or email me at SignedT206@gmail.com

Thanks for your help!

NOW MISSING 12
(Last Updated 01-03-25)


Major Leaguers
Burch, Al (d.1926)
Donahue, Jiggs (d.1913)
Nichols, Simon (d.1911)
Powers, Doc (d.1909)


Minor Leaguers
Barry, Shad (d.1936)
O'Brien, Pete (d.1917)
Phelan, Jimmy (N/A)
Poland, Phil (N/A)


Southern Leaguers
Carey, Scoops (d.1916)
McCauley, Pat (d.1917)
Miller, Molly (N/A)
Violat, (Viola) Juan (d.1919)

[Scott Garner]

Hi Paul,
I just sent you pics of a nice Ted Breitenstein exemplar out of my personal collection.
Cheers!

[milkit1]

Here is a Fred Payne example. A few others can be found in the deadball stars book like Fielder Jones for example

fred payne.jpg

fred payne cu.jpg

[T206Collector]

Thanks Sean! I will confer with those books. I appreciate the heads up!

[T206Collector]

Found a few more in my digging through old war records. Updated above to reflect this. Anybody got an image of an autograph for any of the remaining folks?

Thanks for the help!

[prewarsports]

I had a few Bud Sharpe autographs and sold my last one through Jim Stinson around Christmas time, I bet he still has a scan somewhere. There are a few others I either have now or have had in the past and might still have scans of, I will look and see if any are still on my example hard drive.

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by prewarsports

I had a few Bud Sharpe autographs and sold my last one through Jim Stinson around Christmas time, I bet he still has a scan somewhere. There are a few others I either have now or have had in the past and might still have scans of, I will look and see if any are still on my example hard drive.

Thanks for looking! Just updated to reflect a few examples that have been emailed to me this afternoon, Sharpe being one of them.

[HexsHeroes]

Rhys,

Do you still have your scan of George Henry “Heinie” Smith signature you sold many years ago ? That is one of the remaining names on Paul’s list

[prewarsports]

I will need to see, those would be on a different hard drive.

[HexsHeroes]

Here is signature of George Henry "Heinie" Smith,
sold several years ago by Prewarsports
(image curtesy of Rhys Yeakley):
.
.

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by HexsHeroes

Here is signature of George Henry "Heinie" Smith,
sold several years ago by Prewarsports
(image curtesy of Rhys Yeakley):
.
.

Oh wow! Thank you!!

[HexsHeroes]

Sometime around 1/12/2003, in his Autographs for sale Listing #199 (item 254), Jim Stinson offered a signed 6x8 turn of the century cabinet photo signed by James Doc Casey. Jim posted an image of that item in the listing.

In his Update Listing distributed around 7/24/2009, Jim also offered for sale a closely cropped signature cut (attached to 3x5 index card) of Jimmy Doc Casey, taken from a 1903 Chicago Cubs scrapbook. But an image of that cut was not displayed.

Perhaps Jim still has images saved for either item. Or, perhaps another Net54 OC member has Jim’s original #199 listing with the offered 6x8 cabinet photo, and would take and post a snapshot of that printed image.

[T206Collector]

Thanks for the lead!

[T206Collector]

Found a Jimmy Hart. Down to 35 now!

Thanks again for all the help!

[T206Collector]

Found Bill Hart and John Kiernan examples. Down to 32 now!

[T206Collector]

Found Ernest Ernwine Howard tonight!

25 to go!

[T206Collector]

Found Harry Sentz last night. 24 to go!

[T206Collector]

Even if there is no signature available, I'll take biographical information about birth and/or death for the ones I'm missing.

I understand why Donahue, Nichols, Powers, and Unglaub don't have draft registration cards or other documents showing their signatures (they died young), but what about George Bell (other than his T205 facsimile signature), who died in 1941, or Al Burch, who died in 1926? Those should be possible, no?

And Bill Cranston died in 1970! How can it be that no one has ever surfaced a signature of his before?

Please help!

[T206Collector]

Followed a lead to the Hall of Fame Library and tracked down Bob Unglaub and George Bell. Down to needing only 20 examples!

Thanks for all the help!

[T206Collector]

Well it looks like we have more or less confirmed Bill Cranston in this thread:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=335518

So just 19 to go! Thanks for any help or leads you can provide!

[T206Collector]

I'm marking Paul Davidson as found on his Draft WW1 Registration card. I'd put the accuracy on this one closer to "more likely than not" than "for sure." But there's enough here to give me some level of confidence that it's the same guy.

Yes, I realize it says "Davison" without the "D" at the top; but it sure looks like Davidson, with the D in the signature. Anyway, if you've got a better lead let me know!

[T206Collector]

Bump. It’s been nearly four months. Anybody out there who can help?

[T206Collector]

Well I finally found another one -- Frank J. King, Southern Leaguer, on his World War II Draft Registration card! Woo!

Please let me know if you can find any of the other ones I'm still missing.

[T206Collector]

On a thread about T206 player death dates over on the card side of this forum, a fellow collector noted that Baseball Reference now had better biographical data for Ed Reagan, Ray Ryan, Carlos Smith, and Foley White. With that info it was relatively easy to track down their draft registration cards with signatures.

Down to just 13 missing autographs now. Given the dates of death of the remaining missing autographers -- although note I don't have death dates for Phelan, Poland, or Miller -- Doc Adkins, Shad Barry, and Al Burch remain the most likely to be viewable somewhere.

Thanks to the Net54 community for helping bring the other 288 back to life through their personal signatures!

[T206Collector]

Just found Doc Adkins’s signature on a marriage license application, averring to the ages and otherwise good character of his son and future daughter-in-law.

He signed this just a couple of months prior to his death.