The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870S–1920S

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The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s

CRAIG OWEN JONES

THE FAILURE OF AMERICAN CRICKET TO FLOURISH during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is the Rorschach inkblot test for sports historians — each sees in the failure whatever they wish to see. Arriv- ing at a viable explanation, one that takes into account class distinctions, practical considerations, differences of national character, and exactly how much weight to assign to the influence on would-be cricketers of baseball in the second half of the nineteenth century, has been a long and arduous process, summarized by George Kirsch in his excellent recent overview.1 Scholars, however, have been able to agree on one thing: changes in clubs’ membership composition is crucial to understanding the subject. For much of the nineteenth century, cricket was a sport that straddled class divides; in Philadelphia, the spiritual home of American cricket, the game was the province of working-class players just as much as it was of their middle-class and upper-class counterparts.2 As the century wore on, however, in places where middle-and upper-class British immigrant society patronized the game, the promoters of cricket ultimately failed to convert enough sportsmen to play beyond their class ranks. When the stream of new arrivals from the United Kingdom dwindled, so too did cricket as an endeavor that was able to reach beyond the niche of English American society. Following changes in immigration patterns during the 1890s, the demographic balance shifted from the British Isles and Northern Europe to the Mediterranean and East- ern Europe, especially following the 1921 Immigration Restriction Act and subsequent legislation.3 The history of cricket in Oregon provides an interesting corollary to this model. American cricket player Tom Melville has convincingly demonstrated that “the inability of the immigrant English community to translate their game to Americans in the context of their own sporting culture” was a key factor in cricket’s decline, and Oregon cricket is certainly no exception.4 For a period at the end of the nineteenth century, however, the state’s most prominent cricketers made strenuous efforts to proselytize on cricket’s behalf, fostering

THE PORTLAND CRICKET CLUB, pictured here in 1909, was organized in about 1878. This photograph appeared in an August 11, 1909, Oregonian article that listed the players’ last names. In the back row (left to right) are: Neame, McKenzie, Cummings, Bailey, Berridge, Crocker, Phinn. From left to right in the front row are: Mallett, Coppinger, Shipley, Sisley, Churchley, Fenwick (Captain), Greaves, Smith, Gjedsted, Blakely (President).

contact with baseball players and clubs in an attempt to bolster membership by appealing to U.S.-born athletes. These efforts came to an abrupt halt in the second decade of the twentieth century, by which time numbers of English and British immigrants were far fewer than they had been in the 1870s and 1880s when cricket took hold in the state. This article, provides an overview of the advent and growth of cricket in Oregon, a hitherto unstudied subject. It shows that contrary to what sporting guides of the 1900s indicate, cricket was far from being confined to Portland and was played in places as far apart as Albany, Astoria, and Corvallis. It also analyzes cricket in Portland, with an emphasis on cricket clubs’ sociological and demographic makeup. As time wore on, one of the city’s principal clubs, the Portland Cricket Club, took on the exclusionary bent of elite members that eventually constituted Philadelphia’s cricket clubs, and it ceased efforts to broaden the game’s appeal — leading to cricket’s ossification in Oregon during the 1910s.

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 277 CRICKET IN OREGON: AN OVERVIEW

The history of American cricket is concentrated geographically in New England and Pennsylvania, where the game flourished in expatriate English and American circles for many years before disappearing from view in the early twentieth century.5 On the West Coast, attention has remained firmly focused on cricket in California, where Bay Area teams practiced the game for many years with a supply of players being replenished primarily with English and Australian immigrants, and more recently with players from the Indian subcontinent. To date, no survey of cricket in Oregon exists, although there is ample evidence of its presence in Oregon’s larger cities during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Oregon clubs regularly played against each other as well as teams from Canada and the Bay Area until well into the 1920s, when dwindling interest finally ended efforts to sustain the sport. Earlier research conducted by Kerry Jeffries of Multnomah Cricket Club placed the beginnings of cricket in Oregon in the 1880s, but the sport was being played a least about a decade prior.6 The Oregon Daily Journal made reference in 1903 to the appearance of the game in Oregon in about 1870.7 The earliest contemporary reference I have been able to trace is an 1873 newspaper account of a series of three matches played between members of St. George’s Cricket Club in Portland.8 The circumstances of the club’s founding may well be recorded in a notice printed in the Morn- ing Oregonian on July 5, 1873, which called for “all those who take an interest in cricket [to] meet this evening. . . . for the purpose of organizing an English cricket club.”9 By 1878, however, the Portland Cricket Club is referenced in several press reports and seems to have joined (or, possibly, superseded) St. George’s.10 In most respects, the operations of these early clubs closely resembled those of their English exemplars. Club members played matches that were often organized by marital status, with unmarried men playing against mar- ried men, an arrangement common at English cricket clubs when members wanted to play a game and no opposition presented itself.11 Scattered references to Oregon cricket matches being organized or played appear in newspapers during the second half of 1873. The fact that a cricket club existed by late 1873 suggests that the St. George’s team had been in existence for at least the duration of the 1873 season.12 The club organized again in May 1874 for the summer and entered a yacht race later in the year. The tendency for English cricket clubs to support various other physical activities can also be found in Portland’s case. By 1881 the club had changed its name to the Portland Cricket and Foot Ball Club, implying summer and winter activity.13 By the end of the 1870s, cricket was beginning to spread beyond Portland. The game reached Albany no later than May 1878, when the State Rights

278 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 OHS Research Library, photo file no. 996-L,, neg no. 7667

IN THIS 1873 photograph, Oregon’s first cricket team poses near their playing grounds. According to the photograph caption, the field was located in south Portland (now Southwest Portland) south of Gibbs Street.

