The Minneapolis Lyndales

In August 1888, the Minneapolis Millers of the Western Association were in financial trouble. Early in the month they were almost unable to pay the player salaries, but a benefit game kept them going for a little longer. On August 15, 1888, Manager William Gooding released the entire club and brought in an amateur club, the Lyndales, to play the game that day. Nine players took the field to face the Kansas City Blues. Two of them - Frank March (rf) and Fred Rehse (p) - had played previously with Minneapolis that season. A third player, Allen (ss), may have been James Allen, an amateur from Minneapolis who pitched one game with Sioux City in July. The other six players - Hurn (2b), Nash (1b), Herkimer (3b), Watson (c), McCrum (lf) and Schoonmaker (cf) - were nothing more than last names in the box score for the game. The Lyndales lost 11-1 to the club that came within a few percentage points of winning the Association Championship that season. They had their one day as professionals and went back to their lives.

(As an aside, around the time of that game, the club changed its name to the Lelands, presumably named after Fred Leland, who was one of the backers of the Minneapolis club and it secretary.)

Less than a week before the Lyndales played the Blues, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Joe McCrum beat Hugh Watson in a 100 yard dash, winning $50 (August 10, 1888, pg 2). Joe McCrum turned out to be Joseph Erin McCrum, who died in Kamloops, British Columbia in December 1946. His obituary described him as coming to Kamloops to play ball and staying to marry, and his story led to the finding of the Lyndales.

In the spring of 1889, Frank March and Watson, "the Minneapolis battery", were signed by the Kamloops baseball club (Vancouver Daily World, April 30, 1889, pg. 1). On July 1, 1889, the Kamloops played the Victoria Amities: "The Kamloops nine were composed, principally, of imported players from Minneapolis" (Victoria Daily Times, July 2, 1889, pg. 1). Playing for Kamloops that day were March (p) and Watson (c), Hearn (2b), Hurkimer (3b) and Schoonmaker (1b). An article many years later in the Vancouver Province explained: "The next year [1889] the Kamloops had March, and with March was practically the whole of a semi-professional team from Minneapolis, called the Lyndales, after Lyndale avenue in that city where the players lived" (July 13, 1905, pg. 7). McCrum joined them later in the summer, and the team proceeded to beat all comers, becoming the champions of British Columbia. The following spring, the the lineup for the club for the coming season was reported in the Kamloops Inland Sentinel to be Watson (c), March (p), Nash (1b), Crawford (2b), Herchimer (3b), McCrum (ss), Schoonmaker (cf), Chesley (rf) and Ganzelle (lf), with C. H. Watson as the manager (March 15, 1890, pg. 1).

Joe McCrum was the left fielder for the Lyndales on August 15, 1888. He was born in Ontario, Canada in 1865 and was living in Minneapolis by 1885. After going to Kamloops in 1889, he got married in 1891 and lived in Kamloops working for the Canadian Pacific Railroad as a conductor. He died at the age of 81 on December 16, 1946.

Charles Hubert Watson was the catcher for the Lyndales; he went with March to Kamloops in April 1889. He was born in September 1864 in New Brunswick. While in Kamloops he married Margaret Eva Campbell in April 1890 and the two moved to New Westminster, where he became the choir master at St. Andrew's Church. He moved back to Minneapolis after approximately four years in New Westminster. When the Spanish-American war started, he was appointed bandmaster for the 15th battalion out of Minneapolis. The batallion was in transit to the Philipines when he contracted typhoid fever during a stop over in San Francisco. He died in Honolulu on July 20, 1898. Watson has a profile in the book British Columbia from the Earliest Times to the Present, Vol. 3, by Ethelbert Olaf Stuart Scholefield (S.J. Clarke publishing Company, 1914, British Columbia).

John Herchmer (also referred to as Herchimer or Herkimer) played third base for the Lyndales and Kamloops. He also caught for Kamloops, with McCrum as his pitcher. He was born in Ontario, Canada in August 1866. Like McCrum, he stayed in Kamloops and married, and like McCrum he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad as a conductor. He was the oldest conducter out of Kamloops at the age of 60 when he died while mowing his lawn on August 23, 1926. He named his son Lyndale.

