MONETT, MISSOURI HISTORY, BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, SPORTS

EARLY SPORTS & RECREATION, MONETT, MISSOURI

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Martin's White Sox, 1908. Earl Jeffries is in the center of the back row with the Monett park hill in the distance behind him. On July 31, 1908, the Monett Times gave the lineup of the Martin's team as Charles Woolsey, catcher; Rex Leckie, pitcher; Frank Geister, 1st base; Tom Lyons, 2nd base; Lane Guinney, short stop; Everet Stringer, 3d base; Earl Jeffries, left field; Guy Miller, center field; and Ernest Brown, right field. How this lineup corresponds to the photo is unknown. The image is from a postcard.

Monett Times, July 3, 1908

Athletic Association

The Monett Athletic Association has been organized and sufficent money secured to place the grounds in first class condition. The grounds selected are south of the railroad tracks near the Patterson mill. Postcard of the Patterson Mill.

The officers of the Association are E. O. Brown, Pres., Wirt Patterson, manager, and W. W. Lehnhard, treasurer. The board of directors are W. H. Fly, Chas. Copeland, Ed Salzer, John McGrath and Chas. Bryan.

NOTE

As far as I can tell, the formation of the Monett Athletic Association marked the beginning of semi-professional baseball in Monett. The team was called the Athletics until the spring of 1910, then the Midgets. Admission to the games was charged, and the players were paid. There was a tall board fence around the field, visible in the 1909 photograph below, to keep out unpaid eyes. Kids who sneaked through the fence were arrested. On August 16, 1909, the Monett Times mentioned that there had been 806 paid admissions to a single Sunday afternoon game with Sarcoxie. Intially admission was a quarter for everyone. Later it was reduced to a dime for ladies and people who watched the game from their own carriages rather than the grandstands. The team traveled around the area, and sometimes the Frisco assembled a special train to take fans to a big game.

In 1910, the team opened the season with a losing exhibition game in Monett against the St. Louis Browns professional team. In the regular season, it had a 54-7 record and was considered one of the finest semi-pro teams in Missouri. It continued its winning ways in 1911, but struggled financially and lost its lease on the athletic field at the end of the season. Shortly thereafter, it apparently went out of business.

