David Allen

Keystones vs. Pythian box score, May 12, 1887 (Philadelphia Times)

When it comes to the Black baseball experience in Pittsburgh’s history, most people will think it starts with the Homestead Grays, incorporates the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and ends after Jackie Robinson and integration. This truncated and incomplete history is the narrative that makes its rounds in discussions and articles about Pittsburgh’s Black baseball history. What most people don’t know, besides the countless sandlot and semipro Black teams in the area, is that Pittsburgh was home to a team called the Keystones—well, actually two teams called the Keystones.

However, we are not going to discuss the 1921 Keystones with Willis Moody, Ernest E. “Pud” Gooden, Archie Barnett, and player/manager Fred Downer. We are going to travel back a little further in time to 1887, to the Keystones that played in the short-lived League of Colored Base Ball Clubs (also known as the Colored League or the National Colored League).1

Alongside King Solomon “Sol” White, Weldy Walker, Frank Miller, Willie Standard, and eight others, David Allen and the 1887 Pittsburgh Keystones played for just two weeks during the summer of 1887 for the National Colored Base Ball League. But who was he, where did he come from, and what happened to him when the league folded? The information that follows is the most comprehensive reconstruction of his life that can be completed at this time. While there are questions that will forever remain unanswered, there is enough to shine a light on this forgotten pioneer of early Black baseball.

The early life of David Allen is murky, to say the least. According to his death certificate, Allen was born on February 15, 1858, in Madison, Virginia. His father, Warren Allen, is the only parent listed, with “unknown” written in the space for mother. This is really all we have to go on about his early life which is all based on the recollection of the individual who filled out the death certificate. The issue begins here as there is no corroborating documentation to back up the information presented on the death certificate. No “David Allen” can be found living in Madison, Virginia in any of the proceeding census years.2 However, there is another David Allen that has a clear timeline that takes him from Virginia to Pittsburgh.

Born in October of 1856 in North River, Virginia, “Davy Allen” was born into slavery, with his owner listed as John Allen and his mother’s name listed as Amanda.3 If this is the David Allen in question, this would make him only the second known baseball player, besides William White, to have been born into slavery and then later suit up to play professional baseball. The evidence strongly favors this claim. North River and Madison are only about sixty miles apart, and the two men are only separated by two years (or by one if going by the 1870 census). One must remember that recordkeeping was shoddy during this time in American history.

In the 1870 and 1880 censuses, “Davy Allen” can be found working as a farmhand. In 1870, he was listed as living in Curdsville, Virginia (Buckingham County) and in 1880 in Newtown, Kentucky (Scott County).4  It’s this last entry that seems to bridge “Davy Allen” the former enslaved person to “David Allen” the baseball player. When examining the 1900 census for the Allen family, the document states that all of Allen’s children were born in Kentucky, both leading up to his time on the Keystones and after, with his youngest child, Hazel being born in 1896 in the Bluegrass State.5 Also, there is no “Davy Allen” living in Kentucky post-1880. With all this information, it seems very likely that David Allen started out his life in the institution of chattel slavey, though we may never know his origins for sure. What we do know for certain is that he began playing for the Pittsburgh Keystones in 1887.

David Allen the ballplayer first appears in the historical record playing with the Keystones in a box score found in the May 7, 1887, edition of the Pittsburgh Post. The game was played the day before, on May 6, at Recreation Park (now the site of an industrial complex). This was the opening game of the League of Colored Base Ball Clubs (called the Colored League Championship series in the article). The Keystones took on the New York Gorhams. Allen scored one run and made two errors, and the Keystones were defeated 11-8.6

Though the Keystones lost, the papers report about one thousand in attendance, including Ajax Jones. Local historian JaQuay Edward Carter writes about Jones in detail, proving that for three days, he was actually the first Black mayor of Pittsburgh.7 There was also a street parade headed by the Cornet Band and a concert at Recreation Park.8 This was the high-water mark for the league, with the remainder of the season falling apart on a daily basis.

On May 10, the Boston Resolutes were to play the Keystones; however, Boston postponed.9 The following day, Pittsburgh took on and lost to the Philadelphia Pythians 9-8, but they turned it around and beat them 19-13 just 24 hours later.10 The final games of the Keystones were played against the Lord Baltimores. From May 16-19, the two teams played a total of four times. Allen appears in a box score from the game on May 16. Allen scored two runs, but Baltimore stomped on the Keystones 22-10.11

Allen next appears in the May 19 edition of the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette. The game, played the day before, was a Keystone victory of 16-8. Sadly, the game write-up didn’t have too many kind words for Allen: “Allen seemed to be playing far below his usual gait, and his errors produced a number of runs, as, bad [sic] he played perfectly each time the side would have been retired.”12 He committed two errors that game, though it should be mentioned that he did score two runs and was part of a double play with Ben Gross and Sol White.13 The last game the Keystones played was May 19, when they lost to Baltimore 6-2.

