Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr. - Biography

by Monica Nucciarone

Given Name: Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr. Nickname: Alick

Other than Abner Doubleday himself, there may never be another person whose relation to baseball’s beginnings is more celebrated and at the same time refuted than Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr.

Cartwright’s obituary written in the Hawaiian Gazette and Pacific Commercial Advertiser in July of 1892 stated, “To publish more than an epitome of the eventful life of A. J. Cartwright is not practicable in a work of this character. He was one of the early argonauts of California, and his biography would, if exhaustively written, be extremely interesting. It would indeed fill a volume, and be an invaluable text book to place in the hands of the rising generation to reflect upon and emulate.”

Born in New York City, April 17, 1820 to Captain Alexander Joy Cartwright, Sr. and his wife Esther Burlock Cartwright, Alex Jr. was one of six children. His five siblings were Benjamin, Katherine, Alfred, Esther, and Mary. Alex married Eliza Van Wie of Albany on June 2, 1842. Three children were born to them in New York: DeWitt (born May 3, 1843), Mary (born June 1, 1845), and Catherine Lee or Kathleen or “Kate Lee” (born October 5, 1849). Note: Kate Lee was born in New York during Cartwright’s later venture to California and onto Hawaii.

In 1836, Cartwright began work as a clerk at the age of 16 in a broker’s office on Wall Street, Coit & Cochrane. He later earned his living by way of being a clerk for Union Bank of New York. Banker’s hours afforded bank employees, more than other laborers, to spend more time outdoors before heading home by nightfall. During the early part of the 19th Century in New York City it was common to see men gathering in the street or vacant lots for a game of ball after their work was done for the day. One such vacant lot was on 27th Street (Madison Square) and later at 34th Street and Lexington Avenue (Murray Hill).

Many of these ball-playing young men were also volunteer firemen. The first firehouse that Cartwright was associated with was Oceana Hose Company No. 36. Later, he joined Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 12 located at Pearl and Cherry Streets. However, it disbanded in 1843. It is for perhaps this reason that the young ball-players, possibly Cartwright himself, named their ball club after the Engine Company, apparently sometime between 1842-1845.

In July of 1845 there was a huge fire that destroyed the Union Bank where Cartwright was employed. As a result, Alick went into the book-selling business with his brother Alfred on Wall Street. They did not give up on their ball playing, however. Yet, the city was growing and changing all around them.

The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club ventured across the Hudson River by ferry to Hoboken, New Jersey. There they found a roomy spot called Elysian Fields. The team drew up a constitution and bylaws on September 23, 1845. Of the rules that are attributed to Alexander Cartwright at the time, there are a few still in use today. These include: 1) a runner being touched with a ball, rather than hit with it to be considered out of the game, 2) a ball being determined foul if outside the range of first or third base, and 3) one of the most debated of the “Cartwright rules,” the distance between the bases (paced out in a diamond-shaped format with forty-two paces from home to second base, and 42 paces from first to third base).

On October 6, 1845 they played their first recorded game. The men played well into late autumn that year. Receipts exist for dinners that are dated December 5, 1845 and are labeled with “Elysian Fields Hoboken for twenty dinners at $1.50 each for the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club.”

The first match game was played between the Knickerbockers and the New York Club on June 19, 1846 at Elysian Fields. The New York Club won 23-1. They were playing with one of Cartwright’s original rules for winning, which was the first team to reach 21 aces or runs.

Documentation of Cartwright’s doings between June 1846 and March 1849 are scarce. He undoubtedly worked at his stationary and book store with his brother Alfred on Wall Street, volunteered in fighting fires when emergencies arose, spent time with his wife Eliza and two children, DeWitt and Mary, and kept playing base ball with the Knickerbockers.

Gold was discovered in California during January of 1848. News reached New York by September of that year. By March 1849, Alexander was off to California for adventure and hopes to strike it rich. Unknowingly, he and Eliza had their third child on the way.

