An 1856 Cricket Club In St. Louis

Cricket in St. Louis. - Cricket is moving in the West - a new club, the Jackson, has recently been organized in St. Louis, Mo., and the following gentlemen chosen as officers: - James Quigley, President; Patrick Conden, Secretary; William Tobin, Treasurer.  At their last meeting, they were prepared for a match, eleven of the members wearing blue shirts and the other eleven pink shirts.  At the first innings the blue shirts made 47 scores, and the pinks 37 scores.  At the second innings the blues made 49 scores and the pinks 43.  A pretty close game.

-New York Clipper, October 18, 1856

The earliest reference to cricket in St. Louis that I have comes from 1852 but the reference only mentions that someone is trying to put a club together - not that there actually was a club in the city.  The earliest reference to a St. Louis cricket club that I have comes from 1858 and, that year, there were at least two clubs playing cricket in St. Louis - the Jacksons, mentioned above, and the Mound City Club.  This reference from the Clipper beats that by two years.  So we know that cricket was being played in St. Louis by 1856 and it is possible that it was being played in the city as early as 1852.  

The significance of cricket and other bat and ball games that were played in St. Louis before the introduction of the New York game in the city is that it created an infrastructure that the new game of baseball could use to build upon.  The city already had ball clubs, ball grounds, ball players, equipment, and an acceptance of grown men playing ball games when the New York game first arrived in St. Louis.  I think that it made it easier for the new game to take root and grow.