Lloyd Nephew

From 1905 to 1921, Native American Lloyd Nephew was a first baseman and catcher on White minor-league, semipro, and industrial teams. He got his start in baseball in 1903 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, after Charles Bender and before Jim Thorpe played there. Nephew’s journey illustrates the rocky road of integration.

A full-blooded Seneca, Lloyd Nephew was born on December 29, 1884, on the Cattaraugus Reservation (population 1,582 in 1890)1, near Versailles, New York, 30 miles south of Buffalo. He was the elder child of Percival Nephew, a farmer,2 and Sophia (Crouse) Nephew. He had a brother, Percival Jr.

This family’s genealogy reveals the origin of their surname. Lloyd Nephew was a great-great-grandson of a chief named Chainbreaker (aka Blacksnake), “a revered leader of the Seneca Nation.”3 Chainbreaker was known as “The Nephew” because he was the nephew of another prominent chief, Cornplanter.4

Lloyd Nephew was nine years old when his parents divorced. He then lived with his father and stepmother for three years and with his paternal grandparents for two years.5 When he was fourteen, his mother died, and he was enrolled in the Lincoln Institute, an Indian boarding school in Philadelphia.

In February 1901, at age sixteen, Nephew was sent to the Indian Industrial School, the famous boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The school’s superintendent until 1904 was its founder, Richard Henry Pratt, an Army colonel. Pratt had “fought in armed conflicts against Native Americans on the Great Plains.”6 He believed that Indian youths should be educated and assimilated into White society.

At the Carlisle School, “Indian boys’ long hair was cut, by force if necessary; their native clothes and jewelry replaced with school uniforms; and their indigenous languages actively repressed.”7 It was ethnocide. Playing baseball was another form of cultural assimilation practiced at the school, but it was welcomed by the students. Even girls at the school “expressed considerable interest in playing baseball.”8 “Couldn’t all school be baseball?” asked the student newspaper.9

When Nephew enrolled, the Carlisle School had 556 male and 451 female students assigned to grades 1 to 10, an eclectic assemblage from 77 Native American tribes. Nephew was assigned to sixth grade. He took classes in English, history, science, mathematics, music, and art. For his industrial assignment, he worked in the school’s steam-heating plant, where he received training in steam fitting and boiler maintenance.10

School records indicate that Nephew was a big teen, 6-feet tall and 170 pounds. He was eighteen when he played first base on the school’s varsity team in the spring of 1903. It is unknown whether he was right- or left-handed in batting and throwing. That summer, he played for the Lindner team, which was sponsored by the Lindner Shoe Company, the largest employer in the town of Carlisle.11 On the Fourth of July, in Lindner’s doubleheader against a Newville, Pennsylvania, squad, Nephew collected three singles and two doubles. He also handled 16 chances at first base without error.12

A week later, Nephew pitched for Lindner in a 21–2 trouncing of the Steelton (Pennsylvania) Athletic Club. Using a deceptive submarine (underhand) delivery, he allowed five hits, struck out 15, and walked none. Observers wondered if the impressive youngster was Charles Bender’s brother.13 It was high praise to be compared to Bender. The year before, Bender had captained the Carlisle baseball team before graduating, and in 1903, he was pitching for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics.

Nephew was named captain of Carlisle’s 1904 varsity team.14 Bender returned to the school in February 1904 to coach the team before leaving in March to go to spring training with the Athletics.15 In Carlisle’s season opener on March 30, a 7–5 victory over Franklin & Marshall College, Nephew pitched six innings and allowed only one hit. He “showed good judgment, was cool-headed and had the necessary qualities of speed and control,” said the Carlisle Sentinel.16

On May 10, Nephew pitched a complete game and allowed four hits in Carlisle’s 3–2 triumph over the Wyoming Seminary of Kingston, Pennsylvania.17 But a week later, his pitches were pounded in a 13–4 loss to the professional Williamsport, Pennsylvania, team of the Tri-State League.18 In the summer, he played first base and pitched for a Burnham, Pennsylvania, squad, and on July 15, he hurled a one-hit shutout of the Lindner team.19

Nephew was primarily a first baseman on the 1905 Carlisle team. He smacked three hits on May 26, including a home run over the left-field fence, in a 12–3 rout of Susquehanna University.20 After a stint in June pitching for a semipro team in Washington, Pennsylvania, he was a pitcher and catcher on the professional team of DuBois, Pennsylvania, in the Class D Interstate League. In August, the people of DuBois gave him a gold watch in appreciation.21 That summer he went by the name “Nefeau,” and he would be known by that name henceforth in his baseball career. In the fall of 1905, he played briefly on the Carlisle football team and was sidelined by an injury.22

Meanwhile, Bender was a sensation. On October 10, 1905, pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics in Game Two of the World Series, he brilliantly shut out the New York Giants. Few Native Americans had played major-league baseball before Bender. His success encouraged major-league clubs to recruit Carlisle players. From the 1905 Carlisle team, outfielder Frank Jude was signed by the Cincinnati Reds; pitcher Charlie Roy was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies; and Nephew was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates.23

In March 1906, at age twenty-one, Nephew officially withdrew from the Carlisle School without graduating and traveled with the Pirates to Arkansas for spring training.24 The club assigned him to the Little Rock Travelers of the Class A Southern Association.

At spring training, Nephew’s athleticism was apparent. It was reported that he “can pitch, catch, play first or the outfield, … and he can run like a deer.”25 In the Travelers’ exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals on March 28, he hit three singles, and in center field he “yanked down savage liners.”26 Wowed by Nephew’s fielding, Cardinals manager John McCloskey exclaimed, “That Indian is the prettiest man in center field I have ever seen.”27 Three days later against the Pirates, Nephew made a spectacular running catch in center field to rob the batter, George Gibson, of a triple.28

In an exhibition game at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on April 8, the Travelers defeated the Vicksburg team of the Class D Cotton States League. Nephew contributed three hits and stole two bases.29 In the Travelers’ season opener, a 3–1 loss at New Orleans on April 12, he got one hit in four at-bats facing Theodore Breitenstein, the ace of the New Orleans pitching staff.30 Three days later, Nephew committed three errors in center field in a 9–2 loss to New Orleans.31

After appearing in five regular-season games with the Travelers and collecting just two hits in 17 at-bats,32 he refused to play for the team and was released. His reasons for quitting were unclear. One report said he was homesick and another said he disliked the weather,33 though the temperatures had been about 70 degrees. What went unreported was perhaps the overarching reason: Nephew was likely the target of racial epithets.34 Bender knew first-hand the difficulty of enduring this abuse, and he had advised Carlisle ballplayers not to pursue a career in professional baseball.35

Nephew returned to play for DuBois and was reportedly “the best all-around player” in the Interstate League in 1906.36 He batted .315 that season37 and was drafted in September by the Detroit Tigers.38 About this time, he married Maude Allen, a Seneca and former Carlisle student.

The Tigers did not give Nephew a trial and sold him to the Lynchburg club in the Class C Virginia League.39 In the spring of 1907, he had a sore arm, which he said was “hurt during the winter by bowling.”40 He played for Lynchburg in a few exhibition games, and the Lynchburg News referred to him as “the Red Man.”41 But he did not play in the regular season until the 18th game, on May 13.42 A few days later, he requested and received his release. He had been “laying down,” i.e., feigning injury, claimed the Lynchburg News. Lynchburg manager Jack Grimm, “thoroughly disgusted at the redskin’s tactics,” consented to his release.43 Nephew never again played in the South.

Soon after his Lynchburg troubles, Nephew was a productive first baseman on the Lancaster, Ohio, team of the Class C Ohio-Pennsylvania League. In a four-game series against Sharon, Pennsylvania, June 16-18, 1907, he went 9-for-15 at the plate and handled 46 chances at first base without error. In 115 games played for Lancaster that year, he batted .228 (the league average was .232),44 and his 31 stolen bases were second most on the team.

Nephew began the 1908 season as a first baseman on the Bradford, Pennsylvania, team in the Interstate League. After the league folded in June, he joined the Lima team in the Class D Ohio State League. He was primarily a catcher for Lima, and according to the Lima Times-Democrat, he was a good one. He “can peg them over to second in fine style.”45 “It is hard for any one to steal second under ‘Big Chief’ Nefeau’s sure whip.”46

He contributed on offense, too. On August 20, 1908, he tripled in the ninth inning and scored the winning run in Lima’s 4–3 victory over Portsmouth; two days later, he swatted two doubles in a 4–1 triumph over Marion.47 About 1,000 children received free admission to the game of September 4 at Lima’s San Felice Park. With the bases loaded in the fifth inning, Nephew thrilled the youngsters by clouting a double to deep center field, driving in three runs in a 7–1 victory over Newark, Ohio.48 In 64 games played for Lima, he batted .246; the league average was .233.49

Nephew “is a good all-around man, and won his way into the favor of Lima fans’ hearts,” said the Lima News.50 But the Lima club hired a catcher, Lee Fohl, to serve as player-manager of the 1909 team and sold Nephew to the York, Pennsylvania, club of the Class B Tri-State League.51 In the 10 games he played for York in the spring of 1909, Nephew made only one hit in 24 at-bats, and he was released.52