The original handwritten diary of that journey, or a portion of it, resides in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. Alexander’s grandson Bruce Cartwright, Jr. typed a transcribed copy of it as late as the 1930s. In that copy it describes Alexander leaving New York March 1, 1849 to travel by train to St. Louis, Missouri. From St. Louis he took a steamboat to Independence, Missouri. According to the transcribed copy of the journal, A.J. Cartwright, Jr. wrote on April 23, 1849, “During the past week we have passed the time in fixing the wagon-covers, stowing away property etc. varied by hunting and fishing, swimming and playing Base-ball. I have the ball and book of rules with me that we used back home.”

A passage from the handwritten journal states, “We started under the guidance of Colonel Russell, the company consisting of 32 waggons with 110 men, for ‘Gold Diggins’ of California, our trail lay over a fine prairie on the Santa Fe route...” The rest of the journey tells of accounts with several Indian tribes, Baptist missionaries, trappers, government forts, trading posts, and Mormon settlers. He finally arrived in San Francisco on August 10th, where he met up with his younger brother Alfred who had preceded him there via Cape Horn. Together, the brothers purchased interest in a mining enterprise. They did find some gold; however, within days after doing so, Alexander sailed for Hawaii on August 15, 1849. He had been having bouts of dysentery and his friend Charles Robinson told him about the Sandwich Islands where he could relax and regain his health.

Upon arrival in Honolulu, Alex Cartwright must have inhaled the fragrance of tropical flowers, such as Plumeria, Jasmine, and Gardenia along with the sweet smell of pineapple and sugar cane in the air. Cartwright met up with former New York acquaintance Aaron B. Howe who owned a ship chandlery business. Alick became employed as a bookkeeper for Howe.

Ancient Hawaiians revered Pele, the Goddess of Fire, but 19th Century Hawaiian society found it necessary to fight fire with buckets of water. W.C. Parke formed Honolulu’s first Volunteer Fire Brigade in November of 1850, and not a day too soon. On the same day a fire broke out and eleven homes were destroyed. W.C. Parke was Honolulu’s first fire chief from that moment, but for unknown reasons, on December 27, 1850, King Kamehameha III passed an act in Privy Council that appointed Alexander J. Cartwright be Chief Engineer of the Fire Department of the City of Honolulu. Oahu’s Governor, Kekuanaoa, signed the act on February 3, 1851. Reportedly, King Kamehameha III took an immense interest in the department. When the alarm went off, the reigning monarch shed his coat, rolled up his sleeves and helped right along side the other volunteers.

A passenger list dated November 13, 1851 for the American ship Eliza Warwick shows Mrs. Cartwright and her three children, DeWitt, Mary, and Kathleen traveling to Honolulu from San Francisco. An elaborate gravestone in the Cartwright cemetery plot in Honolulu shows that “Kate Lee” died in Honolulu on November 16, 1851. The other two Cartwright children also died young. Mary Cartwright died in 1869 at age 24, nearly three years after she married, but had no children. DeWitt Cartwright died in 1870 at age 26. He was not married, and had no children.

Two more children were born to Alexander and Eliza in Honolulu, Bruce in 1853 and Alexander III in 1855. Bruce grew up in Honolulu, married and had children, Bruce Jr. and Kathleen. Alexander III eventually moved to San Francisco, married and had children, Daisy, Eva, Ruth, and Mary. Mary Muriel Cartwright married Elliott Everett Check. It was through her that AJC Jr.’s Gold Rush diary was donated to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu from her estate. Bruce Jr’s lineage can be traced to having three children, two of whom died quite young (Bruce III and Coleman), and another William who later had three children, two daughters (Jane and Anna) and a son, Alexander J. Cartwright, IV. It was Bruce Jr. who first wrote to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 about his grandfather and baseball.

Aside from his duties at the Honolulu Fire Department, Alexander became involved with many other aspects of the city. In 1859 Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV founded “Queen’s Hospital.” Cartwright’s contributions to the community stemmed from his involvement with Freemasonry. As part of its customs and traditions, there were cornerstone ceremonies held for the construction of new buildings. The first public Masonic ceremony on the islands was at the laying of the hospital cornerstone in 1860.

