"The Steele Box" - 1880's / 1890's Baseball

[ooo-ribay]

You have a treasure trove on your hands, Mark! It fascinates me and I’m not even “into” 19th century baseball.

[doug.goodman]

Some amazing stuff, that's for sure

[71buc]

Awesome stuff congratulations and thanks for sharing!

[Scott Garner]

Awesome collection, Mark!

[Mforder]

Here's a local baseball club from Washington, NJ. It's interesting that the teams played form money back then, even the local teams.

[Mforder]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

Awesome collection, Mark!

The feedback is great today, glad to see the folks here are interested in this. It makes it worth the effort.

[Mforder]

Fort Stanton in New Mexico appears to have been an outpost to protect settlers from the Apache Indians. One of the soldiers there appears to have been one of the 15 left in 1893 and was a friend of Charles Steele and from what I can tell from the letter they too had a baseball team.

[Mforder]

This postal card is from a player looking for a team to pick him up. He references a name which may be John "Dude" Esterbrook who he was training under until he ran out of funds to pay Esterbrook.

According to what I found John "Dude" Esterbrook was once a professional baseball player for the Buffalo Bisons, Cleveland Blues, New York Metropolitans, New York Giants, Indianapolis Hoosiers, Louisville Colonels, Brooklyn Grooms, and he was one of the managers for the Louisville Colonels.

Looking at the timeframe John "Dude" Esterbrook was still alive at this time although he did end his own life late in 1901 by jumping from a train.

I have to wonder if this is the same Esterbrook?

[Mforder]

Originally Posted by 71buc

Awesome stuff congratulations and thanks for sharing!

Thank you and you're welcome!

[Mforder]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

Some amazing stuff, that's for sure

I am glad to see folks are enjoying it. Thanks!

[Mforder]

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

You have a treasure trove on your hands, Mark! It fascinates me and I’m not even “into” 19th century baseball.

I'm glad you are enjoying it. I keep finding bits and pieces of information in the box that I didn't even realize I had. I just posted a postal card and it shows the name Esterbrook on it. I looked and if its the same John "Dude" Esterbrook then that means there is a small connection back to the NY Giants.

[Mforder]

Washington, NJ
Morristown, NJ
Boonton, NJ

[bgar3]

I think it probably does refer to Esterbrook. Still all very interesting.

[Mforder]

Originally Posted by bgar3

I think it probably does refer to Esterbrook. Still all very interesting.

Just knowing that the guy who wrote the card trained directly under Esterbrook is good with me. I would NEVER have had picked up on that unless I found this site. The details even in a postal card are pretty neat to find. Today's a good day. Thank you bgar3!

[baseball tourist]

Amazing items! Thanks for posting!

[Mforder]

Originally Posted by baseball tourist

Amazing items! Thanks for posting!

My pleasure!

[Mforder]

Apparently the baker in town was also the grounds keeper for baseball games. If you think about it a lot of this was done by hand and no power mower. One thing to note. Some claim that the word "mowing" was not used back then for this type of application. The receipt as far as I can tell says otherwise.

[Mforder]

Receipt for Keef baseballs. At $1.25 they weren't cheap for those days.