You know how you can just stumble across the most random people in cemeteries? Here lies Troy Smith Sr., the founder of Sonic Drive-In. They’re not always easy to find, but Sonics have good food and absolutely awesome drinks & desserts. I used to have one a few blocks away from my apartment, and I’d stop there regularly for a burger and an Ocean Water. Smith, an Okie all his life, came up with a bunch of business concepts after World War II, but the one that stuck was the Top Hat, which started as a root beer stand and grew into a drive-in. They turned into the Sonic franchise. He died on October 26, 2009 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 87 years old.
Here lies George Kimball Belden, a great Minnesota sportsman and businessman who went on to become the president of the minor-league Minneapolis Millers.
George Belden was born in Lynden, Vt. on March 25, 1870. His family moved to Minnesota in 1884. Belden attended the University of Minnesota in 1888 and played pretty much any sport that was available, including track and tennis. He spent 3 years on the varsity baseball team and also starred on the varsity football team for 5 years — four as an undergrad and one year when he returned to law school. At one point in his youth, Belden was ranked as one of the Top 10 lawn tennis players in the nation.
Belden was the head of a group of Minnesota businessmen who purchased the Millers on May 28, 1918. They paid approximately $60,000 for the team, right before the American Association shut down early due to World War I. The game went on in 1919, and Belden became one of the most important Minneapolis sports figures. Not only did he oversee the Millers, but he was also the president of the Minneapolis Athletic Club.
Belden invested in the Millers, buying a farm club in Missouri and fixing up the team’s stadium. But the Millers weren’t very good and relied on past-their-prime former major-leaguers. His consortium sold the team to Mike Kelley in 1923, and Belden stayed on as president. He moved to VP in 1927, and his time with the Millers seemed to peter out by 1932 or so.
Apart from his baseball activities, Belden and his wife Edith were active in the social and civic scenes of Minneapolis for decades. He was involved in the leadership of Asbury Methodist Hospital for 40 years, as a board member, president and chairman. He was involved with numerous athletic and civic clubs in the Twin Cities, too.
Belden was president of the Associated Industries of Minneapolis for 12 years, resigning in 1948. It was described in the papers as a “research agency and bargaining representative for its member firms in labor negotiations.” Other descriptions call it an “anti-union union.”
Belden’s health declined in the 1950s. He had a leg amputated in 1952 and suffered a fatal heart attack on May 20, 1953. He was 83 years old.
Work has sucked and hasn’t let me do much research, but here’s an odd bit of baseball history to share. Pic one is the story of Grace Grant, who sought permission to be a National League umpire... in 1906! She’d already served as an ump in her home of Chicago and got the Cubs president to petition NL President Harry Pulliam on her behalf. Nothing ever came of it, because MLB has never allowed a female umpire in its history. A few have made it in the minors, but as this clipping shows, @mlb have been keeping women off the diamond in any capacity (except ballgirl) for well over 100 years.
To be fair, being an umpire of any gender was an awful, thankless job in 1906. That was the era when “Kill the umpire!” wasn’t just something fans yelled. It was a legitimate threat.
Then we have pic 2. Grace Grant of Chicago made the papers in 1906 for another reason. She was one of the world’s top artists’ models and was said to have been the model for some of the figures in Lorado Taft’s “Great Lakes” fountain, which is located in the Art Institute of Chicago (@artinstitutechi) today.
I have no idea if it’s the same Grace Grant of Chicago in both stories, but I really hope it is. How many umpire/artist models have there been in history?
Here lies Earl Naylor, a rare two-way player during the 1940s. He started out as an outfielder, and a strong throwing arm led to a brief pitching experiment. Naylor played for the Philadelphia Phillies (1942-43) and Brooklyn Dodgers (1946).
Earl Naylor was born on May 19, 1919 in Kansas City, Mo. He had an early start to his professional career, joining the Fayetteville Angels of the Arkansas-Missouri League in 1937 when he was 18. For the next 5 seasons, he hit over .300, played strong outfield and hit long home runs. One cleared the 40-foot-tall scoreboard in left center at Memphis’ Russwood Park, located 410 feet from home plate.
