Iowa Heritage Illustrated

Sports Sites: The Old Ball Park

Fish, Don

— Excerpt from “ Donald and Marian,’
by Don Fish ( 1994) 
State Historical Society o f Iowa (Iowa City Library)
A passion for the game...
Warming up Feller
“ HERE, DON,W ARM THE KID UP.” 
and with these words Bill Feller 
threw me a first baseman’s mitt. I 
blinked my eyes as I caught the glove 
and automatically put it on.This was 
the Fourth of July in 1935.1 was the 
County Agent at Adel, Iowa, and I was 
in general charge of the annual Farm 
Bureau picnic in the Adel City Park. 
We had many events scheduled for 
the day’s entertainment, and there 
were committees and committee 
chairmen for each activity, and my 
main job was to circulate around the 
park and see that everything was 
going off according to schedule. We 
expected from 5,000 to 8,000 people, 
according to the weather, and this 
being a beautiful clear July day, the 
park was crowded. Earlier in the day, 
there had been races for the young 
people, a skillet throwing contest for 
women, and various other races and 
softball games.There was a speech by 
an important politician scheduled for 
late afternoon, but now at the noon 
hour we were getting ready for a big 
ball game.
During the early part of the 
century, semi-pro baseball had been 
very popular in the area, and many of 
the smaller towns had fielded semi- 
pro teams which played mostly on 
Sunday afternoons and holidays. Some 
softball was being played under the 
lights, but baseball at this time was a 
daytime activity, and the Fourth of July 
celebrations always featured baseball 
games.
Clem Luellen.from Minburn.was 
in charge of the baseball this year, and 
we had dreamed up a game that we 
knew would interest many people. 
Bobby Feller, from Van Meter, had been 
an outstanding high school pitcher,
and for several years had been quite a 
star on a semi-pro team sponsored by 
his father. A t this time, he was 18 
years old and had just graduated from 
high school. Several pro scouts were 
after him, and later on that summer 
he was signed by the St. Louis Browns 
and actually pitched a couple of 
games. His father’s team, with Bobby 
pitching, was to face a pick-up team 
featuring Jim G ra n t.. .  who had been 
a major league pitcher for several 
years, and was now being very 
successful in semi-pro ball throughout 
central Iowa. Most of the players on 
this team were older and were very 
familiar to Dallas County baseball fans. 
I had just wandered over to the 
baseball diamond to see if the baseball 
game was going to start on schedule 
when Bill Feller [threw] me the glove.
I knew Bill very well because he was 
the County Chairman for our wheat 
committee in Dallas County, and in 
that capacity, he had spent quite a lot 
of time in our office. I had seen Bobby 
play several times, and like everyone 
who had seen him, was sure he was 
going places. I had seen him play in a 
junior American Legion game where 
Nile Kinnick was catching, and I think 
that every batter he faced either 
struck out or walked. He threw hard 
in those days but tended to be a little 
wild, and no one who faced him ever 
stood very close to the plate.
“ The catcher was delayed,’’ Bill 
told me,“ and why don’t you just 
warm the kid up til he gets here. It 
should only be a few minutes.”
“ I guess I can handle that, Bill, if it 
won’t be too long. Can’t you get me a 
catcher’s mitt?”
"The catcher has our only m itt 
with him. That first base m itt should
do until he gets here.”  In the mean­
time, Bobby had put on his spikes, 
found a ball, and motioned me over 
alongside of the ball field. I don’t 
remember that he said anything to 
me. He just started throwing. The 
first ball that he threw was harder 
than any ball I had ever caught, and 
each pitch was a little harder. I am 
sure that my eyes popped out. I was 
afraid to catch the ball and afraid not 
to. If it had ever hit me in a vulnerable 
spot, I am sure that it would have 
killed me. I started catching it in the 
pocket, but after I had caught about 
three balls, my hand hurt so that I 
could hardly stand it. My hand then 
became numb and that helped. I 
finally tried to catch the ball w ithout 
ever letting it get into the pocket. 
Some first basemen were very good 
at that. Bill, the kid’s father, was 
watching and grinning from ear to ear.
I have an idea, and I had it then, that 
he had taken quite a lot of the same 
kind of punishment I was taking. After 
about ten minutes the catcher drove 
up, and I immediately relinquished my 
glove.
I can’t remember who won the 
ball game, but I think that it was 
Bobby’s team. None of those older 
players stood very close to the plate 
either, for Bobby was wild. In the first 
major league games he pitched 
he struck the batters out in record 
numbers, but he tended to walk quite 
a few. He became probably the 
greatest pitcher of all time. ♦>