As an advisor to the queen, Cartwright was the executor of her Last Will & Testament where she left the bulk of her estate to the hospital when she died in 1885. He also was appointed Consul to Peru, and was on the financial committee for Honolulu’s Centennial Celebration of American Independence held on July 4, 1876.

In 1879 a group of men, including Alexander Cartwright, founded the Honolulu Library and Reading Room. The sponsors had originally named it the “Workingmen’s Library,” but felt that it needed a broader name to signify the true concept. In the local newspaper, the Commercial Pacific Advertiser, editor J. H. Black wrote, “The library is not intended to be run for the benefit of any class, party, nationality, or sect.”

Some of the founders wanted women excluded from membership, but Alexander was not one of them. In a letter to his brother Alfred on the matter, he wrote, “The idea keeps the blessed ladies out and the children. What makes us old geezers think we are the only ones to be spiritually and morally uplifted by a public library in this city?” It wasn’t long before the committee changed the wording of the constitution to make women eligible for membership.

Alexander Cartwright was involved with the library for the rest of his life, and was president from 1886-1892. The Reading Room librarian, Mary Burbank, said “Mr. Cartwright’s name led the list of the first Board of Directors in 1879, and [he] remained on the board as long as he lived, giving the most generously of books.” Cartwright was a constant reader and would frequently donate his own purchased books after he had read them.

Another little known fact is that Cartwright was one of twelve men who belonged to a “Birthday Club.” Beginning in December of 1871, the twelve men would have a “first-class” dinner at one of the member’s homes each month. The Honorary President was King Kamehameha V. May 2, 1872 would be their last dinner. The king was attacked with dropsy and died later in the year on December 11th. Once the king fell ill, the club postponed their dinners, yet never met again. Oddly enough, the king died on his 42nd birthday.

King Kamehameha V was the first native Hawaiian to become a Freemason. The February before he died, a cornerstone was laid in Masonic tradition with members of the lodge present, including the Acting Grand Master, Alexander Cartwright, Jr. The king, together with Cartwright, spread cement beneath the Cornerstone for what would become the Judiciary Building.

The next monarch, King Kalakaua, became the first Hawaiian monarch to attend a baseball game. Cartwright was the king’s financial advisor. The game took place in 1875 between the Athletes and the Pensacolas. The game of baseball had been growing in popularity since being played at Punahou College in the 1860s. It is unclear that Cartwright actually instituted the playing of the game on the islands, however.

Spalding’s world tour of 1888-89 brought the Chicago White Stockings and the All-American teams to Honolulu in November of 1888. They were due to arrive on a Saturday and play a scheduled game at 1:00 PM. Unfortunately, their ship arrived at 5:30 AM on Sunday morning. There were some political aspects to their visit, which prevented them from playing a game on a Sunday. The “blue law” was originally enacted from New England missionaries in 1820, but enforced as a means of defiance against the king by missionary descendents. It was during this time that political powers were plotting to overthrow the monarchy.

There was great disappointment by all that had gathered to greet Spalding’s group to see the men play, including that of Cartwright. In Spalding’s book America’s National Game, published in 1911, Spalding recalls meeting Cartwright and calls him “one of the devotees of Base Ball…” No other details of a conversation between the two have been uncovered.

Spalding seemed impressed, however, when he remarked that Honolulu had four established clubs and that baseball was fully appreciated there. There is recorded evidence that Cartwright’s Hawaiian-born sons, Bruce and Alex III, played baseball between the 1860s and 1880s in Honolulu. It is without a doubt that these young men would not have missed seeing the professional ball players come to town, and be standing right beside their father. With Cartwright’s personal connection to the monarchy, it is also quite feasible that the Cartwright family attended a grand luau held at the queen’s home to honor the visitors on Sunday evening.

Alexander Cartwright died on July 12, 1892. A newspaper reported in the Hawaiian language that Cartwright “breathed the last breath of his life in Waikiki.” It stated that he died of an “illness in his throat that worsened.”