Nephew and his wife resided in Carrollton, New York, on the Allegany Reservation, and he played on semipro teams of neighboring towns in 1909 and 1910. He also played for an industrial team representing the Pullman Company of Buffalo, a manufacturer of railroad cars. He “is a beautiful catcher and a remarkable hitter,” said the Buffalo Courier after his stellar performance in the Pullmans’ 10–9 victory over the Cuban Giants, a leading Black team, on September 4, 1910.53

With the 1911 Fond du Lac (Wisconsin) Mudhens of the Class C Wisconsin-Illinois League, Nephew batted .201 in 45 games.54 (Casey Stengel of the Aurora Blues, at age twenty-one, led the league with a .352 average.)55 In a doubleheader at Fond du Lac on the Fourth of July, Nephew handled 24 chances without error at first base, and in the second game, he made a running catch of a difficult fly that “brought the fans on their feet cheering wildly.”56 The Fond du Lac club, however, was “hard pressed financially” and released him a week later.57 Back home in New York with semipros, he hit two home runs for Ellicottville in a 12–6 victory over Randolph on August 19, 1911.58

Over the next two seasons, Nephew played for semipro teams and two minor-league teams. In 1912, he batted .261 in 63 games for Saginaw in the Class C Southern Michigan League, and in August 1913, he played for the Guelph (Ontario) Maple Leafs of the Class C Canadian League. In Guelph’s 8–5 victory at Peterborough, Ontario, on August 12, 1913, he was credited with a home run when his drive down the right-field line went into the Otonabee River.59

From 1914 to 1916, Nephew played primarily for Olean, New York (about 12 miles from his home in Carrollton) in the Class D Interstate League. From incomplete statistics, it is estimated that he averaged .288 during this period. He sent two home runs over the right-field fence in Olean’s victory over Warren, Pennsylvania, on August 15, 1914,60 and at Olean on June 2, 1916, he went 2-for-4 in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees.61

Nephew played for semipro and industrial teams until 1921; one of the teams was affiliated with his employer, the Pennsylvania Railroad. He and Maude divorced about 1920, and he married another Seneca, Rachel King. No record has been found of any children.

In his later years, Nephew lived at Gowanda, New York, on the Cattaraugus Reservation and worked at a glue factory. At age 72, he died at Gowanda on June 28, 1957,62 and he was interred in Gowanda’s United Missions Cemetery.63

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Abigail Miskowiec and checked for accuracy by SABR’s fact-checking team.

Sources

Daugherty, Rob, and Bill Nowlin, eds. Native American Major Leaguers (Phoenix, Arizona: SABR, 2025).

Kashatus, William C. Money Pitcher: Chief Bender and the Tragedy of Indian Assimilation (University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006).

Krupat, Arnold. Boarding School Voices: Carlisle Indian School Students Speak (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2021).

Powers-Beck, Jeffrey. The American Indian Integration of Baseball (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2004).

Pratt, Richard Henry. Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904 (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003).

Online sources accessed in December 2025 include Ancestry.com, Baseball-Reference.com, and the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center at Dickinson College (carlisleindian.dickinson.edu).

The photo of Lloyd Nephew is from a collage depicting members of the 1908 Lima team in the Ohio State League. This collage appears in the 1909 Reach baseball guide64 and on a vintage postcard in the author’s collection. The scan was taken of the author’s copy.

Notes

1 US Dept. of the Interior, Report on Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed in the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1894), 459.

2 1900 US census.

3 Exhibition label of a circa-1850 photograph of Chainbreaker in the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery: “Chainbreaker, also known as Blacksnake,” Smithsonian, https://www.si.edu/object/blacksnake%3Anpg_NPG.2010.24, accessed February 18, 2026.

4 Chainbreaker’s memoirs have been published in: Thomas S. Abler, ed., Chainbreaker: The Revolutionary War Memoirs of Governor Blacksnake as Told to Benjamin Williams (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2005).

5 Indian census rolls at Ancestry.com.

6 Library catalog entry: “Richard Henry Pratt Papers,” Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/richard-henry-pratt-papers, accessed December 2025.

7 Jeffrey Powers-Beck, The American Indian Integration of Baseball (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 34.

8 Powers-Beck, The American Indian Integration of Baseball, 33.

9 The Red Man and Helper, vol. 17, no. 3, July 19, 1901: 1.

10 Catalogue of the Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1902; Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center at Dickinson College.

11 “A Loft for Dickinson’s Artists,” The Dickinson College Magazine, vol. 58, no. 2, May 1981: 9.

12 “One Game Each,” Carlisle (Pennsylvania) Sentinel, July 6, 1903: 3.

13 “A Game in the Mud,” Carlisle Sentinel, July 13, 1903: 3.