English

Warming Up Feller

Swaim, Ginalie

Car Culture, Iowa Style

Iowa Heritage Illustrated, vol.87 no.4, Winter 2006

Foster, John E

STUMP SPEECH:
Fred Foster argues his 
points to  an a tte n tiv e  
au d ien ce , Io w a Falls, 
1896 .  F r e d ’s f a t h e r  
photographed his chil­
d re n , Io w a  Falls, and  
th e  surrounding  area  
a t th e  tu rn  o f th e  cen­
tu ry . For a n o th e r Fos­
te r  im age,see page 97.
144 loica Heritage Illustrated


Stump Speech

Hoffman, Himena V

^Che jjltst election
D tenxembet
by Himena V. Hoffman
I
t  was the year 1896.1 was 
seven years old, the daughter 
of as devoted a Democrat as 
there was in southern Iowa, 
always a delegate to  state 
conventions, sometimes county 
chairman, and one of Decatur 
County’s best campaigners before 
each election. It was not a time 
when women were active in
politics__ For most little girls
politics was a closed book. I was 
different. W here my father went, I 
wanted to go too, and he took me.
I went to  political rallies even if I 
slept through the speeches; was in 
his office when the Democratic 
County Committee met; and rode 
with him in our buggy, all over the 
county, campaigning every two 
years.
It is the first election I remem­
ber but I was not inexperienced. 
Though I can not remember it, I 
made my first political speech 
when I was two years old, standing 
on my father’s desk and saying,“ I’m 
a Democrat,” and being rewarded 
by dimes from the committee mem­
bers present (more pay than I’ve 
received fo r any political speech 
since). I had publicly refused to shake
hands with a Republican congress­
man because I was under the 
impression that he thought Demo­
crats should be hung, and after 
the election in 1892 I’d been sure 
my father and someone named 
Cleveland had saved us from some­
thing terrible.
Also, I knew the Democrats 
needed to be elected. I’d heard my 
father say to  a Republican,” ! know 
how you vote but Ed’s son should 
go to high school. Ed’s a good 
neighbor and needs your help,” o r 
“ I know you are a Republican but 
John’s wife isn’t well. If John’s 
elected they can move to town. 
They are members of your church 
so I thought you’d want to know 
how things are.”
Then, as now, election to 
county office depended on much 
besides party affiliation, and my 
father knew not only the politics 
but what almost every voter in 
the county thought important.
In 1896,1 knew I was a Demo­
crat and the months before the 
election were exciting ones that I 
still remember vividly. I wore a 
[W illiam Jennings] Bryan button, 
had a Bryan hat, picked a weed we
called “ silver rod” and scorned 
golden rod. I could, if asked “ what 
did Bryan say?” declaim,“ You shall 
not press down on labor’s brow 
this crown of thorns. You shall not 
crucify mankind on this cross of 
gold.” I had no idea what that 
meant but it secured Democratic 
applause when I o r any other 
Democrat quoted it. I went to cam­
paign rallies and while I did not 
know what was meant by Protec­
tive Tariff o r Free Coinage of Silver, 
neither did many of the adults. I 
knew something was wrong about 
the railroads and that we Demo­
crats would do something about it.
I heard political discussion too. 
I’ve never forgotten hearing my 
Republican grandfather (my 
m other’s father) say to his Populist 
neighbor,“ Peter, if you’d fill that 
lumber wagon with paper dollars, 
those dollars would not be worth 