Democrat reported that a club had formed and “will be playing soon,” while the Corvallis Cricket Club formed at the end of March 1880.14 The Portland and Corvallis elevens — a cricket term referring to the eleven players on the field — played a two-day match on July5 and 6 “on the ground west of the depot,” as reported in the Corvallis Gazette. A reference to the Portland players’ being housed “on the various English houses” provides evidence that the game was the province of English immigrants in that city as in Portland. For example, the club’s first chairman, Alfred E. Acklom, was an English merchant who moved to Corvallis in 1879. The Corvallis Gazette described him as a “very intelligent and affable gentleman,” and “an addi- tion to the large number of Englishmen already in Benton County.”15 Astoria also hosted a cricket club by 1890, and that same year it played an eleven from Tacoma, Washington, losing a one-inning match by forty-one runs.16 The club’s vitality and longevity, however, must be placed in some doubt. By 1900, a reporter with the Daily Astorian claimed with impunity that “our local athletes have never made a specialty of the game,” suggesting the club was moribund at the very least.17 It is hard to gauge the wider popularity of cricket in the state during this time. It certainly experienced a drop in popularity in Portland during the 1880s — references to matches cease by mid decade, and by 1890, rumors in the press indicated an imminent re-establishment of the Portland club for those harboring an “old-time interest in the game.”18 That said, continued

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 279 OHS Research LIbrary, photo file no. 996-L photo file no. LIbrary, OHS Research

THE PORTLAND cricket grounds in south Portland are pictured here in 1873. According to newspaper accounts, this was about the time that cricket first made an appearance in Oregon.

references to the town’s cricket ground throughout this period imply that people continued to play the game in casual settings, and it certainly had enough of a following to justify newspapers’ printing stories about matches on the East Coast and in the Canadian provinces adjacent to the border as well as frequent reports from England.19 Additionally, an Albany newspaper advertised in 1888 a medicinal oil endorsed by David Scott, a prominent cricketer with Victoria Cricket Club in Melbourne, Australia, suggesting a readership who, if nothing else, were at least aware of cricket and its rigors.20 The atmosphere at Oregon matches was convivial, if not quite com- mensurate with the air of English formality experienced at Lord’s or the Oval

280 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 cricket grounds in England. Reports of matches in Oregon from this period are usually sparing, neglecting everything but the result and, sometimes, the odd line on individual performances. English lawyer Wallis Nash left an account of an 1880 game between the Portland and Corvallis clubs at the Oregon State Fair that is worth quoting at length: This year the visitors had a new sensation in seeing cricket played on the fair- ground, to most of them a new sight. Portland is blessed with a cricket club, mostly supported by the emigrants from the old country. Corvallis has a similar advantage. The Portlanders, in the pride of their strength . . . had come for wool and gone home shorn. So, as a return-match was under discussion, it was determined to accept the invitation of the fair committee and play the return on the fair-grounds for the amusement of the visitors. Accordingly, the game was duly played out, and ended again in a one-innings defeat of proud Portland, to the delight of the spectators from the valley, who are generally a little jealous of the airs and graces of [Portland]. There was some difficulty in keeping the ground clear; the ladies particularly could not comprehend the terrible solecism they were committing in tripping bravely across, to speak, to “point,” and chat with the wicket-keeper. If you could but have seen the horror-stricken faces of one or two of our eleven, accustomed to the rigor of the game at Cambridge, Rugby, or Cheltenham!21

Such goings-on would doubtless have confirmed Londoners in attendance at Lord’s or the Oval in their prejudices regarding the uncouth manners of Americans. There is, however, much evidence to support the idea that the most enthusiastic adherents of cricket in Portland were adamant that the spirit, and indeed the manner, of their sport should be preserved.

THE PORTLAND CRICKET CLUB

Corvallis and Albany may have had their clubs, but the beating heart of Oregon cricket was in Portland. For many years, the club’s members were the principal proselytizers for the sport. An analysis of their backgrounds, how they popularized cricket, and how they attracted new players reveals much about attitudes toward the game in the state. Distinctions along class lines are immediately apparent, with a substantial presence of middle- and upper-class players, although this picture changed significantly over the lifetime of the club. Scorecards for the very earliest matches are lacking, but a later report gives the names of five of Portland’s earliest members (see Table 1). There is doubtless some confirmation bias here — these names derive from a newspaper article detailing the history of cricket in Portland, and it is unclear whether these men were thought worthy of inclusion due to their cricketing

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 281 PORTLAND’S EARLIEST CRICKET CLUB MEMBERS

birth birth immigration name occupation source year place year 1880 U.S. Census, page 2, dwelling 11, fam- Samuel L.N. ca. 1846 Canada 1861 Auctioneer ily 12; 1900 U.S. Census, Gilman sheet 3, dwelling 47, family 48 1880 U.S. Census, page 20, dwelling 159, Vice Consul, James family 159; “Death Sum- ca. 1847 Scotland 1871 British Laidlaw mons James Laidlaw,” Government Oregonian, January 6, 1913

“George H. Andrews George H. 1843 England 1875 Accountant Dies,” Oregonian, Andrews January 21, 1913

Attorney, Jonathan February 23, Oregon State Massachusetts n/a see endnote 26 Bourne 1855 Representative, U.S. Senator

1880 U.S. Census, Albert Commercial ca. 1857 England 1874 page 7, dwelling 53, Crocker Agent family 53

THE TABLE ABOVE lists information compiled by the author on Portland’s earliest cricket players. All sources referencing U.S. Census data were compiled from the Multnomah County population schedules for Portland, Oregon.

prowess or merely because of their status in the city.22 The identities of these men, therefore, cannot resolve whether there was a working-class contingent in the membership, but they forcefully speak to the presence of the most eminent members of immigrant communities from the United Kingdom and the British Empire in the ranks of the Portland Cricket Club. At its head was James Laidlaw, the “first full consul” appointed by the British Government to Oregon, who took up his post in 1874. He was also heavily involved with the British Benevolent Society, formed in late October 1872.23 George H. Andrews shortly rose to a position of status when the Oregon and California Railroad Company elected him to a director’s position in 1887.24 A.M. Crocker began his career as an office clerk but had ascended by1885 to the position of manager

