Howard Cornelius Wall was a long-time amateur player in Washington D.C. who was called into emergency duty for the Washington Blue Legs in 1873.

Wall was the son of Elizabeth and Columbus Wall, born in Washington D.C. in 1854. Columbus was an undertaker and cabinet (and coffin) maker. They had two children; Howard had a younger sister, Mary.

In his younger days, Howard was “…one of the foremost athletes of the south, and especially prominent in local base ball circles.” He received an education in the Berret school, which was an old engine house when Wall attended. The old Chesapeake team, one of the better amateur teams, saw Wall play as a teen and invited him to play in the outfield. He later joined the Creightons, a team with a strong reputation throughout Virginia and Maryland. It was thought that Wall could have played professionally but chose an active business life in DC.

Wall was an outfielder known for his strong and accurate throwing arm. George Baxter, himself a former amateur player turned postal employee, said Wall was the most accurate thrower he had ever seen, remembering a game where Wall threw out a runner at first who had lined a would-be single to left field. The batter thought it was an easy single and started at a light jog to first but when he saw the throw heading to first base, started running hard only to lose the battle by a step. In 1876, he faced the long throw record holder Fred Hatfield and lost by but a few inches in a long throw contest.

He also was engaged as an umpire for some amateur contests.

Oddly, the only major league game in which Call played he lined up at shortstop, getting a hit in three at bats and drawing a walk for the Washington Blue Legs on September 13, 1873 in a loss to Boston. The New York Clipper noted, “The Washingtons lacked the services of (Joe) Gerhardt, who absented himself without notice, and his place was filled by Wall, a young player, who did not prove of much use.”

Originally a clerk for a local merchant, Wall eventually became a coal merchant of some local reputation.

Wall didn’t marry. Finding himself less well, he hastily created a will and left all of his earthly things to Ada Howard Johnson, his niece. Suffering from kidney disease, he eventually slipped into a coma and passed to the next league on March 15, 1909, in his 55th year (a 1900 US Census record suggests Howard was born in November 1854). Wall rests in an unmarked grave, near his parents, in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington.

Sources:

1870, 1880, 1900 US Census
Washington DC Death Certificate
Washington DC Collected Wills

“Boston vs. Washington,” New York Clipper, September 20, 1873: 2.
“Muffers,” Washington Chronicle, July 31, 1874: 8.
“Death of Howard C. Wall,” Washington Evening Star, March 16, 1909: 11.
“Funeral of Howard Wall,” Washington Evening Star, March 17, 1909: 2.
“Brief Will Filed,” Washington Herald, March 19, 1909: 12.
“Howard Wall Was a Star Player, Washington Evening Star, March 21, 1909: Part 5, Page 2.