Milo Lockwood was a pitcher and utility player for the Washington Nationals of the Union Association in 1884.  He wasn’t on a very good team, and Lockwood was part of the problem.  In his eleven outings, he lost nine of ten decisions.  And, as a backup right fielder, center fielder, or third baseman, he didn’t hit enough to keep his job – he was released about six weeks into the season.

Lockwood did have the occasional good outing. In an April start against Baltimore, Lockwood fanned 11 batters, but ten (!) errors contributed to the 8 – 5 loss.

Milo Hathaway Lockwood was born 07 April 1858 to C. B. and Jane (Hathaway) Lockwood in Solon, OH.  C.B. owned a hardware company and was on the board of directors for a large insurance firm in New York.  Milo went to Hiram Collage and spent two years studying law at the University of Michigan.  He even served as a lawyer for the second district, but was removed from that role in 1885.  Eventually he went back to work for his father and lived an upper class life.  In 1890, he went to Brooklyn and married Frances Mary Pollard and they returned to live in Cleveland.  They never had any children

Over time, however, Lockwood struggled with rheumatoid sciatica.  In 1897, he and Frances spent a summer in Ecomony, PA.  On the afternoon of October 9, after mingling with friends in the hotel office, and after telling his wife he was going to take his afternoon nap, he picked up a pistol and fired it into his temple.

“…The only cause his friends in the town can ascribe is despondency from a long sickness. He has been a sufferer from acute sciatic rheumatism for a number of years. He leaves a wife, who is at the hotel, and has been there with her this summer, but no children.

“…Not five minutes before he (fired) the fatal shot he had been chatting with friends in the office of the hotel, and had retired to his room to read. Before lying down to take an accustomed afternoon siesta, he spent some moments with Mrs. Lockwood and he then stepped into the bedroom adjoining. Within five minutes his wife heard a shot and rushing into the room found her husband gasping his last on the floor with a bespattered temple, where the bullet had entered, and his head resting in a pool of blood. There had not been the slightest intimation that Lockwood had contemplated such an act, nor, from what can be gathered in the town, is there any circumstances surrounding his career which would make him rather face the “ills he knew not of” than to enjoy the society of his wife and friends. If an exceedingly genial disposition, generous to a fault, and seemingly in the position to spend his money freely, there were few people whom he had met in the old settlement who did not count themselves as a friend of Mr. Lockwood’s.

“About the only circumstance in connection with the affair is the oddity of a man of his prominence in the Forest City choosing such a quiet place as the old town of Economy in which to spend the summer: but since the 26th day of August he and his wife have to all appearances led the most contented existence, broken only by little pleasure excursions to the surrounding country… (H)e had spent much time at Hot Springs in hopes of being freed from the pains of sciatic rheumatism, and it was his intention to return there this fall.”

“Suicide at Economy,” Pittsburgh Press, 10 October 1897, Page 16.

Other Sources:

1860, 1880 US Censuses
Baseball-Reference.com
FindAGrave.com
Student Lists, Hiram Colleage Yearbooks (1875, 1876)
Student Lists, University of Michigan (1923, Pg. 965)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle 06 March 1878: Page 1.
“The First Innings,” National Republican (DC), 02 April 1884: 5.
“The Nationals Lose,” National Republican (DC), 29 April 1884: 1.
“The Second District Court,” Wood River Times (Hailey, ID), 30 July 1885: Page 3.
“Married,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 03 January 1890: Page 3.
“Lockwood-Pollard,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 03 January 1890: Page 2.
“Put a Bullet Through His Head,” Meadville Evening Republican, 11 October 1897: Page 1.