The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-05-02
Famous Western Club Organ
lied In Topeka in 1869.
For Years Nothing in Kansas
Was Equal Of This Team.
Old TIMERS STILL LIVING
Many Well Known Topekans
Among Athletes.
Game of July 4, 1877, witnessed
by 10000 Spectators.

Baseball club Of Topeka was organized
professional team. the RED Stockings
of Cincinnati. travelled the country
and the fact that Topeka saw, heard
talked and played baseball years be-
fore there was national association
of clubs in the United States, ha!
failed to dampen the spirits of ole
timers in this city-the men who were
playing the game long before most Of
the players of today were born.
Topeka had a great club during the
seventies. a greater club when Colds
by's Golden Giants swept the country
Since that period the town has seer
bad. poor, fair, good and excellent
teams-with an accent on the bad.
But after all, the real interest In
baseball was manifested from 1859 I'M
til 1877 when a club known as the
western of Topeka not only placed
Topeka on the baseball map, but drew
up and specified the map on which
Topeka was to play. And Topeka In
those days was a town of less than 10.
900 persons of the time, cons1d-
erably less.
In 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stock
ings laid claim to the first professional
organization in the history OF the
country The club gained a wide repu-
tation and scored 2,4OO runs, Travelled
10000 miles and played before 10000
spectators.
The Red Stockings were the wonder
of the athletic age.
Plenty of Baseball in Topeka.
While these Red Sox were setting
fire to the fasteners, little old To-
peka, farther west even than the Al
leghany mountains, yea, farther than
the Ohio river. yes, sir, on past the
o1c
the Missouri-little old Topeka, we
humbly repeat, was represented by
baseball cuban organization com
posed of Topekans only and club
that maintained the reputation OF the
coming national game in the west.
Then, two years later. in 1871, a ma
tional association was organized, COM
posed of nine clubs representing the
larger cities of the country. 1t was at
this time that D. r. Evans, now OF the
Topeka, played with the first baseball
organization of note in Philadelphia
the Athletics.
All this time Topeka was plugging
right along, way out in the far west,
chasing over the Kansas prairies, bat
ting 'em mile.
Then in the ensuing five years the
eastern championship fight grew. Bos-
ton won every pennant and thirteen
cities, nine in the east and four furth-
And still Topeka, ignoring the boasts
of the New Englanders and the Penn
sylvania Dutch and the Ohio rips, cir
cled over Kansas and few of these
Of baseball as a future national sport.
In 1876 the National League was
organized. Who cared? The news
papers of the times undoubtedly her.
aided the event with single line head
under a steamboat ad A few years
later came the American League.
Again, who cares? Topeka, by that
time, was maintaining reputation all
her own. Out in that unheard of
obscure Kaw valley, to be sure, but it
proved that there was means of en-
tightening civilization west of the Ohio
valley-and Topeka was not going to
be kept outside of the New England
Chinese stone wall.
Western Club in 1869.
1t was in the spring of 1869 that the
Western club was organized. Many of
the organizers are living today. Some
of them are in TOpeka-that is in To-
peka with the exception of summer
afternoons when they can be found out
at Western league park. just outside
the city limits. Ed Dick was the first
pitcher. Robert Thompson, who is in
the furniture business in the city was
second baseman-and Thompson was
the wonder of the age. Hale Richie. a
we'll known Topeka contractor today,
was SnOTlSLOp. linen InerS were EQ
Dick, Bob Hunter, Lou Dick Homer
Moore and Scott Knox-all known by
the earlier residents of the city.
For eight years this team wiped up
the surrounding towns. Among hated
rivals were Ottawa and Lawrence. The
baseball dictates of those days decided
that no one outside town should play
in the club representing that city and
competition was limited. The player of
the early seventies never needed to fear
for means of earning bread.
In those early days James Mcfarland.
now a most loyal and devoted fan Of
the Kaws, was a mighty pitcher
"Jim," as they called him. could de-
liver a ball within the rules and still
without the existing calculation of the
batters. His wonderful underhand
throw was responsible for majority
of the Topeka victories. And that isn't
all Jim accomplished as a baseball
player. He. as a pitcher. didn't con-
slider himself on pension-when he
came to bat the fielders moved back
back closer to the grazing cows in deep
center. He was one of the hardest hit
tiers on the team-or in Kansas, for that
seasons.
''Jim was willing to pitch any time
ne was slated a veteran player said
the other day. land he would run the
bases like mad after pounding the ball
into the field-but he insisted upon only