burning if they didn’t have gold 
dollars back of them.” From the 
election of 1896 I still have a 
memory of that wagon and how I 
thought it would look full of paper 
dollars and how gold dollars could 
be piled back of them. I also 
imagined a bonfire of paper dollars!
120 Iowa Heritage Illustrated
The campaign was one of 
many rallies, campaign slogans, and 
parades. N o t since 1840 had the 
rank and file of the party been so 
involved, and never since has there 
been one like it.
I particularly enjoyed the 
parades, even the Republican ones. 
One was a torchlight parade w ith 
a baby buggy section.The baby boys 
had such signs as “ I’ll vote Republi­
can in 19 18“ o r “ I can’t  vote but 
my papa can. He’ll vote fo r McKin­
ley. He’s our man.’’ I do not know 
if girl babies were in the parade. If 
so, I am sure none said,“ I’ll vote in 
1918“ o r any other year.
The longest Democrat parade 
was said to  be so long that when 
the last vehicle in it left Leon, the 
first entered Decatur, but the 
Republicans disparaged the claim 
by saying that there was so much 
space between each entry that 
they could have stretched it out to  
the county line! The winning float 
featured sixteen pretty girls in 
silver dress and one in gold, w ith 
the slogan “ Sixteen to one” [the 
ratio of silver to  gold].There was 
also a float that carried sixteen 
little girls my age, a children’s
chorus, but either because o f my 
lack o f musical talent o r living on 
a farm, I was not a member. H ow ­
ever I rode w ith my father, and 
our buggy whip had a big silver 
colored bow and I my Bryan cap.
T
he summer was full
o f excitement and 
when fall came it was 
more intense.The 
two Leon papers, one 
Republican and the other Demo­
cratic, denounced and defended, 
young men fought after Saturday 
night dances, children staged battles 
pulling off each o the r’s buttons, 
and speeches and parades contin­
ued. Even in the pulpit there was 
sometimes politics. Most Method­
ist ministers, fo r instance, shared 
w ith their parishioners the feeling 
that God was white, Methodist, 
and Republican, and doubtless 
other churches had their versions 
which sometimes differed.
As fo r me, no one was more 
certain of being a Democrat than 
I until the night of the election 
when I heard my father say, “ If the 
Republicans win tom orrow , we’ll
all live on cornbread.’’ I was 
amazed. I loved cornbread. It was 
one o f the few foods I liked.
By mid-morning I changed 
parties. I climbed on the fence and 
yelled to  passersby to the polls, 
“ Vote Republican! Vote Republican!’’ 
A man came to  my father, cam­
paigning near the polling place, 
“ Cal, that little  girl of yours is on 
your fence yelling ‘Vote Republi­
can.’ ’’ My father hurried down for 
an explanation and I think he under­
stood. He loved cornbread too.
The Republicans won but we 
still ate white bread. I have never 
been tempted by any Republican 
promises since nor did I ever 
expect any magic from the Demo­
crats. W hat I did gain was the 
conviction that I still have: that our 
government can stand after any 
election and our lives go on.
This is the first election I 
remember. I remember so many 
since, but never quite like the one 
eighty years ago. ♦>
The author wrote this essay in 1973 for an 
Iowa Commission on Aging contest. It is 
archived at the State Historical Society o f Iowa 
(Iowa City).
Fall 2006 121