On January 17, 1893, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown. A group of Americans in Honolulu had formed in order to request United States president, Benjamin Harrison, that Hawaii become an annexation of the United States. The president was in favor. The individual leading the cause for annexation was Lorrin Thurston. Interestingly enough, Lorrin Thurston had played baseball at Punahou School with Alexander III and Bruce Cartwright, (Sr.).

Alexander Cartwright’s grandson Bruce, Jr. carried the torch of the family legacy until the time of his own death on March 11, 1939, which was three months before the official opening ceremonies of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Bruce Cartwright was instrumental in providing enough information to the induction committee to have his grandfather inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1938. During the celebration festivities in the summer of 1939 there was also “National Cartwright Day” where ball players at Ebbett’s Field drank pineapple juice in a toast to Cartwright. It was the first major league baseball game ever shown on a television broadcast.

A large, pink granite monument in Nuuanu Valley Cemetery in Honolulu marks the final resting-place of Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr. Many baseball greats, such as Babe Ruth have visited this spot to pay tribute. Nearby, a street and a park were named after Cartwright. The park was originally called Makiki Park, where it was known as the first grounds used for playing baseball.

With each passing year, baseball’s true origin becomes more and more difficult to determine. Old papers deteriorate or are destroyed, or perhaps are buried among other forgotten relics in an attic somewhere. There is a letter, however, that remains in existence from Cartwright to an old Knickerbocker friend, Charles DeBost. Cartwright writes in April 1865, “Dear old Knickerbockers, I hope the Club is still kept up, and that I shall some day meet again with them on the pleasant fields of Hoboken. Charlie, I have in my possession the original ball with which we used to play on Murray Hill. Many is the pleasant chase I have had after it on Mountain and Prairie, and many an equally pleasant one on the sunny plains of “Hawaii’nei,” here in Honolulu my pleasant Island Home—sometimes I have thought of sending it home to be played for by the Clubs, but I cannot bear to part with it, it is so linked in with cherished home memories, it is truly one of my family lares.”

If not for Bruce Cartwright, Jr. this biography about Alexander Cartwright, Jr. probably would not be written today. Perhaps, it was his memories as a young boy listening to his grandfather tell stories that spurred him to announce to the world about his grandfather’s accomplishments. As he told a journalist for an article in the magazine Paradise of the Pacific, “When I was a small boy it was my great joy to hear grandpa tell about the early days of baseball in New York and his adventures while crossing the continent.”

Bibliography

Originator of Organized Baseball, S.F. Furukawa
Paradise of the Pacific, May 1, 1947 v 59, n 5, p 24

Overthrow of the Monarchy, Pat Pitzer
Spirit of Aloha, May 1994

Passenger List of American Ship Eliza Warwick, 1851

The Long Table of Kamehameha V, Bruce Cartwright, Jr.
Paradise of the Pacific, July 1, 1913, v 26, n 7

The City and County of Honolulu
Resolution, 1938

The Best of Friends, Albertine Loomis
Friends of the Library of Hawaii, Press Pacifica, 1979

Missionaries, Cartwright, and Spalding: The Development of Baseball in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii. PP. 27-45, Frank Ardolino
NINE: a journal of baseball history & culture," volume 10, number 2, Spring 2002

Centennial Celebration of American Independence 1876
State Archives of Hawaii

Cartwright Obituary, The Commercial Record
Hawaiian Gazette and Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 19, 1892

Cartwright Obituary, translated by Esther Mookini
An Hawaiian language newspaper

Cartwright Diary, Alexander J. Cartwright, Jr.
Bishop Museum

Cartwright Diary Transcription, Bruce Cartwright, Jr.
Cartwright Family archives

Cartwright Lineage and Geneology
Cartwright Family archives

Honolulu Fire Department, Deputy Chief John Clark

A Freemason was the Father of Baseball, Jerry R. Erikson
The Royal Arch Mason

Cartwright letter to Charles DeBost, Alexander J. Cartwright, Jr.
Cartwright Family archives

Cartwright Day, With Leis, on Television, Hawaiian Gazette
August 1939