1820s.22

MA Boy Played One Old Cat, Base Ball in Early Childhood

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags
Location
City/State/Country:	Williamstown, MA, United States
Modern Address
Game	Base Ball, One Old CatBase Ball, One Old Cat
Immediacy of Report	Retrospective
Age of Players
Holiday
Notables
Text	"In my early boyhood I was permitted to run at large in the [Williamstown MA] street and over broad acres, playing 'one old cat,' and base ball (no scientific games or balls as hard as a white oak boulder in those days) excepted when pressed into service to ride the horse to plough out the corn and potatoes." -- Keyes Danforth
Sources	Keyes Danforth, Boyhood Reminiscences: Pictures of New England in the Olden Times in Williamstown (Gazlay Brothers, New York, 1895), page 12. Per Thomas L. Altherr, "Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games," Base Ball, Volume 2, number 1 (Spring 2008), page 38. The book was accessed 11/16/2008 via Google Books search <pictures of new>."
Warning
Comment	Danforth, born in 1822, became a judge. Williamstown MA is in the NW corner of the commonwealth, and lies about 35 miles E of Albany NY. Edit with form to add a comment
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Has Supplemental Text

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