	Monett Baseball Team, 1909, the Athletics. Earl Jeffries is second from left in the front row. The others are unidentified. On April 10, 1909, the Monett Times gave the lineup of the Monett team at a game in Fairview: Ed Salzer, manager; Persch, pitcher; Freeman, catcher; Stringer, 1st base; Selfe, 2nd base; Guinney, 3rd base; Varner, short stop; Keys, right field; Leckie, center field; Dawson, left field; and Temple, mascot. On May 8, 1909, the paper gave a somewhat different lineup for a game with Carthage: Lewis, catcher; Keyes, pitcher; Geister, 1st; Selfe, 2nd; Guinney, 3rd; Varner, SS; Vinson, LF; Leckie, CF; Lopp, RF. This image is from a postcard.
	Monett Baseball Team, 1910, Rolleg's Midgets. The Monett Athletics of 1909 were renamed the Midgets in 1910 and first referred to as "Rolleg's Midgets" in the Monett Times of April 22, 1910. Grant Rolleg, originally from Joplin, played baseball for the Monett team from 1909 to 1911 and later played with other area teams as well as a Burlington Iowa team. The team compiled a 1910 record of 54 wins and 7 losses, playing teams from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas as well as Missouri. The Monett Times of September 23, 1910, online here, listed every game played with detailed statistics for the team. As identified by the Times in a 1950s article, the photo shows, front row from left, Bee Vinson, left field; Brubaker, pitcher; Grant Rolleg, catcher and manager; Homer Black, right field; Rex Leckie, first base; Ed Stringer, right field. Back row: Dutch Combs, pitcher; Jimmy Lawrence, second base; Laine Guinney, shortstop; Shorty Myers, third base; and Webber Long, pitcher. Combs played with an artifical leg and used a pinch runner when he reached base. The image is from a postcard, courtesy of Ken Wilson.
	1911 Monett High School Team. This image is from an undated postcard, but the same photograph appeared in the 1911 Monett high school yearbook, The Pioneer, at page 49. P. C. Callaway, the school science teacher, was manager of the team. According to the yearbook at page 48, team members were Paul Boyer, captain, John Boehm, Ovid Vermillion, John Patton, Houston Temple, Grover Garrison, Tom Reeves, Wilson Gates, Roy Watson, Tom Luby and Roy Granger. How these names correspond to the photo is unknown. The 1911 Monett yearbook is online at the Barry County site at Rootsweb. The 1912 yearbook, also online, has individual photos of Boyer, Temple and Luby for comparison.
	Monett Team, About 1911-14. Ralph Turpin is third from left in the back row. The others are unidentified. Two of the players are wearing AA uniforms, but the others are wearing uniforms monogramed MHS for Monett High School. Turpin was listed as a freshman in the 1911 Monett high school yearbook, The Pioneer. He was a dominating left-handed pitcher, who sometimes played semi-pro baseball at Joplin, McCalester, Oklahoma and Burlington, Iowa in the 1912-1915 period. The Monett Times lists him on various Monett teams in the same era, but it isn't clear whether they were high school teams. According to his cousin Trink Long, he was offered a contract with a St. Louis professional team, but turned it down at his mother's behest. This image is from a postcard. Another Ralph Turpin Photograph.
	Monett's Legendary 1921 Football Team, Part I. Walt Reynaud and Cecil Long are fifth and sixth from left respectively. They were part of Monett's legendary 1921 football team, so this is either the '21 team or one of its immediate predecessors. Reynaud became president of the Gillioz bank and Long a county official and state representative from Barry County. In 1919, the Monett team lost its first two games, then won the rest. In 1920 and 1921, it was undefeated. Reynaud and Long played on all three teams. This scan is of the left end of a yardlong photograph of the team. More Cecil Long.
	Monett's Legendary 1921 Football Team, Part II. In an undefeated season of 11 games, the 1921 team scored 504 points, its opponents 9 points. No opponent crossed the goal line until the last game of the season. Monett defeated Rogers, Arkansas 57 to 0, Republic 94 to 0 and Mt. Vernon 70 to 0. The Monett team was so fast and overpowering that one official complained that he was not qualified to officiate at a track meet. This scan is of the left center of a yardlong photograph of the team.
	Monett's Legendary 1921 Football Team, Part III. A newspaper clipping from the August, 1962 Monett Times had a formal portrait of the 1921 team and listed its members as Cecil Long, Walter Reynaud, Fred Steele, Milton Reynaud, Oliver Young, Otto Witte, Francis Mourglia, Frank Miller, Lyle Black, Otto Boss, Vernon Chumbley, Loy Shepherd, Earl Howerton, Ami Cuendet, Bud Henderson and Edgar McMahon. The coach was Finis Engleman and the assistant coach named Holestein. This scan is of the right center of a yardlong photograph of the team.
	Monett's Legendary 1921 Football Team, Part IV. This yardlong photograph shows 31 people. The portrait from the 1962 clipping shows only 18, so the yardlong most likely has the JV & freshmen players who weren't in the formal team portrait. Notice that some of the players here are wearing very tattered practice jerseys. This scan is of the right end of a yardlong photograph of the team.
	Claude Woolsey (1891-1989). This image is from an undated postcard with an identifying note on the back. According to the Monett Times, Claude Woolsey enrolled in the University of Missouri in September, 1910. He reportedly played baseball for the university in 1913-1914 and is wearing an MU sweater here. From his obituary in the Arkansas Gazette, February 18, 1989: "Mr. Woolsey received a bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Missouri and a master's degree in horticulture from Iowa State University. He taught horticulture at the University of Arkansas, Arkansas A and M College and the University of Tennessee. He was assistant horticulturist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University two years; state extension horticulturist with the American Cyanamic Co., in New York for 12 years; and cooperative section chief of the Farmers Home Administration for the southern and eastern United States and the maritime provinces of Canada for five years."
	Postcard, "Freshman and Sophomore Basketball - Monett, Mo". Postmarked May 4, 1909.
	Rock Quarry, City Park Ca. 1905-1910. Monett's current South Park was the Meador farm purchased by the city in 1923 and seen from the north in the background of this photograph of the 1908 Martin's Baseball Team. The east-facing slope above today's soccer fields, often used for snow sledding, was created by fill over a rock quarry and reputed cave entrance. In this photograph with identifications and the note "City Park" on the back, Letha Jeffries is sitting at right with George Roderick beside her and Charles Woosley behind her. The boy at left is Guy Miller. The other girls are Lena Roderick and Pearl Miller in unknown order. Here is another Jeffries photograph, poorer in quality, labeled "Old Rock Quarry City Park." The girls in it appear to be Ruth Roderick, Letha Jeffries and Trink Jeffries. Also, Elaine Orr's book Monett, page 109, has a 1913 photograph of a boy scout troop that appears to have been taken in the quarry. These quarry photographs were taken when it was still private land but already a favorite spot for local outings.
	Pool Hall. This image is from a postcard, addressed to Lalah (Trink) Jeffries from "C. E. W." (possibly Charles E. Woolsey) and postmarked Monett. The date is partially obscured, but appears to be 1909. My father says this resembles the Monett pool hall as it existed in the 1930s.
	1910 Barn Dance. There is no identification on this postcard, but the Monett Times describes it exactly in an article on a barn dance held at Campbell's Hall in Monett on February 10, 1910.

The Jeffries Collection of Monett Photographs & Documents.

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