George H. Wilson was an African-American baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 pitcher

Pitcher

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...

 in the Negro Leagues

Negro league baseball

The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...

. He played for major teams from 1895 to 1905 and pitched for Havana in the Cuban winter league of 1907.

Wilson lived in Palmyra Township, Michigan

Palmyra Township, Michigan

Palmyra Township is a civil township of Lenawee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,366 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...

 when the Page Fence Giants

Page Fence Giants

One of the top black baseball teams of the 1890s, the Page Fence Giants were based in Adrian, Michigan and named after the Page Woven Wire Fence Company. The team was sponsored by the company's founder, J. Wallace Page....

 were founded in Adrian

Adrian, Michigan

As of the 2010 census Adrian had a population of 21,133. The racial and ethnic makeup of the population was 84.1% white, 4.4% black or African American, 0.6% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 5.9% from some other race and 4.0% from two or more races...

, the Lenawee County

Lenawee County, Michigan

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 98,890 people, 35,930 households, and 26,049 families residing in the county. The population density was 132 people per square mile . There were 39,769 housing units at an average density of 53 per square mile...

 seat, for the 1895 season. At age nineteen he pitched one game for the 1895 Giants but spent that season with Adrian's club in the Michigan State League

Michigan State League

Michigan State League was the name of six American professional baseball leagues. Five of them operated only one or two baseball seasons and the other four seasons...

. There he was one of the last black players in organized baseball before 1946

Baseball color line

The color line in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Organized Baseball, or the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues, until Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the 1946 season...

. He batted .327 and won 29 games as a pitcher but the number of racially mixed leagues was already very low, the Michigan State League did not return, and none of Adrian's black players were rehired for 1896.

With Page Fence in 1898, the Columbia Giants 1899–1900, and during his first two seasons with the Chicago Union Giants 1901–1905, Wilson worked with catcher Chappie Johnson

Chappie Johnson

George "Chappie" Johnson was an African-American baseball catcher and field manager in the Negro leagues. He played for many of the best teams around 1900 and 1910 and he crossed racial boundaries as a teacher and coach....

.