Tucked away in the Wayne County Historical Society’s textile collection is some local baseball history. Two vintage Wayne County baseball uniforms are kept at the Society: a Pleasant Home jersey and pants and a Gerstenslager jersey and pants. Both uniforms were used as evidenced by the multiple rips and patches that pepper the uniforms.
James Miley donated the Pleasant Home baseball uniform to the Society. The uniform has a manufacturer tag labeled the Draper & Maynard Co. that includes their trademark logo. According to the New Hampshire Historical Society, this trademark helps date the uniform as having been produced after 1900.
The partnership of Jason F. Draper (1850-1913) and John Maynard (1846-1937) began in Ashland, NH, in 1881 with the production of buckskin gloves, an industry which was already well established in the Ashland-Plymouth, New Hampshire area. One year later, 1882, the firm became a pioneer in the manufacture of baseball gloves when it produced one of the first padded models at the suggestion of a baseball player.
Upon moving to a new factory in Plymouth, NH in 1900, the Draper-Maynard Company became a major supplier of baseball equipment for both amateur and professional teams, and was also widely known for its other lines of sporting goods. A new trademark was soon adopted, depicting Maynard’s bird dog, Nick.
Production of baseball equipment reached a peak in the 1920s, when the company claimed that over 90% of major league players used Draper-Maynard gloves.
Although nothing could be found relating to games played by the Pleasant Home team in the local newspapers, early maps indicate there was a schoolhouse No. 9 located at Pleasant Home village and the uniform is likely from this school team.
Another baseball team in Wooster formed from employees of the Gerstenslager Company— a buggy manufacturing plant originally from Marshallville that moved to Wooster in 1907. Gerstenslager Company quickly became part of the Wooster community by employing many young men in the area. In 1909, young men working at various companies in Wooster created a local industrial baseball league. George Gerstenslager agreed to sponsor a team from the Gerstenslager Co. The team was often referred to in the local newspapers by their appropriate shorthand name, the “Buggy Works”. Other teams in the Industrial League were from the Wooster Brush Co., simply called the “Brush Works”, the Wooster Shale and Brick Co., was referred to as the “Brick Works”, J.C. Tieche’s company team was referred to as the “Plumbers”, and the team made up of guys working in the newspaper business were simply referred to as the “Printers”.
The early games were almost always played on the College of Wooster baseball field as it was the best field in Wooster. But many of the players from the south end of town got tired of walking up the hill and having to plan their games around the University’s baseball schedule which lasted through June. They eventually made an agreement with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. to lease a small amount of land behind the depot on Columbus Ave. to build their own baseball diamond to hold practice and games.
Dwight Burkey donated the Gerstenslager baseball uniform to the Society in 1986. Burkey, a current resident at Wayne Manor of the Sprenger Health Care Centers, reported that the uniform originally belonged to his Uncle, Calvin Burkey, who played on the Gerstenslager baseball team around the time of WWI.
