Mineola Black Spiders

Wikipedia follows the team north. Vernon Klingaman took the players to Iowa in a windowless black school bus with the team name on the side and a cobweb at the back, and they played for a percentage of the gate. A pay dispute that July sent ten players to the semi-pro Mason City Black Bats. In 1935 the Spiders added a woman pitcher, Baby Tilliford. The 1937 team won the Southwest Iowa tournament at Council Bluffs and played for Iowa in the National Baseball Congress tournament at Wichita. Buck O'Neil later recalled a Mexican tour.

What the plaque says

Mineola Black Spiders IN THE 1800s AND INTO THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, AFRICAN-AMERICAN BASEBALL TEAMS PLAYED SEPARATELY FROM WHITE TEAMS. THE COMMUNITY OF MINEOLA, THOUGH SMALL IN POPULATION, HAD BOTH WHITE AND BLACK BASEBALL TEAMS. THE MINEOLA BLACK SPIDERS WAS COMPOSED OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN MEN AND YOUTH FROM THE TOWN. THE BALLPLAYERS WORE SOLID GRAY UNIFORMS AND PLAYED AT EPPERSON PARK IN SOUTH MINEOLA, IN ADDITION TO TRAVELING TO GAMES IN DALLAS, COMMERCE, SHREVEPORT (LOUISIANA), AND OTHER PLACES. HOME GAMES SOMETIMES ATTRACTED AROUND 200 SPECTATORS. VERNON KLINGAMAN, WHO MOVED TO TEXAS IN THE LATE 1920s, SETTLING IN MINEOLA, SOON BECAME INVOLVED WITH THE TEAM. HE EXPANDED THE ROSTER, OPENING IT TO NON-RESIDENTS, AND CHANGED THE NAME TO THE TEXAS BLACK SPIDERS. IN 1932, THE PLAYERS DEPARTED MINEOLA FOR THE MIDWEST, BECOMING A BARNSTORMING TEAM, STAGING EXHIBITION GAMES IN VARIOUS LOCATIONS. THAT YEAR, THE TEAM UNDERWENT A NAME CHANGE, BECOMING THE MASON CITY BLACK BATS. THEY HEADQUARTERED IN IOWA, THOUGH MOST MEMBERS WOULD RETURN TO THE SPIDERS' SQUAD, WHILE OTHERS MOVED BACK TO TEXAS. THE BLACK SPIDERS GAINED A REPUTATION AS BEING ONE OF THE FASTEST TEAMS FROM THE SOUTH. THEY WERE ALSO VERY SUCCESSFUL; IN 1936, THE SPIDERS' RECORD WAS 34-1. HOWEVER, BY 1937, THERE WAS A SUBSTANTIAL TURNOVER IN TEAM PERSONNEL. THE BLACK SPIDERS FIELDED A TEAM IN 1938, BUT DISBANDED AFTERWARD. TODAY, THE TEAM IS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN IN MINEOLA. HOWEVER, THE BLACK SPIDERS REMAIN A SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE COMMUNITY'S HISTORY AS A BLACK BASEBALL TEAM THAT BECAME A SUCCESS LOCALLY AND IN THE MIDWESTERN UNITED STATES. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Governor Hogg Shrine — 9.5 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.
• Tyler State Park — 17 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 22 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 24 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• Rufus Cornelius Hickman — 0.2 mi
• Railroads in Mineola — 0.4 mi
• C. W. Raines — 0.4 mi
• Mineola — 0.4 mi