Willis Moody biographical information:

• Born: August 28, 1898 in Clarksburg, WV, where he attended Kelly Miller High School
• Died: October 16, 1985

Burial location: Chartiers Cemetery, Carnegie

Teams played for:

• Pittsburgh Keystones 1921
• Homestead Grays 1922, 1924, 1925, 1929

Position: Outfielder (Center field and left field)

Willis’ best season offensively was 1922, when he hit .333 with an .0833 OPS and a 123 OPS+. See his entry on Seamheads.com.

Forrest Nedward Mashaw played for the Indianapolis ABC’s (1920) and the Homestead Grays (1921-1922).

He worked for Westinghouse Airbrake Company and was a 33rd Degree Mason and A.M. Price Hall Affiliate.

The map below indicates his and Sam Streeter‘s burial locations within Homewood Cemetery.

Walter Brown was the Business Manager of the Pittsburgh Keystones (1887). The 1887 Keystones, who played at Pittsburgh’s Recreation Park, finished their 11-game season with a 4-7 record.

Seamheads lists him as the President of the National Colored League in 1887, when he was 31 years old. He is quoted as saying this about the National Colored League:

“The prospect of organizing this League meets with the hearty approval of every person as something that should have been done long ago, so that our people could have been on the same footing as Whites so far as baseball is concerned.”

—Walter S. Brown, Sporting Life, October 27, 1886

The Josh Gibson does not have any information about Mr. Brown after 1888, except that for a time he was sorting mail as a railroad postal clerk between Pittsburgh and New York City. He is reported to have died of Bright’s Disease.

Special thanks to the students at Seneca Valley’s Ryan Gloyer Middle School for their fundraising efforts to help purchase Charlie Hughes’ grave marker.

From an article written by Rich Bogovich for the Society for American Baseball Research:

Harold “Hooks” Tinker, the Ammon Field regular who signed Gibson while player-manager of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, once spoke very fondly of a mutual teammate, middle infielder Charlie Hughes:

The greatest ground-ball man I’ve ever seen in my life. As much as we cared for that field up there, there would be a gutter that ran across second base every time it rained. And Hughes would be digging it out, and scraping it and raking it but it would be right back. Balls would get to that gutter and jump right up in his face. You know what he’d do with it? He’d come up with it on his ear.1

That’s the kind of dedication Charles Hughes demonstrated at a key time in the development of the Crawfords, as they were becoming what ESPN said is “generally regarded as the greatest black team of all-time.”2

Charles Samuel Hughes (called Charlie, Charley, and Chuck interchangeably in newspapers) was born to Grant Hughes and the former Jennie Robinson on October 13, 1906. Grant, who worked in a steel mill, was born in Tennessee, and Jennie in Virginia. Charlie’s birth certificate identified the family’s home as 3216 Mulberry Alley in Pittsburgh. In the 1910 census they were living at 12 Harding Street, and by that time Charlie had a younger brother named Chester. “Charlie grew up in the predominantly white working-class section of Lawrenceville in the company of immigrant families from southern and eastern Europe,” said University of Pittsburgh Professor Rob Ruck, who interviewed Charlie at length in 1981.3

Read the full article here.

Emmet G. Campbell

By Vincent T. Ciaramella

Fell through the cracks is an overused idiom. We see it used in education, healthcare, in socio-economic conversations…etc. However, I cannot think of a better phrase to sum up what happened to Emmet G. Campbell. A once prominent second baseman for the Homestead Grays and later the Pittsburgh Keystones, Campbell simply has failed to be noticed by baseball historians and writers. It’s like he never existed. With that being said, he is not the easiest man to find or trace. His name is constantly being abbreviated in box scores with little consistency. Some of the variations include: “Campb’ll”, “Campl”, and “Campll” just to name a few.[1][2][3] Even his first name has a variation, “Emmett”, which appears on his death certificate. [4] Could this be the reason he has been overlooked? It can’t be his playing. The Pittsburgh Courier called him the greatest all-around player ever developed in these parts. [5] So, that brings the question full circle, why did he fall through the cracks?

Emmet Granville Campbell was born on June 1, 1887, in Saint David, Illinois (though some sources mistakenly give it as Fort Davis or Saint Davis). Almost nothing is known about Campbell’s family or childhood. On Emmet’s death certificate his father is listed as Granville Campbell. The place of his father’s birth has “unknown” penned in the box. There is no name for his mother or her place of origin. [6] There is also no documentation of any siblings or even when he left Illinois for Pennsylvania. That’s it. That’s all there is to know about his life before sports. There is a newspaper article from 1909 that states an Emmet G. Campbell bought a house in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh for $2,000, though it is unclear if it’s the Emmet G. Campbell in question. [7] Regardless, we first pick up the correct Emmet G. Campbell’s trail in the summer of 1912 playing for one of the most fabled ball clubs in baseball history.

