Table of Contents
Thanks to Doug Kretzer with The Mountain Sports Hall of Fame for the photos and content.
In Search of John O’Neil
In April a friend and one of the great historians in the Big Sandy Valley sent me a message saying he and others were building a Pike County History website and asked if I had access to any photos relating to Pike or immediate areas. They were looking for any photos of highways, railroads, locomotives and town scenes that were influenced by Pike County or that Pike County was once a part of. I agreed to send anything I came across. That was the early conversation between Randall Osborne and myself on that subject.
I had sent some info to Randall on sports heroes from the Pikeville area who had played major league baseball from some articles I had done on such players as Mark Reynolds, Jonny Venters, and Jack Smith, as well as a bit on Elcaney Porter who starred in basketball and had an unusual story.
I had done some research on John O’Neil, who played a full season (1946) for the Philadelphia Phillies as a shortstop and spent a long time in baseball. O’Neil was involved in professional baseball for 45 years, serving from 1939-1984 as player, player/manager, manager, general manager, and major league scout.
I posted an article on Mountain Sports Hall of Fame page about O’Neil back in July and Randall had seen it and asked if he could use it on the history page. He then told me of something odd about O’Neill that former Pike County Judge Executive Wayne T. Rutherford once told him. Rutherford said he had grown up near O’Neil’s family in Shelbiana in Pike County and had known O’Neil by another name and that O’Neil was not his birth surname. Judge Rutherford passed away before details could be obtained, so that ended that. But the mystery remained. Why the name change?
It turned out that O’Neil’s name was actually Charles Robert Johnson. That was one of the easier parts of the mystery to solve.
Myself and a few others searched for information about it. We really dug deeply, but fruitlessly, learning more about the player but not finding out what we were most interested in. If there was a name change, why? And when?
Early on I had dismissed the idea that he may have wanted to protect his amateur status as guys had in the early days. If you remember the story about Jim Thorpe, you know he was stripped of his Olympic medals years after earning them when it was discovered that he had played professional baseball and possibly football. Most of the guys in those days who wanted to protect their amateur status simply played professionally under assumed names. As I said, I dismissed that idea because it surely wasn’t the case here.
A post on the Pike County History page helped start the search all over on the internet. Not many answers to help, although the few responses received did offer suggestions to check. Marriage and birth records revealed his given name to have been Charles Robert Johnson. All possibilities, including adoption, were explored with no findings of substance. One birth record found listed a John O’Neil with a similar birth date, born in the Shelbiana neighborhood, but with a mother named O’Neil. That suspected mother lived in North Carolina 1940 and John O’Neil, a/k/a Charles Johnson, was playing baseball in 1940 in Winston –Salem. The birth date was mighty close and it was tempting to make the connection between the two, but how could he have two birth mothers in two states as well as under two different surnames? That did not sound plausible. On the other hand, the idea was later entertained that Charles Johnson and John O’Neill could have been childhood acquaintances in Shelbiana.
Census records of 1930 and 1940 show Johnson living with his mother, Lula, and father, Dewey Johnson, who worked as a brakeman on the railroad. The 1940 census did not help and actually hindered the research as it found Charles living at home with his parents. Baseball records showed him playing in Winston-Salem in 1940 and that year’s census 1940 census enumerated John O’Neil in Winston-Salem and listing his occupation as “ballplayer.” By now I was reaching to extract hair that I could not find. It was suggested that the census enumerator in Pike County got information from O’Neil’s parents that he was living with them, although he was away playing baseball in North Carolina.
I checked his WW ll Draft Registration which was in July of 1941 and it said his highest number of education years were two years of college. This showed he was a busy guy: born April 19, 1922; played pro baseball first in 1939. So that led me astray, thinking he got in some college while playing in baseball towns.
A check some postings of questionnaires on Ancestry.com showed that O’Neil had supplied to the central league office with information regarding his experience. On one from 1954 he stated that he graduated in 1937 from Pikeville College Academy and said he played basketball there. A quick check of the basketball encyclopedia shows an 8-16 record for them in 1935-36 and possibly a misprint for the next season that should have read as 1936-37 but is printed as 1935-36, again with a note that says they did not play that season. It most likely should have read “1936-37 Did Not Play.” Then it picks back up on the 1937-38 team with a record of 2-21. He had already graduated, but I wanted to use that year to show they were back playing after being off his senior season. The questionnaire also stated that he played basketball at Pikeville College (it was a two year institution then).
