Jimmy Claxton photos

These were sent to by Ty (pariah1107) because he was having problems posting the pics.

Struck up a conversation with a man at the post office who recognized a Jimmy Claxton photo I had under my arm. His name is Freddie Watterson, he was the batboy pictured at bottom middle in 1950 Ellensburg Cowboys Semi-Pro photo. He shared these photos over a couple pints at the local tavern. Dean Nicholson is bottom right (Known as part of the winningest father/son combination of college basketball coaches in NCAA history, CWU more than 1,100 wins). The initial photo is so encrusted I did not want to touch it, so had a studio touch it up. Now I like the initial photo more (both of them together look well). Initially these were to be put on postcards for sale at the games, but he still had this almost 8X11 (probably the reason for the grainy look). The second photo is of the 1909 Ellensburg High School team. Ravensdale High School & Claxton played against them April 29,1909 (Claxton 2-4 with a stolen base and homer). The game was referred to as "a mire of flesh and leather" after a brawl broke out in the eighth inning. Research ongoing.

Thank you Jay. I'll be adding a few photos of Claxton himself after throwing this computer out the window, and replacing it with something more functional than an Atari. Updates on the research trip will be posted here (May 16-24).

Question: How do you tell the story of a man who has been dead for forty two years, and was only interviewed once? And, who's only popular likeness bears little resemblance to the man depicted?

Answer: With the help of Milton Wagy (Ellensburg Public Library), Bridgett Clift (CWU Archives), Lyle Kenai Wilson, Douglas Q. Barnett, Patricia Maguinez, Barbara Ting (Verdi Preservation Society), Marc Blau, Shanaman Sports Museum (Tacoma), Mark Macrae, Ed Claxton II, Richard Claxton, and Full Count Vintage Baseball Card Forum. Thank you all for your patience with me.

Can't wait to see more.

In the summer of 1888 fifty African Americans from Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia were piled into a railroad car like cord wood and told of a promised land in Washington Territory. Their destination, Roslyn Washington, was a coal mining town on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains established in 1886. Among them, William Edward Claxton (1862-1943), a farmer from Brookville, Virginia.

Agents of the Northern Pacific Railroad & Coal Company were less than honest about the opportunities that awaited these men. Especially labor recruiter, James E. Shepperson (1858-1934), who neglected to tell the men they would be strikebreakers. In fact, violence had escalated in the frontier town, striking miners had tied superintendent Alexander Ronald to the railroad tracks.

Here is a photo of William and Jimmy Claxton in Roslyn, Washington 1941, and a brief summary of the 1888 Roslyn Miners Strike. Thanks to Patricia Maguinez, Marc Blau and Shanaman Sports Museum.

http://www.tacomasportsmuseum.com/virtual_exhibit/exhibit6/e61190b.htm
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9240

William Claxton met Emma Richards in Roslyn between late 1888 & early 1890. The Richards family had moved to the area in the mid-1880's from (Old) Shawneetown, Illinois, an administrative headquarters of Washington Territory (Washington became a state in 1889). She was Irish/English, and interracial tension in the community had been running hot for years. Though Washington did not have anti-miscegenation laws (like those in Oregon) Claxton and his wife-to-be were forced to relocate to Wellington, British Columbia, Canada in order to marry (January 1892).

According to African American historian, and Roslyn native Joyce Craven Hawkins, this could not have been done without the permission of James E. Shepperson (likely the person James E. "Jimmy" Claxton was named after). "Big Jim" Shepperson, was a Moses like figure who believed he was leading his people from the wilderness of the South. A well intentioned man, he later became the benevolent dictator of many black miners' futures in Washington state. The Claxton and Shepperson families would be very close for years to come, for many reasons.

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/shepperson-james-e-1858

This part of Claxton's story is necessary for later reference... my apologies for the confusing, following events....

Their first son, James Edward "Jimmy" Claxton was born on December 14, 1892 at Wellington on Vancouver Island off the West Coast of Canada. Jimmy moved with his parents to Tacoma at three months old. His brother John was born in Tacoma in 1894, while his sister Emma Elmary Josephin (“Trixie”) was born in Canada in 1896. His family traveled to Tacoma and from Canada many times until Wellington shuttered its doors in 1898 when the last mine closed, and a subsequent fire gutted the small community.

Tragedy would separate Jimmy’s mother and father. They divorced shortly after the unfortunate stillbirth of another daughter in 1902. The children were separated between the parents. Jimmy moved to Ravensdale, Washington with his father, a small mining community on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains (40 miles west of Roslyn). While his younger brother and sister stayed in Tacoma with their mother and her brother, Benjamin Richards' family. The siblings were separated until William Claxton remarried in April 1911. He married the ex-wife of James E. Shepperson, Maude Shepperson.

