Baseball has been played in New Jersey since at least 1843 when the Magnolia Club of New York gathered for ball and chowder at Elysian Fields in Hoboken. Baseball’s New Jersey beachhead offered convenient access not just to the teams from across the Hudson, but also to the New York media which spread word of the organized game far beyond the metropolitan area. For this reason alone, there is no question the Stevens’ pleasure ground played an important part in baseball’s early growth and development. Yet while a lot of baseball was played in that small part of the Garden State, until 1855, none of it was played by New Jersey teams. The purpose of this post is to explore to what degree Elysian Fields contributed to the beginning of organized baseball in New Jersey.
To explore the question more effectively, the state will be divided into two parts – Hudson County (home to Hoboken and Elysian Fields) and New Jersey’s remaining 20 counties. Surprisingly, for a baseball history topic, the answer for the Hudson County is well documented. No such clarity, however, exists in the second case, so the question becomes where did young men in New Jersey learn about baseball? When the first New Jersey teams were formed in 1854-55, there was little newspaper coverage of baseball so the primary, and perhaps only, means of introduction to the game was direct personal contact. Young men from New Jersey had to either play baseball, watch baseball being played and/or speak with someone who had played or watched it. Looked at in this way, it’s possible to get a sense of Elysian Field’s impact on baseball’s growth throughout the rest of the state.
Of the 15 baseball clubs formed in New Jersey in 1855, one-third were located in communities bordering on Hoboken. Even before the first Hudson County clubs were organized, the Jersey City Daily Sentinel used the example of baseball at Elysian Fields, to urge that a club “be formed in our city.” The most important of the initial Hudson County teams were the Pioneer and Excelsior clubs of Jersey City which quickly began competing against teams outside of their home city. Not long after the founding of these first Hudson County teams, the New York clubs playing at Elysian Fields offered them support. An account of a Pioneer-Excelsior game in the August 16, 1855 edition of the Jersey City Daily Telegraph reported that among the spectators were Louis Wadsworth of the Knickerbocker Club, D. Goodwin of the Putnam Club of Brooklyn and “several members” of the Gotham and Eagle Clubs.
Support from the New York clubs quickly took a more tangible form including serving as a referee as N.D. McLaughlin of the Knickerbockers did for a rematch between the two Jersey City teams. The assistance not only continued, but also expanded when the Pioneer Club hosted the Columbia Club of Brooklyn. Not only did Judge Van Cott of the Gothams serve as referee, he spoke at a post-match dinner, offering sage advice including the suggestion to call for judgment more frequently on foul ball calls. Other clubs were also reportedly present at the dinner. Regardless of whether the New York teams playing at Elysian Fields helped start the Jersey City clubs, at the very least, they offered support and advice during the Pioneer and Excelsior clubs first season.
The proximity to Elysian Fields proved to be a two-edged sword however. Although the Pioneer and Excelsior clubs enjoyed successful 1855 seasons, neither club was able to field a team the following year. And the New York clubs playing at Elysian Fields contributed both directly and indirectly to the demise of the two Jersey City clubs. In previewing a September 1856 match between two New York teams at Elysian Fields, the Daily Sentinel noted that two-thirds of the Eagle Club of New York’s first nine had previously been members of the two Jersey City clubs (three per team). Since the Eagle Club practiced and played its home games in neighboring Hoboken, it was easy for Jersey City ball players to succumb to the temptation to play for a more prestigious New York team.
Another factor in the failure of the two Jersey City teams was their inability to find an adequate place to play. Hindering that effort was the presence of the New York clubs at Elysian Fields where in early 1855, at least one of three clubs played every afternoon. Two years later, the number had increased to five clubs, making it even less likely a local club could meet its space needs in Hoboken. Fortunately, the local baseball playing population proved resilient and beginning in 1857, baseball growth and expansion resumed in Hudson County.
Unlike Hudson County, no evidence has been uncovered of a relationship between baseball at Elysian Fields and the game’s 1855 growth elsewhere in New Jersey. Ten clubs were formed in the rest of the state that first season, all but one of which (Paterson) were either in Newark or a neighboring community. As the state’s largest population center, it’s not surprising Newark led the way with five teams, but the game’s broad reach there is impressive. In addition to three “typical” teams, Newark was also home to the first club with “Junior” in its name as well as the earliest known African-American club in the United States. Where then did young men in Newark, both Black and White come in direct contact with baseball? It most likely happened where there was a high level of interaction with communities where baseball was played or at least known.
Baseball takes hold in Newark - Newark Daily Advertiser - September 20, 1855
Although baseball had been played at Elysian Fields for years, the opportunities for interaction with young men from Newark were limited. There was no direct railroad connection between Newark and Hoboken until 1862, an indication of how little reason Newark residents had to visit Hoboken on business. This appears to be equally true of recreational trips to Elysian Fields. A search of Newark's leading newspaper, the Newark Daily Advertiser revealed almost no mention of the Stevens' pleasure ground on the Hudson. Notices in the paper around July 4, 1854 include the Jersey shore and the mountains as possible holiday destinations, but say nothing about Elysian Fields. David Gavitt's 1854-55 Directory of Jersey City, Hoboken and Hudson refer to Elysian Fields as the destination "for pleasure seekers from the great city on the other side of the river," without mentioning Newark or any other New Jersey location.
The potential for direct personal contact with those knowledgeable about baseball was far greater in the interaction between Newark and New York City. Beginning in the 1830s, Newark grew into an industrial center dependent on New York for capital, labor and markets. Newark’s growth was a driving force in the opening of a railroad and ferry connection between the two cities which “reduced the travel time . . . to approximately one hour.” By 1855, some 52 trains a day ran between Newark and the Jersey City ferry and passengers took full advantage purchasing 1.1 million tickets. Nor was the service important only to businessmen. In ads in the Newark Daily Advertiser, the New Jersey Railroad emphasized the low-cost service that would “enable” “mechanics and others residing in Newark” to commute to and from Manhattan. The sheer volume of travel was the most likely source of the personal contact that introduced Newark and, ultimately, the rest of New Jersey, to organized baseball. Elysian Fields was, without question, vital to the game’s early growth, but not in its home state.
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