Were we looking at the same guy? Baseball records show O’Neil was born on the same day and in the same community of Shelbiana as Johnson. Baseball records also said O’Neil was taught the game by his father, who had played semi-pro baseball and worked for the railroad. We know Johnson’s dad had worked for the railroad. We even found an old news clipping from a 1918 Big Sandy News out of Louisa that showed his mother and dad were part of a double wedding with his mom’s sister and a guy who was also a railroad worker. That information was interesting, but added nothing to the search.
Other information showed that O’Neil was classified 4F for Selective Service. No reason for exemption was noted.
Data on Johnson/ O’Neil’s father, Dewey Johnson, from an early census record showed he had not attended school, but his registration for WWl draft revealed he could write by seeing his signature. Dewey’s WWll draft card revealed even better penmanship. There was nothing in those records to reveal anything regarding the son, but one never leaves a stone unturned. So where do we turn? We had used records on Google and copies of official records from baseball. We had used everything we thought imaginable. It actually kept me up one night.
I found a photo on Ancestry.com rom a 1940 yearbook of Pikeville Junior College. It was of a history group at the college. A Charles Johnson was pictured, although we have no way of knowing if it was the Charles Johnson we were searching for.
I had seen a note somewhere around 1954 or 1955 that O’Neil had written to a newspaper in New York about the difference in pitching in a few leagues. The letter had come from Lexington, Kentucky, and said that was his home. Maybe he was back in Lexington to finish his education. So I got on the old newspapers site on the internet and entered the name John O’Neil and date range of 1954-1960 and location as Kentucky. The first hit was a 1955 article from a Lexington newspaper that, in one short column, turned out to be the mother lode which had eluded us for months. It felt like we had struck gold.
O’Neil/Johnson was in Lexington in 1955 completing his education at UK and had helped Harry Lancaster with the UK baseball team while there. The article said he had gone to Pikeville Junior College, where he played baseball. He was good enough to have started playing professionally in 1939 and was smart enough to play professionally under an assumed name – John Francis O’Neil – so he could still participate at Pikeville Junior College under his real name of Charles Johnson. It worked well for him. He had started using the assumed name in 1939 as a professional.
Somewhere along the way, he must have changed the name permanently. When he passed away, well up into his nineties, his obituary listed him under the name John O’Neil. He had married a lady in Jamestown, New York, and made that his permanent home. He died in Florida and is buried in Jamestown, New York. His obituary is included below.
John F. O’Neil, 91, of Emeritus of Lakewood, formerly of 126 Merlin Ave., died Wednesday April 18, 2012, in WCA Hospital.
A native of Shelbiana, Ky., he was born April 19, 1920, the son of the late Dewey and Lula Roberts Johnson.
He was involved in professional baseball for more than 45 years serving, from 1939-86 as player, player/manager, manager, general manager and scout. He participated in over 1,800 minor league games. He played shortstop for the Jamestown Falcons in 1941 and 1954. As part of the 1941 season was named Most Popular Jamestown Falcon by a vote of the fans. The Philadelphia Phillies called him up to the majors for a portion of the 1946 season. He returned to the Jamestown Falcons in 1961, this time as general manager. From 1964-84 he worked as a major league scout for various teams including Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers.
O’Neil was honored by the Chautauqua Hall of Fame at Diethrick Park in the summer of 2011. It was the 70th anniversary of Diethrick Park, then called Municipal Stadium, and O’Neil, lone survivor of the 1941 Jamestown team, was honored by throwing out the first pitch.
John O’Neil was the oldest inductee placed in Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame at the organization’s 31st annual induction dinner on Feb. 20, 2012.
Outside of baseball he was an avid golfer and fisherman with memberships at Chautauqua and Corry Hills golf clubs. He was also a member of Lakewood Rod and Gun Club.
Surviving are a daughter, Bonnie (James) Green of Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Jamestown; six grandchildren: Thomas M. Green of Manhattan, Daniel R. (Angela) Green of Maumelle, Ark.; Cindy (Jeff) Alper of Randolph, N.J.; Jim (Cheryl) Green of Mt. Pleasant, S.C.; John (Cheryl) Green of Greensboro, N.C.; and Jason (Jeanette) Green of Jamestown; and eight great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife, the former A. Janette “Suzy” Swanson, whom he married Nov. 16, 1943, and who died Aug. 28, 2008.
The funeral will be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the Lind Funeral Home. Pastor Jennifer Delahoy will officiate.
Burial will be in Lake View Cemetery.
Friends will be received for one hour prior to the service in the funeral home.
Memorials may be made to Chautauqua County Humane Society, 2825 Strunk Road, Jamestown, NY 14701.
