George Barclay

Early Deadball Era outfielder George Barclay crammed significant achievement into a sadly abbreviated life. He first gained prominence as captain and star halfback for an 1896 national champion football team at Lafayette College. He later found success coaching college and pre-NFL professional elevens. Barclay is also generally recognized as the inventor of the football helmet.

But not all his acclaim was gridiron-connected. While at Lafayette, Barclay was a letterman in track and the captain and leading player on the school baseball team as well. Several years after he left college, Barclay broke into major league baseball by batting .300 for the 1902 St. Louis Cardinals. But a seemingly bright future in the game was derailed by his contracting malaria during spring training the following season. He never fully recovered, and thereafter was merely a shadow of his former self as a ballplayer. During off-seasons, however, he prepared for post-baseball life by attending dental school. Young Dr. George O. Barclay had established a thriving dentistry practice in Philadelphia when he was stricken with appendicitis in late March 1909. He died from post-surgical complications a week later at age 33. Fuller exposition of his short but event-filled life follows.

George Oliver Barclay was born on May 16, 1875, in Millville, Pennsylvania, a rural hamlet located in the east-central region of the state. He was the younger of two sons born to Union Army veteran-turned-factory hand Z. Britton Barclay (1847-1932), a Pennsylvania native, and his New Jersey-born wife Margaret (née Gardner, 1853-1899).1 George was raised in Milton, a railroad whistle stop situated about 20 miles southwest of his birthplace, and educated in local schools. In spring 1893, he entered Bucknell Academy, a secondary school affiliated with Bucknell University in Lewisburg. Despite being a prep schooler, George served as starting catcher on the university baseball team. The ensuing fall, he was selected as captain and signal caller for Bucknell’s fledgling varsity football team.2 In the season finale, Barclay touchdowns and conversions accounted for all 20 of Bucknell’s points in a 20-12 Thanksgiving Day victory over Dickinson College.3

When he completed his course work at Bucknell Academy, Barclay did not continue his education at the university. Rather, in January 1894 he matriculated to Lafayette College, some 90 miles away in Easton, Pennsylvania.4 His reputation as an athlete preceded him there, and he was quickly recruited for the baseball team. Catcher Barclay, “an elegant base thrower, hard hitter, and speedy runner,”5 was a college star from the beginning. After school let out for the summer, he caught for a fast amateur club in Atlantic City.6 But George’s first sports love was football.

At 5-feet-10 and 162 pounds, Barclay was hardly the prototypical bruiser of football’s Flying Wedge era. But agility, exceptional foot speed, and sound judgment made him a standout running back. In his first game as a collegian, he scored two touchdowns in a 36-0 rout of Gettysburg. Thereafter, he combined with the equally fleet-footed George Walbridge to give Lafayette two “phenomenal ground gainers” in the backfield.7 Barclay also “displayed strong tackling skills on defense.”8 Against arch-rival Lehigh, he went on a scoring rampage with three touchdowns and four drop-kicked extra points in a 28-0 pasting of the Engineers.9 But several long Barclay runs proved of little avail against a powerful University of Pennsylvania eleven, then in the midst of a three-season unbeaten streak. Lafayette lost, 26-0.10 Often playing larger schools, Lafayette struggled to a 5-6 record. But better things were in store for the inexperienced team. And the 1894 season saw something new introduced into college football, courtesy of our subject.

In addition to his athletic gifts, George Barclay was a handsome young man, reputedly a favorite of the opposite sex, and concerned about the effects that playing football might have on his good looks. Amused Lafayette teammates thereupon dubbed him The Rose. To protect himself from disfiguring cauliflower ears, Barclay engaged an Easton harness maker to construct a protective device that he had devised. The device consisted of bulky leather earmuffs held in place by strapping. Barclay called the contraption a “head harness,” but today his invention is almost universally recognized as the primitive first football helmet.11

In spring 1895, George split time between the Lafayette outdoor track and baseball teams. On the cinders, he ran the dashes and quarter-mile, and was also a long jumper.12 Barclay’s speed soon gave rise to a new nickname: Deerfoot. Otherwise, he returned to catch for a so-so 11-10 Lafayette diamond squad. That fall, behind the running of halfbacks Barclay and Walbridge, the Maroon and White posted a much-improved 6-2 record, highlighted by a 22-12 victory over Lehigh.13 The game featured 10- and 75-yard touchdown sprints by Barclay. But he and his mates were again throttled, 30-0, by an undefeated Penn team on its way to a national college championship. That one-sided outcome, however, did not discourage Penn from quietly recruiting Barclay “should he choose to leave Lafayette” once the football season was over.14

