FanPost

When a miss was a mascot

Note: This is my new favorite among all the historical posts that I have published, both because of the topic and because of what was required to write it! Enjoy!

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The Cubs have had a variety of mascots down through the years, from a live bear to today's Clark.

For a few years in the first decade of the 20th Century, they had a human mascot who never wore a costume.

This is her story.

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WHAT'S IN A NAME?

When she was born in Chicago, on July 30, 1903, her parents named her Leonette.

Newspaper stories at times would call her Leona or Lenora or Leonara.

Her 37-year-old mother also was a Chicago native. She had been Mary Agnes Prindeville, 22, in 1888 when she had married Charles Samuel Kuhn.

Kuhn was 8 years older, having been born in Philadelphia in 1858. He came to Chicago when he was 22 or 23, settling on the city's west side.

At 24, he went to work as a groundskeeper at the ballpark that was home to Chicago's National League baseball team, then known as the White Stockings.

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On May 4, 1902, the team's game at the West Side Grounds against St. Louis was rained out. The next day's Chicago Tribune described a conversation that took place among club president Jim Hart, Manager Frank Selee, several players and Kuhn as they "sheltered in the grand stand.":

"Charley Kuhn here has us all beat when it comes to service," said Mr. Hart. "How long have you been with the club, Charley?"

"I came right after the death of Mr. [William] Hulbert, who was President. It was in 1882. I've been at the old Lake Front Park, the Congress street grounds at the South Side Park, at Thirty-fifth street, when we played alternate games on the West Side and South Side grounds in '91 following the brotherhood year, on the South Side grounds when we played all our games there in '92, and here, where he opened in '93."

He would remain through a dozen more years.

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FREQUENT VISITOR

Leonette was Kuhn's third child and a definite "caboose." Her sister, Isabella, had been born in 1890, and her brother, Reginald, the following year, so they were 13 and 12 when Leonette arrived in the summer of 1903.

By the time she was a toddler, Leonette regularly accompanied her father to the ballpark, where she charmed one and all.

She was more than a month away from the fourth birthday on June 23, 1907, when she met Mayor Fred Busse as he watched a Sunday afternoon game against the Cardinals.

In the next day's Tribune, Charles Dryden wrote:

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Once, when the pastime lagged a bit, [Cubs owner Charles] Murphy picked up Miss Leonora Kuhn, alias Buttons, and introduced her to the mayor.

"How interesting," said Bachelor Busse. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

Then he blushed redder than Capt. Bennett's hose.

[Pug Bennett was the captain of the Cardinals.]

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WET APRIL

The Cubs repeated as NL champions in 1907, then won their first World Series, sweeping 4 games from the Tigers after a Game 1 tie.

They picked up right where they left off in 1908, going 5-1 at Cincinnati and St. Louis, then winning their first 2 games at home before losing to the Reds on Friday, April 24.

Then it rained. And rained. And rained.

The series finale against the Reds on Saturday was washed out. So was the Sunday opener of a series against the Pirates.

"Not only did the drizzle crab the game." Dryden wrote, "but it put a slight introductory crimp into the Father Chadwick Memorial Fund about to be launched by Mr. Murphy."

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BASEBALL BOOSTER

Chadwick, born in England in 1824, moved to Brooklyn at age 12. He became a reporter for newspapers in and around New York, covering cricket, then baseball.

He became a driving force behind the rise of baseball in the 19th Century. He published the first annual guide to the game and created the first box scores, containing many of the features still in them today.

He waged a long campaign to eliminate the rule that said a batter was out if a fielder caught a ball on one bounce, as well as on the fly.

During the winter of 1907-08, at age 83, Chadwick was hit by a car and spent several weeks in bed at his Brooklyn home. He recovered sufficiently to show up at an exhibition game at the Polo Grounds, where he caught cold. His illness became worse after he insisted on going to Opening Day at Washington Park in Brooklyn, on April 14.

Five days later, while moving furniture from the fourth to the second floor of his apartment, he lost consciousness.

He reportedly awakened briefly the next day, asked about the game between Brooklyn and New York. Told that the Giants had won, Chadwick expressed regrets, returned to unconsciousness and died soon thereafter.

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'OFFICIAL MASCOT'

Chadwick had been a longtime partner (and occasional adversary) of another towering figure of 19th Century baseball, also destined to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

In his will, Chadwick said: "I remind Albert G. Spalding of his promise to see that a monument shall be erected over my grave in Greenwood cemetery."

Spalding decided to ask for donations.

"[Murphy] is on deck with the first and original scheme to raise money by popular subscription at reduced rates and hopes every ball club in the country will do likewise.

