Joe Hughes

On September 6, 1902, Sporting Life ran the weekly article written by a Pittsburgh doctor and sportswriter, A.R. Cratty, entitled “Pittsburgh Points.”1 In it, Cratty discussed the goings-on of Pittsburgh baseball over the month of August. The final paragraph of the piece covered the moves of Chicago Orphans manager Frank Selee during a recent three-game series against Pittsburgh.2 “Frank Selee had a broken up team here. He tried two lads in right field. One posed as Hillebrand and the other as Hughes. One is said to be Bob Lowe’s brother in law,” Cratty stated.3

These few sentences pose dual mysteries: Who were these “two lads” and which of them was the brother-in-law? While the identity of Hillebrand may forever remain in question, Joe Hughes was the other “lad.” What’s more, research has revealed that Hughes was also the brother-in-law of stalwart Chicago infielder Bobby Lowe, who married Hughes’ sister, Harriet.4

After this solitary game appearance, Hughes receded into obscurity. Though his one game in the majors is well documented, the rest of the story of this obscure cup-of-coffee player from the turn of the last century has heretofore gone unresearched.

***

Joseph Thompson Hughes was born on February 21, 1880, in Pardoe, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town located about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh. He was the youngest of nine children born to immigrant parents Benjamin and Sarah Hughes (née Edge).5 Benjamin (1832-1900) was born in Ruabon, a village in Northern Wales, and emigrated to the United States in 1869.6 According to his obituary, “He was appointed examiner of mine bosses…and occupied that position for a number of years, until he took charge of the principal hotel in Sharpsville.”7 Wife Sarah (1837-1907) was a native of Staffordshire, England.8 The couple had eight children before Joseph: Emma (born 1860), Isaac (1862), Elijah (1864), Sarah (1867), Mary (1871), Charles (1872), John E. (1873), and Harriet (“Hattie”, 1874). According to the 1880 census, Joseph arrived in 1879 rather than 1880.

The earliest mention of Hughes’ association with baseball stems from his appointment as team captain of the Geneva College baseball team in 1898.9 Regrettably, newspaper coverage of Geneva’s season is almost nonexistent. But on May 19, the Pittsburg Post reported that Geneva was having trouble maintaining a baseball team because players were leaving for military service in the Spanish-American War. Nevertheless, the team was back in working shape and ready to take on Shadyside Academy.10 This was the final discovered press mention of the Geneva team that season.11   

The following season Hughes played center field for the Nonpareil Athletic Club of Beaver Falls.12 Yet on April 29, Geneva College took on Washington & Jefferson College with Hughes in the lineup at shortstop.13 Hughes, however, was not a full-time Geneva student and thus was ineligible to play. The Pittsburg Post reported that “There was considerable delay at the start of the game. Hughes, Geneva’s short stop, was the first man called. He is from Beaver Falls and W. & J. claimed he is not a real college man. He admitted that he is not a regular but is taking a special course and therefore entitled to play. Hughes was not allowed to play, causing a shakeup in the positions of the players.”14 This is the last identifiable press mention of Hughes in 1899.15

In April 1900, Hughes, then working as a hotel clerk, found a berth with the amateur Beaver Falls Athletic Club baseball team.16 The “Athletics,” as they were known in local newspapers took on other amateur teams from the Pittsburgh area. Opening day found them facing the East End Athletic Club.17 Playing shortstop for the Athletics, Hughes scored five runs and took part in a double play, helping his team to a 38-8 blowout.18

Hughes was a right-handed batter and thrower, standing 5-foot-10 and weighing 165 pounds. He had black hair and brown eyes. Hughes and the Athletics played well; their season culminated in a battle for the Beaver County amateur championship against a club from Monaca, Pennsylvania.19 In the one discovered box score that contained Hughes’ name (Game Four), he anchored the midfield. He also doubled and scored a run, helping the Athletics to win the contest and tie up the series.20 Ultimately, Beaver Falls walked away with the championship.21

