Walter Appleton

As a minority-stake member of the Metropolitan Exhibition Company (MEC), Walter S. Appleton played a modest role in the establishment of professional baseball in New York City. Appleton was on the scene shortly after cigar maker John B. Day, the founder and dominant member of the MEC, moved the home games of the Metropolitan Base Ball Club of New York, then an independent professional nine, from Brooklyn to upper Manhattan in September 1880.1 When the New York Mets were admitted to the major league American Association (AA) three seasons later, Appleton filled the largely ceremonial post of Mets club president. He was also appointed to the AA Board of Directors. For the remainder of the decade, Appleton also served as a director of the MEC’s other big-league ballclub, the National League New York Giants.2

Appleton was one of the minor casualties of the Players League War of 1890, squeezed out of National League club ownership ranks during the takeover of the Giants franchise by those who had operated New York’s rival PL club. Thereafter he lived out of the limelight with only the misadventures of an extravagant ex-wife keeping Appleton’s name in occasional newsprint. He spent his final years living quietly in Europe with his well-to-do second spouse, dying in France in August 1917. To the extent that the surviving record permits, Appleton’s life story follows.

The passage of time and only intermittent newspaper interest in his activities leave unfillable holes in the biography of our subject. But US Census and other government records establish that Walter Stone Appleton was born in Philadelphia on August 7, 1850. He was the second of five children born to prominent publisher George Swett Appleton (1821-1878) and his wife Caroline (née Osgood, 1825-1893).3 At the time, the Appletons were a family of wealth and social position. Grandfather Daniel Sidney Appleton (1785-1849) founded the book and magazine publishing firm D. Appleton & Company in 1831. The venture prospered, particularly from publication of the New American Cyclopedia, the widely circulated mid-to-late-19th century reference work. The company remained in existence under variations of the Appleton name for over 160 years. After an extensive education that included several years of study in present-day Germany, father George set up an independent book selling business in Philadelphia in 1850. Ten years later, he joined the family publishing firm, subsequently relocating to Manhattan.4

Among the unknowns in Walter Appleton’s life is the extent of his education, although there is some evidence that suggests that he attended the French and English Institute for Young Gentlemen in Manhattan as a teenager.5 He became a married man at age 19, taking Anna Elizabeth Porter Beach as his bride in an Episcopal Church ceremony conducted in September 1869.6 The marriage would prove a tumultuous one; eventually, Annie Appleton’s profligacy nearly bankrupted her husband. In the short term, however, the couple settled in Manhattan, where Walter entered the family business.

In retrospect, the 1870s may have been the most stable decade of Walter Appleton’s life. On behalf of D. Appleton & Company, he regularly represented firm interests at Manhattan book fairs and trade shows.7 Also frequently in attendance at these gatherings was local bookseller Charles T. Dillingham, also destined to hold a minority stake in the MEC. In February 1875, Appleton and Dillingham were appointed to the executive committee of the Publishers’ Central Association, a trade organization composed of the leading book publishers in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.8 At the time, Appleton and his wife were in residence with his relations on Staten Island.9 Later the childless couple moved to lower Manhattan.10

The effect that the untimely death of George Swett Appleton in July 1878 had on his son’s situation is unclear.11 Upon George’s passing, control of firm affairs reposed in George’s three surviving Appleton brothers, and Walter’s name no longer appeared in newsprint coverage of firm activities. Instead, and over time, he began to attract periodic mention in reportage on baseball. Short in stature (5-foot-5) and slightly built,12 there is no evidence that Walter Appleton played ball himself. But like his bookselling competitor/friend Dillingham, he was an avid fan of the game.

A history of the original New York Mets is beyond the scope of this profile.13 Suffice it to say that in late 1880, Appleton and Dillingham became minority shareholders in the MEC, the closely held corporation established by John B. Day for operation of his Metropolitan Base Ball Club of New York. Although Day, Appleton, and Dillingham were all Manhattan businessmen in their 30s and baseball enthusiasts, it is unclear whether Day knew his junior partners beforehand. According to infielder-turned-sportswriter Sam Crane, Appleton and Dillingham were induced to make their MEC investments by Mets manager Jim Mutrie, rather than Day.14 Another source opined that Mutrie’s friend, pitcher Jack Lynch, suggested that Mutrie seek funding from prominent book publishers Appleton and Dillingham, as he knew them to be “lovers of baseball and liberally inclined.”15 Regardless, the two book publishers soon became Day confidants, regularly accompanying him or representing MEC interests in his stead at baseball gatherings.