"The plan is to place boxes and placards in the stand, asking patrons to drop 1 cent toward the erection of a memorial to the late Father Chadwick.

"If weather permits [on Monday] the first coin will be contributed today by Miss Leonara Kuhn, the official mascot of the Cubs.

"While nothing but pennies are asked for, no armed guards will be stationed at the boxes to prevent the insertion of larger coins. At the close of each game the collections will be taken up, turned over to the proper custodian, and the amount given out to the war scribes for publication in Notes of the Game."

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LOYAL TODDLER

When the foul weather continued on Monday, this appeared under "Notes of the Cubs":

"Twice prevented by rain from contributing her penny to the Chadwick fund, little Miss L Kuhn, aged 4 years, will permit the interest to apply until such time as the weather clears. Loyalty, thy name is woman."

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Tuesday brought no relief.

The weather remained chilly on Wednesday, but the rain was limited to a light drizzle, which did not start to fall until the third inning.

"Before the soggy contest began, Pittsburgh's manager and left fielder Fred Clarke upstaged little Lenora Kuhn, by dropping the first penny in one of the two Chadwick Fund boxes set up at the foot of the double stairway leading into the stands," George R. Matthews wrote in his 2010 book, "When the Cubs Won It All."

Dryden reported: "Cap Clarke, being older and more athletic than Miss L. Kuhn, beat her to the Chadwick box with the first penny."

The day did not end well, either.

With the Cubs ahead, 1-0, and 1 out in the top of the ninth, a Pirate batter grounded to first baseman Frank Chance, then won a race to the bag. Chance argued so heatedly that he was ejected. A walk and a pair of RBI singles, the second by Honus Wagner, put Pittsburgh in front, 2-1.

The Cubs were retired in order.

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SLOW GOING

Dryden did not say how much was donated on the first day.

The Cubs hosted the Cardinals on Saturday, then twice on Sunday.

On Monday, Dryden reported, "The Chadwick fund leaped to $3.95 and one cold weinerwurst."

$5.59 was contributed during 2 games against the Pirates the next Sunday, then $2.29 on Monday.

Single games against Brooklyn the following weekend brought in $8.22.

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The Brooklyn Eagle of Dec. 27 provided this update from Charlie Ebbets, owner of the city's NL team, then known as the Superbas:

"As chairman of the Chadwick Monument fund, Mr. Ebbets says he has received the sum of $137.72 from Charles Murphy, $100 of which is donated by the Chicago Club and the balance in pennies from Windy City fans.

"There is upward of $300 expected from other sources and the National League has promised to subscribe the balance needed to purchase a monument and to take care of the plot in Greenwood."

The monument, still in place today, features a bronze baseball diamond on the front, with a glove and catcher's mask on the sides. The plot is defined by four markers that resemble bases and home plate.

The monument is about 7 feet tall, topped with a large granite sphere. Many graves from the era have such spheres, symbolizing eternity. Chadwick's sphere has baseball-style stitches carved into it.

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BIG BUCKS

There was much more than pennies involved the next time Leonette Kuhn's name appeared in the press.

On Thursday, June 3, 1909, the Cubs hosted the Phillies. Prior to the game, they officially celebrated their 1908 championship, with Miss Kuhn, still not 6 years old, playing a prominent role.

Ring Lardner's account in the next day's Tribune began:

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Yesterday was a merry Christmas at the West Side ball park.

There were two Santa Clauses -- President Charles W. Murphy of the Cubs and Lew Moren, one of Philadelphia's rapidly rising young pitchers.

The former handed his athletes a check for $10,000 as a reward of merit, and Lew gave them a twelve inning ball game, 4 to 3. . . .

The first part of the afternoon's entertainment was left to a brass band, a grand new flag, and Miss Leona Kuhn, daughter of the dandy groundkeeper [sic].

The band played itself hoarse in the grand stand from 2 o'clock until a few moments before the game time. Then it left its comfortable seats and marched out on the field.

Secretary Charley Williams acted as drum major and clerk of the course. Out in front of the Cubs' bench the musicians paraded. There they were joined by the neatly gowned home athletes, who fell in behind and started toward left field.

Pennant Is Unfurled.

The procession halted at Philadelphia's resting place and the visitors were requested to come along and see what a pennant looked like. The visitors acquiesced and the caravan continued its journey to the flag pole.

Once there, the pennant bearing the legend, "National League Champions, 1908," was unfurled, and raised to the top of the pole, while the band played the "Star Spangled Banner."

Three little American flags followed the big Cub up the pole and the athletes and bugs raised their caps and hats respectively and respectfully and cheered during the performance.