The First Election I Remember

Liepa, John

Baseball Mania Strikes Iowa
by John Liepa
B
y spring's arrival in Iowa in 1867, a new phenom­
enon had taken hold. More than 200 teams had 
been organized to play baseball in the state. 
Iowa's largest cities and smallest towns—it made no dif­
ference—were all enthused about America's fastest 
growing sport. Communities as tiny as Bangor—with 
fewer than a hundred houses and only 600 residents— 
had their teams. Towns not much larger, such as Knox­
ville with 1,100 citizens, probably had more than one. 
Distinctive or colorful names were chosen to give each 
club its own identity: the Proud Mahaskas in Oskaloosa, 
the Hesperians in Monticello, and in Indianola, the 
Gorilla Club. Grundy Center had the Wadiloups and 
Fort Dodge, the Wahkonsas.
The Keokuk Daily Gate City, in August 1867, drama­
tized the baseball "contagion" as only a 19th-century 
newspaper could: "Men and women and little ones are 
becoming spellbound. . . .  It is fastening itself upon al­
most every community in the land. . . . High and low, 
rich and poor—the kid gloved exquisite and the honest 
laborer, all bow before its onward march.... Such is the 
influence of the Base Ball mania of these times."
For a game that has long been a part of American 
culture, a myth about its origins still persists. The myth, 
simply put, is that Abner Doubleday invented the game 
in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. Because of that 
myth, the Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Coopers­
town, and every year, as new members are inducted, 
major leaguers play a baseball game on Doubleday Field 
in Cooperstown. Abner Doubleday was a cadet at West 
Point Military Academy in 1839 and may have had some 
rudimentary knowledge of baseball. But baseball was 
not invented. Rather it evolved out of numerous bat- 
and-ball games (rounders, town ball, tip-cat, and oth­
ers) brought to colonial America from England and other 
parts of Europe. Early on, the game was played under 
various sets of rules; there were the Massachusetts rules, 
the Philadelphia rules, the New York City rules, and so 
on. They varied on basic aspects, such as the shape of 
the field, the number of players, and the length of the 
game In New England, a base runner would be out if 
he was hit by a thrown ball.
The individual most responsible for formalizing
baseball into what approximates today's game was 
Alexander Cartwright of the Knickerbocker baseball 
club in New York City. In September 1845 he helped 
draft the first written rules. Many are still used today: a 
diamond-shaped infield with three bases and home 
plate; foul lines; and nine-man teams, with each player 
covering a specific position. Batting was rotated, and 
three outs retired a side.
Where commerce led, culture and sports followed. 
By the 1850s baseball had reached the busy river town 
of Davenport, Iowa. The Daily Gazette of May 29,1858, 
stated that "two 'Town Ball' clubs have been formed 
from the original one, and they are now proceeding to a 
regular organization. They will have a big list of mem­
bers, a lot of their own for playing purposes, and a good 
time generally. They have their rules and regulations 
printed, and everything will be done on system."
In these early years, baseball clubs and teams were 
strictly amateur, playing largely for social enjoyment. 
Ball players left their workplaces at day's end (or ear­
lier) to meet at the local diamond and play an invigo­
rating game. Unlike card playing and horse racing, base­
ball was considered clean and honest, an innocent and 
respectable sport that even women could watch with­
out offense. As the Mt. Pleasant newspaper noted, the 
local Hawk-Eye baseball club members were "the very 
best young men of our city" and "profane language is 
strictly prohibited, and is never heard during their games."
Individual teams often represented a particular so­
cial class or occupation: tradesmen, or store clerks, or 
college students, for example. The officers of Davenport's 
"Pastime base-ball club No. 2" comprised two leading 
citizens—George L. Davenport, the president of a gas 
company and the son of a town founder; and Joseph A. 
LeClaire, businessman and nephew of another town 
founder—as well as a lawyer, editor, jeweler, merchant, 
