CHAPTER IV.
1845-55
ALTHOUGH accepting the finding of the Commission of 1907 as definitely establishing the American origin of our national game, and that it was first put on record by the scheme devised by young Doubleday, in 1839, it is known that the game of Base Ball, in crude form, had been played for many years previous to that date, and it was doubtless from the fact of his familiarity with it in earlier years that the embryo Major General was inspired to formulate his system looking toward its perfection.
In his admirable little work, entitled "Base Bail," Mr. John Montgomery Ward, the famous old time player, and at present a member of the New York bar, declares that:
"Col. James Lee, elected an honorary member of the Knickerbocker Club in 1846, said that he had often played the game when a boy, and at that time he was a man of sixty or more years.
"Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Said to the reporter of a Boston paper that Base Ball was one of the sports of his college days at Harvard, and Dr. Holmes graduated in 1829.
"Mr. Charles DeBost, the catcher and captain of the old Knickerbockers, played Base Ball on Long Island fifty years ago, and it was the same game which the Knickerbockers afterward played."
No longer ago than last year, the following appeared in the columns of the Erie (Pa.) Tribune:
