[joefromchicago]

Minor leagues in the railroad era typically scheduled double-headers on the summer holidays - Decoration Day/Memorial Day, Independence Day, and (starting in 1894) Labor Day. For those of you who want to use these schedules for your own leagues and want to make sure that the holidays line up correctly, you can refer to the following chart:

(A) May 30 and July 4 fall on a Monday and Labor Day is Sept. 5:

• 1870, 1881, 1887, 1892, 1898
• 1904, 1910, 1921, 1927, 1932, 1938, 1949, 1955, 1960, 1966, 1977, 1983, 1988, 1994
• 2005, 2011, 2016

(B) May 30 and July 4 fall on a Tuesday and Labor Day is Sept. 4:

• 1871, 1876, 1882, 1893, 1899
• 1905, 1911, 1916, 1922, 1933, 1939, 1944, 1950, 1961, 1967, 1972, 1978, 1989, 1995
• 2000, 2006

(C) May 30 and July 4 fall on a Wednesday and Labor Day is Sept. 3:

• 1877, 1883, 1888, 1894
• 1900, 1906, 1917, 1923, 1928, 1934, 1945, 1951, 1956, 1962, 1973, 1979, 1984, 1990
• 2001, 2007, 2012

(D) May 30 and July 4 fall on a Thursday and Labor Day is Sept. 2:

• 1872, 1878, 1889, 1895
• 1901, 1907, 1912, 1918, 1929, 1935, 1940, 1946, 1957, 1963, 1968, 1974, 1985, 1991, 1996
• 2002, 2013

(E) May 30 and July 4 fall on a Friday and Labor Day is Sept. 1:

• 1873, 1879, 1884, 1890
• 1902, 1913, 1919, 1924, 1930, 1941, 1947, 1952, 1958, 1969, 1975, 1980, 1986, 1997
• 2003, 2008, 2014

(F) May 30 and July 4 fall on a Saturday and Labor Day is Sept. 7:

• 1874, 1885, 1891, 1896
• 1903, 1908, 1914, 1925, 1931, 1936, 1942, 1953, 1959, 1964, 1970, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1998
• 2009, 2015

(G) May 30 and July 4 fall on a Sunday and Labor Day is Sept. 6:

• 1875, 1880, 1886, 1897
• 1909, 1915, 1920, 1926, 1937, 1943, 1948, 1954, 1965, 1971, 1976, 1982, 1993, 1999
• 2004, 2010

So, for instance, if you have a league that you started in 1901 but you want to use a historical schedule from 1898, the first time you could use it without any alterations is 1904. If you want to use that schedule in other years and you want the holidays to line up correctly, then you'll need to make some alterations to the schedule. You can always line up weekends correctly just by force-starting on the start day of the week that is indicated in the schedule.

I'm not sure when Memorial Day and Independence Day started being observed on either Friday or Monday when those holidays fell on a weekend - I think some states started doing that in the 1930s. That will, therefore, affect mostly post-war schedules.