Editor’s note: I am pleased to present a guest article written by fellow collector Thomas A. Slowey. Thank you Tom!
The combination of the specific player below with its back stamp allows this card to be specifically traced to having been issued in the summer of 1909 to become possessed by George W. Harrison of Charlotte, Monroe County, New York shortly after he had attained the age of thirteen years. Birth records show that George was born in Charlotte on April 26, 1896 as the only child of Maud N. Harrison, third spouse of George N. Harrison, who had four daughters. As was common in that era, the family appears to have stayed in the area, as his parents, siblings and himself are all buried in nearby Rochester.
The 1909 to 1911 T206 “white border” series of cards were printed and distributed by the American Tobacco Company in three groups. The 150 series, to which George’s card belongs, were the very first, printed and distributed starting in May and through the fall of 1909 when the 350 series commenced. The American Tobacco Company distributed the 150 Series within the Piedmont, Sweet Caporal and Sovereign flagship cigarette brands, and its Hindu regional brand. The horizontal Bernard Pelty was available only in the 150 Series. Only six T206 cards contain horizontal images (Pelty and Pattee only in the 150 Series; Birmingham, Mullin, Murphy and Powell in the 150-350 Series). The 150 Series (only) group contains 11 players (one of which is Honus Wagner’s portrait) on 6 different backs, for which Hindu then Sovereign 150 are considered much tougher than Piedmont or Sweet Caporal.
Public records show that George’s father passed away at some unknown date in 1909 at age 61 or 62. At least one of George’s grandfathers had predeceased his father, who had no brothers of record alive at that time either. This makes it a reasonable assumption that George, unless attempting to smoke as a new teenager, was likely gifted this card by only his dad (or otherwise acquired it through inheritance had his father kept it in a drawer or book) shortly after May 1909.
In May 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Selective Service (Draft) Act. George was likely drafted when he entered the United States Army at the age of twenty-one years old on December 16, 1917 as a Private, assigned to Battery F, 57th Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps. He was promoted to Bugler on April 12, 1918. His regiment left New York City aboard the USS Rijndam (Ryndam) on May 10, 1918 for France, after George had turned 22 years old. Battery F served at the Battle of St. Mihiel at Sampigny, routing the German forces, continuing to the Meuse-Argonne sector, from September 25th to November 11th, driving the fiercely resisting enemy from Montzeville, Avocourt, Malancourt, Iovry, Mountfaucon and Bois de Romagne.
On January 2, 1919, Battery F (with George having survived these battles) departed Brest, France on the USS Huntington among 1,700 passengers, returning to New York on January 14, 1919. George was discharged on January 25, 1919, likely from Camp Merritt, New Jersey. A photograph of Battery F, 57th Artillery, C.A.C. in France is shown above, for which he could be one of these soldiers.
A World War I service book about Rochester men confirmed George’s death at the age of 30 on October 14, 1926, while living at 13 Vienna Street in Rochester, New York. He was attached to the Aviation Corps of the U.S. Army. George’s grave website information does not state that he ever married or had any children. What is conclusive is that George W. Harrison was the original owner of this specific Series of 150 Sovereign card of Barney Pelty in the summer of 1909 at age thirteen when he lived in Charlotte, Monroe County, New York