JMH Annual Meeting Featuring Author, Dr. Robert Sampson

Bob Sampson is a former newspaper reporter who lived in Decatur for 50 years. He earned his Ph.D. in history at the University of Illinois and taught at Millikin University for 20 years. His first book, John L. O’Sullivan and His Times, was published in 2003 and his latest book earlier this year. Sampson served as a member and for two years as chair of the Macon County Board.

Sampson has published several articles in academic journals touching on 19th century events and persons in Decatur. The first addressed the 1894 Pullman Strike and Decatur’s role in it, including a brief appearance by James Millikin. Civil War era politics in Decatur and Macon County were addressed in an article tracing the political transformation of the area, including the mobbing of an editor at the intersection of Main and Water streets, the struggles of the city’s only Democratic-leaning paper, and the rough, no-holds-barred practices of the era’s journalism. Decatur played a role in the rise of base ball (as then spelled) in Illinois beginning in 1865 and a tournament in 1867 in what is now Fairview Park revealed serious fault lines in the game’s image. His remarks will draw upon all this research and new efforts on James B. Shoaff, a colorful editor who once served as Decatur’s mayor.

A first-ever history of early baseball in Illinois, Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins adds the Prairie State game’s unique shadings and colorful stories to the history of the national pastime.

Baseball’s spread across Illinois paralleled the sport’s explosive growth in other parts of the country. Robert D. Sampson taps a wealth of archival research to transport readers to an era when an epidemic of “baseball on the brain” raged from Alton to Yorkville. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1869, Sampson offers a vivid portrait of a game where local teams and civic ambition went hand in hand and teams of paid professionals displaced gentlemen’s clubs devoted to sporting fair play. This preoccupation with competition sparked rules disputes and controversies over imported players while the game itself mirrored society by excluding Black Americans and women. The new era nonetheless brought out paying crowds to watch the Rock Island Lively Turtles, Fairfield Snails, and other teams take the field up and down the state.