tailor, and "House, Sign and Steamboat painter." In mid- 
June, the Davenport's Daily Gazette reported that "the 
Cricket and Base Ball clubs take exercise now with a 
good deal of regularity. The players are improving, and 
will soon be ready to challenge somebody."
Those who did not exercise "with a good deal of 
regularity" were later reminded by the city's Morning
Spring 2006 3
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News that "we Americans 
are a scraggy, consumptive, 
liver complaining set—a 
drug devouring, whiskey­
drinking people, who be­
lieve in long doctor's bills, 
and in 'living like lightning 
and dying like lightning.'.. .
All our energies seem de­
voted to the lessening of 
physical labor; and Ameri­
can ingenuity and Ameri­
can industry seem destined 
to effect the most wonder­
ful revolution the world has 
ever yet beheld, and that is, 
the almost total abolition of 
manual work. We forget 
that we have bodies to be 
cared for, muscles to be de­
veloped, and lungs to be
preserved and exercised__
Americans . . . never learn
to take exercise—not withstanding the many examples 
set them by their foreign brethren—and base ball clubs, 
and cricket clubs, and boat clubs, dwindle away after 
the first or second meeting. . . . There must be sound­
ness of body, ere there will be soundness of heart and 
mind. The 'moral muscle' can only be developed by the 
assiduous care of the physical."
"What has become of the old Cricket Club?" the 
same Gazette wondered the next April, while noting that 
"an impromptu gathering of base ball players took place 
on the bluff... and a few games played with hearty zeal. 
A meeting of the members of the old Base Ball Club is 
desired this evening at Jewel's paint shop on Third Street."
Not everyone was zealous about the game. In March 
1859, the Washington (Iowa) Press reprimanded: "Boys! 
Boys!! Playing ball is nice sport—it is helpful and in­
vigorating—and we like to see you enjoying yourselves 
in that way. But there is a place as well as a time for 
everything.—Now the County Judge and other citizens 
have gone to a good deal of trouble and expense to plant 
trees in the court yard and sow it in grass seed, so that it 
may look pleasant and nice and be an ornament to the 
town. But don't you see the trees will all be killed, and 
the grass can't grow at all, if it is made a playground for 
all the boys in town? Certainly you do, though perhaps 
you didn't think of it before, and now we are sure you 
will find some other place to play ball—out in the street 
or on the common somewhere. Of course you will."
A lady in Keokuk shared her frustration with Gate
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E N A T I O N A L  G A M E .  T H R E E  O U T S  A N D  O N E R U N
ABRAHAM WI N N I N G  T H E  B A L L . ’
A lread y  in 18 6 0 ,w hen this po litical c a rto o n  appeared ,b aseb a ll was called th e “ N a tio n a l G am e.”
City readers in March 1859: "Almost every evening a 
large number of boys engage in 'ball playing' near our 
house. I can endure the screaming and yelling . . . but 
the players become thirsty, and we have been sodding 
and planting our trees. A portion of the boys jump the 
fence, and of course, that ruins the grass and damages 
the trees. The others come in at the gate, and when they 
go out, leave it open, thereby giving a general invita­
tion to all the cows around to 'walk in.'
"Think of a pump being rattled every minute, and 
water wasted; for every boy pumps a bucketful when 
he fills the dipper. 1 cannot endure this annoyance any 
longer. Boys, I dislike to refuse you a 'cup of cold wa­
ter,' but I find it very annoying to have about fifty tum­
bling in and out of the yard every afternoon. You will 
please change the usual programme, and oblige.//
aseball's increasing popularity in the 1850s was 
interrupted by the Civil War. Very few accounts 
have been found of any baseball activity in Iowa 
during the war. One appeared in the Dubuque Daily 
rimes in August 1863, reminding the Dubuque City Base 
Ball Club to meet behind "Judge Wilson's residence, 
promptly at half past three, this afternoon." Four days 
later, another item announced "a match game between 
the nines selected from the Hawkeye Base Ball Club" at 
the old race track.
Civil War camps, even prison camps, were where
4 Iowa Heritage Illustrated