I do not have any photos of Emma Richards-Claxton but she remained very close to family, living her later years with Jimmy Claxtons' nephew Judge Jack Tanner until she passed in 1967. This photo of Jimmy Claxton is probably in Roslyn, Washington circa 1926-31. Photo courtesy of Patricia Maguinez, Marc Blau, and Shanaman Sports Museum

http://www.tacomasportsmuseum.com/virtual_exhibit/exhibit6/e61191b.htm

Ravensdale was the only incorporated town in the coal mining area. Essentially anyone, anywhere, on the west slope of the Cascades who had the courage and money to dig a shaft 1,500 feet into the earth had a hamlet develop around it. People in Ravensdale, Kummer, Kangley, Selleck, Elk Coal, Georgetown, Morganville, Lake Sawyer, Bayne, and Cumberland were all counted in Ravensdale. To say the Claxtons' were in Ravensdale proper, would not be correct, they were in a spur town called Franklin, Washington.

Franklin was populated much like its sister "city", Roslyn, by James E. Shepperson bringing in labor (African Americans) to break a strike of Oregon Improvement Company mines in 1891. It was not peaceful. The National Guard and Pinkerton Detectives were brought in to pacify the people, eventually a fence was erected to separate the races. Jimmy Claxton lived here from 1905 - 1909. He road the train to attend school in Ravensdale.

Here is a photo of the field Jimmy Claxton learned to play ball on (circa 1908). Notice down the right field line, behind the Knights of Pythias Labor Hall/Saloon... that is not a ditch, that is the Green River Gorge. Probably where, as a left handed hitter, he developed pull power. Slapping or serving anything to left field meant running the risk of putting a valuable ball into the ravine. Franklin is now a ghost town... photo courtesy of the Black Diamond Museum.

http://s1074.photobucket.com/albums/w415/pariah1107/Franklin%20Washington%20Baseball%20Diamond%201908/

Explanation of events surrounding 1891 strikebreakers.

http://historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=1941

William Claxton was not only a coal miner, but also an ordained deacon and later minister of the African Methodist Episcopal church in Franklin (1905-11) and Roslyn (1912-43). According to Joyce Craven Hawkins, "he had a deep, thunderous bass voice whose renditions of 'Come to the Church in the Wild Wood' could be heard blocks away on Sundays." He was a kind, generous spiritual leader of his flock whose door was always open to parishioners.

He did not particularly care for his sons' participation in baseball. Baseball, in these parts, was more brawlgame than ballgame. Sunday Blue Laws were ignored and drunken miners, loggers and ranchers gambled often. Umpires were paid poorly, if at all, and most games ended controversially or in a wrangle.

Jimmy Claxton could fight. He professionally fought as late as November 1938 in Reno, Nevada under the name "Dark Horse" Claxton at the age of 45. He probably had multiple amateur bouts in the ring and on the diamond. He threw at ALOT of ballplayers. In one game versus Owl Transfers of Seattle in 1931 he hit six men. He did not mind a good scrap.

Here are two photos; one of William Claxton at the First A.M.E. Church Conference in Seattle 1900 (William is bottom row, far right). This photo from the book "Seattle' Black Victorians, 1852-1901" by Esther Mumford. The second photo is of Jimmy Claxton pitching at Runje Field in Roslyn Washington circa 1926-31. This photo courtesy of the Roslyn Museum.

http://s1074.photobucket.com/albums/w415/pariah1107/William%20Claxton%20Jimmy%20Claxton/

According to Jimmy Claxtons' only interview (by legendary Tacoma sportswriter Dan Walton in 1964) he began his career as a catcher/outielder for the "colored nine" of Franklin and Roslyn. Prior to 1910 the small towns of Franklin and Roslyn had a greater African American population than Seattle or Tacoma. These town teams were a point of personal pride in the black community as they often thrashed (sometimes literally), opposing white ballclubs.

It was not his prowess on the mound but his speed, and skill with the lumber that first opened doors for him. Like the Dominican Republic mantra, "You do not walk off the Island." According to coverage in the Auburn Argus newspaper May 1913 Claxton was "possessed of very keen eyes and excellent judgment..." He used pseudonyms when playing on integrated teams for many of these early years including Clawson, Clausen, Clauson, Clarkson, Klaxton, and Barton. Probably because his father was a well-known leader of the A.M.E. church, and the name Claxton in the lineup would instantly draw unwanted retribution.

He did not take the mound until 1912 or 1913. In the same 1964 article it is reported he began his pitching career in Chester, Washington (a small town south of Spokane, 300 miles east). It is far more likely he first pitched in Lester (a small lumber town between Franklin and Roslyn). Regardless, usually pitchers were the only paid players on these semi-pro teams and for grown men in their twenties and thirties to differ to an African American teenager speaks volumes about his talent.

