The Brissenden baseball bat barons

Cape Girardeau was a boom town at the beginning of the 20th Century. Between 1900 and 1910, the city's population jumped 76 percent.

The Frisco Railroad built a rail line in 1904 providing direct connections to both St. Louis and Memphis. Taking advantage of the rail access, the Roberts, Johnson and Rand Shoe Company opened a factory in 1907.

This prosperity was likely the reason why businessman Henry Brissenden moved from Illinois to Cape in 1908. He opened a lumber mill north of Sloan Creek next to the railroad. This mill produced barrel staves, but it also manufactured something more interesting: baseball bats.

The 1915 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map included an inset of the mill. Notations indicate that it made "baseball bat stock" and operated for six months out of the year.

In 1916, Henry's son Ralph sold a drug store that he had owned for three years in Fornfelt. The Daily Republican newspaper reported, "It is rumored that he may acquire an interest in the business of his father, Henry Brissenden, who runs a baseball-bat factory in Cape Girardeau."

The rumor became true. By 1920, Ralph had taken over operations of the plant. Henry and his wife, according to a Southeast Missourian personals column, were able to take a three-month trip to California.

Just before the end of 1920, Ralph announced that he had closed a contract with A.G. Spaulding & Co. of Chicago to produce 400,000 baseball bats. The newspaper wrote, "Brissenden figured that if he did not get his contract, it would be necessary for him to keep his plant in North Cape closed down and rather than leave it entirely idle he had contemplated opening a coal yard."

Meanwhile, Henry didn't get to enjoy retirement for long, as he died on Feb. 14, 1921. A front-page obituary in the newspaper stated, "When the Reaper claimed Mr. Brissenden, Cape Girardeau lost one of her staunchest and most respected citizens."

After the Spaulding contract, it appears that the mill switched to making staves and not baseball bats. The 1923 version of the Sanborn Map labeled the plant as the "H. Brissenden Stave Co." engaged in "Lumber Sawing."

In 1925, Ralph Brissenden was appointed as chief clerk of the St. Louis Grain Inspection Department. He later became Missouri state grain and warehouse commissioner. Eventually he moved to Los Angeles, where he died in 1950.

It's unclear what happened to the sawmill after Ralph left for St. Louis. In 1958, Honker's Boat Club constructed a boat ramp and harbor on the opposite side of the railroad tracks. Now the entire area is owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation as Red Star Access.

The road leading to the boat ramp passes a grove of pecan trees. Curiously, in 1916, the newspaper reported that Walter Bellow, an employee of the baseball-bat factory, had fallen and broken his leg while climbing a pecan tree near the factory. So it seems this pecan grove has been around for over a century.