Charles Dillingham

Charles Theodore Dillingham

• Born December 7, 1842 in Bangor, ME USA
• Died October 30, 1918 in Great Barrington, MA USA

Biographical Information

Charles Dillingham was a member of the "Metropolitan Exhibition Company", the ownership group led by John Day that controlled the New York Gothams of the National League and the New York Metropolitans of the American Association in the 1880s. Dillingham held the title of secretary for the Gothams, and while he rarely made any waves, he was Day's right-hand man, accompanying him to National League meetings.

He made his money in book publishing and distribution and was considered the leading wholesale bookseller in the country in the early 1890s. In spite of this, he had to liquidate his business, Charles T. Dillingham & Company, in 1891, but held on to his ownership shares in what were now the New York Giants until 1896. He sank into obscurity after that.

He was a self-made man who left school at 15, after which he left his native city of Bangor, ME for Boston, MA, where he took a job as a clerk for a publishing company, then by 1860 he was living in New York, NY. He served briefly in the New York Seventh Infantry Regiment during the Civil War but did not see any combat action. He then rose to a partnership position in the firm Felt & Dillingham and later Lee, Shepard & Dillingham. He was a member of the executive of the Publishers' Central Organization, where he served with Walter Appleton, who would also invest in the Metropolitan Exhibition Company. He bought out his publishing partners in 1875 to form his own company. He also became active in politics around that time, running unsuccessfully for state assembly seat in 1880.

He and Appleton were avid baseball fans, and it seems that it was Metropolitans manager Jim Mutrie who put the two in relation with Day when he was forming his partnership to move the team to the majors. In 1883, Day famously moved the Metropolitans to the American Association, when they were expected to take over one of the two vacant slots in the National League, but simultaneously created a new franchise to fill that spot. The Company thus owned two distinct and theoretically competing baseball teams, but in fact the Mets were run as a second-tier franchise, with the best players headed to the N.L. squad. Still, it was the Mets who won a first pennant, in 1884, but they immediately moved Mutrie, star pitcher Tim Keefe and player Dude Esterbrook to the Giants, and sank to the bottom of the standings in 1885. The partnership soon sold the floundering team to concentrate on the Giants. In 1888, he led the Giants' efforts to prevent the city of New York from expropriating their ballpark, the first Polo Grounds, but these were unsuccessful. By then, he held the title of Vice-President. The Giants built a new ballpark further north in Manhattan, also called the Polo Grounds.

He was then involved in the fight to prevent the Players League from getting off the ground in 1890, sitting in on court hearings aimed at preventing players from defecting to the new circuit. His efforts managed to retain P Mickey Welch and OF Mike Tiernan on the Giants, but most of the team's other top players moved over to the Players League. The new team easily outdrew the Giants, who were on the verge of bankruptcy by then, but an infusion of cash from other National League owners saved the situation - but also diluted the original partners' shares. The two New York teams agreed to merge in January of 1891, sounding the death knell for the Players League, which further diluted Dillingham's stock. This coincided with a downturn of his publishing interests, his losses on his investments in the Giants, reported to have amounted to $100,000, were said to have been a major factor in the downfall of his publishing business, although reporters doubted that such a figure was realistic. Still, he remained on the Giants board of directors until the club was purchased by Andrew Freedman in 1895.

Related Sites

• Charles T. Dillingham at the SABR Bio Project