Robert McNichol

Robert Thomas McNichol – always known as Bobby – had a passion for baseball from childhood that continued throughout his lifetime. His career in baseball began shortly after the Civil War with local boys’ teams in Wheeling, West Virginia, and then as an umpire for the Wheeling Standards. He was in the first class of professional umpires hired by the major league American Association in 1883. He combined that passion with a business career focused on law enforcement, including serving as Wheeling’s Chief of Police for four years and then owning and operating a private detective agency.

McNichol was born in August 1852, in Martin’s Ferry, Ohio, the son of Alexander (1832-1881) and Jane (née Moffet) McNichol (1825-1909). His mother emigrated from Ireland in 1840 and his father eight years later, in 1848. They both settled in the Wheeling area shortly after they arrived; Alex found work in the construction industry. They were married two years later. In addition to Bobby, they had three daughters: Mary Ann, Clara Jane, and Laura.

Like other local families, the McNichols were greatly affected by the onset of the Civil War in April 1861. Wheeling Island housed a Union military base, Camp Carlile, that was within walking distance of the McNichol home. Many young men in Wheeling, including three of Bobby’s cousins, soon joined the Union Army. Then in 1862, Bobby’s father decided to join as well, even though as a married man, he would have been exempt from service. He enlisted in Company H of the 15th West Virginia Regular Infantry and spent much of his service defending the Shenandoah Valley and the Union railroad supply lines. On April 9, 1865, Alex completed his active service at Appomattox, Virginia, and was there for the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. He mustered out two months later, on June 14, 1865, and returned home to Wheeling and his family, where he worked as a bridge builder and house painter for the rest of his life.

By the time the war was over, Bobby was a teenager. Public school was compulsory in West Virginia, and Bobby attended school at least through eighth grade. In those days, boys quite often left school after eighth grade to start apprenticeships or begin working. By the age of 16, Bobby McNichol was working full time at the Aetna Steel plant in Bridgeport, Ohio, just across the back channel of the Ohio River from Wheeling Island.

After the war, baseball quickly became a popular sport, and Bobby grew up playing ball in the neighborhood. Wheeling Island started hosting a variety of baseball teams and games on their home fields and it was a short walk to watch a game. Cousins Sam and Joe Moffet – as well as Sam Barkley, Jack Glasscock, James (Fred) Haley, and Jesse Burkett – all grew up on the Island around the same time and got their start playing baseball there before they went on to major league careers. In his book, West Virginia Baseball, author Bill Akin states that “these boys proved to be West Virginia’s best home-grown products of this era.”1

In 1874, McNichol’s own budding baseball career was shattered when he was injured at the steel mill. As he was loading a bar of iron, both of his thumbs were caught by the guard and mashed. He was 22 years old.2

McNichol left Wheeling after that and headed to nearby Pittsburgh for two years. He returned home in 1877 and immediately got back into baseball, not as a player but as an umpire. Teams selected their own umpires at this time and Bobby was chosen as the official umpire for the Wheeling Standards. The Standards played a variety of teams, including the East Liverpool Stars, Pittsburgh Alleghenys/Browns, Columbus Buckeyes, Indianapolis Blues, London Tecumsehs (1877 International Association champions), and the Springfield Champions. On April 16, 1877, he umpired the first game of the Standards season at home against a Washington, Pennsylvania, team.

As an umpire, Bobby attracted newspaper attention and was a local favorite: “Springfield Champions vs the Wheeling Standards: Our old friend Bobby McNichols (sic) was selected as umpire, and he was vociferously cheered as he took his position and gave the word play.”3 His popularity with the home crowd remained a hallmark of his career in Wheeling baseball, even when the Standards lost. Springfield won this game, 11-6.

By the end of 1877, McNichol’s baseball experience and popularity had been noticed. He received an offer from the manager of the National League’s Indianapolis Blues to travel with them as umpire for the following season. He was to receive $18 per week and travel expenses, but Bobby declined the offer and stayed in Wheeling. He had an important personal reason to do so: he had wedding plans. The next spring Bobby married 15-year-old Emma Peltz, the daughter of Phillip Peltz. Her family emigrated to America from Wurttemberg, Germany, when Emma was two.

