Part 2 ran in this space previously, and may be linked directly at http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2011/11/04/baseballs-lost-chalice-part-2/.

This article from the forthcoming Fall 2011 number of Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game appears here with the courtesy of the publisher. For more information about purchase or subscription, see: http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/baseballsubscriptions.html.

Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Fall 2011

Helen Dauvray returned to the stage in 1890 in The Whirlwind, a play written for her by Sydney Rosenfeld and based on the incidents of a real financial drama in Wall Street a year or two prior. It failed. In 1894 she starred in a “farcical comedy,” That Sister of His, at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, with no better results. The itch to appear before the public did not entirely leave until she was 45. On June 29, 1901, The New York Dramatic Mirror ran this rather depressing ad, which at last marked the end of the trail for the actress who had begun her career as Little Nell:

HELEN DAUVRAY

Will Support Male Star, or for Leading Comedy Roles in Productions.

Permanent Address, Lock Box 1479, General Post Office, New York, N. Y.

John Ward never spoke publicly of his dissatisfaction with the marriage. The couple reconciled in Europe in early 1891, but soon broke apart again. (His teammate, pitcher Tim Keefe, who had married Helen Dauvray’s sister, the widow Clara A. Helm, enjoyed better luck with the Gibson clan; that marriage lasted for a while.) When an absolute divorce was decreed on November 30, 1893, the former Mrs. Ward was declared free to marry again — and she did, in 1896 to then Navy Lieutenant and later Rear Admiral Albert G. Winterhalter, alongside whom she is buried in Arlington Cemetery.

John Ward

Her former husband, however, whose alleged infidelities created the basis of her action, was barred from remarriage during her lifetime. This draconian ruling Ward appealed successfully in 1903, and he made an enduring marriage to Kate Waas of New York.[33]

In the month before the Wards’ divorce decree was issued, newspapers all across the country ran this small notice:

Boston Defeats All-America.

Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 8. — At the end of the first inning in today’s game between the Boston and All-America teams, the Dauvray cup was formally presented to the Bostons and became their personal property, having been won three times.[34]

No mention was made of the promised badges for the players on the club that retired the cup; by this time Helen Dauvray Ward had lost interest not only in her husband but also in baseball.