On June 28, 1912, the Demmel A.A defeated the Homestead Colored Grays (as they are called in this article) 9-5. During that game, Emmett Campbell hit a homerun. He also played third base and committed two errors. [8] What makes this game noteworthy is that it’s the first mention of Campbell in baseball and sadly the only entry that can be located at the time of this writing for 1912. Later, in an article published by the Pittsburgh Courier in 1943, Cumberland Posey states that Campbell was team captain during the years of 1912-1913. [9] If it was his first year in baseball, it seems unlikely that he would be given the position of team captain. However, no information about his baseball career pre-1912 has surfaced.

The following years of 1913-1914 don’t offer up much information either. There are scant mentions of Campbell or the Grays in the local papers. All told there are four articles spanning the two seasons. In those articles, Campbell is just a name in the box score. There are no write ups singling him out for his playing ability, good or bad. With just a few exceptions, this is the pattern that will follow Campbell’s career. However, one can read the box scores and use the information available to judge just how well he played the game. One example of this method would be to take the double header the Homestead Grays played against the Homestead Steel Works Team. The box scores show that Campbell had no real effect in the first game as he scored no runs, though the Grays did win 9-8. In the second game, Campbell had three runs credited to him. Ironically, the Grays lost 9-8. [10] With that being said, even that method still doesn’t give one all the information needed to put meat on the bones of a solid biography. This may be one of the reasons why Campbell has flown under the radar of serious baseball historians and writers.

When it comes to Campbell’s private life off the field, we do have some information to go on. Though no marriage certificate has been discovered at this time, later documents reveal that Emmet Campbell was married to Carrie Lee Green (1886-1966) of Cresthill, Virginia (other documents list Orlean, Virginia). [11][12][13] The couple lived with their two children Mary Ellen Campbell Johnson (1909-1995) and Melville Emmett Campbell (1906/1907-?) in McDonald, PA. According to Melville’s birth certificate, Emmet was a “Coal Miner”.

When it came to sports, Campbell wasn’t just a baseball player. In 1913 he played with Cum and See Posey, along with other stars of the diamond on the Leonda Basketball team as a guard (the name was spelled this was in 1913 and not Loendi according to Cum Posey). [14] In 1918, “Soup Campbell” as he was known, played for the Monticello Athletic Association basketball team. [15][16] Campbell may have played more years, though no further documentation can be found at this time.

In the following years starting in 1915, there was an uptick of articles and box scores for the Homestead Grays in the local papers. On Saturday July 31, 1915, the Grays defeated the Bull Run team 10-1. During the game Campbell is credited with two runs, two stolen bases, and one double play. [17] On May 16, 1916, the Homestead Grays defeated the Carrick (Pennsylvania) Volunteers 9-2 with Campbell getting a double and a run. [18] Later that season on July 2, Campbell is credited with a double in a game against the Bridgeville (Pennsylvania) Baseball Team. [19] In fact, 8 out of the 13 box scores available between 1915-1916 have Campbell scoring at least one run. The stats also show that in four of those games he got a double. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]

In the 1917 season, we find Campbell joining the Pittsburg Colored Giants, a team composed of former members of the Grays and the Pittsburg Colored Collegians. The team boasted one of the greatest pitchers of the early 20^th century, Sellers Hall. [28] Unfortunately, there are no box scores or further write ups of the Pittsburg Colored Giants for the 1917 season. What Campbell did afterwards will have to remain a mystery for now.

The following year, Campbell returned to the Homestead Grays and would continue to play with them until 1921. Again, there is little information to go on besides box scores. However, there are a few morsels of information that can be found tucked away in game write ups.  On June 30, 1918, the Pittsburgh Press write up about the game between the Grays and the Bellaire (Ohio) Baseball Team states that:

Sensational fielding by Campbell and Harris was a feature.

While this might not seem like much, it is the first mention of Campbell outside of a box score. Homestead would defeat Bellaire 2-0. [29] The following season, the Pittsburgh Press ran an article about the Grays on July 6, 1919. The article discusses an upcoming game but mentions that:

When W. Harris left the Grays at the start of the season Campbell was switched from second to first and played well. Campbell, however, is best at second and third and will alternate at the keystone and torrid stations for the remainder of the year. [30]

In the September 22, 1920, edition of the Pittsburgh Post we find the final time Campbell’s name is mentioned outside of a box score during his playing days. On September 21, the Homestead Grays took on the Chicago American Giants. The Post states that:

The Homestead Grays administered a crushing defeat to the American Giants last night at Central Park, with the Grays scoring at will. The hitting of W. Harris and Campbell featured.

