Digital Commons Network^™

Bud Fowler Beyond The Box Score, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

John W. Jackson, better known as Bud Fowler (1858–1913), was a Black baseball player, captain, manager, umpire, organizer, and promoter. He was also a barber, playwright, and song writer. His baseball career spanned at least 33 years, from 1877 to 1909. In 1878, Fowler became the first known Black baseball player in the major or minor leagues, and he went on to play for a total of 20 minor league clubs and numerous other teams with rosters composed predominantly of white ballplayers during the era of racial segregation. He played for teams from New England to southern California and from …

Integrated Baseball In Ohio, 1883-1900: Sol White And Richard Male, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Two essays amend and expand what has been published about two Ohio natives who played baseball in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the sport became increasingly segregated. The first essay clarifies the early years of Sol White, a Black ballplayer from Bellaire, Ohio, who played on integrated amateur teams in his hometown beginning in 1883, as well as the integrated first nine in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1886-1887 and the segregated Pittsburgh Keystones in 1887-1888. About this same time, Richard Male, who was born in Columbus but was a longtime resident of Cleveland, played under the pseudonym …

Winning Project: The Intersectionality Of Childless Women Between 1900 And 1950, Chelsea Kiefer

2024 Lynn Haggard Undergraduate Library Research Award

Throughout American history, society has had stereotypes of a woman’s role being a wife and a mother. In fact, when doing research, a librarian asked me what I was studying, and when I told her I was reading about childless women in the early 1900s, she said she did not think any existed. The fact is, though, that women without children have always existed in America, for a variety of reasons. Environmental scientist Dr. Rachel Carson, poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox, author Edith Wharton, activist Angelina Weld Grimké, and playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins are a few notable American women who went …

George H. Taylor: From Colorado To The Pinnacle Of Black Baseball, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

George H. Taylor was a Black baseball player born in Kansas but raised in Denver, Colorado, where he learned to play the game. From the 1880s to 1894, he played primarily for integrated teams in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, and Iowa, including minor league clubs in Aspen, Colorado and Beatrice, Nebraska. Taylor was also invited to play for otherwise white teams in Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden, Utah after they saw him play on visiting teams from Denver. From 1895 to 1907, Taylor mostly played for Black teams in Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota, including the Page Fence Giants, Leland Giants, and …

Integrated Baseball In Ohio, 1891–1907: Chavous, Harrison, Fountain, And Follis., Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

In addition to Moses Fleetwood Walker, Welday (Weldy) Walker, John “Bud” Fowler, and Grant “Home Run” Johnson, other Black baseball players were members of integrated teams involved in intercity competition in Ohio during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when racial segregation was widespread. The experiences of four of these players are described. James Chavous was a native of Marysville who pitched for Marysville and several other teams, including the Page Fence Giants. In 1904, an injury to his hand limited his role on the diamond to serving as an umpire, primarily in games between white teams. Edward Webster …

John W. "Bud" Fowler In Colorado, California, And Ohio, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

John W. Jackson Jr., better known as John W. “Bud” Fowler (1858–1913), was a Black baseball player, captain, manager, umpire, and promoter. His baseball career spanned at least 33 years, from 1877 to 1909. In 1878, Fowler became the first known Black baseball player in the major or minor leagues, and he went on to play for a total of 18 minor league clubs with rosters composed predominantly of white ballplayers during the era of racial segregation. He played for numerous teams from New England to southern California and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Consequently, he …

Early Integrated Baseball In Missouri, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Beginning in the years before the US Civil War, African Americans fled or emigrated from the South to northern and western states and territories. Descendants of these emigrants occasionally had the opportunity to play baseball for predominantly white town teams and minor league clubs prior to 1946 under circumstances documented in states such as Kansas and California. Those same opportunities were virtually nonexistent in states where slavery had been legal at the outset of the Civil War. A few instances of integrated baseball teams involved in intercity competition in Missouri, a border state that remained in the Union, have been …

An Economic History Of Ellis County, Kansas, Danielle Knoll, Alison Helget, Matthew Lamunyon, Colton Wagner, Daniel Robert Mcclure

Academic Leadership Journal in Student Research

Like many American rural communities in the second decade of the twenty-first century, Ellis County faces tough decisions regarding economic development, population growth, and sustainable strategies. This paper examines the history of the region since the early twentieth century, tracing the evolution of various industries—from oil to farming—and the different ways the community responded to the area and nation’s economic shifts. This “big picture” view of Ellis County operates as a starting point for strategizing paths forward for area residents.

