J.E. Dallas

J.E. Dallas
Born: January, 1863
Died:
Goto Baseball Reference for J.E. Dallas
cMajors:
No
Chicago
Position: c
First game: DNP
Last game:
# of games: 0
Signed by Chicago before November 1, 1887. Received a tryout with the Philadelphia Quakers in March 1887 before being released by that club.

Released by Chicago in February 1888 (Boston Globe, February 19, 1888).


Catcher James Dallas was signed by the Chicago Maroons in late October 1887, almost as soon as the Western Association clubs started signing players. It was the second straight fall he signed quickly for the coming season. In November 1886, he was signed by the Philadelphia Quakers of the National League for 1887. He was given a brief tryout with the club next spring, playing in at least one game in Savannah on the club's trip through the South. He was released the next day. He immediately signed with Savannah of the Southern League.

Dallas' stint with Chicago in 1888 was even less successful than his stint with Philadelphia the previous spring. The Maroons released him in February 1888, well before spring training started.

James Edward Dallas was born in Pennsylvania in January 1863, according to the 1900 Census, to James and Sarah (Roulett) Dallas. By the 1880 Census, he was living with his widowed mother, brother John and sister Carrie in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. That record puts his age at 16, suggesting an 1864 birthdate; other records are consistant with that year. In 1883, he is identified as the catcher for the Tyrone baseball club, with brother John playing third base (Altoona Tribune May 24, 1883). He may have continued playing baseball, but by 1884 he was working as a conductor, and in October 1884 he moved to Pittsburgh for a job with a different railroad. He was still working for the railroad when his mother died in December 1885.

Baseball-Reference credits him with playing one game with Chatanooga in 1885. On May 15, the Chattanooga Daily Times noted

"Dallas, of Brooklyn, who played with the Chattanoogas in right field yesterday, has signed with Atlanta, and while laying over yesterday, requested the privilege of playing. Dallas may play ball in Atlanta, but he made a miserable failure here."

There is no conclusive proof this was James Dallas. The is also no confirmation that Atlanta signed a player named Dallas around this time.

In 1886, Dallas left his railroad job to sign with the Lancaster Ironsides in the Pennsylvania State Association. He was released by Lancaster in May. He joined a reorganized Scranton club in the same league in July. After Scranton released him in August he joined an independent club in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, to finish the season. The Philadelphia Times published the batting and fielding averages for the Association at the conclusion of the season. Dallas hit .111 in 9 games (27 at-bats), and his fielding percentage was just .685, with 24 passed balls and 5 errors in just 7 games behind the plate. This pedigree earned him his brief tryout with Philadelphia in the spring of 1887.

Dallas started the actual 1887 season with Savannah and remained with the club until it collapsed at the end of May. He immediately signed with Denver in the Western Association, with whom he stayed until he broke a finger in late June. He was released at the end of the month, after which he played a few games with an amateur club in Omaha. Baseball-Reference states he played a couple of games each for Steubenville in the Ohio State League and Bradford in the Pennsylvania State Association in 1887 as well. In November, when he signed with the Maroons, the Tyrone Daily Herald reported he had gone into the saloon business in Decatur, Illinois (November 14, 1887). His release was reported in the newspapers in February, 1888 (e.g. Boston Globe, February 19, 1888).

Following his release by the Maroons, the St. Joseph Gazette reported he signed with Dallas, Texas (March 13, 1888), but there is no indication he played for that club. In 1889, he signed on to be the manager of the Momouth (Illinois) Base Ball Club (Chicago Inter Ocean, April 7, 1889). In July he jumped to Sterling (Illinois). When he jumper to Sterling, the Sterling Daily Gazette indicated that he managed a club in New Orleans in 1888 and in Dallas in 1887 (June 15, 1889). The next day it stated he was with Philadelphia in 1886 and Omaha in 1888 and 1889. He departed the club for Iowa on August 10, amidst complaints that he left unpaid bills behind (Sterling Daily Gazette, August 13, 1889). He was married in April 1889 in Wapello, Iowa to Mary Hanrahan. There was a report he was going to sign with Ottawa (Iowa) for 1890, but his baseball career seems to have ended about this time.

In 1900, James and Mary were living in Wapello, Iowa with five children (a sixth having died prior), the oldest being age 9. Mary died on January 13, 1901, less than a week after giving birth to their seventh child, a girl (Ottumwa Tri-Weekly Courier, January 15, 1901). This daughter was adopted by the Jennings family and given the name Della May Jennings (January 9, 1901 - March 25, 1963). By 1910, his children were scattered, with at least two sons living with relatives. He was last listed in the Ottumwa street guide in 1912, working for Morrells, a packaging company. While some Family Trees on Ancestry.com report that James Dallas died in Pennsylvania in 1930, there is no documentation provided for that fact.