I wanted to wrap up this series of posts with a quick summary of what I found in the 1920 census while looking for the various Army ballplayers discussed here over the past few days. Of course, Bullet Rogan was at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, when the census was taken in January 1920. But I found these names of Negro League interest still in Arizona, at Camp Stephen D. Little, Nogales, where the 25th Infantry was stationed in 1920:
Branch Russell, 27, born in Virginia, parents from Virginia. (His first name is also given in newspaper accounts of the St. Louis meet, as is his rank, private, and regiment, 25th Infantry);
Moses L. Herring, 24, from South Carolina (father from Massachusetts, mother from South Carolina). It seems fairly obvious that this is the “M. Herring” who participated in the army championships (identified in the newspapers as a sergeant in the 25th Infantry). So we may have identified a Negro League player about whom nothing has been known previously except a last name. If all these Herrings (the 25th Infantry ballplayer, the St. Louis Giants’ ballplayer, the Army sergeant/athlete) are the same man—and the chain of evidence, while highly circumstantial, is pretty convincing to me—then now we know that he was the Army champion in the running broad jump and running hop, step, and jump, and that he seems to have passed up a chance at trying out for the Olympics in favor of playing for the St. Louis Giants. Let’s hope his nickname wasn’t “Red.”
Oscar Johnson, 28, born in Kansas. He would be five years older than the age Riley gives for Heavy Johnson (born Nov. 2, 1896, in Atchison, Kansas). An Oscar A. Johnson, 23, born in Kentucky, was also at Camp Stephen D. Little in 1920, as well as, of course, numerous other men named Johnson.
Robert W. Fagen [sic], 21, born in Kentucky—on same census page as the above Oscar Johnson.
William Linder, 34, born in Tennessee—on same page as Branch Russell. In the standard reference sources, he is identified as sometimes called “Lightner.” An April 1, 1922, Defender article lists Heavy Johnson, Branch Russell, and “Linder” as three new Army players joining the Monarchs; Phil Dixon quotes “Big C” Johnson naming “Linder” as one of the 25th Infantry players; and reserve lists published in the Chicago Whip (December 16, 1922) include “Wm. Linder” on the Monarchs.
Walter Moore, 24, born in Georgia—on same page as Russell and Linder.
At the Fort Huachuca Military Reservation, where black cavalry units (definitely the 10th Cavalry, and possibly the 9th) were stationed, I found:
Pvt. Carl Glass, 23, from Kentucky, a cavalry private. His birthdate and place match those of the Negro Leaguer Carl Glass, a lefthanded pitcher from 1923 to 1936; in 1928 he was a pretty good pitcher/manager (13-10) for the mediocre Memphis Red Sox (36-51). This Glass was in the cavalry; is he the same Glass that appears with the 25th Infantry team in St. Louis?
So, of the five Army players who joined the Monarchs and St. Louis Giants in early July, I think we’ve found the census records of three: Rogan, Moore, and Herring, and possibly a fourth (Oscar Johnson). As for Stewart of the St. Louis Giants: there were fully ten black men at military posts in Arizona with the last name “Stewart,” seven at Camp Stephen D. Little, three at Fort Huachuca (and no African Americans in Arizona at all with the name spelled “Stuart,” in case you were wondering). Riley conflates this Stewart, a shortstop, with a Stewart who pitched for St. Louis in 1923; but Patrick Rock says of the ’23 guy (whom he identifies as Archie “Tank” Stewart) that he only spent one season in the NNL. I suppose they could still be the same man; unfortunately, there’s no “Archie” or “Archy” or “Archibald” Stewart in Arizona in the 1920 census.
To summarize, very briefly:
1) The path of Bullet Rogan, Dobie Moore, and other Army athletes to the Negro Leagues may have been different, and more complicated, than previously thought;
2) Circumstantial evidence makes for a fairly strong case that Heavy Johnson briefly played for the St. Louis Giants in 1920 (and it’s possible, though not likely, that he was older than previously thought);
3) We have probably newly identified a Negro League player, Moses L. Herring of the St. Louis Giants, though again the evidence, while strong in my opinion, is entirely circumstantial.
While a lot more research remains to be done on these points, I hope these posts have given some indication of just how much there is still waiting to be discovered about even the most famous Negro Leaguers, some of it hidden in relatively plain sight (the census, major newspapers, etc.).
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