Charles F. Householder was born August 21, 1855 to William and Margaret (Black) Householder in Harrisburg, PA. Charlie was the middle child of seven – six boys and a much younger daughter. William was a carpenter; Margaret was busy chasing seven kids… Charlie spent ten years attending public schools in Harrisburg and somewhere after the Great War for Slavery, he learned the game of baseball.

Householder started playing ball in his hometown Harrisburg, PA area around 1872 as a pitcher with a deceptive underhand delivery.  He eventually switched to third base, which is what got him to the majors. Before and after his professional career, he was captain of several semi-professional clubs in Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre.

His only season amongst the big leagues was in 1884 when he landed with the Union Association franchise that started in Chicago and eventually moved to Pittsburgh.  One of many players taken from a minor league team in Springfield, IL, Householder hit .239 with a few walks and a fair number of extra base hits (one homer). He was essentially a league average hitter and a dependable fielder. Charlie split time at third base and left field, played three games at short, and pitched mop up relief duty in two games, allowing three runs (one earned) and striking out three batters in his three innings of work. As a third baseman, Householder was good at avoiding errors and showed some range. As a left fielder, he was a good third baseman.

Householder played in a couple of other good minor leagues, however, including time with Springfield, a minor league team in Baltimore, and Providence, RI teams. “Charles Householder is certainly a cool man on the diamond and one that infuses his men with the same spirit. Every point of the game is at his command and in the direction of the men on the field he shows excellent tact.” After being a captain for a team in Syracuse in 1886, R. Z. Menzies told Wilkes-Barre baseball fans, “He never gets ‘rattled,’ is a brilliant and daring coacher, and is a great hitter.”

However, injuries took their toll and he stopped playing even amateur ball in the 1890s. He returned home to Harrisburg, taking up shop as a woodworker.  Charlie married Jennie Davis; they had five children. His son, Charles, was a semi-professional athlete, playing baseball, football, and basketball.

If injuries were problematic as a baseball player, they were worse in his job as a wordworker and working for a Philadelphia gas company. In 1884, while working on a three story frame house near his own home, he lost balance and fell from the roof, striking a cornice looker, which fortunately turned him sideways where he landed some 35 feet below on a brick pavement. Somehow, he managed not to break any bones, but he was severely banged up.

Five years later, while working for the Philadelphia Gas Company, he entered a building to inspect a natural gas leak – while carrying a light. The light may have been partially responsible for triggering an explosion that tore out more than half the building and starting a massive fire that killed two and burned six others. Charles was burned all over his body and was carried out of the building nearly unconscious, having inhaled smoke. Miraculously, he survived.

Along with his brother Elmer, Charles got involved with local politics which helped him land a position as a letter carrier. Not everything went smoothly, however. In 1892 a politician who lost a local primary election accused the two brothers of taking a ballot box out of a precinct polling place before those votes could be counted. Charles was the judge of the primary election and his brother was a precinct commissioner who would collect the ballots and official totals. The brothers claimed that the count was completed and they were only doing their jobs.  And, in May, 1896, he was convicted of stealing registered letters containing twenty dollars. He spent a single year in Eastern State Penitentiary from May, 1896 to April, 1897. It is there we learn that Householder was not quite 5′ 6″ and a few ounces shy of 140 pounds at the time.  (He was slightly taller and heavier in his official baseball records.)

Householder spent the last two years of his life wrestling with tuberculosis, losing his battle on December 26, 1908 at his home in Harrisburg (he lived at 415 Pear Street). He is buried amongst family in Harrisburg Cemetery.

Notes:

1860, 1870, 1880 US Census
PA Prison Records
PA Death Certificate

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/housech01.shtml
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/171919020/charles-f.-householder

“Sneak Thieves at Lee Park,” Wilkes-Barre Times, June 1, 1877: 4.

“Things Briefly Told,” Harrisburg Daily Independent, July 11, 1883: 4.

“Hereabouts and Thereabouts,” Wayne County Herald, October 16, 1884: 3.

“Charles Householder as a Player,” Wilkes-Barre Leader, April 4, 1887: 1.

“Doings on the Diamond,” Wilkes-Barre Leader: May 15, 1887: 7.

“Wrecked by Gas,” Wayne County Herald, December 5, 1889: 2.

“Charges Denied,” Harrisburg Independent, August 8, 1892: 1.

“A Letter Thief Convicted,” York Gazette, May 21, 1896: 1.

“Death of Old Ball Player,” Harrisburg Daily Independent, December 28, 1908: 8.