282 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 in Portland of the R.G. Dun and Co. Mercantile Company.25 Jonathan Bourne, meanwhile, was the son of a Massachusetts shipping magnate. He dropped out of Harvard in 1877 to live a life of adventure. He ultimately settled in Oregon, involving himself in various commercial and legal enterprises, and became a state representative by 1885 and a U.S. Senator by 1907.26 Samuel L.N. Gil- man’s Canadian origins are noteworthy. During the 1890s, Portland cultivated connections with Canada’s western cricket clubs, and Canadian immigrants — such as Peter Beutjen and Harry Molson — frequently appeared among Portland’s ranks, making clear that Canadians composed a significant strand of the club’s membership, whose exposure to cricket was presumably more frequent than of those born in the United States.27 The presence of such men in its ranks as Laidlaw, Andrews, and Bourne helps to firmly situate the Portland Cricket Club within a broader middle- and upper-class milieu, one that is in keeping with the situation in the East; and if the club had followed Philadelphia’s pattern of exclusionary policies that enshrined cricket club members’ status, the course of cricket in Portland might have been far narrower and more difficult to navigate for those outside these classes. Available evidence, however, points to a substantial and sustained attempt to popularize the sport among

the local population, particularly baseball OHS Research Library, OrHi 79210 players, during the 1870s and 1880s. By the 1880s, Portland had its Turnverein and its Caledonian Games, and a Willamette Rowing Club was in existence by 1888. Baseball, however, had been played on an organized basis on Portland since shortly after the city’s foundation. The formation of the Portland Pioneer Club in 1866 was fairly early for the West Coast, and a regional association, the Oregon and Washington and Idaho Territories Association of Base Ball Players, was created in 1868.28 If there was a likely pool of potential cricketers in Portland, baseball clubs would surely provide it. In 1878, the Portland Cricket Club played a series of three matches against a team of local baseball players.29 Among JONATHAN BOURNE played for the the “base ballists” who tried their hand Portland Cricket Club during the 1880s at the game was Joseph Buchtel, an and 1890s and was an Oregon House Ohioan who settled in Portland in 1853 Representative and later a U.S. Senator.

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 283 PORTLAND CRICKET CLUB MEMBERS’ BACKGROUNDS, 1911–1912

birth birth immigration name occupation source year place year

1910 U.S. Census, Kenneth H. Art china ca. 1882 England unknown sheet 8, dwelling 172 Bailey merchant family 184

1910 U.S. Census, William G. Stationery ca. 1860 England unknown sheet 22, dwelling 132, Smith engraver family 132

President, 1900 U.S. Census, Churchley Bros., Jesse Job (J.J) sheet 8, dwelling 92, ca. 1868 England 1884 Inc. (coal and Churchley family 114; Portland City wood supply Directory (1900) company)

1910 U.S. Census, Edwin Railroad 1875 England 1898 sheet 8, dwelling 157, Fenwick company clerk family 175

1910 U.S. Census, Metal works sheet 6, dwelling 128, Charles E. ca. 1878 Australia before 1908 mechanic (later family 147; 1920 U.S. Gjedsted clerk) Census, sheet 2, dwelling 28, family 55

BACKGROUND INFORMATION on 1911–1912 Portland Cricket Club members compiled by the author is listed above. Included are players’ birth years, birth places, years of immigration, and occupations. All U.S. Census data listed in this table comes from the Multnomah County population schedules for Portland.

and earned money as an inventor and photographer. He was one of the first photographers to capture the Columbia River Gorge in stereograph and is notable for documenting regions across the state during the mid nineteenth century with a portable camera.30 Buchtel’s contribution to sports in Oregon also cannot be underestimated. His enthusiasm for baseball and talent for organizing led to his founding the Portland Pioneers team in 1866, and he was also elected the first president of the Oregon and Washington and Idaho Territories Association of Base Ball Players.31 Having individuals of Buchtel’s standing in match-ups between cricketers and baseball players — which were sometimes treated with levity elsewhere — speaks to the seriousness of the games. William Effinger, a Virginia lawyer, was a baseball player who took part

284 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 Accountant; 1910 U.S. Census, Arthur A. State Board of sheet 2, dwelling 43, ca. 1882 England unknown Berridge Accountancy in family 44; Oregon Voter, the 1910s June 21, 1919, p. 38

1910 U.S. Census, J. C. Railway office ca. 1883 Oregon n/a sheet 1, dwelling 10, Cumming clerk family 18

1910 U.S. Census, sheet Cyril S. ca. 1879 England 1900 Hotel accountant 4, dwelling 55, family Greaves 94

Arthur F. 1878 Barbados 1906 Bookkeeper see endnote 38 Tarilton

1900 U.S. Census, sheet 9, dwelling 96, Typewriter family 110; “Portland Charles W. manufacturer; Cricket Off for Tourney,” ca. 1860 Ireland 1890 Lawrence described as Oregon Daily Journal, “crack” cricketer August 13, 1908; Spald- ing’s Official Cricket Guide (1913), p. 126.

in the series as well as a member of the Portland Cricket Club.32 Newspaper reports of cricket matches frequently addressed adherents of the two sports in tandem, indicating that cricket and baseball fraternities in Oregon were close; for example, the St. George’s Cricket Club played the Portland Pioneers in a series of cricket matches in 1874.33 An 1879 news report documents the cricket club members’ awareness of the need to appeal beyond the confines of the expatriate community: “The Englishmen of the city are endeavoring to create a liking for cricket.” The correspondent implied, however, that these efforts were doomed to failure, as “American boys find the game too slow.”34 References to the Portland Cricket Club are sporadic in the 1890s, and therefore resistant to analysis.35 By the first decade of the twentieth century,