In 1878, the Fairgrounds Park in Wheeling was destroyed in a flood; without a field, the Wheeling Standards disbanded. Bobby now had time to buckle down and support his new family with a full-time job at the Aetna Steel Mill.

On January 10, 1879, Emma gave birth to their first child, Edwin Briggs McNichol. A second baby, Robert, was born in 1880, but died as an infant. They had four more children by 1888: Mary Ann, Mildred (Maude), Elizabeth Laura (Bessie), and Joseph M. McNichol.

Another flood in Wheeling, in February 1881, devastated Wheeling Island. Many residents had to be evacuated. Just six days after the flood, the McNichol family suffered a terrible and unexpected tragedy when Alex McNichol died in a freak accident. The headline in the Wheeling newspaper was quite dramatic: “SUDDEN SUMMONS: Alex McNichol Breaks His Neck While Lighting a Cigar.”4 The accident that killed him was described as “rather strange and peculiar” – and it most definitely was.

While standing at the kitchen stove lighting a cigar, he apparently lost his balance, fell against the stove, and either fractured his jaw, broke his neck, or both. Emma and Bobby found Alex slumped against the stove with a slight cut on his forehead. His cigar was bent into the shape of a pothook and mashed at the end. With no doctors available because of the flood, Alex was pronounced dead at the scene by neighbors who had come to help. Alex was buried in Stone Church Cemetery alongside his daughter, Mary Ann.

When the ball fields reopened in 1882, the Wheeling Standards were back in business and Bobby returned to his position as umpire. His Moffet cousins were now in the team lineup and it was not unusual for Bobby, Sam, and Joe to all be in the same game. As umpire, Bobby remained a favorite with the home crowd. The local paper commented, “Robert McNichol umpired, which is equivalent to saying that the decisions were all fair.”5 It later added, “McNichol makes the best umpire ever seen in Wheeling.”6

While Bobby umpired for the Wheeling Standards off and on for over five years, things would change for the 1883 baseball season. In 1882, the American Association became the first professional baseball league to hire, pay, and assign its own umpiring staff. Only one arbiter was assigned to each game. Called the “Men in Blue” for their matching uniforms of blue flannel coats and hats, umpires were paid $140 per month plus an additional $3 per day for expenses. The American Association also expanded to eight teams, adding the Columbus Buckeyes and New York Metropolitans to the circuit. The 1883 schedule consisted of 98 games for each AA team, divided equally into seven 14-game season series. Opening day was May 1, 1883, and the final day of the regular season was scheduled to be September 30.

In July 1883, the American Association hired McNichol as an umpire for the remainder of the regular season. He was now one of “the men in blue.” From a financial standpoint, the salary of $140/month may have been equivalent to his salary from the steel mill. This was a full-time job with very few days off and quite often those were travel days. Typically, a series was three to four days of games followed by one day off.

McNichol debuted on July 22, 1883, calling a game between the Columbus Buckeyes and the defending AA champion Cincinnati Red Stockings. Columbus, new to the league, surprisingly beat Cincinnati, 4-2, their second win over the Reds in two days.7

When the two teams met again on August 1, 1883, Cincinnati played under protest, objecting to McNichol as umpire. But he continued in that role and Cincinnati went on to win the game. Thereafter, the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette reported that “McNichol fortunately umpired a splendid game of ball.”8

On August 8, Columbus pulled off another upset with McNichol as umpire, defeating the National League’s Cleveland Blues, 7-6. The hometown press reported that “McNichol gives his decisions promptly and fairly and then sticks with them.”9 But just three days later, the Columbus crowd turned on Bobby during a game against the St. Louis Browns. “THE UMPIRE IN TROUBLE,” the Cincinnati Enquirer declared. “One of the most disgraceful proceedings on record occurred at Recreation Park this afternoon. The crowd, numbering about one thousand, became enraged at a decision of the umpire, McNichol, in the fourth inning, and was transferred into a howling, hissing mob. McNichol has umpired here for several weeks and has given perfect satisfaction to Columbus audiences until to-day, when a decision at first base, which may, perhaps, have been erroneous, but which was so close as to leave a doubt in the minds of many who are qualified to judge of the matter, threw a portion of the audience into utter confusion. … There was no one present who had the courage to take the part of McNichol, and so he bravely umpired the game out without saying a word.”10 Despite the commotion, McNichol’s call did not affect the outcome of the game. St. Louis won, 8-2.