Lacking funds and interest, the league folded, but the Keystones continued to play that summer against local teams. On May 21, they defeated a local team called the Iron City16-6.14 On June 9, the Keystones took on a local team called the Finnertys at Recreation Park.15 What became of Allen for the remainder of the summer is unknown, as there is no further mention of him. The Biographical Encyclopedia of The Negro Baseball Leagues states that he caught for the Cuban Giants (Trenton, New Jersey) in the Middle States League the same year. However, no primary sources could be located to assess the validity of this claim.16

The following year, on April 5, 1888, the Pittsburgh Press announced that the Keystones of the year prior were reforming for the baseball season, with Allen again on first base.17 By all accounts, the team started out strong, playing teams from the tri-state area. However, by mid-May, they vanish from the historical record. Their last recorded game was on May 7, when they defeated a team from East Liverpool (Ohio) called the Crockery Cities 7-6.18

What became of Allen and his baseball career after this date is unknown. He may have played for local teams, or he may have hung up his glove. With such a common surname, it is almost impossible to pin him down concretely. However, we do know that in the 1900 census he was married to Susan (they wed in 1881), and he had five sons (Warnzer, Walter, James, David, and Robert) and three daughters (Pearl, Fannie, and Hazel). The census lists him as a “landscape gardener.”19 By 1910, he had switched careers and was a “hod carrier” (someone who gets supplies for a bricklayer), and he added a daughter, Ethel, to the brood.20 Both the 1920 and 1930 censuses list Allen in the same field of employment.21

On October 21, 1931, David Allen passed away from acute endocarditis. His death certificate lists his occupation as “plaster.”22 Allen’s final resting place is Section 10 of Monongahela Cemetery in North Braddock, Pennsylvania.23 He lay in an unmarked grave until 2023, when he became the second recipient of a marker through the Negro Leagues Memorial Markers: A Josh Gibson Foundation Initiative project. Coincidently, Ernest E. “Pud” Gooden was the first to receive a stone, and both men are buried within feet of each other.24

In the end, David Allen may not have made a huge impact with his playing. However, his time on the Keystones, along with the other men who played with him, helped pave the way for Black baseball and led to iconic teams like the Grays and Crawfords, and to players like Josh Gibson, Cum Posey, and Cool Papa Bell. This is his true legacy.

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Darren Gibson and Natalie Montanez and fact-checked by Terry Bohn.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com, Seamheads.com, and the following:

Ancestry.com

Findagrave.com

Newspapers.com

US Census, 1870-1930

Notes

1 Ken Mars, “Guide to the 1887 Colored League,” SABR.org, accessed July 19, 2024, at https://sabr.org/latest/mars-resource-guide-1887-national-colored-league/.

2 David Allen Death Certificate: Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1970 – Ancestry.com, accessed July 19, 2024.

3 Commonwealth of Virginia Birth Registers 1853-1911

4 1870 US Census, 1880 US Census

5 1900 US Census

6 “How the First Colored Championship Ball Game Was Played,” Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Post, May 7, 1887: 6.

7 Jaquay Edward Carter, “Ajax Jones is the first African-American to serve as mayor of Pittsburgh,” Very Local, February 25, 2021, accessed July 19, 2024, at https://www.verylocal.com/pittsburgh-black-mayor-ajax-jones/1551/.

8 “Colored League Opening,” Pittsburgh Post, May 2, 1887: 6.

9 Mars, “Guide to the 1887 Colored League.”

10 Mars, “Guide to the 1887 Colored League.”

11 “Unfortunate Keystones,” Pittsburgh Post, May 17, 1887: 6.

12 “The Colored League,” Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Commercial Gazette, May 19, 1887: 3.

13 “The Colored League,” Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Commercial Gazette, May 19, 1887: 3.

14 “Base Ball Notes,” Pittsburgh Post, May 23, 1887: 6.

15 “For a Local Pennant,” Pittsburgh Post, June 9, 1887: 6.

16 Rikey, James A. The Biographical Encyclopedia of The Negro Baseball Leagues (New York, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc 1994), 30.

17 “Melange of Sports,” Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Press, April 5, 1888: 2.

18 “East Liverpool Events,” Pittsburgh Press, May 7, 1888: 4.

19 1900 US Census.

20 1910 US Census.

21 1920 US Census, 1930 US Census.

22 David Allen Death Certificate.

23 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/250808922/david-allen

24 https://jgfmemorialmarkers.org/#david-allen