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 285 however, references become more numerous, and it at once becomes clear that Portland’s position had undergone a subtle change. Analysis of members’ backgrounds, selected from two separate lists dating from 1911 and 1912, demonstrate a preponderance of men in clerical work, with a smaller number of men in business. Again, the lack of American-born cricketers is testimony to the failure of the Portland cricketing fraternity to win over many converts. The most accomplished of these members from a cricketing standpoint was, without a doubt, Arthur Foderingham Tarilton, brother of renowned West Indian cricketer Percy Tarilton, who had played first-class cricket in Jamaica and worked at the Brit- ish Government’s consular office in Mississippi before moving to Oregon.36 Nevertheless, cricket teams in Oregon were made up of a staunchly middle- class demographic, even if there were notable exceptions. By 1912, Portland Cricket Club boasted the likes of George Langford in their ranks. Born into poor circumstances in London in 1845, Langford’s early life was as wretched as could be imagined — both his parents and all nine of his siblings died of cholera, doubtless during the epidemic of 1853–1854 that claimed the lives of thousands of Londoners.37 Having immigrated to New York state in 1862, Langford, who had been an apprentice mason, turned his hand to contract- ing. By 1876 he had arrived in Portland; in the years following he built several of the city’s most important early buildings, including the Portland Hotel, the Worcester Building, Portland’s first waterworks, and farther down the Columbia River, the North Head lighthouse near Ilwaco, Washington.38 By 1912 he was a leader in the Portland Cricket Club, as were other prominent local men, including club president Charles Blakely (who lent his name to a cup given to the highest scorer in the annual Over Thirty-Under Thirty match every season); club secretary J.C. Cumming, who forged a successful career in banking and transport and was elected club captain in 1913; and Charles Edward Gjedsted, a mechanic who later went into clerical work but whose social status was doubtless bolstered by his rapid rise up the ranks in the Oregon National Guard — he was also made vice-captain of the cricket club in 1913.39 During this period, the Portland Cricket Club made some effort to attract new recruits and encourage spectators, but these efforts seem to have been more fitful than during the1870 s and 1880s. In 1904, club members played an exhibition match, and those with an interest in the sport were invited to attend, a clear attempt at popularization.40 During the six-year period from the beginning of the 1908 season to the end of the 1913 season, when the Portland Cricket Club was arguably at its zenith, the demeanor of the club was remarkably inward-looking. Under the presidency of Charles Blakely, the club seemingly prospered. By 1912, it boasted six acres of grounds and a well-appointed clubhouse, the best in the northwest, according to one

286 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 THE 1911 PORTLAND CRICKET CLUB team members are pictured in this image published in Spalding’s Cricket Guide.

newspaperman.41 Also noteworthy was the seriousness with which the club’s members approached playing the game. In 1912, the club’s finances were in such a healthy state that it retained a professional coach for the season, a common enough arrangement in England and the western United States, but a rare luxury for the cricket clubs of Oregon. The first eleven were sufficiently well regarded to interest clubs in Washington and Canada, particularly in British Columbia, where cricket enjoyed far greater popularity and clubs such as Victoria drew large crowds.42 When the famous Frankford Cricket Club of Philadelphia visited Portland in 1911, the popular press described it as a “red letter day,” avowing that the match would serve to boost the game in the state.43 It was, perhaps, a far-fetched aspiration. The Portland Cricket Club was no fly-by-night club; indeed, it is the only Oregon club listed in Spalding’s

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 287 OHS Research Library, photo file no. 996-L, neg. no. 102207 996-L, neg. no. photo file no. Library, OHS Research

PORTLAND CRICKET CLUB members pose for a photograph at their clubhouse in about 1909. The clubhouse was located near the old Montavilla rail car line, near present day Northeast 67th Avenue and Davis Street.

Cricket Guide, the yearly barometer of the American cricket scene. Neverthe- less, when even the well-heeled clubs of British Columbia fielded oversized teams to compete with the Australian champions who toured North America in the early 1900s, it was inevitable that Portland, a geographically isolated club with competent but less-experienced players, would find it difficult to secure a match from the touring side. As late as March 1913, newspaper reports still eagerly floated the idea that the Australians visit Portland, but they were soon disabused. The Portland Cricket club balked at a request for a $1,500 appearance fee, and while the Australians played many teams on the western and eastern seaboards — including Montreal, Toronto, and Germantown in the east, and representative Calgary and Vancouver XVs in the west, not to mention a flurry of three games in Chicago during transit — no U.S. team on the West Coast received a visit.44

288 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 Even as the 1913 season dawned, ominous signs pointed to the club’s dissolution. The failure to bring the Australian eleven to Portland diminished many members’ enthusiasm, and in July 1913, the club announced that its playing ground would be torn up while a sewer was constructed. Although a team indicated it was actively looking for a new home, and expected to sell the ground for a tidy profit, the Oregon Daily Journal reported that “the present season is a rather dull one for the local players.”45 Although no ground sale seems not to have gone ahead — the cricket ground was still there in 1915 — such lack of interest in it did not bode well.46 By the end of 1913 the club’s entry in Spalding’s Cricket Guide was reduced to a few lines, stating that in terms of membership and finances, the club was in dire straits. According to the guide, operations had not begun until well into April and no games were played after June. There would be an attempt to reinvigorate the club in 1914, “with what success it is hard to say.” The writer elaborated on the root of Portland’s problems: The fact of Portland being isolated. . . . or at least removed by a considerable railroad fare from those cities in which cricket is played, is mainly responsible for the lack of interest. If they could have outside matches there would not be the slightest doubt of having a flourishing club.47