The crowd was very orderly the next day and there were no complaints about Bobby’s performance. During the game, however, he was hit in the throat by a foul tip; his vocal cords were injured and he couldn’t speak. Nonetheless, he stayed on the job and used sign language to make his calls. St. Louis won, 7-5.

The fourth game in the series between the Browns and the Buckeyes was on August 12. Columbus was hoping to win at least one game in the set, but that wasn’t to be. St. Louis won, 8-7. McNichol still couldn’t talk above a whisper and Columbus manager Horace Phillips did the calling for him. The Columbus Dispatch humorously noted that “Phillips and McNichol make an excellent umpire.”11

McNichol had more complaints than praise about his umpiring from the middle of August into September as tension built between teams towards the end of the season. But regardless, he was officially assigned a full schedule of games for the rest of the season in St. Louis, Louisville, Columbus, and Cincinnati.

On September 28, 1883, the Philadelphia Athletics clinched the American Association pennant with a 7-6 victory over Louisville. Bobby’s last game was on September 29 between New York and Cincinnati, and the season ended a day later.

In December, the American Association announced the umpires chosen for the next season and McNichol was not on the list. His contract was not renewed for the following year, and 1883 was his only season as an umpire in major league baseball.

From July 22 through September 29, McNichol had umpired in 45 games at six of the eight ballparks: Cincinnati, St. Louis, Columbus, Louisville, New York, and Philadelphia. His schedule kept him away from home for most of the months of August and September.

By October 6, Bobby was back in Wheeling and had returned once more to his job at the steel mill. The Wheeling Sunday Register reported, “Robert T. McNichol, who has been away umpiring for a base ball league, very satisfactorily, is back at his post here.”12 There is something to be said for being the hometown favorite!

But McNichol’s baseball career was not over. On October 8, he was back on the ball field umpiring a game in Toledo between the Toledo Blue Stockings, champions of the minor Northwestern League, and the National League’s Providence Grays. Three Wheeling boys participated in this game: pitcher Sam Moffet, shortstop Sam Barkley, and umpire McNichol. Providence “walloped” Toledo by a score of 17-1.13

In 1885, McNichol left his job at the steel mill and started a new career in law enforcement. He was appointed to a position on the Wheeling police force covering the Island beat as the day man. It was close enough to home that he could walk to work. And while the new job further limited his opportunity to umpire, he still occasionally made time.

On September 18, 1885, Bobby umpired a game on the new Wheeling Fair Grounds between the Globes of Bellaire, Ohio, and the W.W. Bells of Pittsburgh. Sol White played third base for the Bells. The contest was packed with action, with the Wheeling Register describing it as “the most exciting game of base ball ever played on the new field.” There were 500 people in the stands and another 700-800 watching from the fence or in the trees. And the newspaper added, “Tree and fence birds will receive the attention of the police in today’s game.” With respect to Bobby’s performance, the Register pronounced that “Robert McNichol umpired the game in his usual satisfactory manner, and his appearance on the field was greeted with applause by the occupants.”14 

By 1888, Bobby had been promoted to deputy sergeant, and he and his family moved into a house on York Street on Wheeling Island. Two years later they purchased property on the Island for $250, built a new home, and moved again.

Bobby officiated at a charity baseball game in June 1889 organized by the police department and the city hall clerks for the victims of the Johnstown flood. The game was a great success financially, but somewhat of a disaster as a baseball game. Almost every player took a turn as pitcher and if you hit the ball, you were almost guaranteed a run. The final score was Police 33, Clerks 22.15

After six years as deputy sergeant, Robert McNichol was appointed Chief of Police when the incumbent resigned. That man then changed his mind and contested McNichol’s appointment – he even filed a lawsuit against the city of Wheeling and Bobby. After months of controversy, the court dismissed his lawsuit and confirmed McNichol’s appointment on May 9, 1892.16

The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer noted that Chief McNichol had a great opportunity in assuming this position. “The new chief of police takes hold with a firm grip, giving promise of a creditable administration of an office of great importance to the people of Wheeling. … If the new chief has not already been approached by the professional law-breakers who have enjoyed immunity, he will be.”17

From many accounts in the newspapers, the “professional lawbreakers” were the gamblers, keepers of houses of prostitution, and the saloon keepers. The previous administration apparently did not enforce the Sunday and gambling laws regarding these “lawless industries” and the community was looking forward to Chief McNichol cracking down on those activities for the first time.