In 1881 the Mets took the field as an independent professional nine, playing a mixed Eastern Championship Association (ECA)/freelance schedule of 151 games. Location in the nation’s largest city, plus a tolerable 18-41 (.305) record in head-to-head competition with National League teams,16 made the Mets an attractive prospect to those intent upon forming a rival major league for the 1882 season. On November 2, !881, Appleton represented the Mets at the American Association’s organizational meeting in Cincinnati. Mutrie was also on hand but declined to participate in the meeting.  Acting on Day’s instructions, the pair declined to commit their club to the fledgling circuit.17 Having played roughly 60 games against NL teams in 1881, the Mets were reluctant to risk alienating the NL.18 Days later, they informed National League President William Hulbert of the decision to keep the Mets out of the AA – at least for the time being.19

The Mets encored as an independent club in 1882, again holding their own against major league (NL and AA) competition while running roughshod over ECA teams and lesser clubs on the way to posting a 101-58-3 (.633) record, overall. After the season MEC boss Day confounded expectations by declining an invitation to place the Mets in the NL. Instead, the Mets joined the upstart AA. Likely in gratitude, MEC junior partner Walter Appleton, nominally the New York Mets club president, was appointed an AA director at the circuit’s annual meeting in November 1882. Simultaneously, Mets manager Jim Mutrie was tabbed for the AA schedule committee.20

Later that offseason, John B. Day’s grander plan came into view. In addition to putting the Mets in the AA, Day was intent on placement of an entirely different MEC ball club in the National League. The necessary vacancy in league ranks was promptly created by jettisoning the NL’s weakling club in Troy (while Worcester was axed to accommodate Philadelphia). Troy also furnished the player nucleus for New York’s new NL club: Buck Ewing, Roger Connor, Mickey Welch, and Padney Gillespie. That the NL team, soon to be known as the Giants, was the MEC’s favored club was reflected in not only the allocation of playing talent, but also by Day’s appointing himself club president.21

During the Mets’ first season as an AA member, MEC partiality for its National League club prompted recurring reports that the Mets would be disbanded at season’s end, with its best players reassigned to the Giants. But “the president of the Metropolitan club, Mr. Appleton, takes exception” to these claims, reported Sporting Life in early August. “The club has been successful, financially, this year … and whether it wins the pennant or not, it will represent New York in the AA in 1884. The management has not entertained so much as a thought of its discontinuance,” Appleton declared.22 Two months later, this assurance was reiterated, as “President Appleton and Manager Mutrie say the Metropolitans will remain in the Association next year with new [playing] grounds in New York.”23

Unease about MEC ownership of franchises in both major leagues surfaced at the AA winter meeting where Association secretary Jimmy Williams “was instructed to notify the Metropolitans that they must cut loose from their National League connection or forfeit their membership in the American Association.”24 Mets club president Appleton was also removed from the AA board of directors.25 Thereafter, the cosmopolitan and seemingly unconcerned Appleton sailed for Europe.26

In March 1884, Appleton and Mutrie served as Mets delegates to the preseason AA convention held in St. Louis.27 Weeks later, “the Metropolitan Exhibition Company announced the disposal of all their right, title and interest in the Metropolitan baseball club. Frank Rhoner, a wealthy furniture dealer, was [installed] as president of the new [Mets] club.”28 Other shareholders in the revamped Mets organization, reputedly capitalized at $50,000, were Jim Mutrie and one W.H. Kipp.29 Meanwhile, former club president Appleton was transferred to the Giants board of directors,30 a post that he retained for the remainder of the decade. All of this, however, was widely perceived as a sham, designed to assuage AA club owner complaint about John B. Day’s influence over Mets operations but effecting no real change. Rhoner was merely another Day factotum. Behind the scenes the MEC boss remained in charge.31