the most baseball was played during the war. Soldiers 
whiled away tedious hours practicing the game. When 
they returned to their hometowns, they brought the 
game with them. War had taught them camaraderie, dis­
cipline, order, and management—traits essential to put­
ting together a successful baseball organization.
The 1860s game shared similarities with fast-pitch 
softball today: the pitcher tossed the ball with an under­
hand motion. Although the game resembled modern- 
day baseball in some aspects, there were substantial dif­
ferences. The batter could call for a high ball or a low 
one. The pitcher's job was not to strike out the batter, 
but to get the batter out on the bases and to deal with 
him there before he could score.
Gloves and catcher's masks were not used until 1870 
and were considered "unmanly." Broken fingers were 
both an inevitable consequence and a badge of honor. 
Every old-time catcher was proud of his hands, often 
thickened and crippled in every joint. Iowa's first pro­
fessional player, Calvin McVey, played several positions 
including catcher from 1869 to 1885. Years later a base­
ball historian described his hands as "big ham fists with 
discolored lumps and knobs, odd-angled joints, and 
mangled fingers." As early as 1867 a dialogue titled "A 
Scarred Hero" in a Des Moines newspaper joked about 
the "mania" for playing baseball despite its risks:
What is the matter with your finger?
Struck with a ball and drove up; but it's a noble game.
Precisely; and your thumb is useless, is it not?
Yes; struck with a ball and broken.
That finger joint?
A ball struck it. No better game to improve a man's 
physical condition—strengthens his sinews.
You walk lame. That foot, isn't it?
No; it's the—the—the—well, a bat flew out of a player's 
hand and hit my knee pan. He had the innings.
One of your front teeth is gone?
Knocked out by a ball—only an accident.
Your right hand and your nose have been 
peeled—how's that?
Slipped down at a second base—only a mere scratch.
And you like this sort of fun?
Like it? Glory in it! Perfectly splendid!—Healthiest 
game in the world, sir! Take a hand?
C O U R T E S Y  JO H N  U E P A
P e rh a p s  Io w a ’s 
e a r l ie s t  “ b a s e b a ll 
c a rd ” is th is  1866  
c a b in e t  c a rd  o f  
W a s h i n g t o n ’ s 
b aseb a ll c lu b  and  
its “ firs t n in e ” best 
p la y e rs . B e lo w :  
U n id e n tifie d  te a m  
f r o m  a c a r t e  d e  
vis ite  pho to .
SH SM IO W A  CITY)
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FIR ST N IN E, W A SH IN G TO N  B. B. C
I
n early town-building, a church and a schoolhouse 
had been essential; so too was baseball to a com­
munity in the second half of the century. Matches 
represented much more than winning or losing. They 
were about showing off one's community and players 
and exhibiting civic pride. A successful ball club put a 
town on the map.
Two of Iowa's best teams were Fort Dodge's 
Wahkonsa Base Ball Club and Marshalltown's Marshall 
Base Ball Club. In early August 1866, Louis D. Button, 
the president of the Fort Dodge club (and school princi­
pal), put forth a challenge: "In order to create an inter­
est in the great American Game of Base Ball in North­
western Iowa, and for the mutual benefit of all con­
cerned, the 'first nine' of the Wahkonsa B. B. Club hereby 
challenge the 'first nine' of the Marshalltown Club, to 
play a single game.... The game to be played in accor­
dance with the regulations prescribed by the Base Ball
Convention held in 
New York City Decem­
ber 13th, 1865." The 
challenge was accepted, 
and the game was her- 
alded as "a grand 
match." The date and 
place were set: Sep­
tember 12 at Boone, 30 
miles southeast of Fort 
Dodge and 50 miles 
west of Marshalltown. 
Fort Dodge's loiva North 
West sent a reporter to 
cover the game. His
Spring 2006 5
T h e  M arsh a llto w n  club in 1867 poses, a year a fte r  th e  te a m ’s 
“ grand m a tc h ” w ith  th e  F o rt D odge W a h k o n s a  club.
story did not appear for two weeks (the editor explained 
that "Our Special Reporter was a little behind time"), 
but what he lacked in timeliness he made up in color. 
His coverage was as much about camaraderie, civic 
pride, and celebration as about the actual game: "The 
first nine of the Wahkonsa Club, their scorer and your 
