ALBERT GOODWILL SPALDING

Los Angeles County

Biographies

ALBERT GOODWILL SPALDING

SPALDING, ALBERT GOODWILL, Capitalist, Point Loma and San Diego, California, and Chicago, Illinois, was born at Byron, Ogle County, Illinois, September 2, 1850. His parents were James Lawrence Spalding and Harriet Irene (Goodwill) Spalding.

The Spalding patronymic is a very old and honorable Anglo-Saxon name, probably derived from the town of Spalding, in Lincolnshire, England, which place gained its title from the tribal name, Spaldas, left by the Romans after the conquest.

The Spaldings trace back their lineage to the sea-kings of the Baltic, for they are doubtless of Danish origin, and all their endowments of spirit, brain and brawn, show them to be still in possession of the strenuous qualities of their fighting Saxon forbears.

Members of the Spalding family have been prominently known in music, literature, the arts and sciences, from early times. In the commercial world, in the pulpit, as authors, journalists, jurists, surgeons, and in all the learned professions, the name Spalding appears frequently and in high places. Albert Spalding, namesake and nephew of A. G. Spalding, is now one of the world’s most famous violinists.

The geographical influence of the Spalding family in America is wide-spread, there being towns named Spalding in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, Alabama, Iowa and Maine, this name doubtless having been given in recognition of the achievements or personal worthiness of descendants of Edward Spalding, of the Massachusetts Bay colony, who first coming to Virginia, about A. D. 1619, later took up his home in New England, where he founded the American branch of the Spalding family.

When Albert G. Spalding was about eight years old, his father died and the lad removed with his mother from Byron to Rockford, Illinois, where he entered the public schools and laid the foundation for his education.

The Spaldings had always been noted for splendid physical development, strong, aggressive temperament, keen and analytical judgment. In was quite natural then that a scion of such a family should early in life manifest the possession of faculties peculiarly adapting him for the great American game of baseball, which made its advent only a few years in advance of his birth. He first learned of this pastime from a paroled soldier of the Civil War, who, returning from the front, wounded, brought to Rockford interesting stories of a new game played by soldiers of both armies between engagements on the field of battle.

Young Spalding soon found himself practicing this new sport with his companions on the commons at Rockford. He was quick to acquire the rudiments of the game and gained especial proficiency as a pitcher in a very short time. He first played with the juvenile Pioneers, composed of Rockford school boys, but it was not long until his services were in demand in teams made up of players much older than he. He was secured by the Forest City Club, of Rockford, for which organization he won deserved fame, for the players of that team defeated every ball club of any pretensions in the Middle West and then went upon a sensationally victorious journey through the large cities of the East.

From the Forest City amateur club he was induced to go to the original Boston Club of professionals, for which organization he won the championship pennant four years in succession—1872-3-4 and 5. He then went with some of his Boston teammates to Chicago, in 1876, where, pitching for the White Stockings, of which he was also manager, he again won the flag, establishing a record that has never yet been equaled by any professional league pitcher. During these five years, he played almost daily, pitching in nearly every game.

In 1876, he was instrumental, with William A. Hulbert, in organizing the National League of Baseball Clubs. This marked an era in the game, for previous to that date all national organizations had been associations of baseball players.

Coincident with the formation of the great pioneer major league, Mr. Spalding threw himself, with all the force of his energetic, battling nature, into a fight for the elimination of drunkenness, rowdyism and gambling from the national pastime. To his efforts, as to those of no other man perhaps, in due the fact that these evils, which at one time threatened the very life of America’s national game, were driven out.

Ever since the formation of the National League, until the organization of the National Commission, Mr. Spalding has been prominent in the councils of those who have directed the large affairs of the game, and in 1901, when a concerted effort was made by certain magnates to syndicate baseball—as the theatrical interests of the country have been gathered under a trust—he made the fight single-handed that resulted in the overthrow of a scheme that would have prostituted a national’s pastime.

One of the most notable achievements of Mr. Spalding’s baseball career was the organization and carrying out of a project to introduce the American game to foreign lands. This he did in 1888, by enlisting the services of two teams of star professionals, whom he took on a world girdling voyage, visiting Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, India, Egypt, Italy, France and Great Britain, playing games in all those counties (sic), showing its qualities before the peoples of the Antipodes, exhibiting its peculiarities with the Sphinx as a back stop, and demonstrating the ability of American baseball players to acquit themselves with credit in contests with the best of British cricketers at the national game of Great Britain and her colonies.

In 1911, Mr. Spalding published a book entitled “America’s National Game,” which is the most pretentious volume ever written on the subject of baseball. This book has had a very wide sale, which still continues, owing to its historical excellence and literary merits.

While paying a visit to England in 1874, in connection with the first trip of American ball players to a foreign country, Mr. Spalding’s quick eye detected commercial conditions that led to the later establishment of the great sporting goods house of A. G. Spalding & Bros. In seeking to secure an outfit that would equip him to play the game of cricket in good form, Mr. Spalding noted that in London shops, everything was specialized. Did he want a cricket ball, he must get it from one house. Did he want a cricket hat or cap, he must go to another. For a cricket uniform or shoes, he had to find the shop of Smith, or Jones, or Robinson. The result of his tedious shopping inspired in his mind the question, Why not have an athletic goods emporium where all the accessories of sport can be bought under one roof? Why should there not be established a house where the uniforms and implements of every form of sport could be purchased?