Contrary to Day’s expectation, it was the Mets that provided the MEC with a pennant in 1884, not the Giants. Behind the yeoman pitching of Tim Keefe (37-17) and Jack Lynch (37-15), the slugging of burly first baseman Dave Orr (.354, with 112 RBIs), the all-around play of third baseman Dude Esterbrook (.314), and the leadership of manager Mutrie, the Mets posted a superb 75-32-5 (.701) record and cruised to the American Association championship. Being swept in a three-game postseason match against the NL champion Providence Grays, and a reported loss of $15,000 on the corporation books,32 however, dampened management enthusiasm for the Mets. Meanwhile, the Giants and their stacked lineup did no better than 62-50 (.554) for a fourth-place tie in final National League standings. But with higher ticket prices and much better home-game attendance, the Giants reported a profit of $35,000.33

During the offseason the MEC transferred manager Mutrie to the Giants. Subsequently, and via some rule-bending chicanery, Mets stars Tim Keefe and Dude Esterbrook were allocated to the Giants as well. Left in the dark about these moves,34 club president Rhoner resigned in a huff, selling his interest in the Mets to Joseph Gordon, a Manhattan coal dealer and Tammany Hall comrade of John B. Day.35 Gordon then assumed the Mets club presidency.36

The following April brought a report that Walter Appleton had purchased $500 worth of stock in the Washington Nationals of the minor Eastern League “and wanted more but could not obtain it.”37 Apart from that, our subject’s name was not often in newsprint during the 1885 season. But as the campaign neared a close, he was dispatched to Cincinnati to assay whether that city might be a suitable site for placement of a National League franchise by the MEC.38 And late that year Appleton received his share of the proceeds when ownership of the Mets was sold to Staten Island entrepreneur Erastus Wiman for a reported $25,000.39

During the ensuing seasons, New York Giants club director Appleton regularly accompanied Day to NL meetings. Despite not having played himself, Appleton was deemed a capable judge of talent and often signed prospects for the ball club.40 He also served as manager of a Giants-laden nine that played in the California League during the winter of 1887-1888 (although Tim Keefe handled the lineup and game-related decisions).41 Unpretentious, good-humored, and friendly with his charges – traits he shared with MEC boss Day – Appleton was generally well-liked by both Giants players and the New York sporting press. On the personal front, there is little evidence that he remained on the payroll of the family publishing business during the 1880s. In the short term, however, earning a living may not have been a particular concern. In early 1886 George S. Appleton, Jr., passed away leaving “a snug fortune to his brother Walter.”42 On top of that, Appleton’s slice of Giants club ownership afforded him a tidy annual income.43

Ensuing seasons brought the MEC to the pinnacle of its existence. With the roster featuring six future Hall of Famers,44 the Giants went 84-47 (.641) and cruised to the National League pennant in 1888. Along the way, 305,455 paid admissions to the Polo Grounds set a new major league home attendance record. Defeating the AA champion St. Louis Browns then allowed the Giants to lay claim to the title of world champions. The club repeated as NL pennant and World Series winners in 1889, but the path to those triumphs was strewn with obstacles. The city’s condemnation and razing of the Polo Grounds left the Giants without a suitable home field until a new ballpark opened in far north Manhattan in July. Compounding the toll of stadium construction and leasing the underlying real estate was the loss of revenue caused by the 100,000 fewer patrons who took in Giants home games that season.45 But far more ominous was the November 1889 announcement that a new competitor would be taking the field in 1890: the Players League.

Accounts of the cutthroat battle between the NL New York Giants (the Real Giants) and its PL counterpart, also called the New York Giants (the Big Giants), are available elsewhere.46 For the most part, Walter Appleton’s assignment during the conflict was to accompany John B. Day to courthouse proceedings and to assist in keeping rebellious Giants players in the club fold. Unhappily for Appleton, the latter task resulted in embarrassment and censure. Returning from a visit with Danny Richardson, Appleton gave Giants manager Mutrie and a press assemblage the impression that he had rescued the club’s coveted second baseman from Players League clutches, signing him to a new contract. Hours later, celebration of Appleton’s accomplishment was quashed by publication of a telegram from Richardson reaffirming his commitment to the PL’s Big Giants.47