In this photo of the 1912 Ravensdale team, he is referred to as "Barton, backup pitcher", bottom row, right of the batboy. Photo courtesy of University of Washington Archives & Maple Valley Historical Society.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-bin/getimage.exe%3FCISOROOT%3D/imlsmvhs%26CISOPTR%3D217%26DMSCALE%3D100.00000%26DMWIDTH%3D802%26DMHEIGHT%3D588.96875%26DMX%3D0%26DMY%3D0%26DMTEXT%3D%26REC%3D1%26DMTHUMB%3D0%26DMROTATE%3D0&imgrefurl=http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT%3D/imlsmvhs%26CISOPTR%3D217&h=470&w=640&sz=50&tbnid=IKyTyFJkdiSWJM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=137&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dravensdale%2Bwashington%2Bbaseball%2Bimage%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=ravensdale+washington+baseball+image&hl=en&usg=__pbwEDnBWcxrvOlZQukUvaSoyLrA=&sa=X&ei=0qOqT523I4OviQK-mNzaAg&ved=0CBIQ9QEwAA

By any measure Jimmy Claxtons' rise from mining camp stand-out to Pacific Coast League pitcher was meteoric. It could not have been accomplished without the help, and guidance of Ernest "Ernie" Tanner (1889-1956). Tanner was a stellar athlete and labor leader from Tacoma, Washington who played for, and managed the towns Negro League team the Tacoma "Little Giants", for whom Claxton pitched in 1914.

Tanner was a supremely gifted ballplayer with unmatched speed. When his Whitworth College (Tacoma) football team beat the University of Oregon in 1908 there were only 40 males at Whitworth. He was often the victim of brutality at the hands of opposing players, especially on the gridiron. These instances are well documented in Lyle Kenai Wilsons' "Sunday Afternoon at Garfield Park"

Claxton and Tanner would become good friends, thank goodness. Ernie later married Jimmy Claxtons' sister Trixie on Christmas Day, 1916 (separated in the mid-1920's). They had one son, Jack Tanner (1919-2006), who later went on to become the first African American federal judge of Washington state.

This photo of Tyee White Sox courtesy of Tacoma Public Library.
http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=190&pg=10&drequest=subjects+contains+Baseball+Players&stemming=&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=
...and bio http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/ernest-c-tanner-1889-1956

Here is a photo of Jimmy (top row second ballplayer from left) on the Tacoma Casino Giants in 1946 with his nephew Jack Tanner (bottom row third player from left)
http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100219&content_id=8100362&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp
...and Judge Jack Tanner bio http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/tanner-judge-jack-1919-2006

Tanner had told Claxton of his chances of landing on an integrated team in Seattle or Tacoma (zero). Therefore, Claxton travelled south looking for employment as a baseball player and longshoreman in Portland, OR. Usually a pitching position came with employment off the baseball diamond.

In 1915, Claxton took the hill for the Portland Colored Giants. On June 6, they lost 10 – 1 to an outstanding McMinnville Yelobans team that had won twelve straight. Very few records of this particular team.

The Sellwood Dingbats of the Portland City League were a cellar dweller. In the first half of 1915 they went 2 – 12. Sellwood merchant Archie J. Woolworth owned the organization and had fired the previous manager and appointed Wayne Lewis who declared, “I’m going to make several changes to the present Sellwood team of the City League if I have to use up $40 worth of stationary in doing so.”

He later hired "colored star" Jimmy Claxton who made his first appearance for the Dingbats August 15, 1915. In his first appearance, “Claxton starred at bat with a three-bagger and a homer”, but lost the pitching matchup 12 – 9. In his only other recorded appearance with Sellwood, Claxton was the victim of “Bonehead plays on part of the Dingbats, against whom four errors were chalked… [that] cost Claxton the game.” Nonetheless he adhered to a formula to make it to the big leagues just as he had integrated the mining camp teams; (1) find the worst team in the league, (2) join the best, colored team in the area, and (3) pitch well enough for the big league team to take notice.

Article on Sellwood Dingbats team (Portland City League) http://www.thebeenews.com/features/story_2nd.php?story_id=130187924787510700

Photo 1912 Portland Colored Giants.... No 1915 photos of this team unfortunately. Photo courtesy of SportingOregon...
http://www.sportingoregon.com/p56492319/h13f7e530#h13f7e530

The events of 1916 are well documented....

I must extend my gratitude to Joyce Craven Hawkins for her assistance in gathering information about these early years of Jimmy Claxton's career. Below, is a photo of myself and Joyce chatting about African American history in Roslyn. She is truly a treasure.

http://s1074.photobucket.com/albums/w415/pariah1107/Roslyn%20Joyce%20Craven%20Hawkins/?action=view¤t=RoslynJoyceCravenHawkinsNovember2011.jpg

The last 30 years of his career 1916-1946 will be available for publication hopefully by the end of the year. Thank you Full Count for a venue to tell his story.

On this date 96 years ago Jimmy Claxton became the first African American to play in a regular season, professional game in the 20th century (May 28, 1916).

Just catching up on this. Fantastic research. The stuff I dream about doing in my spare time. Great read so far.

Eureka! Finally found an article that talks about Jimmy Claxtons' pitching motion and pickoff move. Notoriously publicity shy, Claxton granted only one interview (in 1964) and this is the first article I have found that describes his delivery in detail.

It is an interview with former Claxton teammate, 1B Emil Fara, in 1989. Nineteen years after Claxtons' passing. Fara & Claxton were teammates 1926-31. Sounds like his delivery was similar to Luis Tiant, interesting considering Claxton and Luis Tiant Sr. were teammates briefly in 1932.

http://s1074.photobucket.com/albums/w415/pariah1107/Daily%20Record%208-9-89/?action=view¤t=RoslynBaseballArticleDailyRecordAug1989.jpg