Henry Onderdonk

Henry Moscrop Onderdonk

• Born March 26, 1818 in New York USA
• Died September 2, 1885 in Nassau County, NY USA

Biographical Information

Henry Onderdonk played for the New York Knickerbockers in 1848 and 1849.

His father was a pastor who apparently wedded President John Tyler and his wife Julia, and Henry was once arrested for writing fake bank notes in his father's office at the church before his baseball career began. Onderdonk's wife was named Justine Bibbey, so it is possible that his Knickerbocker teammate, Edward Bibbey, could have been a relative of hers. Justine died after giving birth in 1849. He got remarried to a woman named Catherine Donnely in the 1850s and lived in Virginia for some time before the Civil War started.

He moved to Ohio during the war and appears to have opened a book store there. He later became involved in politics and ran for Ohio state senate. He was very vocal about the fact that he believed that the 100 votes casted by black voters for his opponent, Homer C. Jones, who had won the election should not count. Jones was removed from his position in 1868, after Ohio's 58th congress sided with Onderdonk. After his term ended, he moved back to New York and lived there until he died in 1885.