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Page 34 April 2017 The Catoctin Banner Newspaper www.TheCatoctinBanner.com Published by www.EPlusPromotes.com
Mystery of the Major League
Pitcher Who Disappeared from
Emmitsburg Solved
by James Rada, Jr.
Author’s Note: The following is an article I wrote ten years ago for The Dispatch newspapers. I’ve reprinted it with a few tweaks and added an update at
the end. When I originally wrote this, no one knew what had happened to Tolbert Dalton. I wish I could take credit for solving this mystery, but
it was the work of members of the Society for American Baseball Research. I wanted to bring closure to what was a sixty-four-year-old mystery.
Many a young boy picks up a year hiatus Photo Courtesy of Richard Bozzone minor leagues and twenty years has corrected errors in
bat, walks to the plate, and dreams during World eight games for more than two hundred professional
of slugging his way into immortality. War II. He Detroit. baseball players’ biographies. Haber
Tolbert “Percy” Dalton was such and his wife However, by tracked some of Dalton’s relatives to
a boy, and he did manage to find lived with his 1948, at sixty- Emmitsburg in 1978. He was told
his own type of immortality. Not wife’s daughter two years old, that Dalton had seemingly fallen off
because he is forever remembered as and son-in- his glory days the face of the earth and never made
one of baseball’s greats, but because law, Lois and were forgotten. contact with any of his relatives
he is one of the few Major League George Heller. Dalton was living after he left Emmitsburg. He did
players whose death date was The two in Emmitsburg not even show up for his brother’s
unknown for sixty-four years. deacons with his second funeral in 1954.
couldn’t find wife, Thelma
Dalton was also a lay preacher Dalton. No Bradshaw. Dalton was born July 3, 1885, in
for the Columbia Primitive Baptist one in his Though Dalton Henderson, Tennessee. He had three
Church in Burtonsville, Maryland. family knew was too old to sisters, Lura, Lena, and Lola, and
what had steal bases, he one brother, Pleasie.
“The church he was an elder happened to possibly found
in, to my knowledge, had other him. one thing he Following Dalton’s baseball
smaller worship locations in the Dalton, could still steal. career, SABR determined that in
state of Maryland. As an elder, we who went Ralph Harris, a 1921 and 1922, he was a salesman
understand that he would make Tolbert “Percy” Dalton living in Baltimore. In 1930, he was
occasional appearances at Sunday residing in Elkridge, Maryland. By
services at the main church. He by the name former member, 1940, he was living at Catonsville
would speak to certain topics of Jack during his baseball career, and editor of the Primitive Baptist at 2 North Prospect Street. In April
relevant to the beliefs the church played four seasons of professional Church newspaper, knew two of 1942, his World War II registration
had. He would also baptize new baseball. He was an outfielder, Dalton’s sisters (now deceased). He card lists him as a clerk in the
members,” said Richard Bozzone who started in the minor leagues asked them what happened to their Finance Office of the U.S. Army’s
with the Society for American in Des Moines, where he batted brother. Third Corps headquarters in
Baseball Research (SABR). Bozzone .208 in 1910. He was invited mid- “Their response was that he had Baltimore. After the war, he became
has been researching Dalton to try year to join the Brooklyn Robins, absconded with the subscription involved with the Primitive Baptist
and find where and when he died. predecessor to the Dodgers. He funds for the church paper. Church and moved to Emmitsburg.
slumped and was sent to the minor Although Cary did not have
On August 1, 1948, two deacons league team in Newark, New Jersey. firsthand knowledge of the theft, This was all that was known
from the church visited Dalton’s He returned to the Robins in 1914, the story was confirmed by several about Dalton for decades, until
Emmitsburg home. Dalton had and then played for the Buffalo of the church leadership when he Quimby came across Dalton’s
failed to show up for a church Blues in 1915 and Detroit Tigers became editor,” Bozzone said. death certificate in Pittsburgh. The
meeting on July 4. in 1916. His best year was 1914, Dalton happens to be one of the document stated that Dalton died of
when he batted .319. The following very few 20th century Major League a heart ailment in Allegheny General
Dalton had only lived in year, his batting average was .293, players for whom death information Hospital on February 17, 1950.
Emmitsburg for a year, having with 28 stolen bases. He finished is not known. He was sixty-four years old. The
moved there from the Catonsville, his career in 1916, playing most of “There are fifteen 20th century certificate was discovered in 2012,
Maryland, area to become editor of the season for San Francisco in the players for whom we do not have when Pennsylvania allowed access
the Emmitsburg Chronicle, when it death details, but Dalton is, by to death records before 1961. The
restarted publication after a five- Social Security number confirmed
that it was the same Tolbert
far, the most well-known of the Dalton who had disappeared from
players,” Bozzone said. Emmitsburg.
Bozzone has been assisted in
his search for Dalton by a SABR What happened during the two
member, Al Quimby. What has years that he was missing and why
made the task so difficult is that not he left are still unknown. One
even the family of Jack Dalton has interesting point from the death
information on what happened to certificate is that it stated Dalton
him. was unmarried. This is incorrect. He
No missing person report appears was still legally married to Thelma
to have ever been filed with the Dalton at the time of his death.
Maryland State Police. No articles She died in 1966 in Royersford,
about his death have ever turned up. Pennsylvania, which is across the
He simply vanished. state from Pittsburgh.
SABR member Bill Haber of
Brooklyn, New York, also worked While there are still unanswered
on the Dalton case. Though now questions about Dalton, at least the
deceased, Haber’s research over mystery of his disappearance has
been solved.