The following year, Hughes was back with the Athletics, playing alongside future major leaguers Ad Gumbert and Alex Pearson.22 On opening day, the Athletics took on Fairbanks (Pittsburgh).23 Hughes patrolled left field; he also doubled and scored one run as the Athletics won, 6-5. The 1901 season ran until mid-October, with the Athletics taking on Monaca again in the final game of the season, although no championship similar to the previous year’s was mentioned in the writeup.24 This time playing center field, Hughes contributed one run to the 4-0 Athletics victory.25  

On opening day of the 1902 season, Beaver Falls took on Fairbanks with Hughes at shortstop.26 In front of a large crowd, Hughes knocked out a double and scored two runs, helping his team to a 14-5 victory.27 He was also simultaneously participating in and playing for a social organization known as “The Fellows.”28

Hughes’ chance at the big show came when Lowe and the Chicago Orphans came to town in late August for a three-game series against Pittsburgh. On August 30, Hughes auditioned for the Orphans, presumably courtesy of his kinship with second baseman Lowe (who had married Hattie Hughes in April 1894).

Hughes made no significant offensive contributions to the Chicago cause, going hitless in three at-bats against veteran Pirates southpaw Jesse Tannehill. Stationed in right field, his defense was not tested – no chances came his way during his eight frames in the field. Hughes was seated on the bench when Pittsburgh prevailed in 12 innings, 3-2. He never appeared in another major league game. His solitary game in Chicago uniform left Hughes with a .000 lifetime batting average and undefined fielding percentage.

The game also provided the final appearance of Hughes’ name in local newspaper sports sections that season. The following year, the sole mention of Hughes in local newsprint was contained in a New Castle News writeup of a game between the Fellows of Beaver Falls and the Lawrenceville baseball club.29 Hughes scored two runs before the game was called due to rain in the fourth inning with the score at 8-4.30 This is the last verifiable appearance of Joe Hughes in baseball.

Hughes’ post-baseball life was unremarkable. In 1904, he was the proprietor of the Seventh Avenue Hotel in Beaver Falls.31 That same year he married Ella M. Myers.32 The union would produce four sons – Charles (born 1906), Benjamin (1908), Joseph (1909), and Thomas (1910) – three of whom made it to adulthood.33  Sometime around 1906 or 1907, Hughes left the hotel business and became a salesman for The Wood, Shovel, and Tool Company of Piqua, Ohio, from which he retired in 1946.34

Joe Hughes died at his home in Cleveland on March 13, 1951. He was buried in the family plot located in Grove Cemetery in New Brighton, Pennsylvania.35

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Tony Oliver

Sources

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

Ancestry.com

Findagrave.com

Newspapers.com

Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide 1900-1901

US Census Bureau, 1880 and 1900 US Census

Notes

1 A.R. Cratty, “Pittsburgh Points,” Sporting Life, September 6, 1902: 4. Cratty also wrote articles dealing with baseball and boxing under the nom de plume “Jim Jab.”

2 The series was held August 28-30. The Chicago Orphans would eventually become the Chicago Cubs.

3 A.R. Cratty, “Pittsburgh Points,” above.

4 Harriet E “Hattie” Hughes Lowe (1879-1947) – Find a Grave Memorial, accessed: May 31, 2026; “Personal Mention,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, February 7, 1900: 6; “Beaver Falls Society,” Pittsburg Press, August 20, 1900: 8.  See also Dixie Tourangeau, “Bobby Lowe,” SABR BioProject, accessed September 24, 2026.

5 Sarah Edge Hughes (1837-1907) – Find a Grave Memorial accessed: May 31, 2026.

6 “Death Roll,” Greenville (Pennsylvania) Evening Record, April 2, 1900: 1.  

7 “Death Roll,” above. Sharpsville is located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.

