Take Me Out to the Ball Game

#52ancestors — Week 41

October 8-14  SPORTS

Take Me Out to the Ball Game . . . 

by Myra Vanderpool Gormley (C) 2018

 Tall, medium built, with gray eyes and auburn hair, Wilburn Everett Bankston was listed as a “ball player” on his World War I Draft Registration Card dated 26 May 1917 in what appears to be Providence, Rhode Island, but the handwriting of the location is difficult to read. However, his date of birth: 25 May 1893 in Forsyth, Monroe County, Georgia helps to identify him as a son of Hiram Everett Bankston (1859-1946) and Sarah “Dee” Askin (1865-1946). He was one of their 13 known children and a twin to his sister, Evelyn Bankston. The father and son both went by their middle name.

In an article in the Macon Telegram (Macon, Georgia) headlined “Gulls Off To Majors — Fillingem and Bankston Leave to Join the Athletics,” dated 23 July 1915, it was announced therein with a dateline of Charleston, S.C. that Pitcher Fillingem and Outfielder Bankston of the Charleston South Atlantic league team left here today (July 22) to join the Philadelphia American league club, to whom

they were sold several weeks ago. Bankston’s career with the major-league Athletics was short as the team finished last in the American League that year. The Athletics owner Connie Mack refused to match the offers of the newly created Federal League teams, preferring to let the "prima donnas" go and rebuild with younger (and less expensive) players, according to sportswriters. The result was a swift and near-total collapse, a "first-to-worst" situation.

The Athletics went from a 99–53 (.651) record and a pennant in 1914 to a record of 43–109 (.283) and 8th (last) place in 1915. At the time, it was the third-worst winning percentage in American League history. The Federal League had been formed to begin play in 1914. As they had done 13 years before, the new league raided existing A.L. (American League) and N.L. (National League) teams for players. While Bankston’s exact salary for his brief major-league career has not been ascertained, two 1915 Philadelphia Athletics pitchers — Bob Shawkey and Bruno Haas — made $3,249 and $1,200 respectively. Translating those numbers precisely into today’s dollars is difficult, but the range is about $30,000 to $80,000.

When he registered for the World War I draft, Bankston gave his occupation as “ball player” and his employer as Richmond BB Club at Richmond, etc. [sic]. On March 22, 1918, the Atlanta Constitution published a story with the headline “Everett Bankston, former Cracker, quits baseball.” The story notes that he hit .325 in 1916 and .300 last season (1917) and was “secured from the Yankees, the last three seasons with Richmond and formerly a [Atlanta] Cracker, has been lost to the [Memphis] Chickasaws.” It also reveals that he owned a farm at Barnesville, Georgia and “on account of shortage of labor he would be obliged to remain at home and look after the farm.”

However, he served briefly during World War I as Seaman Second Class Wilburn Bankston, having enlisted on 4 June 1918, and training at the Naval Training Camp, Charleston, South Carolina. He was honorably discharged 11 November 1918. He apparently returned to playing baseball after the war. On the 1920 census he is enumerated with his parents in Monroe County, Georgia, but he is listed as “professional ball player.”

 By 1930, still enumerated with his parents, he is recorded as a laborer (farm). Evidently by age 37, his baseball career had ended. His career lasted much longer than “one year” as indicated on a website, although that reference may refer only to his brief career with major-league Philadelphia Athletics. Bankston played with Charleston, Greenville, Charlotte, Augusta and Columbia as well as several other minor league clubs. He broke into the professional game about 1912 when he was 19 years old. In July 1927, he voluntarily retired after being sold by Richmond to the Raleigh club of the Piedmont League. He had a life-time batting average of over .300.

He died 26 February 1970 in Georgia and is buried in Fredonia Church Cemetery in Lamar County, Georgia where his parents and other kinfolks rest. Some websites claim he was married, but a marriage record for him has not been found — to date.

On his paternal side, Wilburn Everett Bankston descends from the Swedes on the Delaware:
Colonial Swedes

He was the son of Hiram Everett Bankston (1859-1946) and Sarah Dixon (1865-1946), who was the son of Welburn Henderson Bankston (1805-1892) and Amanda Rebecca Bush (1829-1896), who was the son of Hiram Bankston (ca 1779-1800) and Susanna Slaydon (ca 1782-after 1815), who was the son of Lawrence Bankston (ca 1755-1844) and Nancy Anne Delphia Henderson (1758-1849), who was the son of Peter Bankston (ca 1732-1804) and Priscilla [--?--] (d. after 1804), who was the son of Lawrence Bankston Sr. (ca 1704-1771) and Rebecca Hendricks (ca 1710-before 1786), who was the son of Andrew Bankston Jr. (ca 1673-after 1746) and Gertrude Boore (ca 1676-after 1740), who was the son of Anders Bankston Sr. (1640-1705) and Gertrude Rambo (1650-after 1705).