Mystery of the Major League
Pitcher Who Disappeared from
Emmitsburg Solved
by James Rada, Jr.
Author’s Note: The following is an article I wrote ten years ago for The Dispatch newspapers. I’ve reprinted it with a few tweaks and added an update at
the end. When I originally wrote this, no one knew what had happened to Tolbert Dalton. I wish I could take credit for solving this mystery, but
it was the work of members of the Society for American Baseball Research. I wanted to bring closure to what was a sixty-four-year-old mystery.
Many a young boy picks up a year hiatus Photo Courtesy of Richard Bozzone minor leagues and twenty years has corrected errors in
bat, walks to the plate, and dreams during World eight games for more than two hundred professional
of slugging his way into immortality. War II. He Detroit. baseball players’ biographies. Haber
Tolbert “Percy” Dalton was such and his wife However, by tracked some of Dalton’s relatives to
a boy, and he did manage to find lived with his 1948, at sixty- Emmitsburg in 1978. He was told
his own type of immortality. Not wife’s daughter two years old, that Dalton had seemingly fallen off
because he is forever remembered as and son-in- his glory days the face of the earth and never made
one of baseball’s greats, but because law, Lois and were forgotten. contact with any of his relatives
he is one of the few Major League George Heller. Dalton was living after he left Emmitsburg. He did
players whose death date was The two in Emmitsburg not even show up for his brother’s
unknown for sixty-four years. deacons with his second funeral in 1954.
couldn’t find wife, Thelma
Dalton was also a lay preacher Dalton. No Bradshaw. Dalton was born July 3, 1885, in
for the Columbia Primitive Baptist one in his Though Dalton Henderson, Tennessee. He had three
Church in Burtonsville, Maryland. family knew was too old to sisters, Lura, Lena, and Lola, and
what had steal bases, he one brother, Pleasie.
“The church he was an elder happened to possibly found
in, to my knowledge, had other him. one thing he Following Dalton’s baseball
smaller worship locations in the Dalton, could still steal. career, SABR determined that in
state of Maryland. As an elder, we who went Ralph Harris, a 1921 and 1922, he was a salesman
understand that he would make Tolbert “Percy” Dalton living in Baltimore. In 1930, he was
occasional appearances at Sunday residing in Elkridge, Maryland. By
services at the main church. He by the name former member, 1940, he was living at Catonsville
would speak to certain topics of Jack during his baseball career, and editor of the Primitive Baptist at 2 North Prospect Street. In April
relevant to the beliefs the church played four seasons of professional Church newspaper, knew two of 1942, his World War II registration
had. He would also baptize new baseball. He was an outfielder, Dalton’s sisters (now deceased). He card lists him as a clerk in the
members,” said Richard Bozzone who started in the minor leagues asked them what happened to their Finance Office of the U.S. Army’s
with the Society for American in Des Moines, where he batted brother. Third Corps headquarters in
Baseball Research (SABR). Bozzone .208 in 1910. He was invited mid- “Their response was that he had Baltimore. After the war, he became
has been researching Dalton to try year to join the Brooklyn Robins, absconded with the subscription involved with the Primitive Baptist
and find where and when he died. predecessor to the Dodgers. He funds for the church paper. Church and moved to Emmitsburg.
slumped and was sent to the minor Although Cary did not have
On August 1, 1948, two deacons league team in Newark, New Jersey. firsthand knowledge of the theft, This was all that was known
from the church visited Dalton’s He returned to the Robins in 1914, the story was confirmed by several about Dalton for decades, until
Emmitsburg home. Dalton had and then played for the Buffalo of the church leadership when he Quimby came across Dalton’s
failed to show up for a church Blues in 1915 and Detroit Tigers became editor,” Bozzone said. death certificate in Pittsburgh. The
meeting on July 4. in 1916. His best year was 1914, Dalton happens to be one of the document stated that Dalton died of
when he batted .319. The following very few 20th century Major League a heart ailment in Allegheny General
Dalton had only lived in year, his batting average was .293, players for whom death information Hospital on February 17, 1950.
Emmitsburg for a year, having with 28 stolen bases. He finished is not known. He was sixty-four years old. The
moved there from the Catonsville, his career in 1916, playing most of “There are fifteen 20th century certificate was discovered in 2012,
Maryland, area to become editor of the season for San Francisco in the players for whom we do not have when Pennsylvania allowed access
the Emmitsburg Chronicle, when it death details, but Dalton is, by to death records before 1961. The
restarted publication after a five- Social Security number confirmed
that it was the same Tolbert
far, the most well-known of the Dalton who had disappeared from
players,” Bozzone said. Emmitsburg.
Bozzone has been assisted in
his search for Dalton by a SABR What happened during the two
member, Al Quimby. What has years that he was missing and why
made the task so difficult is that not he left are still unknown. One
even the family of Jack Dalton has interesting point from the death
information on what happened to certificate is that it stated Dalton
him. was unmarried. This is incorrect. He
No missing person report appears was still legally married to Thelma
to have ever been filed with the Dalton at the time of his death.
Maryland State Police. No articles She died in 1966 in Royersford,
about his death have ever turned up. Pennsylvania, which is across the
He simply vanished. state from Pittsburgh.
SABR member Bill Haber of
Brooklyn, New York, also worked While there are still unanswered
on the Dalton case. Though now questions about Dalton, at least the
deceased, Haber’s research over mystery of his disappearance has
been solved.