The problem thus presented to the ambitious young ball player filled his mind until it found a solution in the formation, in 1876, of a copartnership between A. G. Spalding and his brother, J. Walter Spalding, at Chicago. The history of A. G Spalding & Bros. Has no place here, but the fact that the business of the small concern that was founded in 1876 has grown until it requires the aid of an army of employes (sic), and branch houses in all leading cities of the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Australia to meet the demands upon it, is certainly a tribute to the business sagacity of A. G. Spalding, its founder.

Mr. Spalding has had a political career, brief but sensational. The first primary election of California bearing upon the choice of U. S. Senator, was held August 16, 1910. The last preceding Legislature had enacted the first measure providing for such an election. The bill had provoked much discussion and occupied a good deal of the session. Finally, shortly before adjournment, it was enacted into law, receiving the unusual endorsement of a unanimous vote of all members, representing every shade of political partisanship.

The law as passed provided for a choice of candidates for the United States Senatorship by the several legislative districts of the State. It was in accord with the spirit of the Constitution of the United States. It was to safeguard the rights and interests of the people of all sections. In was recognized that by no other means could fair representation be given to suburban peoples. It was known that choice of representatives in the upper house of Congress, under popular vote, would mean the selection invariably of candidates from the congestive localities; that the rural districts, though having plenty of available Senatorial timber, would forever be eliminated as in other years, from all hopes of preferment for their favorite sons.

There had been for a long time in California an unwritten political law that United States Senatorial representation should alternate between the northern and southern sections of the State; that is, that when the Senator who was to continue in office had his home north of the Tehachapi the one to be elected should live south of that line. It happened that first after the passage of the primary law, the election to be held was to fill the place made vacant in the United States Senate by the expiration of the term of Senator Frank Flint, of Los Angeles. As Hon. Geo. Perkins, the hold-over Senator, was from Oakland, it was conceded that the new candidate should be from the South.

Senator Flint, declining to be a candidate for re-election, Los Angeles, placed two Republicans in the field, John D. Works (Lincoln-Roosevelt faction), and Mr. E. A. Meserve, the opposition.

Prominent citizens of San Diego, and friends from different parts of the State, urged Mr. Spalding to enter the race. He declined the honor, assuring his would-be constituents that he had no political ambitions; had never been a candidate for public office and had no faith to believe he could be made United States Senator under existing political conditions in California, since he belonged to no faction, but was simply a Republican. His friends, however, were importunate, and he at last consented, reluctantly, to be a candidate.

He had just thirty days in which to make his campaign. The primary election was held August 10. The result showed that A. G. Spalding had carried the legislative districts of the State, under the primary law, by an overwhelming majority over both his competitors. E. A. Meserve received the vote in five districts. John D. Works had majorities in forty districts, and A. G. Spalding carried seventy-five districts, and, many eminent lawyers declared, was clearly entitled to an election by the Legislature under a law of its own enactment.

Then began a remarkable exhibition of political pulling and hauling to secure the election of John D. Works. The Spalding people contended that inasmuch as Mr. Spalding had carried a majority of the districts he should be elected U. S. Senator by the Legislature when it assembled. The Works people held to the view that the popular majority secured by Works entitled him to the Senatorship. The controversy raged fiercely over the construction of the primary law and as to whether or not members of the Legislature were bound by the will of the voters in their district as reflected in the election.

The political organization which was in control of the State and the State Legislature declared that Works should be chosen and Mr. Spalding was defeated. Former U. S. Senator Cornelius Cole of Los Angeles declared this defeat of Mr. Spalding and the election of John D. Works “the most infamous political outrage of modern times.”

Whatever the merits of the controversy in other respects, the fact remains that the contention in behalf of Spalding’s choice was based upon the strict letter of the primary law, while that of his competitor was founded solely upon the desires of political party managers.

Since making his home in California, about a dozen years ago, Mr. Spalding has been deeply interested in and closely connected with the good roads movement. He began by personal activity in behalf of road improvement in the vicinity of his home on Point Loma. The excellence of the roads constructed by him, at his own expense, attracted attention of the people of San Diego, who through the local authorities, urged him to build a similar road connecting the city with Ocean Beach, Roseville and the United States Military and Naval Reservation. This has become famous as one of the best boulevard systems of America. It was largely through Mr. Spalding’s personal efforts that the Government was induced to make an appropriation of $40,000 for an extension of this system along the crest of Point Loma, to the Old Spanish Lighthouse, a magnificent scenic drive.

As a result of his boulevard work, he was urged to take charge of a movement to secure a bond issue of $1,250,000 for the construction of about 500 miles of roads in the back county of San Diego County. The issue carried by a very large majority of the county votes, and a Commission (A. G. Spalding, John D. Spreckels and E. W. Scripps) was appointed to undertake the enterprise. The work was placed in the hands of A. B. Fletcher (later Chief Eng., Cal. State Highway Comms.), who laid the foundation for the system.

Mr. Spalding was elected Vice Pres. of the “Ocean-to-Ocean” Highway Assn., with headquarters at Los Angeles; but learning that the organization proposed to construct the western length through a pathless desert of shifting sands, he declined to serve.

Mr. Spalding is President and executive head of the San Diego Securities Company, having an authorized capital of $2,000,000, with $1,250,000 paid up. The company owns in fee simple several miles of harbor frontage on San Diego Bay, and considerably over one thousand acres of beautiful villa property on the scenic crest of Point Loma. It also owns valuable property at National City as well as the land upon which is located the club house and 18-hole course of the Point Loma Golf Club.

Mr. Spalding is a member of the French Legion of Honor, and possesses the medal of that order. He belongs to numerous social and commercial clubs in the larger cities of the country.

Transcribed 9-27-08 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Pages 143-144, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

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