Barclay remained in Easton, spending the spring at his customary backstop position for the Lafayette nine. During summer break, he played nine games for the Chambersburg (Pennsylvania) Maroons of the independent professional Cumberland Valley League, a brief engagement that soon spawned college eligibility questions. For the most part, however, he returned to the lineup of the amateur Atlantic City club for which he had played previously.15

In fall 1896, George Barclay became captain of the football team and a Lafayette College immortal. In late September, the Maroon and White warmed up for serious competition with a 44-0 thrashing of the Volunteer Athletic Club of New York. The following week, the opposition was the Princeton Tigers, a formidable team coming off a 10-1-1 season in 1895 that included a 14-0 win over Lafayette. This time, Lafayette dominated play, but botched its scoring opportunities. Then, a last-second touchdown gallop by George Walbridge was nullified when he failed to cross the goal line before the final whistle sounded, allowing Princeton to escape with a 0-0 draw.16 Lafayette thereupon traveled to West Virginia for a three-game set against the WVU Mountaineers that Lafayette swept by a combined score of 58-0. Then came the ultimate test: playing a defending national champion Penn team that had not lost a game since the 1893 season. Coming into the match against Lafayette, the mighty Quakers sported an 8-0 record, having outscored opponents by an astonishing 188-0 margin.

Calamity seemingly befell Lafayette when Walbridge was stricken with appendicitis on the train ride to Philadelphia. He was promptly removed to a local hospital. Surgery was successful, but Walbridge was lost for the season. A depleted but resolute Lafayette eleven then played Penn tough before some 13,000 fans gathered at Franklin Field. With Penn clinging to a 4-0 lead late in the fourth quarter, a blocked punt gave Lafayette a final shot from the Penn 25-yard line. On the first play, Barclay carried the ball down to the Penn 10. With time now running out, the Lafayette captain swept around end for the game-tying score (touchdowns counted for only four points in 1896). A two-point Barclay drop-kick conversion then sealed a stunning 6-4 Lafayette upset victory.17

From there, Lafayette sailed through the remainder of the schedule – but not without controversy. Asserting that old nemesis Barclay’s summer stint in semipro baseball canceled his amateur athlete status, Lehigh demanded that he be declared ineligible for play in the annual Lafayette-Lehigh match. When Lafayette refused to sideline Barclay (who had scored eight touchdowns in four previous games against the Engineers), Lehigh refused to play the two-game set scheduled between the schools – the only year between 1884 and 2019 in which the Lafayette-Lehigh football rivalry was not contested.18 Lafayette closed the 1896 campaign with an 18-6 win over Navy in which Barclay ran for two scores. It turned out to be the final game of his college football career. In his three seasons for the Maroon and White, Barclay registered 43 touchdowns and kicked 11 field goals.19 Shortly thereafter, Lafayette (11-0-1) and Princeton (10-0-1) were declared national college football co-champions by the National Championship Foundation.20

Although acclaimed for his athletic prowess, George Barclay was more than just a multi-sport jock. He was a serious student and junior class president. He also enjoyed campus life, belonging to Sigma Chi fraternity, and was highly popular with fellow undergrads. Elected baseball team captain in 1897, Barclay completed his fourth spring as the Lafayette catcher. But at season’s end and with an undergraduate degree in sight, he left college to play semipro baseball in upstate New York.21 That fall, he accepted the position as player-coach for the Greenburg Athletic Club of Pittsburgh, a top-flight pre-NFL professional football team.22 During the spring, Barclay performed the same functions for the Greenburg A.C. baseball team. And between seasons, he studied medicine under the tutelage of a local practitioner.23 He pursued the same regimen in 1898.