Naylor was signed by the Phillies for the 1942 season. He failed to win a starting outfield spot, but his strong arm convinced manager Hans Lobert and his coaches that he could pitch. His first few appearances on the mound weren’t bad at all, but as he later admitted, he wasn’t cut out for pitching. He went 0-5 with a 6.12 ERA in 20 games (4 starts). He was moved back to the outfield in August but hit only .196.
Naylor stayed an outfielder in 1943, but his batting average dropped to .175. He did hit 3 home runs and drove in 14 in 33 games. The Phillies traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals on June 2, and the Cards promptly sent him to the minors. Except for a couple of at-bats with the 1946 Dodgers, he never played in the MLB again.
In 112 games over parts of 3 seasons, Naylor slashed .186/.248/.493, with 54 hits and 28 RBIs. He hit 6 doubles, 1 triple and 3 home runs while drawing 23 walks against 35 strikeouts.
Naylor served in the Navy from 1944-46. After his brief appearance with the Dodgers, he spent 10 years in their minor league system as a player, coach and manager. He hit .293 with 133 homers in 12 minor-league seasons.
Naylor retired from baseball in 1956 to become a fireman in St. Paul, Minn. He spent several seasons there as a player and apparently decided to make it his home. He retired from the St. Paul fire department in 1979.
Earl Naylor died of cancer on January 16, 1990 in a hospital near his winter home at Winter Haven, Fla. He was 70 years old.
While I’m finding info on the player graves I photographed in Minnesota, here’s another photo from Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.
Paul Wellstone was a U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1991 until his death in 2002. He was a progressive Democrat who won an upset victory to get into the Senate, thanks to the support of Minnesota’s younger voters. He supported labor rights, immigration and campaign finance reform. He was one of the few Senators to vote against the Iraq War.
A buddy of mine who was from Minnesota was a huge Wellstone supporter in the ‘90s. He said he would make a great president, and Wellstone did in fact consider running for the office. The run never happened, as a back injury convinced Wellstone that he couldn’t withstand the long campaign. That injury was later diagnosed as multiple sclerosis.
Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila, daughter Marcia and five others were killed in a plane crash in Minnesota on October 25, 2002. He was 58 years old and was survived by his two sons.
Here lies Clarence Saulpaugh, a former owner of the Minneapolis Millers in the late 19th Century. His family built and operated the Saulpaugh Hotel, a fancy and popular hotel in Mankato, Minn.
Clarence H. Saulpaugh was born on January 8, 1859 in Rock Island, Ill. His father Thomas was a contractor there and first came to Minnesota for its stone quarries. I couldn’t find what led him to become a hotelier, but the Saulpaugh Hotel was built in 1889 and was the finest hotel in the city. At four stories, it was the largest building in Southern Minnesota at the time. Clarence was put in charge of managing it. His mother and father died in 1892 and 1893, respectively, and after the inheritances were disbursed, Saulpaugh was said to be worth about $500,000.
Saulpaugh married Roma Allen in October 1893 but was sued by a former hotel housekeeper in 1894. Victoria Stein claimed that Saulpaugh promised to marry her once his mother died and sued him for $50,000. It was an ugly trial that dragged everyone’s reputation through the mud and resulted in Stein being awarded $1 in damages.
Saulpaugh became a part of the Millers executive team by 1897, first as treasurer and then as owner. The Millers played in the Western League, which was renamed the American League in 1900. It became a major league in 1901 but left Minneapolis out in favor of franchises in larger cities to boost its standing in baseball. Saulpaugh owned the lease on the ballpark but found himself without a league. He eventually sold that lease to a competitor in town who had started a new Millers team in the reformed Western League. That team folded as well, but the NEXT version of the Millers lasted until the Twins came to town.
Saulpaugh became an early automobile enthusiast, buying a car in 1902 and driving it all over the state. He sold the lease to the Saulpaugh Hotel in 1913 but maintained an apartment there. He died in the hotel on Sept. 19, 1917 at the age of 58 from a “complication of ailments with which he had suffered for several months past.”
The Saulpaugh Hotel was torn down in 1974 after falling into disrepair. There is now a Holiday Inn where it once stood.
