Last week I purchased this 18s Illinois hunter on eBay. I didn't pay much attention to the signature on the dust cover until several days after taking delivery. When I did a Google search on the name, along with "Philadelphia," I discovered that John H. Curran was a professional baseball player who was a catcher with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1876. I also found that the Athletics were in the National League that year, but were then kicked out of the league because of refusing to go on a particular road trip. The date on the movement lead me to believe the watch was made in 1873, but the wording on the dial seems to indicate 1879 or later (see page 81 in the Illinois Blue Book). Is it possible the private label movement was made in 1873, but not assembled until 1879 when the later style wording was being used? I am also interested in finding out how John H. Curran died. He was only 44 and died in Vallejo, CA (Solano County). He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, CA, which is also the final resting place of Joe DiMaggio. Any thoughts on production date of the watch and manner of death of Mr. Curran would be appreciated. P.S. Movement number is 35,294 and case number is 15,857. The only other marking on the case is a crown logo.

This is the beautiful front of the case. The back has a village scene.

This is the private label movement.

And finally, here is Mr. Curran's engraved name on the dust cover.

Nice watch Bruce. I have been trying to find you stuff on the ball player but nothing to report yet.

I did find there where other John H. Curran's living in Philadelphia in the late 1800's early 1900's. Was their anything else to link it to the ball player other than the name?

Tom

Tom, good to hear from you. Concerning Mr. Curran, I was speculating that it would have to be a man of means to own a watch like this. I thought I would be finding info on some politician or prominent business man from Philadelphia, but nothing popped up except this ball player. The other thing that seemed to link this watch to the ball player was the fact that the seller of the watch was in CA, and that is where the ball player moved to and eventually died. If you have evidence of another John Curran from Philadelphia with an "H" middle initial, I would love to hear what you have found. By the way, you probably already found this out, but while in pro-baseball they were incorrectly spelling his name "Curren."

Bruce
Nice to hear from you too!

What I have so far you might already know.

John Henry Curran born about 1852 in Ireland & died 1896 in Vallejo Ca.
Played 1876 for the Philadelphia Athletics
1877 Brooklyn Chelsea
1878 Springfield
1879 Manchester
1880 San Francisco Athletics.

In the 1880 Federal census for San Francisco, San Francisco Ca.
Thomas Curran born about 1841 Scotland Boilermaker
spouse Marcy C. Curran born about 1847 New York Keeping House
son James F.Curran born about 1878 Ca.
mother (of Thomas)Ann Curran born about 1854 Ireland Widowed
Brother (of Thomas)John Curran born about 1854 Scotland Base Ball Player

I will keep looking.

Tom

Wow, that's great Tom. I didn't know that Curran continued playing ball after that 1876 stint with the Philadelphia Athletics. Are you leaning toward this guy possibly being the original owner of this watch?

Bruce

I really can't say who might have owned it, there are just too many people in this county that have the same name. I guess you can add up each piece of evidence you have & then come up with which person has the most evidence. Without an engraving on the case such as presented to ---- by ---- or something similar odds are you can never say for certain.

So far the other John Curran's I have found in Philadelphia with the middle initial of H are born after your watch was made, but since we can't actually say when the engraving was made you can't necessarily count them out.

These are the other John H. Curran's I have found in the Philadelphia Federal census.

1. 1930 John H. Curran born about 1879 Scotland Weaver in a mill

2. 1910 John H. Curran born about 1894 Pa. grocery clerk

3. 1910 John H. Curran born about 1896 Pa something to do with the word Wagon

4. 1900 John H.Curran born about 1873 Pa. coal miner

Then there are other John Curran's listed without a middle initial.

Tom

Tom, this information is all very useful. It looks like besides the dates being off for these other "Currans," their professions would be less likely to enable them to own such a watch (just speculating). Also, there is the question of whether any of these other potential owners ended up in CA. Of course, we don't know for sure if this watch actually went to CA. To try to nail that down, I have contacted the CA seller that I bought the watch from. I asked if they bought the watch directly from a CA family, or if it came from a local CA auction house. Hopefully, they will get back to me soon....I'm chomping at the bit

Yes, it would be nice if the seller knew where it came from, that might be the only way to show who had it back then. I know I have had a few watches that supposedly had a history with them but I needed that extra connection but never could get it.

At the same time I don't find fault with the sellers not knowing. My watches I have always planned on keeping a record about how & where I got them but as usual that is one area I never kept up with.

I still haven't found anything about the ball players death. The last thing was the 1880 census in Ca., unfortunately for some reason there was no Federal census taken in 1890 & since he died in 96 I wouldn't find him in the next one in 1900.

Found this;
"We had once listed this 1876 Philadelphia player as Peter Curren; however, notes at the time said
that this was John Curran and he had moved to San Francisco. A note from Sporting Life in 1883 said
that he was an oarsman for the Alerts of Vallejo. The 1880 census shows John Curran, baseball player,
living at 60 Tehama in San Francisco. Richard Malatzky was able to find the obituary for John H.
Curran in the San Francisco Chronicle. He died September 26, 1896 in Vallejo, California and the
funeral was held at his brother’s house at 62 Tehama in San Francisco."

at
http://www.sabr.org/cmsFiles/Files/janbio2009.pdf

Tom, the CA eBay seller got back to me and said she bought the watch from a seller at a local flea market. She went on to say that she is in southern CA and Vallejo is farther north ...up near San Francisco. This last bit of info you provided is great. Maybe I could find descendents (sp?) of J.C. that are still living in the San Francisco area. Maybe they would recall this watch being in their family long ago. This ball player died on my birthday, but 50 years earlier.