1910 T209 Contentnea - Two Series

[frankbmd]

This bad boy has already been shown, but his story, or lack thereof, qualifies him as "The Enigma of Contentnea"

No one with his name as spelled on the card has a record of playing anywhere.

His jersey states that he played for Fulton, but the caption says Rocky Mount.

There was a contemporary team in 1909 called the Fulton Railroaders, but they played in the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League, which is not represented in the Contentnea set (basically a set of players in North Carolina League(s)). Fulton is in Kentucky, a good distance from Rocky Mount.

However the Rocky Mount team in the Eastern Carolina League at the same time (1909) was also known as railroaders, the Rocky Mount Railroaders.

It may be safe to assume that he was a "Railroader" therefore, regardless of where he actually played.

Now for the icing on the cake. If in fact he played on the 1909 Rocky Mount Railroaders, which is what I suspect, he had a much more recognizable teammate that began his career in Rocky Mount in 1909. You may have heard of him. His name was Jim Thorpe.

If Jim Thorpe had been chosen for inclusion in the T209 Contentnea set instead of Bourquise, the card might be familiar to the majority of prewar card collectors and worth a few bucks more than Mr. Bourquise, the enigma of Contentnea.



Contentnea.jpg Contentnea 1.jpg