This was probably not the sole reason for the club’s decline — the situation had been no different in previous seasons. Newspapers occasionally referenced other clubs in the Portland area, but the lack of commitment of smaller clubs, such as the Salem Ramblers and Mount Tabor, likely meant that even when they played matches with the Portland Cricket Club, members of the larger club were unlikely to get a good game. Multnomah seems to have been the most accomplished of these smaller Portland-area clubs, then just outside the town, and its members played annual fixtures with the Portland Cricket Club by1911 .48 Other opportunities to play sometimes occurred with scratch teams assembled by steamers crews that docked in the Portland harbor. These matches invariably resulted in emphatic victories for the Portland eleven, although there were competitive contests on occasion.49 Farther afield, Portland’s annual match with Seattle endured to the end; however, the gap in batting quality between the two clubs was increasingly obvious. Portland scored a combined total of 126 in their two innings, while Seattle made 111 in their first. With Seattle needing only sixteen to win, a heavy defeat was likely for Portland, and only some inspired bowling by Portland’s attack during their second innings got Seattle’s top-order batsmen out cheaply and gave the

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 289 scoreline some respectability. Seattle won by the narrower, but still comfort- able, score of three wickets.50 The Portland Cricket Club began the 1915 season, but no match reports appeared in local newspapers. A reduction in membership fees, combined with a plaintive appeal to “all cricketers in town, whether at present members or not,” suggests dwindling personnel and an unfinished season.51 By 1918 at the latest, the Portland Cricket Club ceased to play a role in the sporting life of the city. There was, however, a final, curious denouement. In 1918, Dean Walker, the graduate manager of the basketball and athletics programs at the Uni- versity of Oregon, organized a university cricket team. Walker’s interest in the game was influenced by John Leader, an instructor at the school and cricket enthusiast. Born in British India to Irish parents in 1877, Leader had been a career soldier until immigrating to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1909. After serving for two years during World War I, an injury sustained during the Battle of the Somme ended Leader’s front-line career. In 1917, he accepted an invitation from the University of Oregon to train students and faculty alike for military service. Although he returned to Canada less than two years later, Leader’s enthusiasm for cricket rubbed off on Walk- er. 52 The sports program at the university was insubstantial, being limited to varsity and baseball, and the immediate problem of introducing cricket was not a shortage of players, but acquiring the necessary equipment and learning the rudiments of the game. Fortunately for Walker, a previous member of the Portland Cricket Club donated the team’s old equipment, and Leader stepped in to provide instruction on the game.53 The cricket equipment arrived later than expected, and for a few days it was uncer- tain whether there would be time to train two student teams before the summer break. The shipment arrived just in time, and on June 12, 1918, the campus witnessed the university’s first-ever cricket match between teams captained by James Sheehy and “Dot” Medley.54 Unfortunately for Walker and Leader, the game was a non-event from a competitive point of view; occurring in the middle of the exam period as it did, interest was low, and several members of the crowd made up the numbers. Sheehy’s team defeated Medley’s by forty-seven runs to ten, while few spectators from the university and even fewer Eugene residents turned out to watch.55 Hopes to make cricket a minor sport at the university seem to have sagged accordingly.56 A “championship” held in Portland between two teams in 1922 failed to become a regular event. The sudden flurry of cricket matches in Portland after such a long hiatus is peculiar, and the author can find no explanation for it. All three teams disappear from view in 1923. The key mover in organizing these matches was P. Chapell Browne, an architect

290 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 and president of the Portland Soccer Football Association, and a prominent member of the British Benevolent Society.57 For all the alacrity surrounding these efforts, neither the University of Oregon exhibition match of 1918 nor the 1922 Portland “championship” became harbingers of a cricketing renaissance as their organizers had hoped. Any momentum that might have developed was stymied by the onset of World War II. After the war’s conclusion, there was no place for cricket in the sporting scene as identifiably American sporting activities were reasserted in the national consciousness. It is instructive that when the cricket-loving politician Harold Macmillan became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1957, and a photograph of the new premier — in cricket whites — circulated in American newspapers, cricket had been so forgotten by Oregonians that the Eugene Guard felt it necessary to caption the photograph with the comment, “Cricket is to the English what baseball is to Americans.”58 No such comment would have been necessary a mere twenty years before. Despite all of the preceding evidence, cricket’s failure to establish in Oregon in the way baseball did is self-evident. Reviewing its history is like watching the movie Groundhog Day — one is at first bemused and then faintly dismayed about witnessing the same events occur again and again, as enthusiasts for the sport gamely proclaim its arrival, flourish for a while, and then dwindle in numbers, only for others in time to succeed them. Sometimes the baton passed from generation to generation, as English expatriates’ memories of the game shared with sons, nephews, and new immigrants, played a key role in cricket’s appearance and reappearance. Ultimately, the game’s fortunes were linked to the expatriate community that gave rise to it, and once the stream of immigrants from Europe dried up, the sporting endeavors they sponsored were bound to fail.59 Although cricket failed to catch the imagination of the state, it nonetheless played a persistent, if small, role in sporting life for almost three quarters of a century. Its absence from sports narratives in Oregon is more or less com- plete: no monuments, either physical or virtual, speak to its former centrality to British expatriate communities. When the history of sporting activity in Oregon is eventually written, the archival deposit of the Portland Cricket Club, covering the period from 1908 to 1914, awaits the author. The resurgence of cricket in the past thirty years, on Oregon’s university campuses and in the name of the Oregon Cricket League (with an almost exclusively immigrant membership from India lured to the state by tech industry jobs), will in time inscribe the sport’s narrative in the state yet again. In such circumstances, it would perhaps be fitting to afford cricket a paragraph or two.