The reaction to this turn of events was harsh. Sportswriter A. G. Ovens called Appleton “an egregious ass … trying to impress the assembled crowd that he was a great man, not a blockhead. He couldn’t do that, however, as the disguise was too thin and the newspapers lost no time in publishing the particulars of the whole business.”48 Elsewhere, “the effervescent director” was criticized as “an actor of consummate skill, but a dire failure as a league advocate.”49 A more forgiving attitude, however, was displayed by another unrequited target of Appleton’s advances: future Hall of Famer Mike (King) Kelly. “Walter is a good fellow, and he hated to see the league people so blue,” said Kelly. “He never thought of the stir such talk would make and I suppose he wanted to cheer the boys up a little, so he pretended to have Richardson and myself fixed for the league. Of course, it is all bosh.”50

A month later Appleton was besieged on another front. He was sued for an unpaid $1,350 bill by his ex-wife’s dressmaker.51 The date of the dissolution of Walter and Annie Appleton’s marriage could not be determined, but the couple had been separated for about two years when the suit was filed.52 No immediate satisfaction was obtained by the plaintiff, but the suit served as a harbinger of litigation over Annie’s debts that lay in Appleton’s future.

Meanwhile, back on the frontlines of the Players League War, the NL Real Giants were being overshadowed by their PL rival at Brotherhood Park, separated from the New Polo Grounds by no more than a 10-foot-wide alley and the ballpark walls. By mid-July, the MEC was hemorrhaging red ink. Only the transfusion of emergency funds from fellow club owners saved the NL’s flagship franchise from bankruptcy. But the introduction of outsiders into ownership ranks would have fateful consequences, in time driving the founders of the New York Real Giants out of the game.

As before, Appleton’s personal finances were enhanced by the death of a relative. He was left a $10,000 bequest in the will of his Aunt Elisa Osgood, a daughter of Commodore Vanderbilt.53 Shortly after Appleton came into the money, the unpaid dressmaker renewed her lawsuit.54 Months thereafter, Mme. Josephine Coggeshall, a prominent Fifth Avenue clothier, hauled Appleton into court over an unpaid $4,325 dress bill.55 Courtroom proceedings thereupon exposed Annie Appleton’s spendthrift history and the depleted state of her ex-husband’s exchequer. In defense of the suit, “Mr. Appleton testified that in the course of the first year of their married life, Mrs. Appleton spent $75,000 for dresses, millinery and trifles. She was so extravagant that his fortune was soon exhausted.” Presently, he lived on borrowed money, with the $100-a-month alimony due his ex-wife supplied by others, as Appleton “has no business.”56 Benefactors also covered his frequent travel expenses. As for the judgment sought by the Coggeshall suit – which had mounted to $6,000 with interest – Appleton “was absolutely unable to pay it.”57

With the demise of the PL in late 1890, John B. Day and PL Big Giants honcho Edward B. Talcott merged operations, forming a new corporation entitled the National Exhibition Company.58 An October 1891 analysis of New York Giants ownership showed Talcott and his allies in control with a combined 44.5% of the club stock. The shares of MEC alumni (Day, Dillingham, and Gordon, plus Jim Mutrie) constituted a mere 16%, while other NL club owners and random parties held the remainder.59 Notably absent from the ownership roll was insolvent Walter S. Appleton.60 Still, Appleton was “not dead to baseball, as has been stated.” Rather, he was busy helping erstwhile MEC comrade Dillingham wind up his own failing business affairs. As Sporting Life observed, Appleton “discusses the national game with all the fervor of a man who has dropped a bundle trying to squeeze a fortune from it.”61

Ultimately Appleton escaped his financial plight in a time-tested manner: he married money. The new Mrs. Appleton was Marion Klein, spinster daughter of an upstate New York copper magnate. The date of the couple’s betrothal is unknown,62 but by late 1893 the activities of Mr. and Mrs. Walter S. Appleton were appearing on the social pages of Buffalo newspapers.63 Such recognition, however, did not spare Walter from being mentioned in reportage of ex-wife Annie’s misadventures. In March 1893, her dalliance with much younger suitors prompted disapproval from blue noses in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.64 Early the following year Annie was arrested for obtaining goods by fraudulently representing herself as the wife of a New York City judge.65 Shortly thereafter she came into an inheritance and died quietly only months later.66