George Barclay entered Organized Baseball in 1899, signing with the Rochester Bronchos of the Eastern League. Although Barclay was an excellent defensive receiver, veteran Rochester manager Al Buckenberger thought that a change of position would put the young recruit’s blazing speed to better use. So, he installed the right-handed throwing and batting rookie in left field. Barclay, who hit for contact rather than power, promptly proved that he could handle the bat. He posted a solid .290 batting average, with 19 extra-base hits (but no home runs in 362 at-bats). He also stole 31 bases. But his outfield defense (.921 fielding percentage)24 was mediocre. Still, Barclay had made a good start in pro ball, while Rochester (72-43, .628) cruised to an Eastern League title by nine games over the Montreal Royals.

After the season, Barclay remained in town, taking the post of football coach for the University of Rochester. Working with under-experienced and not overly gifted playing material, Coach Barclay led the university team to a surprisingly successful 6-2-1 record, drawing praise from the local press.25 Over the winter, he returned to Philadelphia, where he soon opened a sporting equipment business styled G. Barclay & Company. The demands of that new enterprise required Barclay to remain close and to forego return to Rochester for the 1900 season.26 He leavened his business responsibilities, however, with playing for O’Rourke’s Crescents, a Philadelphia semipro nine for which Barclay & Company supplied the uniforms.27 He also took the post of baseball coach at Penn Charter School, a local prep school.28 The ensuing summer found him back in Atlantic City catching for his old amateur club.29

Unhappily for Barclay, his sporting equipment venture failed, necessitating a return to Organized Baseball. Back in Rochester, his old job with the Buckenberger-managed Bronchos awaited him. The year away from top-level minor league pitching seemed to have little effect on Barclay’s hitting. He paced the Bronchos with 194 base hits (including 34 extra-base knocks) while posting a professional career-high .339 batting average. But demerits had to be assigned to his defense (27 errors in 255 chances, for an .894 fielding percentage). That deficiency notwithstanding, the St. Louis Cardinals purchased Barclay’s release during the off-season.30

As he awaited the arrival of spring training, Barclay – by then 26 – returned to coaching the University of Rochester football team. His leadership again drew raves from the local press.31 Barclay capped a gratifying year with marriage to Emma Field, the well-heeled daughter of a deceased Easton physician.32 The couple remained together until George’s untimely death, but their union was childless.

Reeling from the jumping of high-producing Jesse Burkett (.376) and Emmet Heidrick (.339) to the American League’s St. Louis Browns, the Cardinals hung out the outfield vacancy sign during spring training. Newcomer Barclay’s speed out of the batter’s box and on the basepaths impressed observers, including St. Louis outfielder-manager Patsy Donovan. By Opening Day, Barclay was the Cardinals’ starting left fielder. He made his major league debut on April 17, 1902, and went 1-for-3 (a single) plus a successful sacrifice bunt against Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Deacon Phillippe. But he and his teammates failed to dent the plate and lost a 1-0 decision.

Barclay continued to hit as the season progressed, dueling center fielder Homer Smoot, another St. Louis rookie, for team batting average leadership into mid-August. In the end, the veteran Donovan outdid both youngsters, hitting .315. But Smoot (.311) and Barclay (.300) gave the otherwise wanting sixth-place (56-78-6, .418) Cardinals a good-hitting outfield and some hope for the future. Barclay, in particular, looked like star material. Over 137 games, he led the club in base hits (163), runs scored (79), and RBIs (53), and placed second in stolen bases (30). Defense was another matter, his .904 fielding percentage being well below the standard set by Donovan (.959) and Smoot (.931). Nevertheless, big things were expected of Barclay in 1903.

The following spring, the Cardinals training camp in Dallas was wracked by disease. Various players were affected. All recovered without long-term debility, save one: George Barclay. Afflicted with malaria, he was never the same ballplayer thereafter. He was in and out of bed throughout camp, but managed an Opening Day appearance in mid-April, going 1-for-3 in a 2-1 Cards victory over Chicago. A month later, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch observed that “Barclay would be better off in a hospital.”33 He remained “full of malaria” in late May,34 but manager Donovan was unsympathetic. In late June, the club “laid off Barclay without pay … until he gets into condition.”35

Headed for a last-place finish, the Cardinals were reportedly beset by dissension in the clubhouse, with Barclay among those accused of undermining manager Donovan. Third baseman Jimmy Burke, shortstop Dave Brain, and the battery of Mike and Jack O’Neill were also suspected of conspiring against the club skipper. In late August, Jack O’Neill publicly denied that he or the others were disloyal to Donovan.36 Nonetheless, animosity lingered in Cardinal ranks. As the season drew to a close, it was reported that “once reliable ‘Deerfoot’ [Barclay] is dissatisfied on account of salary being held back on him” and would “likely figure in a trade before long.”37