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 291 NOTES

The author would like to thank Oregon His- names of some of the club’s earliest members: torical Quarterly editorial staff, Erin Brasell and Gilman, Austin, Raleigh, Molson, Webb, Stan- Helen Ryan, for their assistance with this article berry, Donaldson, Andrews, Creighton (W.H. 1. George B. Kirsch, “The Fate of Cricket in Creighton, the club’s treasurer), Henderson, the United States: Revisited,” Journal of Sport Ingersoll, Boyd, Tabor, McCluskey, Pender, History 43:2 (Summer 2016): 168–91. Leveredge, and Crocker. 2. J. Thomas Jable, “Social Class and the 11. “Out-Door Sports,” Morning Oregonian, Sport of Cricket in Philadelphia, 1850–1880,” October 4, 1873, p. 3. Journal of Sport History 18:2 (Summer 1991): 12. “Local Brevities,” Morning Oregonian, 205–223, at p. 205. October 7, 1873, p. 3. The reference to a 3. By 1930, just 34,276, or 3.6 percent, canceled cricket match does not mention St. of Oregon’s population was born in the Brit- George’s by name, however. ish Isles or Canada. WPA Writers’ Program, 13. “Local Events of the Year — May,” Oregon: End of the Trail (Portland: Binfords and “August,” Morning Oregonian, January 1, & Mort, 1940), 76. 1875, p. 5; “City – C. and F.B. Club,” Morning 4. Tom Melville, The Tented Field: A His- Oregonian, May 10, 1881, p. 3. tory of Cricket in America (Bowling Green, 14. “Home and Abroad,” State Rights Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Democrat, May 10, 1878, p. 3; “Corvallis Cricket Press, 1998), 147. Club,” Corvallis Gazette, April 2, 1880, p. 3. 5. George B. Kirsch, “American Cricket: 15. “Cricket Match,” Corvallis Gazette, July Players and Clubs Before the Civil War,” Jour- 2, 1880, p. 3; “Local Notes,” Corvallis Gazette, nal of Sport History 11:1 (Spring 1984): 28–50; January 12, 1883, p. 3; “Still Coming,” Corvallis Jable, “Cricket in Philadelphia”; Melville, The Gazette, July 4, 1879, p. 3. Tented Field, 119–46. 16. “A Game of Cricket,” Weekly Oregon 6. Deb K. Das, “Cricket in Seattle: A Brief Statesman, July 25, 1890, p. 1. History,” http://www.seattlecricket.com/his- 17. “Around Town,” Morning Astorian, June tory/hist.htm (accessed June 26, 2019). 6, 1900, p. 3. 7. “Interest Grows in Local Cricket,” Or- 18. Prior to Portland’s re-emergence, the egon Daily Journal, June 13, 1903, p. 11. latest evidence of cricket play discovered are 8. “Out Door Sports,” Morning Oregonian, announcements of practice games at Oaks October 18, 1873, p. 4. A fragmentary reference Park in East Portland, in 1884 and 1886, “In and to a cricket club in existence at Fort Dalles About Portland,” Sunday Oregonian, April 27, under the auspices of Corporal Young in 1861 1884, p. 5; “Brief Mention,” Morning Oregonian, appears to imply the game was played by April 22, 1886, p. 5; “The Field of Sports,” Morn- soldiers there for a period, “A Scrap of Biog- ing Oregonian, February 24, 1890, p. 8. raphy,” Morning Oregonian, April 27, 1861, p. 3. 19. “Beaten at Their Own Game,” Morning An 1869 reference to the formation of a cricket Oregonian, September 23, 1875, p. 1. club to play a team from Victoria may refer to 20. “St. Jacobs Oil,” State Rights Demo- a Portland club, but the geographical location crat, July 27, 1888, p. 4; “A Noted Cricketer is not specified. “From the North,”Morning in Trouble,” The Age (Melbourne, Australia), Oregonian, April 22, 1869, p. 2. September 3, 1883, p. 2. 9. “Local Brevities,” Morning Oregonian, 21. Wallis Nash, Two Years in Oregon July 7, 1873, p. 3. (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1882), 10. See, “Cricket,” Morning Oregonian, 181–82. May 6, 1878, p. 3. The scorecard gives the sur- 22. “Interest Grows in Local Cricket,”

