Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913 — John Shaqi
Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913
History
Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913
Baseball
John Tomlinson Brush was born in Clintonville, N.Y., on June 15, 1845.
He died November 26, 1912, near St. Charles, Mo., on his way to
California from New York, for his health. Left an orphan at the age of
four years, he went to live at the home of his grandfather, in
Hopkinton, where he remained until he was seventeen years old. At this
age he left school and went to Boston, where he obtained a position in a
clothing establishment, a business with which he was identified up to
his death. He worked as a clerk in several cities in the East, and
finally went to Indianapolis in 1875 to open a clothing store. The store
still occupies the same building, and Mr. Brush continued at the head of
the business until his death. It was in the early '80s that he first
became interested in Base Ball in Indianapolis, and he made himself both
wealthy and famous as a promoter.
In 1863 Mr. Brush enlisted in the First New York Artillery, and served
as a member of this body until it was discharged, at the close of the
civil war. He was a charter member of George H. Thomas Post, G.A.R.; a
thirty-third degree Scottish Rite Mason, and was also prominently
identified with several social and commercial organizations of
Indianapolis, notably the Columbia Club, Commercial Club, Board of
Trade, and the Mannerchor Society. In New York Mr. Brush took up
membership in the Lambs' Club and the Larchmont Club. For several years
he made his headquarters at the Lambs' Club.
Mr. Brush is survived by his widow, Mrs. Elsie Lombard Brush, and two
daughters, Miss Natalie Brush and Mrs. Harry N. Hempstead. His first
wife, Mrs. Agnes Ewart Brush, died in 1888.
Mr. Brush's career in Base Ball, a sport to which he was devotedly
attached, and for which he had the highest ideals and aims, began with
the Indianapolis club of the National League.
It has been somewhat inaccurately stated that he entered Base Ball by
chance. This was not, strictly speaking, the case. Prior to his first
immediate association with the national game he was an ardent admirer of
the sport, although not connected with it in any capacity as owner. He
was what might be called, with accurate description, a Base Ball "fan"
in the earlier stages of development.
An opportunity presented itself by which it was possible to procure for
the city of Indianapolis a franchise in the National League. Mr. Brush
was quick to perceive the advantages which this might have in an
advertising way for the city with which he had cast his lot and
subscribed to the stock.
Like many such adventures in the early history of the sport there came a
time when the cares and the duties of the club had to be assumed by a
single individual and it was then that he became actively identified as
a managing owner, as the duty of caring for the club fell upon his
shoulders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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