Thursday, August 31, 2023

 Galena Great George Grantham

George Farley Grantham was born May 20, 1900 in Galena, Kansas, a town named for the lead-bearing mineral found nearby. He was the only child born to Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Grantham, a lead prospector from Indiana, and his wife, Anna, who went by Emma. Before George was nine, the family moved to the gold-mining town of Goldroad, Arizona. There Frank worked as an engineer in an electric plant at one of the local gold or quartz mines.

At the age of 14, George played shortstop and right field for the Rays Consolidated industrial team. The next year, Grantham began attending the Northern Arizona Normal School in Flagstaff, where he played football and first base. By the end of 1916 he was the shortstop for a club in his new hometown of Kingman, Arizona. The following spring, the Kingman nine played an exhibition game against the visiting Chicago Cubs in which Grantham subbed and went hitless in his lone at-bat, against George Zabel.

In 1917 Grantham excelled in left field and at third base for the Kingmanites, and as a shortstop for the Lovin and Withers industrial team. In July, he received an invite from W.W. McCredie, owner of the Pacific Coast League Portland Beavers, to a tryout in California. That same day, Grantham’s father died from tuberculosis.17

Grantham reportedly attended a tryout, but it’s unknown if he got an offer. By the following August he was in the Navy. A case of the mumps kept Grantham from being shipped out to France weeks before the fighting ended in World War I. He was discharged ten months later.

A few months after his return home, Grantham signed a contract with the Detroit Tigers. Unsure about leaving his mother alone, he waited to report to Tacoma of the Pacific Coast International League until just before the 1920 season.

(The above is an excerpt I compiled from SABR, a bio titled “George Granthan,” by Larry DeFillipo)

Footnotes/Attribution 

Frank had found enough success working a mining lease to marry the former Annie Wagner, a Galena native, in July 1896.

Galena (Kansas) Evening Times, May 22, 1900:; “A Big Strike,” Galena Times, July 30, 1893:  “Local Happenings,” Galena Times, July 10, 1896.

   It’s unclear when the Granthams moved from Goldroad. They’re listed in the 1920 U.S. Census as residing in Kingman.

“Kingman Ball Stars Victorious,” Mohave County Miner (Kingman, Arizona), December 23, 1916.