Allen Sangree
Encyclopedia
Life
Father: Milton H. Sangree, Mother: Jane E. Hudson. Born around 1878, most likely in the Harrisburg or Steelton Pennsylvania areaAttended Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1832, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to the famous battlefield. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the Bullets. Gettysburg College has about 2,700 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women...
(class of 1892)
Member of the Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi is the largest and one of the oldest college Greek-letter secret and social fraternities in North America with 244 active chapters and more than . Sigma Chi was founded on June 28, 1855 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio when members split from Delta Kappa Epsilon...
Theta fraternity
On the staff of the New York Sun
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
some time around 1896
With the New York World
New York World
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers...
as a correspondent traveling to Africa reporting on the trouble between Great Britain and the South Africa Republic prior to the Boer war
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
. He reported for the Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
during the Boer War as well as for Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
Started writing as one the featured baseball writers for the New York Evening World on March 11, 1905
Married Kate Bradley (1888–1952) on November 4, 1905
On October 2, 1908 Allen Sangree was asked by William McMutrie Speer
(a member of the editorial staff of the World
New York World
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers...
) via the city editor
George Carteret,
to locate some Panamanians who had recently came to town with a possible connection to William Nelson Cromwell
William Nelson Cromwell
William Nelson Cromwell was an American attorney active in promotion of the Panama Canal and other major ventures.He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised there by his mother, Sarah M. Brokaw, a Civil War widow...
and the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
. Allen was unable to locate them, reported back to the editorial staff with no story and the assignment was crossed off. However Allen's investigation did appear to have stirred up William Nelson Cromwell
William Nelson Cromwell
William Nelson Cromwell was an American attorney active in promotion of the Panama Canal and other major ventures.He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised there by his mother, Sarah M. Brokaw, a Civil War widow...
's PR staff who approached Caleb Van Hamm (the managing editor) and "demanded ... what the World meant by getting after his boss without giving him a look-in."
Died March 2, 1924 in Trenton NJ after having been hospitalized for a breakdown two years earlier
Early references
1892 he had a position with McClure's syndicate in New York and wrote for McClure's magazine.South Africa and the Boer War
- Wrote a character sketch of Cecil Rhodes in the February 1900 issue of Ainslee
- Was a New York journalist who was at one time stationed in Cape Town South Africa as the secretary of the US consul-general.
- He covered the Boer WarSecond Boer WarThe Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
in South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
traveled with General Christiaan De WetChristiaan De WetChristiaan Rudolf de Wet was a Boer general, rebel leader and politician.He was born on the Leeuwkop farm, in the district of Smithfield in the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State...
Sports writer
- Wrote the often quoted piece
- Wrote the short story "The Jinx" in 1910 which was included later in his book "The Jinx: Stories of the Diamond" (1911) which is probably one of the earliest written references to the word 'JinxJinxA jinx, in popular superstition and folklore, is:* A type of curse placed on a person that makes them prey to many minor misfortunes and other forms of bad luck;...
' to mean someone being unlucky- A review of the book "The Jinx: Stories of the Diamond"
- Was a member of the Baseball Writers Association of AmericaBaseball Writers Association of AmericaThe Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded on October 14, 1908, to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...
in 1911 and 1914
Short Stories
- A Break in Training The Saturday Evening Post Feb 18 1911
- The Naive Mr. Dasher-Story of a Baseball Jinx The Saturday Evening Post May 28, 1910
- The Ringer The Saturday Evening Post May 6, 1911
- In Dutch The Saturday Evening Post Jun 17 1911
- The Indian Sign The Saturday Evening Post Sep 9 1911
- That Load of Hay Top-Notch Sep 20 1914
- A Time Exposure The Popular Magazine Feb 7 1915
- The Sacrifice Hit The Popular Magazine Sep 7 1915
- The Limited Male The Popular Magazine Sep 20 1916
- Nix on the Slaughter Ainslee’s Oct 1916
Articles
- Americans in South Africa Munsey’s Mar 1900
- The Lonely Idol of the Fickle “Fans” The Saturday Evening Post Jul 29 1905
- Why Nobody Loves the Umpire The Saturday Evening Post Sep 2 1905
Samuel Gompers and the labor movement
There is a reference to Allen Sangree in the papers of Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
where a friend, writes
There is a reference in the US Congressional Record