Major League Baseball Umpires

[Penale52]

Ben Wade has a bio in The Book of Clevelanders: A Biographical Dictionary of Living Men of the City of Cleveland. It mentions he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1879. I found Wade among photos of law grads from that year.

[Penale52]

I found a full obituary (part 1 and 2) for Patrick J. Cray (also listed as P. J. Cray and on Retrosheet as P. C. Cray) in the Aug. 3, 1933 issue of the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram. It mentions his involvement in amateur and professional baseball as an umpire, and says he was briefly a National League umpire. He also worked as a soda manufacturer.

[Penale52]

A photo of Col. William Wiegel was added to his Find a Grave memorial page in 2018.

[Cusick]

Thank you, Penale, for all your recently posted photos of umpires, beginning with those of August 28th. Your research and digging are much appreciated.

[Penale52]

The Gustavus Smith who umpired a National Association game on June 21, 1872 at Hartford Trotting Park was from Bristol, Connecticut, but eventually moved to Dayton, Ohio, where he was affiliated with the National Soldier's Home. Smith was a Civil War veteran and also remained a huge baseball fan. He attended Opening Day 1924 between the Dodgers and Giants in New York, and by 1923 had gone to five World Series.
The Smith in Ohio is shown to be the same Smith from Connecticut via multiple newspaper articles mentioning his home in Bristol, or that he went there to visit his sister or friends.
I have been unable to find an obituary for him, but Find A Grave memorial has a profile that matches him, giving his date of death as June 7, 1932 with a burial back in Bristol.
Anyway, I did come across a photo of Smith in the Dec. 28, 1921 edition of The Dayton Herald.

[Penale52]

According to a family tree at Familysearch.org, Walter Smedley Taylor of Philadelphia was the son of Hannah Mary Smedly. I found a photo circa 1890 in the archives of The Library Company of Philadelphia of Mount Equity in Pennsdale, Pa, which was rented by the photographer (John H. Webster)'s aunt, one Hannah Mary S. Taylor. In the photo is her only son, and John Webster's cousin, Walter S. Taylor, who is listed in the library's archives as being born in 1868, the same birth year as the 1890 American Association umpire. Looks like a good match.

[Penale52]

I was lucky enough to receive two photographs of Richard LaPierre after his granddaughter stumbled upon our forum and saw that a confirmed photo of him was missing.

She shared that he passed away in 2004 and also sent along a great article published shortly thereafter reflecting on his career as a sports official.

[Penale52]

John Jay Beardsley, who was a clerk in the office of the Surgeon General and a Civil War veteran, was shown in a group photo circa 1910 of other members of the Army Medical Library staff.

[Penale52]

William E. "Smiley" Walker was shown in his obituary published in the Feb. 16, 1909 edition of The Kentucky Post and Times-Star. Articles from 1876 list him as the manager of the Ludlow Base Ball Club. Another clip from 1909 says he was a member of the Cincinnati Junior Red Stockings from 1868-70.

[MaryMoyerLangston]

Originally Posted by Penale52

I think I finally found an actual image of Bob Moyer. I was able to find the text of his obituary, which revealed that he attended Tamaqua High School in Pennsylvania. Here he is in the school's 1943 yearbook on Ancestry.com

Hi there, Bob Moyer's daughter here! Feel free to ask any questions about Dad!

[Cusick]

Originally Posted by MaryMoyerLangston

Hi there, Bob Moyer's daughter here! Feel free to ask any questions about Dad!

Hi, Mary. Thanks for joining this forum.

Can you confirm that the photo that was posted on this forum back in 2018 was actually of your dad? It was on the following page:

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...206835&page=39

Do you have a photo of your dad that shows him in an umpire's uniform? If so, would you be willing to post it to this forum?

Best wishes.

[Penale52]

I found Enoch Clifford Megrue, who worked one NL game in 1876, in the March 12, 1892 edition of The Cincinnati Post, one year before his death.

[Penale52]

Major William Sullivan Beebe, who was awarded the Medal of Honor, is seen here in a 1899 book from the
United States Military Academy one year after his death.

[Penale52]

Harry Clay McLean, who later became chief of the division of repairs of public buildings and deputy health officer in Washington, D.C., was shown in the March 14, 1909 edition of The Evening Star.

[Cusick]

Great work on these latest three finds!

[Penale52]

A photo of Emile de Gall "Edward" Fountain was uploaded to Ancestry.com on Jan. 24, 2022.

[Merkle923]

Shot by Acme Pictures working third base as the Braves and Giants opened the 1930 season - his only year in the N.L. - on April 15 at the Polo Grounds in New York.

If his gaze makes no sense, there were just the three umps and he's backing up George Magerkurth as he makes a call at first base

[prewinter]

After some digging, I'm convinced that Daniel H. Devinney (1852-1905) is the former MLB umpire. The details outlined in Family Trees for him match what I've found in the newspaper, Census, and other records from the time, specifically as to his having two wives and the number of children with each wife. According to newspaper articles from April 1889, he abandoned his wife in St. Louis when he left to umpire in the Texas League. He married his second wife later that year, and newspaper articles from the 1890s track him from St. Louis to Cincinnati to Chicago, where he appears in the 1900 Census. He reportedly died in 1905, but I haven't found an obituary or other confirmation that this was the umpire. However, all the details match from records to Ancestry.com.

There is a photo of him on Ancestry.com... and for some reason I can't attach it. But there is one on Ancestry.com.

And in the light of day, I can upload it...