Frank Loney, a collector of Carlisle memorabilia, called to ask about a football player named T. A. Engleman. He had a letter written by a Carlisle Indian School football player who was visiting the St. Louis World’s Fair. The letter was written the morning of the big game against Haskell Institute on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 1904. The letter was written to Mr. Ziegler in the harness shop at the Indian school.
Frank could find no student named Engleman listed in Linda Witmer’s book, so further research was necessary. Steckbeck listed an Eagleman. The author of the letter wrote, “The second team played the Ohio State University on the 24th, Thanksgiving-day. I played out the whole game, and felt as though of being eighty years old after the game. My man was more than two hundred pounder and so you can imagine I had something to buck up against.” I knew that the first team sat out the Ohio State to be rested for the big game with Haskell that President Roosevelt was expected to attend. Finding a newspaper write-up of the game that included line-ups, I noticed that a player named Eagleman played left tackle across from either Gill or Marker. Because Marker was ejected from the game along with Fremont for engaging in a hair-pulling contest, Gill must have been the 200-hundred pounder and Eagleman was Engleman or vice-versa. Ticket prices for the Carlisle-Ohio State contest, a deluxe game, ranged from 25 cents to a dollar. Ohio State’s only other deluxe game was with the University of Michigan.
Witmer’s book listed an Eagle Man but no Eagleman. However, various censuses listed Thomas A. Eagleman, Sioux. He married a white woman, Grace More, in 1909 and they had 3 sons and 5 daughters. They farmed near Crow Creek in South Dakota, probably on an allotment.
Mystery solved.
Tags: Grace More, Haskell, Ohio State, St. Louis World's Fair, Thomas Eagleman
Tom Benjey's Weblog 
May 25, 2010 at 2:27 pm |
Hi. I am the grandson of, and yes it is, Thomas Eagleman who played football at Carlisle with Jim Thorpe. Had I known, I could of helped clearing up this issue. Don’t know if anyone knows how to contact Frank Loney but here is one of the last interviews with my Grandfather about Jim Thorpe.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19650815&id=QwcrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=W5gFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4252,7419307
May 25, 2010 at 2:31 pm |
Thanks for writing, Charles. I will forward your message to Frank Loney.
Tom
July 1, 2012 at 2:40 pm
good afternoon, i am thomas eaglemansgreat grandaughter, betty lou.my grandma is fairy.
August 8, 2010 at 4:23 am |
Having just read Loney’s article, just thought he’d like to know that I, also a grandson of Thomas A Eagleman, confirm that he (Eagleman) played football with Thorpe, was married to Grace Moore, and fathered eight children who lived into adulthood: four sons and four daughters. Eagleman later, after his athletic career, was employed at Pierre Indian School, South Dakota.
August 9, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I will pass this on to Mr. Loney. Not long ago I saw a photo of the school band in William Winneshiek’s photo album in which he labeled your grandfather as Thomas Eaglem, Sioux. I assume that the spelling was just a typo.
August 9, 2010 at 4:36 pm |
Charles,
I have been trying to find you for awhile. Where are you? Have an email address? I’d like to correspond.
Lance
July 10, 2012 at 2:28 pm |
I just wanted to say Hi to all my distant relitives. My name is Peggy and I am the great grand daughter of Carmen Eagleman, one of Thomas’s daughters. My 2 brothers, Robert & Thomas, and I have been trying to track our faimly line. So it was great to happen upon all of this.
Peggy