special reporter, left Fort Dodge on Tuesday morning, 
the 11 th, in one of the North Western Stage Company's 
splendid new coaches, drawn by one of the finest four- 
horse teams in the State, under the management of the 
accomplished horseman, 'Steve.' As the day was wet 
and disagreeable . . . the boys managed to drive dull 
care away with songs, stories, anecdotes, sells [hoaxes], 
and yarns, reminding us more of a gay wedding excur­
sion, than a matched nine who were to contend for the 
championship of North Western Iowa ... and as I looked 
upon these athletic nine, taken from our best business 
men, I felt like challenging the State to produce a better 
selection, both as to moral worth, business qualifica­
tions, and muscular development.
"... [We arrived] in Boonsboro about dark; singing 
as we passed through to Boone, every thing known to 
vocalists, from 'Old Hundred' to 'Babble, babble little 
brook.' The inhabitants stared at us; children looked 
amazed; dogs barked....
" ... We learned that the Marshall Club had not as 
yet put in an appearance, as promised. . . . After stow­
ing away our clubs, and plowing and irrigating our 
faces, we partook of a sumptuous supper prepared for 
us, and found the landlord had discommoded himself 
and guests to make us comfortable during our stay. We 
were met and welcomed by the citizens of Boone. . . . 
The night was put in with song and merriment. ...
"Wednesday morning opened up a beautiful day, 
and we arose from our easy couches, rested, buoyant 
and confident.... The grounds were then selected, and 
our boys performed the hard work of laying them out 
and preparing them, and arranging every thing in or­
der, with bases, posts, &c."
Eight of the nine from Fort Dodge were bachelors, 
and, according to the reporter, their hearts went "pit-a- 
pat" at the sight of the "beautiful hundred ladies" who 
now arrived on the excursion train with the Mar­
shalltown team, the brass band, and other spirited fans.
"The game was the most exciting scene I ever wit­
nessed. Bets were freely made . . . and in one instance 
ten to one was bet on our boys by a citizen of Boons­
boro." The correspondent described each inning and a 
few "laughable" incidents. One of the Marshall players 
accidentally slipped out of his shoe and left it at first 
base, "creating much fun for the crowd. And then their 
Captain . . . turned a somersault, in mockery of a fall 
our 'blacksmith' got in making a desperate run for the 
ball. . . . The smith returned to his base with a defiant, 
confident air, and the game went on."
The match was a well-contested, narrow victory for 
the Fort Dodge Wahkonsa Club, by a score of 29-24. As 
the team's player/blacksmith said, "We scooped them."
Baseball had arrived in a glorious fashion in Iowa. ❖
Author John Liepa has taught history (Iowa and U.S.) and politi­
cal science at Des Moines Area Community College for 34 years.
NOTE ON SOURCES
Almost all of the information for this article was gleaned from Iowa community 
newspapers, 1850 -1870. In Des Moines, John Zeller's many years of poring over 
19th-century newspapers saved the author hundreds of research hours; Merle Davis 
of Iowa City also researched baseball in many newspapers.The author's wife. Dianne, 
and sonTorey provided assistance, encouragement and support in numerous ways.
Base Ball on the Brain (to be sung to the minstrel tune “ Ham Fat” ; printed in the Daily State Register, September 27, 1867)
A t length the war cry’s hushed and still, 
And peaceful are the signs.
The cannon’s roar affrights us not—  
“ All quiet on the lines”
No more the fearful charge we brave— 
For raids we look in vain.
But still excitement we must have.
And we’ve base ball on the brain!
...A n d  there’s the little urchin,too, 
W ith  importance he is great.
As he holds his “ bat” invitingly,
Just knee-high o ’er the “ plate.”
The “ pitcher sends a w h irling ‘ball’,” 
For a “ skyer” he is fain.
But “ foul" the “ Umpire” loudly calls, 
W ith  base ball on the brain!
.. .The girls, too, aping lordly man,
Have taken up the chase.
And with Bloomer pants and gaiters high, 
They fly from “ base” to “ base!”
In faith, I think the truth to tell,
There’s none of us quite sane,
But that we all have Poplar Lawn!
And base ball on the brain!
6 Iowa Heritage Illustrated
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