Barclay’s stats did little to enhance his trade value. Limited to 108 games, his numbers declined across the board. His batting average fell to .248, with a poor ratio of strikeouts (48) to walks (15). Runs scored (37), RBIs (42), and stolen base (12) totals were also down markedly from the previous season. About the only thing that remained constant was Barclay’s substandard defense (.901 fielding percentage) in left field. Trade rumors persisted over the winter, but in the end, it was manager Donovan who got the axe, not Barclay, who remained Cardinals property.

Hoping for a fresh start under new Cards manager Kid Nichols, Barclay gave it a go during spring training but by then his malarial symptoms had become chronic. “George is not himself,” reported the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in early March 1904. “He is losing weight, and … it begins to look as though ‘Deerfoot’ is again doomed to experience a siege of sickness.”38 Against the odds, Barclay made the Opening Day lineup, going 1-for-4 in a 5-4 win over Pittsburgh. Although his health remained unstable, he managed 100 game appearances going into September. But his hitting had become anemic. With his batting average standing at a meager .200, Barclay was released to the struggling Boston Beaneaters, where he was reunited with former Rochester mentor Al Buckenberger.39

Barclay rescued his major league career with a modest September comeback. He improved his batting average slightly (21-for-93, .226) and played decent outfield defense (.935). Perhaps more important, he appeared healthier, fit enough to get into 24 late-season Boston games. Nevertheless, the time had come for Barclay to look toward his post-baseball future. To that end, he switched his off-season studies from medicine to dentistry, enrolling in Philadelphia’s Medico-Chirurgical College.

The baseball rejuvenation was short-lived. Health problems resurfaced in spring training, and by late May the local press was reporting that “Barclay has not seemed to be a well man, and he certainly has not played to the standard of which he is capable.”40 Batting a woeful .176 in 29 games, he was released by Boston days thereafter, bringing his major league days to a close. In a four-season career that began with such promise, Barclay’s final numbers were mediocre. In 401 games, he posted a .248 batting average, with only four homers and spare on-base (.286) and slugging (.298) percentages. Barclay’s career .911 outfield fielding percentage was also marginal.

Although he was 30 by then, Barclay was not yet ready to give up baseball. And with first manager Al Buckenberger back at the helm in Rochester, he had a handy outlet for his playing aspirations. Shortly after his release, Barclay signed with his original pro club and finished the season there.41 On the plus side, Barclay finally seemed healthy, getting into 108 Rochester games. On the minus side, he hit only .245, or 94 points lower than he had for the Bronchos only four seasons earlier. Still, the showing was enough for Rochester to reengage Barclay for the 1906 season.

A .190 batting average in 69 games prompted Barclay’s release by Rochester in early August 1906.42 Yet he was still not willing to give the game up. Instead, he finished the year with the Lynn (Massachusetts) Shoemakers of the Class B New England League. In 1907, spring course work at dental school kept Barclay on the sidelines until his graduation in June. Immediately thereafter, he rejoined the Lynn club.43 A .207 batting average in 43 games then finalized Barclay’s time on the professional diamond.

Although qualified by then to enter the dental profession, Barclay remained engaged in athletics instead. In September 1907, he returned to his first sporting love, becoming the football coach at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.44 His success there subsequently led to his appointment to the Muhlenberg faculty.45 But once the football season was over, Dr. George O. Barclay returned to Philadelphia to establish a dentistry practice.46 In short order, his office was flourishing.

A busy practice, however, did not suppress Barclay’s desire to remain involved in sports. His affiliation with Muhlenberg was jettisoned when the position of football coach at his alma mater became vacant.47 Under Barclay’s direction, Lafayette went 6-2-2 in 1908, with the season marred only by late-season losses to Penn and Lehigh. Still, with an excellent start to his dental career, reconnection to Lafayette football, and a happy marriage, life doubtless seemed good to George Barclay as the year 1908 drew to a close. Sad to relate, he would not have much longer to enjoy it.