Back in Buffalo, Appleton became a stockholder in a local wheel manufacturing concern. He was later sued by the accountant he retained to audit the corporate books for failure to satisfy the accountant’s $400 bill.67 Meanwhile, newspaper social pages kept readers abreast of the vacation travels of the Appletons.68 In April 1909 the couple relocated to Europe, wintering in Switzerland, and otherwise taking up residence in Nice, France.69 By July 1917 the Appletons were ready to return home but were instructed to wait out World War I in place. Walter never made it. He died from a heart attack suffered at the Hotel des Beaux-Arts in Lyon on August 15, 1917, age 67.70 Until cessation of hostilities, his remains had to be entombed in France.71 In addition to his second wife, the deceased was survived by his sisters Elina Fraser and Emma Anderson. His days of note long behind him, Walter Stone Appleton’s passing rated no more than a one-sentence death notice in the American press.72

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Rick Zucker and fact-checked by Terry Bohn.

Sources

Sources for the biographical information recited above include US and New York State census data, as well as other governmental records accessed via Ancestry.com. Other sources are cited in the endnotes, below.

Notes

1 Previously, the New York Mutuals and other Gotham baseball clubs had played their games in Brooklyn, then a municipality separate and distinct from New York City and the third largest city in the country. The Mets played their inaugural game on what became known as the Polo Grounds on September 29, 1880, defeating the Nationals of Washington, DC, 4-2.

2 The nickname Giants was originally coined by New York Evening World sportswriter P.J. Donahue in April 1885 and quickly gained currency. Previously the club had sometimes been called the Gothams or Maroons, or more typically the New-Yorks. For purposes of clarity New York’s National League club will be referred to as the Giants throughout this bio.

3 The other Appleton children were Elina (born 1848), Emma (1852), George (1854), and Francis (1857).

4 Per the obituary of George Swett Appleton published in the Boston Evening Transcript, July 9, 1878: 4. Following Daniel Appleton’s retirement in 1848, control of firm affairs was assumed by George’s brothers John, William, and Sidney. A scholar and art connoisseur, George became the partner who handled literary assessment and press relations when he joined the family business.  

5 Per a roster of former students accessed on-line via Ancestry.com.

6 According to New York State marriage records, the couple was married on September 16, 1869 in Troy, New York.

7 See e.g., “The American Book Fair,” New York Herald, March 21, 1876: 11; “A Book Fair,” New York Herald, July 20, 1875: 5; “Book Trade Sale,” New York Herald, March 26, 1874: 3.  

8 “Publishers’ Central Association,” New York Herald, February 10, 1875: 11.

9 The 1875 New York State Census lists Walter and Annie Appleton as residing at the Staten Island home of his maternal uncle William Osgood and wife.

10 The 1876 New York City directory lists Walter’s occupation as book publisher.

11 On July 8, 1878, George Swett Appleton died of spinal meningitis at age 57.

12 According to a late-life passport application and photo.

13 Details on the founding of the Metropolitans can be found in the writer’s essay “Meet the 19th Century Mets,” published in The New York Mets in Popular Culture, David Krell, ed. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2020), 116-128.  

14 “Base Ball: How Mutrie Boomed the Game,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 5, 1893: 14. See also, “A Bit of History,” Sporting Life, February 11, 1893: 3. Crane, later a longtime sportswriter for the New York Evening Journal, played second base for the New York Metropolitans during the 1882 and 1883 seasons.

15 Edward Achorn, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey (Philadelphia: PublicAffairs, 2013), 174.

16 Woody Eckard, “Henry Chadwick and the National League’s Performance vs. ‘Outsiders’: 1876-81,” Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 52, No. 2, Fall 2023, 73. Other sources place the Mets record against NL competition at 18-42 (.300). See e.g., the BioProject profile of Mets manager Jim Mutrie.

17 David Nemec, The Beer and Whisky League: The Illustrated History of the American Association – Baseball’s Renegade Major League (New York: Lyons & Burford, 1994), 21.