14 “Sporting Gossip,” Scranton (Pennsylvania) Times, February 16, 1904: 8.

15 “Bender to Coach Indians,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot, February 22, 1904: 7; “Mack’s Combine Gets under Way,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 13, 1904: 15.

16 “Baseball Season Opens,” Carlisle Sentinel, March 31, 1904: 7.

17 “Indians’ Great Victory,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Star-Independent, May 11, 1904: 9.

18 “Indians Were Easy,” Harrisburg Star-Independent, May 18, 1904: 7.

19 “Lindner Lost Again,” Carlisle Sentinel, July 16, 1904: 6.

20 “Indians Trounce Susquehanna,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 27, 1905: 10.

21 “World’s News in Brief,” Phoenixville (Pennsylvania) Republican, August 7, 1905: 1.

22 “Indians,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 22, 1905: III-7.

23 “Zimmer Signs Indian for Little Rock Team,” Cleveland Leader, February 25, 1906: II-1.

24 “Pirates Start for Arkansas,” Pittsburgh Post, March 13, 1906: 8.

25 “Plucked from the Field,” Nashville American, March 22, 1906: 7.

26 “Little Rock 4, St. Louis 2,” Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock), March 29, 1906: 8.

27 “A Pipe Dream from Memphis,” Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock), April 11, 1906: 6.

28 “Zimmer’s Braves Meet Waterloo,” Pittsburgh Post, April 1, 1906: 2.

29 “Boys Worked Well in Many Tight Places,” Vicksburg (Mississippi) Post, April 9, 1906: 6.

30 “New Orleans Has Parade,” Chattanooga Times, April 13, 1906: 12.

31 “Pelicans Ran Away with the Travelers,” New Orleans Times-Democrat, April 16, 1906: 12.

32 “Southern League Batting Averages,” Nashville American, April 30, 1906: 7.

33 “Pelicans Ran Away with the Travelers”; “Nefeau Is Released,” Arkansas Gazette, April 19, 1906: 8.

34 Joseph B. Oxendine, foreword to Powers-Beck, x.

35 Powers-Beck, 72.

36 “Inter-state League,” Sporting Life, October 6, 1906: 16.

37 “Today’s Ball Game,” Lynchburg (Virginia) News, April 3, 1907: 6.

38 “Gets Jennings,” Detroit Free Press, September 2, 1906: 11.

39 “Makeup of the Lynchburgs,” Baltimore Sun, March 4, 1907: 8.

40 “Now’s the Chance,” Lynchburg News, April 28, 1907: 3.

41 “Played Fast Game,” Lynchburg News, April 14, 1907: 3.

42 Sporting Life, May 25, 1907: 19.

43 “Rain Interfered,” Lynchburg News, May 17, 1907: 5.

44 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1908 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1908), 267.

45 “Dope for the Fans,” Lima (Ohio) Times-Democrat, July 31, 1908: 3.

46 “Dope for the Fans,” Lima Times-Democrat, August 4, 1908: 3.

47 “Won in the Ninth,” Lima Times-Democrat, August 21, 1908: 3; “Won Two out of Three from Marion Diggers,” Lima Times-Democrat, August 24, 1908: 3.

48 “Kids Day Grand Success Cheered Lima to Victory,” Lima Times-Democrat, September 5, 1908: 3.

49 Francis C. Richter, “The Ohio League,” Sporting Life, February 27, 1909: 16.

50 “Second Sacker,” Lima (Ohio) News, March 7, 1909: 3.

51 “Nefeau,” Lima News, March 28, 1909: 3.

52 “Ketter Leads York Team in Batting,” York (Pennsylvania) Gazette, May 24, 1909: 7.

53 “Pullmans Pull Out in the Extra Inning,” Buffalo Courier, September 5, 1910: 11.

54 “Dulin Leads the League in Hitting up to Date,” Green Bay (Wisconsin) Gazette, August 5, 1911: 7.

55 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1912 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1912), 397.

56 “Wisconsin-Illinois League,” Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Northwestern, July 5, 1911: 7.

57 “Changes at Fond du Lac,” Oshkosh Northwestern, July 11, 1911: 7.

58 “Ellicottville 12, Randolph 6,” Ellicottville (New York) Post, August 23, 1911: 5.

59 “Cockneys Lost to Patched Up Team,” Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, August 13, 1913: 11.

60 “Race for Championship of the Interstate League Tightening,” Olean (New York) Herald, August 17, 1914: 6.

61 “Caldwell’s Townsmen See Ray Perform,” New York Tribune, June 3, 1916: 16.

62 Obituary in Buffalo News, June 29, 1957: 8.

63 Findagrave.com, accessed December 2025.

64 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1909 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1909), 336.