8 Sarah Edge Hughes (1837-1907) – Find a Grave Memorial.

9 “Will Have Full Charge,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, March 22, 1898: 6. Geneva College is located in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

10 “Geneva in Line Again,” Pittsburg Post, May 19, 1898: 6.

11 The author reached out to Geneva College via email and received this reply from Kae H. Kirkwood, the Archival Librarian on February 8, 2024: Sadly, the May 1898, issue is very short, with the explanation that several who were to write accounts for the publication had failed to send in their reports, so we do not know how the team fared that year. The Geneva Book mentions another slump in baseball interest after the 1897 year, and records nothing about the year that Joe Thompson Hughes was the captain of the team.

12 “Baseball in Beaver Falls,” Pittsburg Press, April 14, 1899: 5.

13 “Baseball Games by College Students,” Pittsburg Post, April 30, 1899: 6. Washington & Jefferson College is located in Washington County, Pennsylvania, 35 miles south of Pittsburgh.

14 “Baseball Games by College Students.” above.  That Hughes did not graduate Gevena College was confirmed by Librarian Kirkwood, the Archival Librarian, in her email to the author.

15 Hughes is a common Irish and Welsh surname. There were multiple people by that name playing in and around the Pittsburgh area that season. But none can confidently be identified as the subject of this profile.

161900 U.S. Census; “Another Team for Beaver,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, April 5, 1900: 6.

17 “Athletics 38, E.E.A.C 8,” Pittsburg Post, May 6, 1900:14. The East End is a diverse collection of neighborhoods east of downtown Pittsburgh.

18 “Athletics 38, E.E.A.C 8,” above.

19 Joseph T. Hughes WWI draft registration card; See also, “Playing for Championship,” Pittsburg Post, August 12, 1900: 6. Monaca is a town located in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

20 “Playing for Championship,” above.

21 Beaver Falls area centennial: Historical salute to the centuries, 1868-1968 accessed: May 31, 2026.

22 “Schedule of the Athletic,” Pittsburg Post, April 18, 1901:6. Gumbert was part of the 1900 Athletics as well.

23 “Twenty-Two Men Strike Out,” Pittsburg Post, May 5, 1901: 14; “Games at Beaver Falls,” Pittsburg Press, May 4, 1902: 22. Fairbanks was a team from Pittsburgh.

24 “Monaca Team Shut Out,” Pittsburg Press, October 13, 1901: 21.

25 “Monaca Team Shut Out,” above.

26 “Games at Beaver Falls,” Pittsburg Press, May 4, 1902: 22.

27 “Games at Beaver Falls,” above.

28 “The Fellows Dance,” New Castle (Pennsylvania) News, June 14, 1901: 3. According to the article, “The organization is composed of live, up-to-date young men, who have mastered the art of entertaining in the best style.” See also, “The Movements of the Passing Throng,” New Castle News, June 25, 1901: 16.

29 “The Fellows Ahead,” New Castle News, August 26, 1903: 15. Lawrenceville is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

30 “The Fellows Ahead,” above.

31 “Beaver Falls, Pa,” Pittsburg Press, July 10, 1904: 26.

32 Joseph T. Hughes marriage certificate – Pennsylvania, U.S., Marriages, 1852-1968 – Ancestry.com accessed: May 31, 2026.

33 Joseph Thompson Hughes (1880-1951) – Find a Grave Memorial accessed: May 31, 2026; Joseph M. Hughes death certificate – Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1972 – Ancestry.com accessed: May 31, 2026. The Hughes child lived only one day.

34 “Joseph T. Hughes Funeral Saturday,” New Castle News, March 14, 1951: 11; “Joseph T. Hughes,” Pittsburgh Press, March 15, 1951: 48; “Joseph T. Hughes,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, March 15, 1951: 21. The Hughes obituaries name the company that he retired from as the Ames Shovel & Tool Company.

35 “Joseph T. Hughes Funeral Saturday,” New Castle News, March 14, 1951: 11; Joseph Thompson Hughes (1880-1951) – Find a Grave Memorial.