18 Edward Achorn, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey, 26.

19 “Sporting Events,” Chicago Tribune, November 6, 1881: 7; “Adheres to the Old League,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 6, 1881: 7. Hulbert had ample reason for concern about American Association overtures toward the Mets. New York and Philadelphia, the nation’s two largest cities, had been bereft of a major league team since 1876 when Hulbert orchestrated the expulsion of the New York Mutuals and Philadelphia Athletics from the National League for failure to complete their playing schedules. Placement of an American Association club in either venue would greatly enhance the nascent circuit’s stature and chances for survival against the NL.

20 Per Cliff Blau’s New York Mets chronology for the American Association project, accessible on-line via the SABR research collection website. Appleton is also identified as a member of the American Association board of directors in “Miller Reinstated,” Sporting Life, August 13, 1883: 3.

21 In a talent evaluation blunder, Day consigned another Troy refugee, future Hall of Famer Tim Keefe, to the Mets rather than retaining him for the MEC’s National League club.

22 “The ‘Mets’ All Right,” Sporting Life, August 6, 1883: 3.

23 “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, October 1, 1883: 6.

24 Preston D. Orem, Baseball from the Newspaper Accounts, 1882-1891 (Altadena, California: Self-published, 1966-1967), 75; accessed via the SABR research collection website.

25 Blau, Mets chronology, above. Appleton’s removal coincided with reduction of the AA board to five members.

26 “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, December 26, 1883: 3.

27 “Baseball News,” New York Tribune, March 12, 1884: 5. In his capacity as a member of the three-man NL Board of Arbitration, New York Giants club president John B. Day also attended the AA conclave.

28 Orem, 104; “Gotham Gleanings,” Chicago Tribune, April 17, 1884: 3.

29 “A Base Ball Muddle,” Sporting Life, December 16, 1885: 4.

30 Orem, 104.

31 See again, Orem, 104, and “A Base Ball Muddle,” above.

32 Orem, 125, “which undoubtedly included the cost of fitting up” Metropolitan Park, the uninviting, ill-conceived ballpark erected along the Harlem River for the Mets. At midseason, the Mets returned to the Polo Grounds, only using “The Dump” when the Polo Grounds was unavailable.

33 Orem, 138.

34 Shortly before the Keefe/Esterbrook moves were publicly announced, Rhoner pooh-poohed reports that the two Mets stars were headed for the Giants. “Still Rampant,” Sporting Life, May 20, 1885: 6.

35 As reported in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and elsewhere, May 12, 1885. The events caused Sporting Life’s New York correspondent to remark, “Did anyone ever charge or suppose for a moment that Rhoner ever knew anything about these matters? How quickly though … he washed his hands of the whole thing when he found out what little account he was.” “Harlem Echoes,” Sporting Life, May 27, 1885: 6.

36 “Notes,” Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1885: 2; “The New Yorks Leading,” New York Times, May 12, 1885: 3. See also, “A Base Ball Muddle,” and Blau, above.

37 “From the Capital,” Sporting Life, April 15, 1885: 6.

38 “Another Guess,” Sporting Life, September 30, 1885: 5.

39 “The Metropolitan Club Deal,” New York Clipper, December 12, 1885: 616; “Mr. Wiman’s Baseball Club,” New York Times, December 5, 1885: 8.

40 “Broadway Jottings,” New York Evening World, January 7, 1888: 2; “The Newark Battery,” The Sporting News, October 30, 1886: 6; “Appleton in Syracuse,” The Sporting News, September 27, 1886: 1.

41 “Gossip of the Ball Field,” New York Sun, October 2, 1887: 10.

42 “Obituary,” Sporting Life, February 3, 1886: 3. Unmarried and only 32, the late George S. Jr., had been an ardent New York baseball fan.

43 In September 1889 it was reported that the MEC had netted a $750,000 profit in less than ten years. “An Offer for the Giants,” New York Times, September 6, 1889: 3. This figure, however, seems wildly inflated, as no MEC club is known to have reported a single-season profit greater than $35,000. Even so, baseball provided a handsome and reliable income stream for MEC shareholders through 1889.

44 In addition to original Giants Ewing, Connor, and Welch, plus 1885 transfer Keefe, the club had added John Montgomery Ward and Orator Jim O’Rourke to the lineup.

