Odd Arch Persons.....
or
When My Blog Becomes a Book
or
Deciphering Montgomery's Most Obscure Baseball Card
A conversation about the T-206 tobacco cards reminded me of one of Montgomery's former players. We had four entries into the tobacco set that year 1909, the T-206s are well known for their high priced stars and the super rare Honus Wagner card. Also they are popular among collectors for the cards in that set which illustrate the minor leagues, the Southern League portion of 48 being a huge batch of player cards. The Persons-Montgomery card is one of the more desirable of the Southern League-rs.
Montgomery had a nice team back then, we were known as the Senators, or alternatively the Climbers for our outfield hills at the local ballparks on Madison Ave's Cramton Bowl, as well as the lesser field used on Federal Drive near Capitol Heights Jr High. Four of our guys were included, infielder Jimmy "Hub" Hart, third baseman/manager Ed Greminger, shortstop/second baseman Ike Rockenfeld and......... Arch Persons.
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| Cramton Bowl ca 1920s, later home of the Montgomery Senators |
Arch Persons.
As I researched Montgomery baseball a few years ago, I found a serious lack of info on this guy. Other than the fact that a google search shows that Arch Persons was the name of Truman Capote's father. Originally his son was named Truman Streckfus Persons and from an affluent Alabama family, but later took the name Capote. So lets consider the possibility.... could a Montgomery ballplayer be related to one of Americas most famous writers?
Indeed Arch Persons and Lillie Faulk are the names of the parents of
Capote, author of "In Cold Blood" and much more.
from
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/capote.htm
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| Lillie Mae Faulk |
Capote's father, Archulus "Arch" Persons, worked as a clerk for a
steamboat company. Persons never stuck at any job for long, and was
always leaving home in search for new opportunities. The unhappy
marriage gradually disintegrated. After his parents divorced,
five-year-old Truman was brought up in Monroeville, Alabama.
I have alternatively seen Capote's father described as a "non-practicing lawyer", "traveling salesman", "con man", "Svengali in a white linen suit" and "well educated ne'er do well". For an interesting example of Persons entrepreneurship, be sure to
check out this story about his efforts in Monroe County Alabama's Depression era entertainment business.
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| Arch Persons and young Truman Capote |
A SWING AND A MISS
Killing the theory though, Archulus Persons, Truman's father, married Lillie Mae Faulk in 1923 when he was 26. That would mean Persons would have been about 12 when the T-209 set came out. I would say that rules out the Montgomery ballplayer as being the father of Truman Capote.
I am not the only blogger to come to this conclusion -
this person also found the same search results and came to the realization that there were more than one Arch Persons in the South at the start of the 20th century. He breaks down whats accepted about
the career of Arch Persons, marking the stops as Arch moved west from Montgomery to Little Rock to San Antonio and Oklahoma City before finishing up his baseball career in the Western Canadian league. Other than his .279 batting average, there isn't much info to go on - in fact we dont even know what position he played for the Climbers, though he was an outfielder by the time he ends up in Canada, where he wins the batting title.
On the
Baseball Reference page for the 1909 Montgomery Climbers, Persons
is WAS the only player with "unknown" as a birthplace on the roster list!
We can say that it is highly unlikely that the Arch Persons pictured on the T-209 card is Truman Capote's father. However it is within the realm of possibility that it could be his grandfather or other relative.
The Tuscaloosa News gives us this in an interview with Arch Persons, Trumans father.
Persons said he wanted to let the paper know of Capote's local connection.
"Truman's
grandfather, the late Arch Persons Sr., was head of the Department of
Chemistry at the University of Alabama for 10 years from 1898 to 1908,"
he said. Today Persons is a Vice President of Sales of the Watling Scale Company of Chicago
So there are indeed multiple people who go by the name "Arch Persons" wandering around L.A.
(Lower Alabama, as its known down here!). I have seen it said that investigating the Persons family in genealogy uncovers Arch Persons III and even IV. Probably unlikely that the third and fourth would be playing baseball in Montgomery in 1909. Also unlikely is that the former Chemistry Prof would take to wandering west over the course of the next four years, though his exit from UofA in 1908 would let him join the team in time for the baseball season.
Which thumps us right back to square one. No idea who this guy is, and no farther along than any of the internet researchers who have pondered the possibility before me. But I do have a new wrinkle to add, a theory to consider on Archie Persons the Montgomery Senator and Climber.
Its possible someone ASSUMED the name Arch Persons in order to play baseball.
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| Vintage postcard view of Cramton Bowl during baseball game |
CONSPIRACY THEORY
It would have been easy to get a job playing ball with any name, even into my own lifetime. Maybe not in todays world of background checks and drug tests, but just ask
Fausto Carmona Roberto Hernandez if you can go a season or two being called a different name without being found out!
It was common for players to use assumed names, especially so in
the that era and in the south. Even as many as ten years after Persons disappears from baseball its accepted that banned players turn up in the south on
lesser teams with new names.
WHO IS ARCH PERSONS THE OUTFIELDER?
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| Archie Persons - 1912 Western Canada League photo |
SMOKING GUN
However, as good as the Assumed Name theory sounds, it doesnt hold water when a more likely suspect can be offered. From
the Wisconsin Alumni Magazine Vol.6 October 1904,
"June 1st, Archie Persons '05 varsity left fielder, signs with Oskaloosa in the Iowa league"
He does not appear on the stats for the 1904 Oskaloosa Quakers stats, which doesnt surprise me because rookies had a terrible time getting into games back then. Especially in October.