The final score was 15-5 with Campbell scoring two runs. [31]

In 1922, the road runs out for information about Emmet Campbell in baseball. Campbell left the Grays for the Pittsburgh Keystones. His short time on the team did not yield any significant playing. In fact, July 17, 1922, appears to be his last game in baseball. The Keystones took on the Detroit Stars who won 4-1. Campbell got one hit that game and scored no runs. [32] What became of him afterwards before 1926 has not been located at this current time.

On October 2, 1926, the Pittsburgh Courier announced that Campbell, who resides in McDonald, PA, is a victim of paralysis and is paralyzed from the knees up. The exact nature as to what caused this condition is not stated. However, he did not have long to live. [33] On July 29, 1929, Emmet Campbell departed this world at 5:05 AM. The cause of death listed is “Epilepsy”.  There is nothing about his former condition stated on his death certificate. [34]

In the end, there may be a few reasons why Emmet Campbell has been neglected and forgotten. When it comes to biographical information, there is a severe drought. Also, there is very little information or commentary about his playing. This leaves the writer with just statistics to build upon, which doesn’t illuminate the subject in the full light of history. If one were just interested in stats, there are plenty of box scores from 1918-1921 to construct a picture of his abilities. Campbell was consistent with runs, doubles, and stolen bases during those four seasons. But that doesn’t tell us about the man himself. When it comes to his thoughts and feelings, he is as silent as the grave.

 Sources:

1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/85827857/?terms=%22Homestead%20grays%22&match=1
2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/144809476/?terms=%22Homestead%20grays%22&match=1
3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/87690391/?terms=%22Homestead%20grays%22&match=1
4. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42342_2421406260_0647-02759?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qgq614&_phstart=successSource&pId=3820573
5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40138077/?terms=%22Emmett%20Campbell%22&match=1
6. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42342_2421406260_0647-02759?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qgq614&_phstart=successSource&pId=3820573
7. https://www.newspapers.com/image/86421275/?terms=%22Emmet%20Campbell%22&match=1
8. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65328225/homestead-grays-lose-to-demmel-aa-9-5/
9. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40891359/?terms=%22Emmett%20Campbell%22&match=1
10. https://www.newspapers.com/image/85469781/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
11. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60484/images/46629_2421401755_0149-01427?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qgq631&_phstart=successSource&pId=1674984
12. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/48221_1421012671_0077-00250?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=150a217772e50ae3ff00ff32678485a2&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qgq636&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.155516926.431166807.1646974427-1756356071.1615436633&pId=14868367
13. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60484/images/42411_3421606187_0739-00406?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=avv138618&_phstart=successSource&pId=1534561
14. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40824205/?terms=%22Emmett%20Campbell%22&match=1
15. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40794480/?terms=%22Emmett%20Campbell%22&match=1
16. https://www.blackfives.org/teams/monticello-athletic-association/
17. https://www.newspapers.com/image/87627297/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
18. https://www.newspapers.com/image/85460366/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
19. https://www.newspapers.com/image/143667382/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
20. https://www.newspapers.com/image/144002244/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/86512803/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
22. https://www.newspapers.com/image/87627297/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
23. https://www.newspapers.com/image/85460366/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
24. https://www.newspapers.com/image/86668989/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
25. https://www.newspapers.com/image/143691607/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
26. https://www.newspapers.com/image/143667382/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
27. https://www.newspapers.com/image/87692550/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
28. https://www.newspapers.com/image/143580345/?terms=%22Homestead%20Grays%22&match=1
29. https://www.newspapers.com/image/143979588/?terms=%22Homestead%20grays%22&match=1
30. https://www.newspapers.com/image/144827511/?terms=%22Homestead%20grays%22&match=1
31. https://www.newspapers.com/image/86502656/?terms=%22Homestead%20grays%22&match=1
32. https://www.newspapers.com/image/85855591/?terms=%22Pittsburgh%20Keystones%22&match=1
33. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40138077/?terms=%22Emmett%20Campbell%22&match=1
34. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42342_2421406260_0647-02759?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qgq614&_phstart=successSource&pId=3820573

The map below indicates Sam Streeter‘s and Forrest Nedward Mashaw‘s burial locations within Homewood Cemetery.

View his baseball statistics on Seamheads.com

View his statistics on BaseballReference.com

Read this article on the Cuban Giants, who Frank Miller played for in 1887, on GreaterLongIsland.com.

The team picture of the Cuban Giants is as followed: From left to right, standing in the back, George Parago, Ben Holmes, Shep Trusty, Arthur Thomas, Clarence Williams and Frank Miller. The front row, left to right, Sol White, George Williams, Abe Harrison, Manger S.K. Govern, Ben Boyd, Jack fry and Allen (first name unknown). Photo from GreaterLongIsland.com

View his baseball statistics on Seamheads.com

View his statistics on BaseballReference.com

Per Wikipedia:

Clarence James “Win” Harris (March 27, 1891 – January 23, 1939) was an American Negro league first baseman in the 1910s and 1920s.