While Chief McNichol successfully solved crimes ranging from horse theft to murder during his tenure, one of his most unusual cases was caused by the financial panic of 1893. Unemployed workers (referred to as “hobos”) organized a nationwide protest movement and threatened to march on Washington. On July 13, 1894, 250 hobos hijacked a train that was heading towards Wheeling. When Chief McNichol was alerted that the train was approaching, he mobilized every police and sheriff officer available and barricaded every entrance to the city, the fear being that the hobos would all “jump” the train and converge on the city. However, by the time the train reached Wheeling, most of the hobos had already jumped off and there were only about 20 who tried to enter the city of Wheeling. When the scare was over, only two hobos had been arrested.

McNichol ran for election in 1893, and the Wheeling Register and the Democratic party endorsed him: “He has been faithful, honest, and intelligent in the performance of his duty, and has surrounded himself with a fine and well-disciplined force. … We have never had so satisfactory an administration of the department as during the past year under Chief Robert McNichol.” 18 He won the election, but by a very small margin. Two years later in 1896, he lost a closely contested election when the Republicans swept the city offices.

McNichol left the police department and started his own detective agency, the West Virginia Secret Service Bureau, which was the first of its kind in the state. The Wheeling Register reported that “The bureau was engaged in a number of important cases and not withstanding it did not always have the co-operation of the city police, it was very successful.”19

Though no longer holding an elected office, McNichol stayed actively involved in the Democratic Party. He volunteered his detective bureau’s offices to serve as official headquarters for the party. In 1896, 1899, and 1900, he was honored to be selected as Sergeant at Arms at the State Democratic Convention. In 1900, McNichol was part of the official escort that accompanied presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan during his visit to Wheeling. Bryan was again running against incumbent Republican President William McKinley.

By 1901, Robert and Emma McNichol had lived on Wheeling Island for over 20 years, and their children were by then all young adults. Their home on N. Wabash Street was at the edge of Bridge Park, near the baseball fields, and both Eddie and Joe McNichol played ball.

But in early 1901, Bobby began to have health problems. He stayed active and continued to manage his detective bureau, but it was quite often reported that he was not well. His condition continued to deteriorate; eventually, he was diagnosed with Bright’s disease, an inflammation of the kidneys caused by toxins, infections, and autoimmune diseases like diabetes. He continued to struggle for several months, but despite the best medical help available, he passed away on November 28, 1901, at the age of 49.

The Wheeling Register published an extensive obituary for McNichol complete with his portrait. Excerpts from the obituary attest to his reputation in the Wheeling community:

“Robert T. McNichol or ‘Bobby’ as he was familiarly known to almost every resident of Wheeling, was born in August 1852, on Wheeling Island which was then very sparsely settled.

“In his boyhood he was very fond of baseball and played the game when such well known men as Glasscock, Nichol, Barkley, and others were receiving their first lessons in the sport. He was not as proficient as they, but had as wide a knowledge of the game, and it was this fact which secured for him an appointment on the staff of the National (sic, American Association) league umpires.”

“There was never a more efficient or popular officer in that ward. His courtesies extended beyond what citizens had a right to expect from a policeman and won for him the friendship of all irrespective of politics. His popularity as an officer was maintained as chief.” 20

McNichol was also a member of Ohio Valley Lodge No. 31, Knights of Pythias, and of Wheeling Lodge No. 28, B.P.O. Elks. Both organizations attended his funeral as a body. He was buried in Stone Church Cemetery near his father.21

Three years later, Al Buckenberger, manager of the Boston Beaneaters, offered Bobby’s son Ed McNichol a tryout as pitcher for the Boston team. Eddie had played baseball in high school and college and was considered to be quite a “phenom.”  Buckenberger, who had long been involved with baseball in Wheeling, was well aware of Eddie’s talent and signed him as a pitcher for the 1904 season. Eddie posted a 2-12 won-lost record and was released by Boston at season’s end. He later moved to Salineville, Ohio, where he enjoyed a very successful career in the coal mining industry. Bobby’s other son, Joe, also played baseball as a catcher in the minor leagues.