292 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 Oregon Daily Journal, June 13, 1903, p. 11. In- ing Oregonian, August 2, 1888, p. 3. For an terestingly, the article adds that the men were early notice, “Base Ball,” Morning Oregonian, playing cricket in Portland as early as 1870. August 4, 1866, p. 3; “Coast Items,” Corvallis 23. The British Benevolent Society was an Gazette-Times, February 29, 1868, p. 2. organization with branches across the globe, 29. “City – Cricket,” Morning Oregonian, typically established by British immigrants in August 31, 1878, p. 3. order to provide financial aid for British immi- 30. Amy Platt, “Horsetail Falls by Joseph grants in difficulties, but which also functioned Buchtel,” Oregon History Project, https:// to maintain the social cohesiveness of the Brit- oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical- ish expatriate community. Laidlaw was elected records/horsetail-falls-by-joseph-buchtel/#. a director of the Society in 1887 (“The British XOhf2xZKjmE (accessed May 24, 2019). For Benevolent Society, Morning Oregonian, May more on Buchtel’s career, including notices 12, 1887, p. 8), but the holding of meetings in of his inventions, see Peter E. Palmquist and the British Consulate for many years prior Thomas R. Kailbourn, Pioneer Photographers speaks to a longstanding sponsorship. For the of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, formation of the society, see “From Portland, 1840–1865 (Redwood City, Calif.: Stanford Oregon,” Sacramento Daily Union, October 31, University Press, 2000), 132–34.. 1872, p. 3. For Laidlaw’s position as consul, see 31. “A History of Baseball in Oregon,” John Dierdorff, Edmund Hayes, and Thomas L. Oregon Stadium Campaign, http://www.or- McCall, “Annual Meeting,” Oregon Historical egonstadiumcampaign.com/history_oregon. Quarterly 72:4 (December 1971): 360–61. htm(accessed June 27, 2019); “Coast Items,” 24. “Local and General – Oregon & Cali- Corvallis Gazette-Times, February 29, 1868, fornia Election,” Morning Oregonian, June 10, p. 2; Fred Lockley, “Portland’s First Ball Team 1887, p. 5. Played at Broadway and Stark 50 Years Ago,” 25. “Notice,” Morning Oregonian, June Oregon Sunday Journal, April 20, 1913, p. 34. 4, 1885, p. 5. 32. Effinger’s first name is not recorded in 26. Robin R. Cutler, A Soul on Trial: A the 1878 report, but there were only two males Marine Corps Mystery at the Turn of the of that surname living in Portland according Twentieth Century (Maryland: Rowman and to the 1880 Census; the other was advanced Littlefield,2007 ), 73. For more on Bourne, see in years. An Effinger, presumably William, was Leonard Schlub, “Republican Insurgent: jona- named in the line-up for a Portland Cricket than Bourne and the Politics of Progressivism, Club match in 1878; “Cricket Match,” Daily 1908–1912,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 87:3 Oregonian, August 6, 1878, p. 4. (Fall 1986): 229–44. 33. Ibid.; “Home News,” New Northwest, 27. One of four Beutgens [sic] living in July 24, 1879, p. 3; “Local and General Events Portland according to the 1880 Census, but of the Year — September,” Morning Oregonian, the only one of playing age, and presumably January 1, 1875, p. 5. to be identified with the Beutjen who played 34. “Home News,” New Northwest, July for Portland during 1880. “Cricket,” Morning 31, 1879, p. 3. Oregonian, May 1, 1880, p. 3; 1880 U.S. Cen- 35. Ibid.; “Another Astoria Victory,” Morn- sus, Multnomah County, Oregon, population ing Astorian, August 7, 1894, p. 4; “The Bonds schedule, Portland, page 16, dwelling 134, of Matrimony,” Morning Astorian, September 8, family 134, Harry Molson; digital image, www. 1895, p. 6. The latter makes reference only to ancestry.com, accessed January 14, 2019. the “Portland cricket team,” which may or may 28. The city’s “Turn Verein” had been not indicate the club; the context (a wedding at established by 1872; “Juvenile Turners, which members turned out) was not a sporting Morning Oregonian, January 16, 1872, p. 4. For one, and the absence of game reports from the Caledonian Club and the Williamette Row- this period is noticeable. A report alongside it ing Club, “Boat Racing and Baseball,” Morn- referring to an eleven of the Portland Amateur

Jones, The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s–1920s 293 Athletic Club playing a “championship cricket the charges concluded, “due to his condition game” against a team from Astoria appears of mental distress, Mr. Gjedsted is more to not to refer to Portland’s cricket club. be pitied than censured and your committee 36. “Arthur Tarilton,” ESPN, www.espncricin- will make no further comment upon the man’s fo.com/westindies/content/player/53138.html conduct in trying to besmirch the good name (accessed June 21, 2019); www.cricketarchive. of his employer through a desire for revenge.” com/Archive/Players/14/14684/14684.html, last “Probes Exonerate Adjutant-General,” Sunday accessed January 15, 2019. Tarilton was work- Oregonian, February 8, 1925, p. 10; “General ing as a bookkeeper by 1914 (Polk’s Portland White Cleared,” Morning Oregonian, Febru- City Directory (R.L. Polk & Co., 1914), 1378. For ary 20, 1925, p. 8. My sincere thanks to Helen Tarilton’s service in Mississippi, U.S. Depart- Ryan for this reference. His household goods ment of State, Register of the Department of were advertised as to be sold by auction the State (Washington: Government Printing Of- following month. Capital Journal (Salem), fice, 1907), 161. As befitted one of his abilities, March 5, 1925, p. 8. Tarilton topped Portland’s batting averages 40. “Cricket Game This Afternoon,” Or- in the 1913 season. Spalding’s Official Cricket egon Daily Journal, June 11, 1904, p. 7. Guide (New York: American Sports Publishing 41. “Cricket Gaining in Popular Favor,” Company, 1913), p. 91. Oregon Sunday Journal, May 12, 1912, p. 43. 37. Peter Vinten-Johansen et al., Cholera, 42. For Portland’s 1911 visit to Seattle, see Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: A “Cricket Team Leaves for Seattle Tonight,” Life of John Snow (Oxford: Oxford University Oregon Daily Journal, July 3, 1911, p. 10; for Press, 2003), 262. preparations for Portland’s visit to Canada in 38. Joseph Gaston, Portland, Oregon, 1912, see “Portland Cricket Club To Take Part,” Its History and Builders, vol. 2 (Portland: S.J. Oregon Daily Journal, July 26, 1912, p. 14. For Clarke Publishing Company, 1911), 276–79. Portland’s professional coach, see “Cricket 39. “Cricket Colts Beaten,” Oregonian, Gaining in Popular Favor,” Oregon Daily Jour- May 16, 1910, p. 8; “Cricket Club Sees Good nal, May 12, 1912, p. 43. Year Ahead,” Oregon Daily Journal, November 43. “Eastern Cricketers Will Boost Game, 11, 1912, p. 12. After working with Wells Fargo, Portlanders Eagerly Await Their Coming,” Cumming joined Union Pacific, where he was Oregon Daily Journal, August 27, 1911, p. 34. promoted at least twice. See “Editorials on 44. “Cricketers Looking Forward to a Most News,” Evening Herald (Klamath Falls), March Successful Season,” Oregon Sunday Journal, 23, 1934, p. 4; Coos Bay Times, July 2, 1940, p. March 2, 1913, p. 28. Negotiations seem to have 6. For Cumming’s captaincy (and Gjedsted’s proceeded in good faith between the two par- vice-captaincy), see “Portland Cricketers Are ties; the Australian team apparently lowered Planning a Tour of British Columbia,” Oregon its fee several times, though still not enough Sunday Journal, March 9, 1913, p. 23. Charles for Portland to find it achievable. “Cricket Club Edward Gjedsted made captain in the Oregon Plans New Playing Ground for Future Contests,” National Guard by 1917, and was a major by Oregon Sunday Journal, July 6, 1913, p. 24; the time of his resignation in 1925. “Recruiting Spalding’s Official Cricket Guide (New York: Under Way at Pendleton,” Oregon Sunday American Sports Publishing Company,1914), 148. Journal, May 20, 1917, p. 12; “O.N.G. Officer 45. “Cricket Club Plans New Playing Quits,” The News-Review (Roseburg), Febru- Ground for Future Contests,” Oregon Sunday ary 2, 1925, p. 5. Gjedsted appears to have Journal, July 6, 1913, p. 24. resigned after being demoted by the adjutant- 46. “Portland Cricketers to Open the Sea- general — soon after, he publicly accused son,” Oregon Daily Journal, April 30, 1915, p. 11. the adjutant-general of submitting “irregular” 47. Spalding’s Official Cricket Guide mileage vouchers, a charge that he later re- (1914), 148. canted and said was filed in an attempt to get 48. “Time Too Short For Cricketers To revenge for his demotion. An investigation into Finish,” Daily Oregon Statesman (Salem),