The Hands Of God And The Glittering Sword: A Theological History Of John Brown, Christian Chiakulas

Master's Theses

The political praxis of American abolitionist John Brown (1800-1859) furnishes an example of practical liberation theology. This work advances an experimental historiographic model, termed theological history, which combines the central insights of Christian liberation theology and Marxist historical materialism to draw both historical and theological conclusions about its subject, John Brown.

The foundational work of Gustavo Gutierrez and James Cone suggests that history and praxis are central to liberation theology, and that Marxist epistemology and ontology are necessary for historical conclusions drawn from liberation theology to be valid. This work extends this contention, arguing for an even greater fusion …

Winning Paper: Catalytic Discrimination: How Homophobic Law Enforcement In The 20th Century Led To The Modern Gay Rights Movement, Megan Householter

2023 Lynn Haggard Undergraduate Library Research Award

Prior to the 20th century, the idea of homo- and heterosexuality was virtually nonexistent. As time went on, these concepts became a major part of the human identity. The path that led to the idea of queerness, and even the pride that comes with it, was one full of hardship and discrimination. There is not much research into the connection between discrimination by law enforcement and the start of the gay rights movement, but police attacking the livelihoods of those considered homosexual, the FBI monitoring them as security risks, and even agencies formed specifically to regulate the gay community occurred …

Dooming America: Conspiracy And Apocalypticism In The Populist Evangelical And White Nationalist Imaginations, Zachary W. Gipson

Master's Theses

Scholarship on American evangelicalism and its historical intersection with the ideology and activities of White Nationalism has typically focused on identifying shared cultural affinities in areas related broadly to the values and objectives of historic conservatism. These include issues of traditional patriarchy and gender roles, racial and/or religious prejudice, anti-immigrant views, and hostile responses to progressive socio-cultural change. Sociological, psychological, political and other frames of analysis applied to the study of American evangelicalism’s historical and cultural crossover with White Nationalism also identifies shared tendencies towards operating with conspiratorial and apocalyptic beliefs and frames of mind. To date, no comprehensive historical …

Black Pioneers Of Integrated Baseball In California, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Black athletes were barred from playing baseball in the major and minor leagues, as well as other teams of white players, with relatively few exceptions. Research on baseball’s color line has primarily focused on organized baseball (the major and minor leagues). The nine essays in this monograph are an introductory exploration of integrated baseball in California at various levels, from amateur to professional teams. The first six essays are biographies of seven Black ballplayers who played on predominantly white teams engaged in intercity competition for multiple years from 1886 to 1909. The seventh …

William Lewis Eagleson And The Origins Of African American Newspapers In Kansas, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

From July to November 1876, Reverend Thomas W. Henderson of the A.M.E. Church, edited a newspaper (“campaign paper”) in Leavenworth and Lawrence, Kansas named the Colored Radical. The following year in Fort Scott, Kansas, William L. Eagleson edited a newspaper named the Colored Citizen. While these were the first two African American newspapers published in the state, both were printed by the white publishers in Lawrence and Fort Scott. In February 1878, William and his brother, James, purchased their own printing equipment and restarted publication of the Colored Citizen, making it the first newspaper in Kansas written, …

Novus Ordo: The Rise Of Progressive Catholicism And The Fall Of Traditional Catholic Worship, Daniel P. Sute

Master's Theses

The promulgation of the 1969 reformed Roman Missal represents one of the most important events in modern religious history. The transition to the “Novus Ordo” Mass symbolized the end of an era of traditionalism and the beginning of an era of modern Catholicism. At first glance, this transition seemed to take the Church by storm. After over a hundred years of papal condemnations of progressive schools of thought, in the 1960s, progressive scholars were invited by Rome to oversee a general reform of the Mass, the religion’s central act of worship. The ultimate fruit of this labor, the Novus Ordo …

Epiphanies, Metaphors, And Liminality: Religion And Mountains In The Seventeenth Century English Mind, Ethan Smith

Master's Theses

This thesis studies the relationship between religion and mountains as represented in seventeenth century English thought. In particular, it seeks to discover trends of continuity in connections between divinity and mountains. It demonstrates that at least two distinct trends of continuity exist. First, between mountains and divinity as represented by metaphor and allegory, both represented in a variety of mediums, from poetry to letters and books. And secondly, it demonstrates continuity with regards to mountain experiences, which often evoke religion, either as a religious experience, experiences that use religious language, or experiences to religious places. In charting these continuities, it …

