Charles A. Stoneham

Charles Abraham Stoneham (July 5, 1876 – January 6, 1936) was the owner of the New York Giants baseball team, New York Nationals soccer team, the center of numerous corruption scandals and the instigator of the "Soccer Wars" which destroyed the American Soccer League.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stoneham

Notes

Stoneham himself was an inveterate gambler and the owner of numerous gambling operations, including the Oriental Park Racetrack, and Havana Casino in Havana, Cuba. He was eventually forced to sell these operations in 1923, as part of an anti-corruption campaign waged by baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.[1] However, he continued to operate horse racing operations in New York for several more years.

For several years before his death, Stoneham had been suffering from a variety of physical ailments which were eventually diagnosed as symptoms of Bright's disease. He died in a hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas on January 6, 1936 after spending several days in a coma. His son and heir Horace Stoneham was at his bedside. Horace would own the team until 1976, moving it to San Francisco in 1958.

Society for American Baseball Research “Charles A. Stoneham.” This article was written by Bill Lamb.

Short, stout, and jowly, Good Time Charlie Stoneham embodied a Jazz Age stereotype — cutthroat businessman by day, boozy bon vivant by night. Even before he took over the Giants in January 1919, Stoneham was a familiar name to the readers of New York City tabloids. Beginning with the well-publicized suicide of a mistress in 1905,1 Stoneham’s messy personal and business life was periodically in the news. Thereafter, the Giants principal owner had to contend with federal indictments, civil lawsuits, hostile fellow magnates, and troubles with booze, gambling, and yet more women. But during his 16-year tenure as club president, the Giants achieved more success than the club had had under any prior regime.

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Charles Abraham Stoneham was a man of modest origins. Born in Jersey City on July 5, 1876, he was the older of two sons born to a Civil War veteran-turned-bookkeeper Bartholomew F. Stoneham (1845-1894) and his Irish immigrant wife, the former Mary Holwell (1844-c.1926). By the mid-1890s, Charlie was employed by a mining stock brokerage as a board boy. Adept with numbers and innately shrewd, he quickly advanced in the profession. By 1903, he was senior partner of his own Manhattan brokerage firm. And by 1908, he was being sued for fraud by clients.2

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Some three months later, the shroud placed over the Stoneham funeral became understandable. Charles Stoneham had had another “wife” and family ensconced in Westchester County. In April 1936, a former showgirl named Margaret Leonard filed a court petition seeking support and maintenance for herself and children Russell Stoneham, age 16, and Jane Stoneham, 12. Whether the long-suffering Hannah Stoneham or her son, Horace, were previously aware of Charles’s second family is unknown, but neither ever publicly acknowledged it.22 The existence of the second family, however, was no secret to executor Bondy or Charles’s brother Horace A. Stoneham. Both men served as trustees of a fund that Charles had set up for the benefit of children Russell and Jane.23 Fortunately for baseball, the new Mrs. Stoneham laid no claim upon New York Giants stock, and stewardship of the club passed to son Horace.

References

• "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5B-NZVV : 16 March 2018), Charles A Stoneham, 1919; citing Passport Application, Florida, United States, source certificate #137769, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, 979, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4GW-7YQ : accessed 3 November 2021), Margaret Stoneham in household of Charles Stoneham, Greenburgh, Westchester, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 155, sheet 17A, line 39, family 337, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1660; FHL microfilm 2,341,394.
• https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88248619/asheville-citizen-times/
• The Polo Grounds: Essays and Memories of New York City's Historic Ballpark ... edited by Stew Thornley. Page 56. GoogleBooks
• Society for American Baseball Research “Charles A. Stoneham.” This article was written by Bill Lamb.
  • 15 At the time, news accounts regularly identified business associate Robertson as Charles Stoneham’s brother-in-law. See, e.g., the Boston Herald, January 12, 1924, and New York Times, January 15, 1924. But genealogical inquiry has failed to substantiate any marital connection between the Canadian-born Robertson and the Stoneham family
• “New York Giants team ownership history “ This article was written by Bill Lamb. “ The Stoneham Syndicate. In the early 1920s, the New York Yankees began the assembly of a professional sports dynasty, with many pundits rating the 1927 Yanks the best ballclub in major leagues history. Yet during the first half of the decade, the New York Giants outdid their local rival. Piloted by John McGraw and with a lineup featuring future Hall of Famers Frankie Frisch, George “High Pockets” Kelly, Dave Bancroft, and Ross Youngs, the Giants captured four consecutive National League pennants (1921-1924) and two World Series crowns, both taken at the expense of the Yankees. Remarkably, these feats were accomplished despite a fractious and oftentimes dysfunctional front office. At the center of the turmoil was one of baseball’s more improbable figures: club president Charles A. Stoneham.”
• Forty Years a Giant: The Life of Horace Stoneham. By Steven Treder. GoogleBooks