LUTHER LANE “LUKE” STUART 05/23/1892 – 06/15/1947 Linda Willard Jamestown Friends Meeting Luther Lane “Luke” Stuart was born May 23, 1892 in Alamance County, North Carolina. Stuart was one of eleven children of Patrick Stuart and Mary Perry Stuart. There is no information regarding Stuarts early education, however, it was probably in the local schools. The family moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where Stuart attended Guilford College. Stuart played shortstop on the college baseball team during the 1913-1914 seasons. During 1913 season, Stuart was the leading hitter on the Guilford College team. Stuart compiled a .415 batting average for one of the best baseball teams in the history of the school. Stuart began his minor league career with the Winston-Salem, North Carolina team in the Class D North Carolina State League. This was comprised of teams from the larger cities in Central and Western North Carolina. In 1916, Stuart played second base for Galveston, Texas. Unfortunately, the Galveston team was disbanded shorty into the 1917 season. Stuart next played for a team in Houston, Texas. However, the team was downsized to half-time status for the remainder of the 1917 season. During World War I, Stuart was out of baseball when he joined the military. After the war, the Houston team placed Stuart on the voluntarily retired list. Stuart returned to Greensboro, North Carolina and resumed work on his father’s farm. Stuart also managed a local garage. In 1920, Lee Gooch coaxed Stuart out of retirement. Gooch managed a Class B team in Richmond Virginia. Stuart helped to lead the team to a first-half championship. The team narrowly missed being league champions when they lost the seventh game of the playoff series. Stuart’s ability as a power hitting second-baseman must have caught the eye of Lee Fohl, the manager for St. Louis. At the time, Fohl was scouting for the St. Louis Browns. Fohl needed a second baseman. His regular second baseman had been banished from Major League baseball for his fringe role in the Black Sox scandal. Stuart joined the St. Louis Browns in late July of the 1921 season. Stuart finished the 1921 season and played a few seasons in Tulsa, Oklahoma before finally hanging up his baseball glove and retiring from Major League baseball for good. Stuart’s most memorable feat during his short Major League career was his first major league at bat when he hit a home run off Walter Johnson, not that he hit the homer in his first major league at bat. A 1987 article in Baseball Quarterly got things moving for Stuart to receive notice for his feat in the baseball record book. The mid 1990s Complete Baseball Record Book finally recognized Stuart as the first American League player to hit a home run in his first major league at bat. Stuart once again returned home to North Carolina where he worked for the Pilot Real Estate Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Stuart died at the age of fifty-five on June 15, 1947. Stuart apparently committed suicide. The local newspaper reported that the janitor found Stuart’s body slumped on a chair at the Pilot Real Estate office, with his wrist slit and a pistol near the body. There was a suicide note, however, the contents of the note were not disclosed. The note was left for Stuart’s brother Albert, who stated that he thought that the suicide was due to health problems. Stuart is buried in the New Garden Friends Cemetery in Greensboro, North Carolina. .