While at home with his wife on a late-March 1909 evening, Barclay was suddenly stricken by acute stomach pains. He was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, where his condition seemed to improve over the ensuing days. A sudden relapse on April 2, however, necessitated late-night emergency surgery to remove his appendix. The operation uncovered a raging and irreversible internal infection, and surgeons gave their patient little hope of survival.48 Death came to Dr. George O. “Deerfoot” Barclay at 8:40 the following morning. He was only 33. Peritonitis resulting from appendicitis was listed as the official cause of death.49

Barclay’s sudden passing stunned friends and admirers, and tributes to his memory flowed in. In a heartfelt eulogy delivered during Philadelphia funeral services, a college friend described the deceased as “a natural leader. Kind, considerate, generous, frank and genial, he was the idol of Lafayette undergraduates.”50 Barclay’s remains were then transported north and interred at Easton Cemetery, little more than a long drop-kick away from the Lafayette College campus. Without issue, immediate survivors were limited to the deceased’s father, widow, and brother.

As decades passed, so did those with living memory of George Barclay. But some 78 years after his captaincy of a national champion football team, he was enshrined in the Lafayette College Maroon Club Hall of Fame.51 If only in Easton, George Barclay became an immortal.

Acknowledgments

This profile was adapted from an article originally published in the February 2022 issue of The Inside Game, the quarterly newsletter of SABR’s Deadball Era Committee.

This version was reviewed by Rory Costello and Norman Macht and fact-checked by Kevin Larkin.

Sources

Sources for the biographical info imparted above include the George Barclay file maintained at the Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; US Census data and other Barclay family info accessed via Ancetry.com; and certain of the newspaper articles cited in the endnotes. Unless otherwise noted, stats have been taken from Baseball-Reference.

Notes

1 Older brother John Hurley Barclay (1873-1945) spent most of his adult life as a self-employed gardener.

2 Per Don Sayenga, “The Upset of 1896: Part II – The Rose,” Lafayette College Athletics, July 4, 2014, accessible on-line. At Bucknell and elsewhere during the late 19th century, students attending affiliated prep schools could play on the university’s athletic teams, if good enough.

3 See “Orange and Blue Triumph,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot, December 1, 1893: 2.

4 As reported in the Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) Chronicle, January 13, 1894: 1.

5 Per “Captain Barkley of Lafayette,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 6, 1897.

6 Per the (Milton, Pennsylvania) Miltonian, June 8, 1894: 3.

7 The description of Barclay and Walbridge subsequently published in the Boston Herald, October 12, 1896: 6.

8 Sayenga, above.

9 See “Lafayette Downs Lehigh,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 15, 1894: 7.

10 The previous fall, Penn had shellacked Lafayette, 82-0.

11 See Steve Novak,” “The Story Behind the 1st Football Helmet, a Lehigh Valley Invention,” published August 26, 2018, accessible on-line via lehighvalleylive.com. See also, Sayenga, above. The more-familiar leather egg shell-shaped helmet did not appear until around 1912.

12 Barclay posted times of 10.2 in the 100-yard dash, 23 seconds in the 220, and 51 seconds in the 440, highly competitive in the mid-1890s. See “Lafayette’s Strong Team,” Philadelphia Times, April 4, 1897: 23. He long jumped 23 feet, eight inches, per the Allentown (Pennsylvania) Democrat, October 4, 1907: 1. According to the 1897 Lafayette yearbook, Barclay was “the man who decided the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate championship in track in our favor.”

13 See “Lehigh’s Team Beaten,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 10, 1895: 9. Lafayette did not adopt its present-day nickname Leopards until 1924.

14 Per “Pennsylvania Not Buying Players,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 5, 1895: 5.

15 See “Atlantic City’s Team,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 28, 1896: 24.

16 See “Lafayette’s Great Game,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 8, 1896:

17 After the loss to Lafayette, Penn won its next 37 games.

18 See “No Lehigh-Lafayette Games,” Philadelphia Times, November 7, 1896: 10. For a detailed account of the brouhaha, see Don Sayenga, “The Upset of 1896: Part III – The Vacant Year in the Rivalry,” Lafayette College Athletics, July 5, 2014. The Lafayette and Lehigh campuses are less than ten miles apart, and until 1902 the two schools played twice each year. At present, the rivalry stands at Lafayette 80 wins, Lehigh 71, with five ties.

