My wife is a native of Newman Grove, Nebraska. Her brother, Carl Tisthammer, is the postmaster in Newman Grove.

Respectfully,

Clint Anderson

2205 Dockery

Selma, California 93662

(1. Tim Preece was a good friend of the Cox family, but not related. Hale and Sid Cox were born in Battle Creek, the sons of Zack Cox. Their mother was Flora Hale, a sister of "Fleeks" F. J. Hale and John D. Hale. The latter famed for his trips to the Black Hills with droves of hogs, through Indian Country in 1878 and 1879.)

(2. Jack Dufphy believes that the gray racing mare, Matie Powell, referred to in Mr. Anderson's letter is the one owned by Mr. Losey which ran against Sway Dick in the storied race in Battle Creek.

Jack remembers that the bets reached as much as $500.00. Ed Losey rode Matie Powell and there were some who thought that he held her back. This was discounted when Mr. Losey bought Sway Dick for $700.00 from the horse traders after the race. Later, when Bill Anderson bought Sway Dick from Mr. Losey, he must have bought Matie Powell also.

SPORTS STORY

Battle Creek people have always been quite sports minded. We have read about horse racing, foot racing, wrestling matches and when I was quite a small boy, I remember going to baseball games with my father on a Sunday afternoon. Before we had the race track and ball park west of town, on land now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Clemens, we saw ball games in Hogrefe's pasture across the street and east of the present public school grounds. The entrance or gate was in the street between where the Amanda Miller and Clay Osborn houses now stand. My one recollection is seeing a game between Battle Creek and Tilden. The first baseman on the Tilden team was a skinny freckled faced kid I afterwards learned to know as Hubert Osborn, now of Meadow Grove. The only men I recall on the Battle Creek team of that time would be Fred and Jerry Hoover and George Boyer.

By about 1911 Howard Miller of Battle Creek; Charlie Smith, Tilden banker; Cal Haskins, Madison; Mr. Pont, the Stanton newspaper man; and others organized a baseball league comprising teams from Battle Creek, Tilden, Norfolk, Madison, Stanton, and several other towns. The towns mentioned spend a little extra money to hire key men to augment the local talent so that for a few years we had probably better than average country baseball.

The picture shown herewith shows the Battle Creek team about 1912 or 1913, they are as follows: Left to right in the

112

Next Page

Last Page

Return to Madison Page

Table of Contents