Author: Eparaima Wild

On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy, bringing the United States into the Second World War.  At its peak, the U.S. Armed Forces had over 16 million men in the service.  Nearly all of these men were the young and able bodied. An unprecedented side effect from this is where our story begins. During times of war, public morale is essential to maintaining the war effort. An unhappy populous is unwilling to fight or support a war. America’s entertainment industry became threatened by the absence of its young men, particularly in sports.  Sports teams began to resort to alternative methods of maintaining rosters, such as making temporary combinations as seen in the case of the Steagles in Pennsylvania. Football resorted to mergers or playing secondaries, etc. Baseball went a different route, starting the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).   

The AAGPBL was founded in 1943 by Phillip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, who was worried about the MLB losing teams to the draft and enlistments. The AAGPBL was formed by scouting softball players and recruiting into new teams that were managed by men to make it appear more “professional” for audiences. During spring training, the girls were required to go to a “charm school”, after the day of practices, for public image training and etiquette. There were several teams, all local to the Midwest area. They were not able to play in the stadiums of the professional men’s teams due to backlash from some team owners and fans, so played in surrounding areas.  

The second season of play is when our star enters the scene. Ann “Pee Wee” Meyer Petrovic joined the league as one of the youngest players ever signed as a 15-year-old high school freshman at only 5’3 and 100 pounds. She played shortstop for the Kenosha Comets as well as the Minneapolis Millerettes in the 1944 season. In 1945, she switched to the National Girls Baseball League (a sister league to the AAPGBL) to play closer to her home in Chicago. She eventually graduated high school and went to college at Nyack Bible College in Nyak NY, where she met her husband, George. When she got married in 1950, she quit baseball and moved to Ashland with her new family.  

Although she stopped playing baseball, her athletic talents were not left by the wayside. She used them to lead a phenomenal women’s volleyball team for the YWCA. She played for 15 years, bringing home numerous championships and titles. She also played one baseball game for Cresco’s industrial team, but stopped playing after injuring another player with a ball thrown to home plate that hit the player in the chest. In an interview she participated in with Grand Valley State University, she explained her competitive spirit. She was a professional player, and that extended into her drive for other sports in the amateur and recreational leagues and her skill and drive led to a massively successful career in women’s baseball and in local volleyball. After living in Ashland from 1952-1978, and participating in local sports, she eventually moved with her husband and two children to Tucson, Arizona, where she now lives.  

Ann was a pioneer of women’s sports. Circumstance gave her and many other women the opportunity to play, but when those circumstances changed, her athletic career continued. She is a member of the Ashland County Hall of Fame for her accomplishments in pioneering women’s sports. Despite the end of the war in 1945 and the return of many of the men from war, the women’s leagues continued until 1954. The league only began to fall apart with the advent of televised games, the decentralization of management, and lack of talent due to rule changes shifting closer and closer to baseball from softball. Most of the players were experienced with softball and needed training to switch over to baseball and that became too much of an effort to maintain. Despite the end of the league itself, the memory of their efforts and the publicity of the league helped pave the way for women’s sports and women athletes throughout the United States. Professional baseball is just one area where WWII provided many women with more opportunities. 

For more information regarding Ann check out her biography page: 

Ann (Meyer) Petrovic (“Pee Wee”) AAGPBL Profile 

And her oral history:  

Petrovic, Ann (Interview transcript and video), 2010 · Digital Collections (gvsu.edu) 

And to read more on the AAGPBL check out their website full of articles and histories 

AAGPBL Players Association 

Helen Phillips Arnold was born on the 30th of July in Ashland Ohio in 1875 to Mr. David Allison Phillips and Mary Reep Phillips. She lived out her youth in Ashland, attending Ashland High school and studying for two years at Ashland College. She attended. summer school in Chautauqua, New York before returning to Ashland to teach with the Ashland Public Schools. 

At age 23, Helen married John Edwards Arnold on November 23, 1898. They had one daughter, Lois, but her impact on children was not limited to her own family, or even the children she taught in school. Helen dedicated her entire life to Ashland County as the first probation officer of Ashland. She helped between 200 and 400 children per year for 16 years. She dedicated her life to helping children and their parents get through tough situations. It was a relatively thankless job, paying very little and filled with criticisms and protestation. Despite the trials she faced, she was invited to speak at many events where she always pushed for compassion and understanding. She was also a prominent figure in pushing for public welfare, such as healthcare and nursing for the unfortunate and other programs designed to help Ashlanders.  

Helen served as president of many social programs, including the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). The WCTU was a group of women dedicated to alcohol reform. This was one of many groups who pushed heavily for prohibition. A quote from their second national president Frances E. Willard helps display their ideals; “The mission of the White Ribbon Women is to organize Christian women for the peace and purity, the protection and exaltation of our homes”. Her involvement in the temperance movement may have been related to her social work. As a woman who engaged with many children from broken homes, it is very likely she saw the direct impact of alcoholism in her daily work, and seeing its negative side so regularly may have helped inform her strong support of prohibition. Helen also served as president of the local Delphian Society. The Delphians were dedicated to securing the future through education. She was also a member of the Womens Relief Corps (WRC), whose mission is “to perpetuate the memory of those who sacrificed much and sometimes all in the American Civil War; provide assistance to veterans of all wars and extend needed aid to them and to their widow(er)s and orphans”. All these different organizations paint a picture of who Helen Arnold was and what she believed. She was a devout Christian woman who dedicated her entire life to service. From work to social life, she spent all her time and effort making Ashland a safe, educated, and caring community.  