294 OHQ vol. 120, no. 3 June 20, 1911, p. 7. The team is implied to be a Stanley Turnbull, ed., Oregon Exchanges 4:4 bona fide cricket club at this time, though the (June 1921), 29. absence of further references seems to sug- 55. “First Cricket Game in Eugene Draws gest it was a casual offshoot of the short-lived Poorly,” Morning Register, June 13, 1918, p. 6. Salem Ramblers baseball team. “Salem Boys In the very first practice session held a week Win,” Morning Oregonian, June 15, 1905, p. 7. previously, Medley’s team emerged victori- For Mount Tabor CC, see “Portland Cricket ous with 35 runs to 32; “Prof. Howe Told to Players Winners,” Oregon Daily Journal, June Suit Himself About Meeting,” Oregon Daily 5, 1911, p. 12. Portland’s ground and clubhouse Journal, June 7, 1918, p. 13. were in North Mount Tabor. “English Coach for 56. “Cricket Equipment Shipped to Cam- Cricketers,” Oregon Sunday Journal, March pus,” Eugene Guard, May 29, 1918, p. 4. 28, 1909, p. 56. Portland played several differ- 57. Prior to this competition, matches were ent clubs from Multnomah in the first years of organized between an entity calling itself the the 1890s, 1900s, and early 1910s, including the Portland Cricket Club and teams composed of cricket eleven of the Multnomah A.A.C. “Mult- British sailors from ships in harbor. “Portland nomahs in Luck,” Daily Oregon Statesman, Cricket Team to Play Ship,” Oregon Daily Jour- August 18, 1895, p. 1; “Cricket Club Will Meet nal, August 5, 1922, p. 8; “Another Cricket Game ‘M’ Tomorrow,” Oregon Daily Journal, May 29, is Planned,” Oregon Daily Journal, August 1912, p. 10; Multnomah Cricket Club “Annual 26, 1922, p. 8. A three-match “championship” Cricket Match Tuesday,” Oregon Daily Journal, apparently held between two teams — West May 26, 1911, p. 16; and “the Multnomah Club” Portland and East Portland – followed in “Cricket Gaining in Popular Favor,” Oregon September, and West Portland played a club Sunday Journal, May 12, 1912, p. 43. identified only as “Wanderers” shortly thereaf- 49. See, for example, Portland’s five- ter “Cricket Clubs to Play Third Game,” Oregon wicket victory against a team from the steam- Daily Journal, September 16, 1922, p. 8; “Third ship Suveric; “Cricketers Win From Boat Crew,” Straight is Won by West Siders,” September Oregon Daily Journal, July 25, 1909, p. 14. 19, 1922, p. 12, “Low Score Recorded in Cricket 50. See, for example, “Seattle is Winner Contest,” October 3, 1922, p. 12. of Cricket Contest,” Oregon Daily Journal, 58. “Case of ‘Musical Chairs,’ Bevan July 6, 1914, p. 9. Says of Macmillan,” Eugene Guard, January 51. “Portland Cricketers to Open the Sea- 13, 1957, p. 2. son,” Oregon Daily Journal, April 30, 1915, p. 11. 59. The Turner movement, of which the 52. “Dean” was Walker’s first name, and Portland Social Turnverein was a manifesta- not an academic title, as some mistakenly as- tion, came to prominence in the 1850s, as sumed it to be. Oregon Teachers Monthly 25:6 large numbers of immigrants from Germany (February 1921), 376. Zach Bigalke, “Colonel who crossed the Atlantic in the aftermath John Leader, The Man Who Prepared Oregon of the failed revolution of 1848 established for World War I,” Unbound, December 16, 2014; Turnverein clubs in order to practice physical https://blogs.uoregon.edu/scua/2014/12/16/ exercise and for social and cultural reasons. colonel-john-leader-the-man-who-prepared- The Portland Social Turnverein sold its Turn- oregon-for-world-war-i/ (accessed June 17, halle in 1946, by which time the organization 2019). had become dormant; “History,” German 53. “Cricket Equipment Shipped to Cam- American Society of Portland, http://www. pus,” Eugene Guard, May 29, 1918, p. 4. germanamerican.org/history.html (accessed 54. “Cricket Match Off; Material Not June 27, 2019). Sarah Trudy Flores, “Portland- Here,” Eugene Guard, June 5, 1918, p. 6. Seattle Turnverein Special Train,” Oregon “Cricket Match Held,” Eugene Guard, June History Project, https://oregonhistoryproject. 12, 1918, p. 5. Sheehy was a keen baseball org/articles/historical-records/portland- player who later turned out for the baseball seattle-turnverein-special-train/ (accessed team of the Portland Telegram; George June 7, 2019).

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