45 Still, the club reported a $30,300 profit in 1889. “What! No Profit?” Sporting Life, December 25, 1889: 2.

46 Robert B. Ross, The Great Baseball Revolt: The Rise and Fall of the 1890 Players League (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016).

47 “Claim Richardson Will Sign,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 14, 1890: 1; “The Sporting Record,” Dallas Morning News,” February 14, 1890: 2.

48 “Excited Hoosiers,” Sporting Life, February 26, 1890: 1. See also, “The Sporting World,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 17, 1890: 7, wherein Cleveland club secretary Davis Hawley stated that “Mr. Appleton was to blame” for the Richardson signing subterfuge, and that rebuke should be directed toward him “and not the New York club.”

49 “Appleton’s Smile,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 14, 1890: 2; “A Full-Sized Joke,” (Memphis) Public Ledger, February 14, 1890: 1; “Richardson Will Stick,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 14, 1890: 8.

50 “Claim Richardson Will Sign” and “The Sporting Record,” above.

51 “Sporting Notes,” Pittsburgh Post, March 17, 1890: 6.

52 “Says He Will Not Pay for His Wife’s Dresses,” New York Sun, November 4, 1890: 1.

53 “Vanderbilt’s Daughter’s Will,” San Francisco Examiner, October 24, 1890: 6: “Mrs. E.S. Osgood’s Will,” New York Tribune, October 17, 1890: 7.

54 “Says He Will Not Pay,” above.

55 “$75,000 for Dresses in a Year,” New York Evening World, May 20, 1891: 1.

56 “Mrs. Appleton’s Finery,” Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1891: 8; “Mrs. W.S. Appleton Made the Money Fly,” New York Tribune, May 20, 1891: 6; “A Dressmaker’s Bill,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 20, 1891: 4. See also, “New York Letter,” (Nashville) Daily American, May 23, 1891: 13.

57 “Mrs. Appleton’s Finery,” above. Whether Mme. Coggeshall ever got her money is unknown.

58 “New York Club Affairs,” Sporting Life, January 31, 1891: 3. The new organization was incorporated under the laws of New Jersey.

59 George H. Dickinson, “New York Comment,” Sporting Life, October 17, 1891: 3.

60 Beset by business reversals and stripped of power in club affairs, John B. Day resigned as New York Giants president in February 1893. Charles T. Dillingham, the other original member of the MEC, lost his bookselling business to bankruptcy in the early 1890s but hung onto his Giants stock until 1896.

61 “Personal Mention,” Sporting Life, February 20, 1892: 2.

62 According to the 1900 US Census, Walter and Marion Appleton had been married for 14 years. But that was plainly untrue. The census notation that the couple was childless, however, was accurate.

63 “Personal Mention,” Buffalo Courier, December 11, 1893: 6.

64 “Bergen County White Caps,” New York Evening World, March 31, 1893: 3.

65 “Annie Beach Appleton Arrested,” New York Sun, January 19, 1894: 1; “Creditors of ‘Mrs. Beach,’” New York Evening World, January 19, 1894: 2. The jurist, New York State Supreme Court Justice Miles Beach, was actually Annie’s older brother and had long previously refused to cover her debts.

66 Annie Beach Appleton died at age 48 in November 1894.

67 “Accountant’s Suit,” Buffalo Morning News, August 26, 1899: 7; “Suit for Service,” Buffalo Commercial, August 25, 1899: 9.

68 “Whereabouts of People We Know,” Buffalo Times, January 8, 1901: 3; “Social Register,” Buffalo Commercial, March 16, 1900: 8; “Very Latest News,” Buffalo Evening News, May 26, 1898: 1. 

69 As recounted by Walter and Marion Appleton in their respective Affidavit to Explain Protracted Foreign Residence and to Overcome the Presumption of Expatriation, dated July 12, 1917 and accessed via Ancestry.com. The affiants averred that they came to Europe to further the education of their (non-existent) son and for Walter’s health.

70 Per Report of Death of American Citizen, dated August 16, 1917 and accessed via Ancestry.com. Cirrhosis of the liver was listed as a factor contributing to Walter Appleton’s death.

71 The present resting place of Appleton’s remains is unknown.

72 “Obituary Notes,” New York Evening World, August 29, 1917: 7.