Most White People Just Don't Trust A Black Business Very Much: How The Walker Family Overcame Economic And Racial Discrimination To Become Successful Professional Business Owners In Memphis In The Twentieth Century, Leslie Pleasants

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Joseph Edison (J.E.) Walker was an African-American man born to an impoverished, sharecropping family in the heart of the Mississippi Delta after the Civil War in 1879. Even from an early age, he was determined to break out of the station his family had been relegated. There were few educational and occupational opportunities for Walker in Tillman, Mississippi, but against all odds, he received his undergraduate degree from Alcorn State College and a medical doctorate from Meharry Medical College. After graduating, Walker opened a medical office to help the people of the town; however, his local community mistreated him. …

The Demiurge And The Primeval Serpent Motif Within Classical Thought And Its Culmination Within Gnosticism And Early Christianity, Jim Mcpeters

Master's Theses

Dragons or great serpents associated with creation stories have been well documented within ancient Near Eastern myths, Classical religion, and Judaism. The motif involved monstrous and hostile supernatural figures emblematic of disorder that were subdued by a benevolent deity. The sect known as the Gnostics that emerged in the first and second centuries AD drew upon these ancient creation narratives and creatively mixed them with the idea put forward by Plato of a Demiurge, or craftsman who ordered the material universe. Because they held that the material cosmos was inherently evil, the Gnostics endowed their Demiurge with the characteristics of …

Integrated Baseball In Kansas During The Sport's Era Of Segregation, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Black athletes were barred from playing baseball in the major and minor leagues prior to 1946 with few exceptions. The implementation of the color line in organized baseball during the nineteenth century has been the focus of thorough research. Less studied is integrated baseball among independent town teams, and this research has focused on particular players or circumstances rather than an entire state or region across a broad span of baseball history. Integrated teams in Kansas provide a unique opportunity to examine their history at these larger scales. Prior to 1946, major league baseball was essentially concentrated east of the …

Alfred “Army” Cooper: A Baseball Career With The 25th Infantry, Negro Leagues, And Tournament Teams, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Lefthanded pitcher Alfred “Army” Cooper was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1899 and had a long career with Black baseball clubs between the First and Second World Wars. He played baseball while serving with the 25th US Infantry Regiment in Nogales, Arizona during most of the 1920s. After his discharge in February 1928, he pitched for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League until 1930. The following year, he played for several weeks with Gilkerson’s Union Giants, a prominent barnstorming team, before rejoining the independent Kansas City Monarchs as they barnstormed through the end of the summer. …

“What’S In A Name?" Baseball Goes To Town In 1886, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

In 1886, the St. Louis Browns of the American Association defeated the Chicago White Stockings (now the Chicago Cubs) of the National League in a postseason series, the only time an American Association club won the series played from 1884 to 1890. Also in 1886, the Missouri Pacific railroad organized the construction of a rail line in Kansas from Council Grove through Osage City to Ottawa. To commemorate the Browns’ season, the Missouri Pacific named two new stations after Browns’ players: Bushong in Lyon County and Comiskey in Morris County. Albert “Doc” Bushong was a catcher for the Browns, and …

"You Wanna Play Rough?": The Unlikely Partnership Of The Italian Mafia And Butch Lesbians In Greenwich Village, 1945-1968, Alison Jean Helget

Master's Theses

During economic and political upheaval in Europe beginning in the late-1910s and dramatically progressing throughout the 1920s, young Italian men emigrated to the United States to earn decent salaries to bring back to their families across the ocean. However, some single men embraced the opportunities of New York City and its diversified neighborhoods. Since xenophobic sanctions forced disenfranchised minorities into confined spaces and immigrants tended to find comfort settling in neighborhoods with well-established ethnic enclaves, this pushed Italian immigrants into the same space as butch lesbians in a counterculture place referred to as Greenwich Village on the west side of …

Carson City Mints A Base Ball Club, 1869–1870, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Baseball clubs had been organized in Nevada since at least 1866, but the organization of the Silver Star Base Ball Club (BBC) in Carson City in 1869 marked a change for the sport in the state. Some of the employees at the newly constructed Carson City Mint had experience playing for top ball clubs in the East, and other experienced ballplayers lived in the nearby mining community of Virginia City. The Silver City and Virginia ball clubs initiated intercity competition in 1869. In 1870, the Silver Star BBC picked up players from the Virginia BBC and played six games on …

Remembering The Experience Of War: A Sensory Study Of The Vietnam War And Collective Memory, Jacob Randolph

Master's Theses

The Vietnam War is remembered in a variety of ways. It is remembered as a war against communism, yet one that was also against American ideals of freedom. It is remembered as a war of patriotism, yet one that was also against the numerous military members who fought in it. It is remembered as a war for integration and unity among black and white, yet many African-Americans remember the time period as a war being fought abroad and at home. Memory of the war is obviously contradicting, but then again the 1960s and 1970s oftentimes were.

