ed wilson & the acme colored giants, 1898

The latest issue of Black Ball reprints a short article from the April 2, 1898, issue of Sporting Life.  Here it is, courtesy of the LA84 Foundation, which has digitized much of the magazine:

The Acme Colored Giants, representing Celeron (near Jamestown, New York), was the last all-black team of the 19th century to play in an organized, otherwise white league, the Iron and Oil League.  They weren’t especially successful, finishing last at 8-41, but several of their players are recognizable, notably Tokohama conspirator Dave Wyatt, who would later become an important sportswriter for a number of black newspapers, and Ed Wilson.  Wilson just may be the Ed Wilson who later played for the Cuban X Giants and smashed three home runs in one game off future major leaguer Stoney McGlynn in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1902. 

I didn’t know much about Wilson before, but the Sporting Life piece identifies his hometown as Bellevue, Pennsylvania, a small borough adjacent to Pittsburgh in Allegheny County.  Over the years spanning the turn of the century, I was able to find one African-American man named Edward Mathew Wilson of an appropriate age living in Bellevue.  There’s no smoking gun linking this Ed Wilson to baseball.  He’s listed as a day laborer in the 1900 census, a “general” worker in the 1910 census (his younger brother Charles was a piano player), and as an employee of a steel car company on his World War I card.  Still, the Bellevue connection seems like an important clue.  The 1900 census lists his birthdate as June 1873, in Pennsylvania; the 1910 census says he was 36, and his World War I card, assuming that it belongs to the same person, has him born on January 3, 1875.

The 1900 and 1910 census entries are clearly for the same person, although so far it seems to me that the same can’t be said for certain of the World War I card.  But the Sporting Life article does give us a good lead.

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[Bill Mullins]

From the _Philly Inquirer_, 2/25/1902 p 10.
Ed Wilson, the crack pitcher and outfielder of the Cuban X-Giants of last year, has decided to cast his fortunes with the Philadelphia Giants this year, and this twirler will occupy the slab at Columbia Park this season. The personnel of the team as now made up will be as follows: James Robinson, pitcher; Ed Wilson, pitcher; Harry Smith, first base; John Patterson, left field; Kid Carter, pitcher; Andrew Payne, short stop; William Binga [??], catcher; Clarence Williams, catcher; Sol White, third base; J. Nelson, pitcher; Frank Grant, second base; and Joseph Trusty, cathcer. The schedule is now being arranged and all teams desiring to arrange games with the Giants should address H. Walter Schlichter, 28 South Seventh street, Philadelphia. All home games will be played on the Athletic Grounds, at Thirtieth and Oxford streets.