The pennant acted foolishly at first and refused to fly in the insufficient breeze, but finally caught its cue and looked pretty.

Then Drum Major Williams and his three hands came back toward the stand and the players made ready for the more serious work of the day.

The presentation of the bonus was a quiet, unostentatious affair.

Little Miss Kuhn, dressed up for the occasion and carrying a bouquet of dollars, slipped out quietly in front of the boxes and trotted to the Cub shed, Secretary Williams again acting as best man.

On the bench sat the fractured leader [injured Frank Chance] and the envelope containing many weeks' pay was handed him, together with a sweet smile from the lips of Leona.

Manager Chance took the packet in his right hand, which is not in a sling, and stuffed it into his inside pocket for further reference.

Most of the champions had gone to the field for practice when the check arrived, and knew nothing about it until they returned to the bench to give the Phillies room on the field.

Then they looked it over and stifled sighs when Chance told them the dividing part would be postponed until today.

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LATER LIFE

After that day in 1909, the groundskeeper's daughter was not mentioned in the Tribune.

Nor was she mentioned in the Inter Ocean, the only other Chicago newspaper of the era that is available online.

But through a lot of effort and some luck, I was able to find out what became of "Miss L Kuhn" after she ceased to be the Cubs' mascot.

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Her father left the Cubs after 1914, to become groundskeeper for the Brooklyn team of the Federal League in its second and final season.

Then he returned to Chicago and soon became the supervisor of the athletic fields at Great Lakes Naval Base.

His obituary, published in the Tribune on Sept. 24, 1935, said he was survived by his wife, Mary, and 3 children, "Isabelle, Leonette, and Roy."

"Isabelle," of course, was Isabella.

"Roy" was Reginald.

Then I tracked down the paper's obituary of Mary, who died on Jan. 5, 1937. It said she was the mother of "Mrs. Isabella Brandt, Reginald C. Kuhn and Mrs. Leonette Anger."

Through online vital records, I confirmed that Leonette had married Leopold William Anger in Indiana, on May 14, 1927, when she was 23 and he was 27, having been born on Dec. 26, 1899.

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FAMILY HOME

The 1920 Census says Leonette, 16, was working as a clerk in a department store and living with her parents at 1452 West Winona Avenue in Chicago, where they had moved sometime after 1910.

Real estate records show the house, with a stone exterior, was built in 1906. Now a multi-family dwelling, with 6 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, its estimated value today is $515,787, according to redfin.com.

It was valued at $4,500 in the 1940 Census, which listed Leo as a traveling salesman, with annual income of $2,200.

There were 2 children in the house: Charles, 11, and Juanita, 6.

Leonette's brother, Reginald, also lived with them. He is listed as "wage or salary worker in government work."

In fact, he was a member of the military. He rose to lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and died in 1977 in Deerfield, Ill., north of Chicago.

His service, held on Nov. 26, was at a funeral home in Highland Park, the town east of Deerfield and the childhood home both of the author of this post and of Al Yellon, leader of this website. Reginald was buried in Lake Forest.

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NAME CHANGES

The website archives.com shows that Leonette had 4 more children.

The oldest, Evelyn, is shown as having been born in Arkansas, in 1926, the year before she married Leo.

The others were Leo D. and Leonette M., both born in 1941, and Linda Sue, in 1949.

All 4 of the additional children are listed with a last name of "Anzers" rather than "Anger."

Evelyn is not among the survivors listed in the obituary of Leo W., Leonette's husband, that appeared in the Tribune on Dec. 19, 1966, the day after he died.

The 1977 obituary for Reginald Kuhn describes him as "loving brother of Leonette Aschoff and Isabella Brandt; dear uncle of seven; and great-uncle of 19."

Leonette must have remarried, but I could not find any record of a marriage involving anyone named Aschoff.

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DIFFERING DATES

According to archives.com, Leonette died on an unknown date in 1987, at age 83.

Findagrave.com says she died in 1981, at age 77 or 78.

She was buried at All Saints Catholic Cemetery in Des Plaines, next to her parents, husband Leo and an infant son, born in 1947, who was not given a name.

Their son Charles died in 2007, at age 80, in Prescott, Ariz.

Juanita, who married in 1958, would be 88 now. I could find no records of marriages or deaths of Leo D., namesake Leonette M. or Linda Sue.

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Isabella, Leonette's older sister, had married in 1922, at age 32, to Robert Brandt, 8 years younger.

Robert died in 1958. Isabella lived until 1987, dying in Barrington, Ill., on Nov. 24, at age 97.

She and her husband also are buried at the cemetery in Des Plaines.

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