This thesis examines how …

What Pandemic?: Physical Memorilization Of The 1918 Pandemic, Carly M. Kauffman

Master's Theses

Throughout history there have been many significant events the people find worth remembering. Some of these events are significant enough that people build structures to honor, commemorate, or memorialize them. However, there are some events that are also significant, yet they seem to warrant little or no memorialization. In the United States' historical narrative, it seems that the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 is forgotten among the chaotic period of World War I and the interwar years. The lack of traditional memorials dedicated to the 1918 Pandemic can be attributed to the lack of acknowledgement of the pandemic in terms of …

The Frontier Demimonde: Prostitution In Early Hays City, 1867-1883, Hollie Marquess M.A.

History Faculty Publications

Hays City, Kansas, founded in 1867, became a bustling Western frontier town due to its possession of the Eastern Division terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad and its position near a military post, Fort Hays. Prostitutes, often among the first arrivals to Western frontier towns, played an integral role in the social and economic livelihood of Hays City. Sex work brought necessary commerce to the town and helped to support other aspects of Hays City nightlife like the gambling dens and saloons. Though respectable employment was largely closed to women in the West, prostitutes in Hays City maintained a mutually …

Baseball Career Of Andy Cooper In Kansas, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Andrew Lewis Cooper was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. He was a lefthanded pitcher, who played and managed in the Negro Leagues from 1920 until his death in 1941, mostly for the Detroit Stars and Kansas City Monarchs. Cooper also played baseball in California, Cuba, and the Far East. However, his life before 1920 has been little studied. Andy Cooper was born in Texas, probably in 1897. Although he was a resident of Waco and began playing baseball in northern Texas, contemporary newspaper reports document an African American pitcher from Texas named Andrew “Lefty” Cooper …

Crossing Baseball’S Color Line: Javan Emory, Jacob Francis, Hershel Schnebly, And Howard Molden, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

This set of three essays describes the careers of Black baseball players and umpires who dealt with a color line that barred them from participating with most teams of white players prior to the mid-twentieth century. The first essay — Javan Isaac Emory: Multiple Trips across Baseball’s Color Line — tells the story of Emory’s playing career during the late nineteenth century with integrated and segregated teams at several levels in Pennsylvania, from town teams to professional leagues. The second essay — Jacob B. Francis: Organized Baseball’s First Black Umpire — recounts the story of the first Black umpire in …

Memories: The Crew Of The Uss Abner Read Dd-526 (Second Edition), Mary Elizabeth Downing-Turner, Michael Davis

Monographs

Memories: The Crew of the USS Abner Read DD-526 captures the experiences of sailors who served aboard the USS Abner Read. Collected over the course of decade, this collection features more than 120 interviews with sailors who fought aboard the Abner Read during the War in the Pacific. First-hand accounts of life on the ship, the incident at Kiska, and the sinking of the ship during the Battle of Leyte Gulf all feature prominently in this edited volume. There are amusing anecdotes, mundane details, and graphic descriptions of the horrors of war. Though only in service for twenty-one months, …

Baseball Takes Root In Oregon, 1866‒1869, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

The first baseball club in the Pacific Northwest was organized in Portland, Oregon in 1866 as the Pioneer Base Ball Club. As the only club in the area, games were initially played between teams picked from the members of the club. The Clackamas BBC in Oregon City was organized later that year, and the first intercity baseball game was played between the first nines of these two clubs in Oregon City on October 13. The following year, numerous baseball clubs were organized, and the first baseball championship was held at the State Fair in Salem. In addition, a regional baseball …

Scott Joplin, Ragtime, And Baseball In Sedalia, Missouri In 1900, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Scott Joplin first achieved recognition as a composer with the publication of his Maple Leaf Rag in Sedalia, Missouri in 1899. A few months later, a Sedalia newspaper reported that Joplin and fellow musician Henry Jackson organized the Shortridge-Robb baseball club. The club planned to host a team from Kansas City at Liberty Park in Sedalia on 4 August 1900. Nothing else was published about the team in surviving Sedalia newspapers. This monograph examines the circumstances surrounding the organization of the Shortridge-Robb baseball club in an attempt to ascertain why it was organized and whether it played any games.