19 According to the George Barclay profile on the Lafayette College Maroon Club Hall of Fame web page.

20 Other college ranking organizations bestowed the laurel solely upon Princeton, but the 1896 NCF national championship co-awarded to Lafayette is recognized today by the NCAA.

21 As reported in Barclay’s hometown newspaper. See Miltonian, June 25, 1897: 2.

22 Per the Harrisburg Patriot, August 23, 1897: 3.

23 Per Miltonian, February 25, 1898: 3.

24 Per the 1900 Reach Official Base Ball Guide, 73. Baseball-Reference provides no 1899 fielding stats for Barclay.

25 The (Rochester) Democrat and Chronicle, December 4, 1899: 12, declared that “too much praise cannot be bestowed upon Coach Barclay, Captain Stewart, and Manager Gorsline for their work on behalf of the team.”

26 As announced in “Barclay Will Not Play Here,” Democrat and Chronicle, February 21, 1900: 14.

27 Per “O’Rourke’s Crescents,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 18, 1900: 14.

28 As reported in The Miltonian, March 9, 1900: 2. See also, “Lafayette College,” Scranton (Pennsylvania) Republican, March 19, 1900: 4.

29 As reported in the Providence Evening Bulletin, August 14, 1900: 4; and elsewhere.

30 See “Outfielder George Barclay,” Boston Herald, December 1, 1901: 44; “Cardinals Sign Barclay,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 29, 1901: 10.

31 Reiterating its commentary of the year before, the Democrat and Chronicle, November 29, 1901: 14, stated “to Coach Barclay’s ability as an instructor and knowledge of the game is due all the success that the varsity team has met this season.”

32 In lieu of an occupation, the 1900 US Census recorded that Emma Field “has money.”

33 “Cardinals Open Boston Series,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 12, 1903: 6.

34 Per “Donovan Earns His Big Salary,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 31, 1903: 6.

35 See “Donovan Removes Barclay,” St. Louis Republic, June 27, 1903: 15.

36 See “Cardinal Players Not Dissatisfied,” St. Louis Republic, August 28, 1903: 9; “Disloyalty to Manager Donovan Vigorously Denied by the Cardinals,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 26, 1903: 13.

37 Per “Burke and Barclay May Be Released,” St. Louis Republic, October 7, 1903: 19.

38 “Barclay May Leave Training Camp; Cardinals Show Effects of Practice,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 10, 1904: 14.

39 Per “Nationals’ New Outfielder,” Boston Globe, September 10, 1904: 3; “Barclay Goes to Boston,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 10, 1904: 6. The acquisition cost Boston nothing, as St. Louis released Barclay unconditionally once his transfer to Boston had been arranged, according to “‘Deerfoot’ Barclay of Cardinals Released to Boston Nationals,” St. Louis Republic, September 10, 1904: 11.

40 “Bob Dunbar’s Sporting Chat,” Boston Journal, May 23, 1905: 4.

41 Rochester’s engagement of Barclay was reported in “George Barclay Signed by Buck,” Democrat and Chronicle, June 1, 1905: 15.

42 As reported in the Democrat and Chronicle, August 3, 1906: 17.

43 Per “New Pitcher for Lynn,” Fall River (Massachusetts) Herald, June 29, 1907: 2.

44 As reported in “Foot Ball Coach Arrives,” Allentown (Pennsylvania) Morning Call, September 13, 1907: 5.

45 Per “Muhlenberg Has Again Increased Her Faculty,” Allentown Democrat, March 12, 1908: 1; “Athletics at Muhlenberg,” Allentown (Pennsylvania) Leader, December 21, 1907: 1.

46 As reported in Miltonian, December 13, 1907: 3.

47 Barclay’s engagement by Lafayette was reported in the Altoona (Pennsylvania) Times, October 29, 1908: 8; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 20, 1908; and elsewhere.

48 The above account of Barclay’s death is condensed from reports published in various Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania newspapers.

49 Per the death certificate issued by state health officials and viewable on-line. Peritonitis resulting from appendicitis was also cited as the cause of death in most newspaper accounts of Barclay’s passing.

50 “Some Quiet Observations,” Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) Times-Leader, April 6, 1909: 6, memorializing the eulogy of D.L. Reeves.

51 Barclay became a Lafayette Hall of Famer with the induction class of 1984-1985.