However, in a nice surprise,
the 1905 Quakers team has a "Pearsons?" listed (now adjusted to Persons)! They show him with 98 games and a very nice .304 batting average, 114 hits in under a hundred games is a stat most players would take if given a chance. The SABR site (now disabled) had him listed as
Unknown Pearsons on the '05 Quakers page.
If we look at
Pearsons as an accepted alternate spelling for Archie's last name, we may have a hint of his abilities in
Caduceus of Kappa Sigma, in which Wisconsin frat brother Archie Pearsons is mentioned as "...received prominent positions..." on the student Athletic Board and goes on to say "Bro Pearsons is a member of the gymnast team, and played left field on the 'Varsity baseball team, which received such commendable praise last spring"
And if there were still any doubt remaining, consider this item.......
The
Feb 1909 issue of the Wisconsin Alumni Magazine said:
"Archie Persons, who was on the 05 team, is now playing with Montgomery in the Southern League"
Archie
turns up in Eu Claire Wisconsin newspapers in 1910 and again in 1914 owning a
general store and still very much interested in baseball. It seems he
was very popular and in spite of history not knowing much about him,
someone must have, for in 1910 the S.F.Call included this article on Feb
12th.
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| Our man Archie gets a little press. Very little. |
So now we see what happened in 1910. Though just barely, only two players are listed for the
1910 Stockton Baby Senators. However I think we can add a third in Arch Persons. In fact, Baseball Reference dot com already HAD an
Archie Pearsons playing for Sacramento for 35 games in 1910, though that player page was merged to Arch Persons page after this blog brought the issue to light.
In the newsletter for the Texas League, I found this in their section "This Day In Texas League History", printed in 2008 it was a mention of our mystery man from his days after leaving Montgomery.
May 24, 1911 One
day after gathering 23 hits, San Antonio got 18 more, yet lost to
Oklahoma City 6-5 in 11 innings. Pinch hitter Archie Persons, who had
been released by San Antonio earlier in the season, delivered the
winning hit for the Mets in the final frame.
Going with the Pearsons spelling, we found the
1912 Vancouver Beavers showed an "Ed Pearsons?" on the stats list, Persons name being since removed on the Bref website. Ten hits, all singles, .270 average for two teams... wait, TWO TEAMS? Clicking on
"Ed" showed that he has plenty of other numbers, and yet they fit in with the missing stats on
Archie Persons and
Pearsons pages. (These pages have been adjusted since the first posting of this blog to reflect the info uncovered here)
THE BREAKDOWN
OR
MISSING PE(A)RSONS REPORT
We have seen that before coming to Montgomery where he would be known as Arch Persons in 1908, this player seems to have started as Wisconsin University where he starred as the varsity left fielder through 1905. His frat brothers misspell his name as "Pearsons", setting a theme that will run throughout his career.
Upon turning pro he joins the '05 Oskaloosa Quakers and has a great rookie season with the name Pearsons.
In 1906 he is unknown, likely misspelled or unlisted.
At the start of the year in '07 he signs on with Decatur Illinois as a pitcher, winning six and losing four in 11 games under the name Ed Pearsons before moving on to Nashville the same season. With Nashville he gives up pitching and hits .233 in 88 games while settling back into the outfield.
1908 sees him head to Montgomery, where he would hit .280 for the sixth place Montgomery Senators and answer to the name Arch Persons.
The following season, 1909, he would start the year here as a Montgomery Climber but move on to Little Rock Ark midseason. He also finds his face appearing on baseball cards for the first time.
In 1910 he opens a general store in Eu Claire, hiring a clerk to keep shop while he is on the road playing ball, which gets a mention in his local paper.
He starts the season California, taking a job with the Sacramento Sacts for 36 games as Archie Pearsons and perhaps getting in a few games for the Stockton Ca. team as well. Later in the summer he would make the trip east to play for the Omaha Rourkes, so named for manager Billy Rourke and there he hits a disappointing .190 in just 16 games at the end of the summer. Possibly why his manager doesnt know how to spell his name properly, listing him as simply "Pearsons"
1911 rolls around and the only team to offer a job is San Antonio , which he takes until the call comes that his contract was dropped as Archie Persons. Then he picks up with Oklahoma City with the same name.
When the 1912 season starts he is in the Canadian league using the name Archie Persons where he gets into sixty games for Bassano in
Canada and hits .379 to lead the league, which would be the highest mark
of his career.
Leaving the Bassano Boosters midseason, he heads to the Northwestern League for the Tacoma Tigers under the name Ed Pearsons. On the tenth of August 1912 he was bought by Vancouver of the Northwest
league. He finishes out the string for the Vancouver Beavers, hitting .270 in just 11 games split between Tacoma and Vancouver.
He may have attempted a comeback at age 43 as
Ed Pearsons, playing in Gadsden Alabama in 1929 and Selma in 1930. If this is the same guy the comeback was a success, 101 games 8 homers and a .374 average in '29 with the lively "rabbit" ball of the post deadball era. The 1930 version was less impressive, 17 games with fourteen hits and a lowly .226 batting average.
After that, the trail goes cold.