A native of Charlottesville, Virginia, Harris made his Negro leagues debut with the Homestead Grays in 1918. He played several seasons with the Grays through 1924.^[1][2] Harris died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1939 at age 47.

Per Wikipedia, “Herbert Franklin Walker (October 22, 1898 – December 21, 1962), nicknamed “Laudie“, was an American Negro league third baseman in the 1920s.

A native of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, Walker made his Negro leagues debut in 1921 with the Pittsburgh Keystones and Homestead Grays. He went on to play for the Grays again in 1922 and 1924, his final professional season.^[1][2] Walker died in his hometown of Wilkinsburg in 1962 at age 64.”

See his career statistics on Seamhead’s Negro Leagues database.

Primarily a pitcher, Bowman played for several top black professional baseball teams in the pre-Negro leagues from 1904 until his death in 1912. He joined the Cuban-X Giants in the winter of 1904-05 before being acquired by manager Sol White to play for his Philadelphia Giants in 1905. He remained with the club through July 1908 and also appeared again for the Cuban X-Giants in the winter of 1906-07 and the Chicago Leland Giants in 1908. White, a future member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, praised Bowman upon his death in 1912 as one of the best players he had ever seen, noting his ability to play multiple positions. “At any position on the infield he was sensational, and there was no better outfielder in the country,” White said of Bowman. Among available statistics, Bowman had an 18-11 win-loss record and a 3.12 earned run average in 29 games pitched, while totaling a .232 batting average in 123 games. His brother, George, later played baseball with the Buxton Wonders and St. Paul Gophers.

Bio by: Adam Penale

Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/252338867/emmett-j-bowman

Before a career as a newspaper editor and founder of newspaper known as The American, Ernest “Pud” Gooden was a star ballplayer for the Negro League.

Pud debuted with the Homestead Grays in 1921, before moving on to the Pittsburgh Keystones, the Toledo Tigers, Cleveland Tate Stars, and the Detroit Stars.  Pud would be remembered as “one of the greatest young ball players that the Pittsburgh district ever produced.” His “sinewy arm could throw with the accuracy of a rifle” and whose “hawk-like eyes could solve the cleverest pitchers’ most deceptive deliveries.” He lit up the diamond.

Gooden died at the age of 34 and was laid to rest in an unmarked grave in the Monongahela Cemetery. See full bio >

Born in Americus, Georgia, Clark moved to Pittsburgh sometime before WWI with his parents and siblings. He returned to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College (Class of ’27). And it was there that this Kappa Alpha Psi man was the first athlete to letter in four sports at the college including football, basketball, and baseball. He went on to play baseball for the Negro Leagues including The Keystones, the Indy ABC’s, the Memphis Red Sox, Cleveland Browns and even his hometown, Homestead Grays.

Sensation played under some of the legendary coaches: B.T. Harvey @morehouse and Chick Meehan, who said he was among the best they had ever seen. After his playing days ended, Sensation coached a bit in Augusta, where he “worked miracles” turning out two championship teams in as many years, and he was a pioneer referee in football and basketball. But then Sensation left sports to open a chain of restaurants in Georgia where he earned the nickname “Chicken Charley.” See full bio >

Born in Sparks, Georgia before this family made a home in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, Roy Williams worked in a brickyard while his older brother worked in the steel mills, like their father. By 1931, both brothers were playing baseball – Roy for the Grays with fellow team members Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell, his brother Howard for the New York Black Yankees. In his five years in the Leagues, Roy played with the Memphis Red Sox, the Craws, the Baltimore Sox and the Brooklyn Eagles.

By 1940, research shows a diminishing baseball career for Roy Williams. He died of chronic kidney disease just a few years later – just shy of his 37th birthday. Roy Williams is buried in an unmarked grave in Greenwood Cemetery, not far August Wilson’s grave. See full bio >

Left-handed pitcher Thomas Pangburn was born and raised in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania before the family moved to Buxton, Iowa, where he worked as a coal miner along with his father and brothers. Buxton was described as a “Black Utopia,” with Blacks and whites co-existing with relatively little discord, including comparable wages.

The entire town of Buxton gathered to watch The Wonders, a small club of Black baseball players that existed from 1907 until the demise of the coal mines in 1920. Lefty went on to twirl for the St. Paul Black Gophers and the Twin City Gophers until he moved back to Elizabeth and married Pearl Montgomery and went to work in the SWPA mines until his retirement. Lefty Pangburn rests in an unmarked grave in Round Hill Cemetery. See full bio >