Helen Arnold died at the age of 60 in 1933, and was survived by her husband, her daughter, two grandchildren, and five sisters.  She had a large family of her own, but rather than focus on just her own family, she made all of Ashland her family, working as a probation officer up until 2 weeks before she died, bedridden from her failing health of two years. Her life was dedicated to Ashland and its children, and as the first probation officer, she pioneered the welfare of the less fortunate in Ashland County.

Sumner Levi Palmer was born in Sullivan, Ohio in 1843 to Zurah and Lauretta Palmer. He was held as a prisoner of war by the Confederates at Andersonville Prison in Georgia, where he died in late August/early September of 1864. He was the middle of three children. Joseph was his elder brother by one year and Melvin was his younger brother by 6 years. We have no letters to or from Sumner in our possession, so who he is, what he believed, etc. is left lost to the annals of history. Although much about him is not known from firsthand accounts, we can piece together an idea of what might have motivated him, and use that knowledge to paint a picture of what his life may have been like.  

Sullivan was known as a town of extremist beliefs by most Ashland County residents. It was a hotbed of abolitionist beliefs and according to the Ashland Union Newspaper, to support Abolition was to wish death upon the United States. We know that Joseph joined Company C of the Union Army in 1861 as a young man of around 18 years old. After arriving at Camp Chase, Company C asked collectively to join the 42nd Ohio Infantry after learning it was led by Colonel James Garfield, who raised the unit himself through travelling around and giving speeches. Garfield gave a speech at the Ashland County courthouse just a few months after Joseph joined. Garfield said in his speech, according to his letters, that Ashland is a place filled with those who are “afraid ‘to do good on the sabbath.’”  It is likely that the Palmer family was Presbyterian, like most of Sullivan Township. These highly religious people were staunch abolitionists, but in many cases, may have been opposed to war and violence due to their Christian beliefs. This belief was clearly common enough that a Colonel recruiting in the area thought it to be worth using as a recruiting point. Garfield was a man who was staunchly opposed to slavery, and recruited almost solely on the basis of abolition. This character attracted Palmer and his comrades so strongly as to request him specifically.  

The Palmer brothers did not join at the same time. Joseph joined early and was in the infantry. He fought for much of the war and was discharged with his unit toward the end of the war in September 1864. Sumner joined three years after his brother. Why they did not join at the same time, we do not know for certain. We know Sumner joined the 2nd Ohio Cavalry in 1864, and he is not in the draft registry for the year – meaning his late enlistment was voluntary, and not due to the four drafts conducted from 1863-65. Using this information, we can speculate on how he managed to become interned at Andersonville, where he would die. Why would he join so much later than his brother did, when they were only a year apart in age? The reason Sumner joined is purely up to imagination and some historic context to create potential answers. But overall, we cannot truly know why, but we do know that his decision to join would cost him his life. 

Sumner joined in February of 1864 and would only be in the army for 6 months, but it was during some of the heaviest fighting of the war. The 2nd Cavalry fought alongside the Army of the Potomac during Grant’s Overland Campaign into the South in 1864. The timeline of Sumner’s enlistment means that the first major battle he could have fought in would have been The Battle of the Wilderness. There are only a few battles in which he could have fought. He could have fought in The Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Totopotomoy Creek, and/or Sherridan’s Shenendoah Valley campaign. The specific battle he was likely captured during was The First Battle of Reams Station. This battle took place on June 29th during the so-called “Siege of Petersburg”. It was not a major battle, but there were 600 casualties or captives, some of which were members of the 2nd Ohio, and all of whom are documented as having been interned at Andersonville Prison. This newly constructed prison n the Deep South is known for its poor living conditions and high death rates.  

Andersonville would be Sumners last destination. We do not know when he arrived, but we do know that his stay there was not long. From the evidence we have from those who survived Andersonville, we know that the prisoners were packed like sardines and disease was rampant. In addition, much of the supplies that were intended for prisoner use were withheld from them, leading to starvation and an increase in diseases from poor sleeping and living conditions. It is likely he arrived at Andersonville in July, shortly after the First Battle of Ream’s Station. He is reported as having died on September 16, 1864, by the roster which states his enlistment date as February 24th of the same year.  

We do not know how Sumner died. He is not on the records of the medical clerk or in the burial records of Andersonville, GA. Sumner lived a short and tragic life, but it is not one that is unique to him. Sumner is but one of many soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War who are not remembered today. The reasons they fought are forgotten, but that does not mean they are forgotten. Joseph Palmer was mustered out with his Company on September 30, 1864, just mere days after Sumner died. It is unlikely that he knew about his brother’s death. Joseph fought for years, likely in fear for his life hundreds of times, but he made it to the end. How many brothers in arms he lost, we cannot know. What relief he must have felt in surviving the war, or what guilt he may have felt for outliving his comrades, is only known to him and history. Did Joseph think his brother was more likely to make it out than he was? Was he nervous that his brother was involved in the main front of the war, where it was more dangerous? The mind of Joseph was likely consumed by inner turmoil.  

Joseph’s brother Melvin died in 1884 at the age of 35. Joseph died in 1919, and is buried with his wife Alice, beside his parents and near Melvin. The whole family now rests together save one. Sumner’s final place of rest is unknown. He may be buried in an unmarked grave in Andersonville, or he may have died in combat without his body being recovered, and only assumed to have gone to Andersonville with his comrades. Interestingly, in the Andersonville records, there is a F.G. Palmer from Sumners unit listed among those deceased around the time of Sumner’s death. Was it a clerical error? Or another person entirely? Although we cannot know where his body rests, we do know he has not been forgotten. Sumner’s year of birth and death are engraved on the back of Joseph’s headstone in the Southview Cemetery in Sullivan.