Widow McNichol died a tragic death nine years later at the age of 47. Recovering from a cold, she suddenly died from what was thought to be pneumonia, but a coroner’s inquest subsequently determined that she had committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid. McNichol children Eddie, Joe, Mary, and Laura all married and eventually moved away from Wheeling, while Maude remained in Wheeling for the rest of her life.

Acknowledgments

The author is a distant relative of Robert McNichol. Robert McNichol’s great-great-granddaughter, Heather Wilson, also contributed family information.

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Paul Proia.

Sources

Books

Akin, William E., West Virginia Baseball. McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson North Carolina, 2006.

Caldwell, J.A., History of the Pan-Handle, Wheeling, West Virginia. The Historical Publishing Company, 1880.

Cranmer, Hon. Gibson Lamb, History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and Representative Citizens, 1776-1900. Biographical Publishing Company.

Finstine, James, Wheeling During the Civil War. Morris Publishing Company, 2015.

Husman, John R., Baseball in Toledo. Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

Olshavsky, Carole J., Maggie’s Story, The Moffets of Wheeling Island. 2026.

Rawling, C.J.K., History of the First Regiment West Virginia Infantry. Quarrier Press, 2002.

Newspapers and Magazines

Belmont Chronicle

Cincinnati Commercial Gazette

Cincinnati Commercial Tribune

Columbus Dispatch

Columbus Evening Dispatch

East Liverpool Review

Pittsburg Dispatch

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Cincinnati Enquirer

Pittsburgh Post

Pittsburg Press

West Virginia Argus

Wheeling City Directory 1901-02

Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (current newspaper)

Wheeling Intelligencer

Wheeling News Register

Wheeling Sunday News Register

Online

Ancestry.com

Baseball-Almanac.com

Baseball-Reference.com

Retrosheet.org

Sporting Life

Archives

Callin’s Wheeling Directory

Baseball Hall of Fame Library, player file for Edwin B. McNichol

Ohio County Public Library

Society for American Baseball Research

Photo Credit

The Ohio County Public Library provided the portrait of Robert T. McNichol.

Notes

1  William E. Akin, West Virginia Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2006), 25.

2 “Thumbs Mashed,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer/Register, February 9, 1874.

3 “The News That Was, Baseball Out on the Home Base,” Wheeling Daily Register, June 18, 1877.

4 “Sudden Summons,” Wheeling Daily Register, February 14, 1881.

5 “Worse and More of It,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, August 28, 1882.

6 “Diamond Dust,” Wheeling Sunday Register, September 3, 1882.

7“Columbus Downs the Champions,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, July 23, 1883.

8 “By Jinks,” Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, August 2, 1883.

9 “Baseball Briefs,” Columbus Evening Dispatch, August 7, 1883.

10 “The Umpire in Trouble,” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 11, 1883.

11 “A Pair of Defeats,” Columbus Dispatch, August 12, 1883.

12 “The Booming Workshops,” Wheeling Sunday Register, October 7, 1883.

13 “OH! MY! How the Providence Did Wallop Toledo,” Wheeling Register, October 9, 1883.

14 “Yesterday’s Game,” Wheeling Register, September 19, 1885.

15 “A Fine Exhibition of Ball,” Wheeling Register, June 6, 1889.

16 “McNichol is Chief,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, May 09, 1892.

17 “Chief McNichol’s Opportunity,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, December 21, 1891.

18 “The Chief of Police,” Wheeling Register, January 26, 1893.

19 “Bobby M’Nichol Died Yesterday Morning,” Wheeling Register, November 29, 1901.

20 “Bobby M’Nichol Died Yesterday Morning,” above.

21 “Bobby M’Nichol Died Yesterday Morning,” above.