"Hurn", who played second base for the Lyndales, was indentified by the Vancouver Province as Hank Hearn. The Minneapolis street guide from 1888 lists Henry E. Hearn living at 1805 Girard Ave, along with Elizabeth Hearn (widow of Stephen), John W. Hearn, Miss Lilly Hearn, and Mary G. Hearn. This Henry Hearn is identified as Henry Patrick Hearn on Ancestry.com, born in Vermont in 1867, with no date of death listed. He lived with his mother Elizabeth and other family from 1885 until 1892, when he drops from the Minneapolis street directories. A player named Hearn appears in Montana in 1892 playing with Bozeman and then Butte. "... Henry Hearn, second base. He is said to be one of the finest second basemen in the Northwest" (Anaconda Standard, May 1, 1892, pg. 1).

Fred Rehse was a college pitcher signed by Gooding at the suggestion of Elmer Foster, per the Sporting News on March 3, 1888. Rehse pitched in one game for Minnesota on May 15, 1888, earning the win in a 12-5 rout of Milwaukee. He was then released prior to starting the loss against Kansas City for the Lyndale club. This may be Frederich Rehse, born 1861, died November 15, 1923, but no direct connection has been established.

Frank March was born in Stafford, New York in April 1868; his father was postmaster in Redwood, MN in 1870, and by 1880 they were in Minneapolis. He pitched for Minneapolis in an exhibition game against St. Paul on June 22, 1888 and allowed only two runs (both solo home runs) on just six hits in a 9-2 win. He was signed by Minneapolis a few days later, went 0-4 in four starts, and was "loaned to the Lyndales" on July 24, per the St. Paul Globe (July 24, 1888, pg. 5). He made his last appearance that season in the game on August 15 with the Lyndales, playing right field. In the spring of 1889, he went to Kamloops with Charles Watson, ultimately bringing most of the Lyndales club with him. He did appear in one game for Minneapolis in 1889 (an 8-6 loss on August 22 at St. Joseph). In 1890, he played with Tacoma in the Pacifc Northwest League, winning 21 games against 11 losses, but his arm gave out during the 1891 season (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 14, 1892, pg. 2). After his playing career ended, he started working as an umpire in 1892, first in the Pacific Northwest League, and then in the Montana State League. He settled in Butte, Montana, got married in 1899 and moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, living with his wife's parents and working as a travelling shoe salesman. He was shot on November 30, 1901 and died on December 2, 1901, after a dispute with his former partner. The shooter, W. E. West, was acquitted after a trial on the gorunds that he shot March in self defense.

Schoonmaker, the center fielder for the Lyndales on August 15, went to Kamloops with the bulk of the club in the summer of 1889. The Kamloops Inland Sentinel reported on July 13, 1889 that C. Watson, J. Scoonemaker, H. Hearn, J. Herkimer, and A. Armstrong checked into the Grand Pacific Hotel (pg. 5). The name Schoonmaker appears consistantly in the reports from his time in Kamloops, but "Shonmaker" and "Schumaker" are found in box scores in the St. Paul Globe, and "Schumacher" is another possibility from the city street guides of the time. Schoonmaker is identified as the right fielder for Port Townsend in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on May 28, 1890. No first name has been confirmed for J. Schoonmaker.

Nash played first base for the Lyndales that day, and Nash is listed as the first baseman for the Kamloops club in March of 1890. Nash also turns up playing first base for local amatuer clubs in Minneapolis in other box scores from 1888 through 1890, usually in conjunction with at least one other name from the Lyndales. In August 1887, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported "Last Saturday the Dassel baseball club, assisted by Herchimer, Watson and the Nash brothers who are here hunting and fishing, beat the Hutchinson club 18 to 29" (August 2, 1887, pg. 2). No definative identification for Nash has been made.

Allen, who played shortstop for the Lyndales that day, is unidentified, but one possibility is James Allen, a known pitcher from Minneapolis who appeared in one game with Sioux City earlier in the season. Allen was born in Newark, New Jersey in November 1868 and came to Minneapolis as a young boy. He was signed by Minneapolis in 1887 and pitched in one game for them that season. In 1888, he played locally in Minneapolis, and got a trial with Sioux City in July, losing 12-0 and allowing nine earned runs. In 1889 he played in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Hamilton, Ohio. In 1890, he played for the Palace, a semipro club in Minneapolis. The St. Paul Globe lists Allen starting at shortstop for an upcoming game against the Eclipse, with Hearn at second base (May 1, 1891, pg. 4). He signed with Cedar Rapids in 1891; a summary of his career to that point was published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on May 15, 1891.