After the Divorce
Free of his wife and
possibly children (if Mamie went to live with Katie and Babe either returned to
or remained at St. Mary’s Industrial School), Babe’s father continued to run
his bar on Conway Street. He is mentioned
twice briefly in the newspaper in the later half of 1906. A minor privilege permit was issued to G.
Ruhl (sic) to move a safe at 406 West Conway Street in September 1906.1
In December 1906, George H. Ruth was charged at the Western Police Station with
selling liquor on Sunday at his saloon.2
In February of 1907, John Fell, the
husband of Katie’s sister, Lena, died at the age of 53 at his residence, 712
Portland Street.3 His funeral took place at St. Peter’s Catholic
Church (where Babe Ruth was baptized). Among
the pallbearers were George Ruth and William Ruth. 4 Lena’s
daughter, Catherine, married two years later in 1909.5 Her husband,
Harry Lupton, moved into the family house on Portland Street. Two years later, when Katie became sick she
left the house on Portland Street and was admitted to the Municipal
Tuberculosis Hospital. Katie Schamberger
Ruth passed away on August 11, 1912.6 The listed cause of Katie’s
death was exhaustion. She was 39 years
old.
Sometime is the early 1900s, Babe’s
father began associating with the family of Benjamin Sipes (who had been kicked
in the head as a 12 year old boy when a telephone pole was being erected at
Paca and Dover streets in 1900). The
Sipes family had problems of their own while living in the vicinity of Camden
Yards. After Babe’s family left 426 West
Camden Street, the Sipes family moved into their former residence above the
saloon. In January 1908, a Western
District patrolman, Harry H. McCotter, was dismissed from the police force7
and charged with acting improperly toward Benjamin’s sixteen year old
sister, Martha E. Sipes.8 Benjamin alleged that McCotter had
betrayed his sister and illegally used a drug.
The charges were dismissed when McCotter married Martha at the City Jail
on January 29, 1908, since a wife cannot be made to testify against her husband.
9 The marriage did not last long.
Harry and Martha separated six months later. Martha applied for a divorce from McCotter
and custody of their child.10
A few years later, Babe’s father
had some interest in a second bar at 501 North Front Street, northeast of the
downtown area. He applied for a liquor
license at that location in March 191111 and is listed in the 1911
Baltimore City Directory at both 406 West Conway Street and 501 North Front
Street. William E. Sipes, another
brother of Martha Sipes McCotter, is listed as a bartender at 501 North Front
Street in the 1911 directory. This is
the only time that Ruth and Sipes are listed at the Front Street address. Perhaps his interest in this second bar with
the Sipes family, was the reason that George began seeking additional money moonlighting
in his old business - erecting and repairing lightning rods. Babe’s father placed newspaper advertisements under
Lightning Rods stating, “Phone St. Paul 8319 – Baltimore City Lightning Rod
Co., Geo. H. Ruth, Prop. 406 W. Conway Street, Baltimore, Md. Thirty Years Experience.”12
The following year, Babe’s father had a major
setback to deal with when his Conway Street saloon was raided on Sunday, March
17, 1912.13 A newspaper article described the raid in
great detail with bold headings: “Men
Flee Over Roofs – Police in Hot Pursuit Capture Those Who Escape From Saloon –
Morhiser Threatens to Fire – Lively Scramble Follows His Decision To Shoot
Through Trapdoor Held Down By Fugitives.”
On St.
Patrick’s Day 1912, a police officer, Patrolman McKew of the Southern District,
observed Charles Dyson, an African-American stevedore, leaving Ruth’s Saloon at
406 West Conway carrying a suitcase. He
asked Dyson, a resident of nearby 205 Perry Street, what was in the suitcase,
but Dyson refused to answer and was taken to the Southern District Police
Station.
At the
station, a police captain opened the case and found a half dozen bottles of
beer. Dyson admitted he bought the beer
at Ruth’s saloon and informed the police that other men were in the saloon when
he left. Since the saloon was located in
the Western District, an auto patrol was dispatched from that district with a
police captain, a sergeant and three patrolmen.
Upon arrival at the saloon, the Western District Police Captain Morhiser
opened the side gate on Little Paca Street and entered the saloon from the back
door which was open. When the men in the
saloon heard the police, they bolted a door leading to the bar and hastened to
the upper floors of the house. The
police broke down the door and pursued the suspects. They could not be found on the upper floors,
but police noticed a trap door leading to the roof. The door was closed, and to prevent it from
being opened one or more of the men sat on it.
The police captain took out his pistol and announced that he was going
to shoot through the door. At that time,
the suspects scattered across the roof of the rowhouse.
The
police pursued them and captured several men who had gone into other houses or
went down the rainspout. One suspect was
found hiding under a house on nearby Elbow Lane. The police confiscated a partly filled bottle
of beer as evidence. The bartender,
George F. Strohmann, was arrested for working on a Sunday. A warrant was issued for George H. Ruth on
the charge of violating the Sunday liquor law.
A few months later on July 1912, a
fire broke out in the saloon at 406 West Conway Street.14 A
newspaper article reporting the fire, stated that it occurred in the saloon of
George Strohmann (not George H. Ruth). At
3 AM, a passer by noticed smoke coming from the saloon and aroused the
occupants who were sleeping in rooms above the saloon. Thelma and Ethel Sipes, the three and four
year old daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Sipes were dropped from the second
floor window by their mother into the arms of a police patrolman. Mrs. Sipes and her sister-in-law, Martha,
groped through dense smoke to make their way to the safety of the street. The cause of the fire was rats gnawing on
matches.
There
is no indication where Babe’s father was at the time of the fire, but in
December 1912 another news story locates him at 406 West Conway Street, when he
reported a thief entered his home during the afternoon and stole a watch and
chain from a buffet in the dining room valued at $50.15
From
these newspaper articles, it appears that Babe’s father was sharing living
quarters at 406 West Conway Street with the Sipes family in 1912. At some point he marries Martha Sipes who was
twenty years younger than himself, but the date of the marriage has not been
found. It is a strange coincidence that
Martha Sipes lived at 426 West Camden Street a few years after the Ruths moved
from that bar and later wound up at 406 West Conway Street at the time when Babe’s
father appears to be on the verge of moving again. It is likely that Babe’s father lost his
liquor license as a result of the March 17th raid on his saloon. The newspaper article about the fire in July identified
the bar as belonging to George Strohmann (the former bartender at the saloon
when it was owned by Ruth). Also in
November 1912, 406 West Conway Street is called the saloon of George Strohmann
when it was raided by the police for being open on election day.16
From 1913-1915, George H. Ruth, Sr. is no
longer listed in Baltimore City Directories as the owner of a saloon, but the
co-owner of the Columbia Harness Company at 521 Columbia Avenue a short
distance away (roughly today’s location of the Brooks Robinson Statue across
Camden Street from Orioles Park at Camden Yards). His new home address was 552 West Conway
Street, a block away from the saloon he owned.
That building no longer stands.
Instead Russell Street which borders Orioles Park at Camden Yards on the
west and divides the ballpark from the Ridgely’s Delight neighborhood runs
through what was the 500 block of Conway Street. While employed in the harness business in 1914
and 1915, Babe’s father also advertised in the Baltimore Sun that he erected
and repaired lightning rods. 17
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1 Baltimore Sun, September 11, 1906, p. 9
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2 Baltimore Sun, December 24, 1906 p. 6
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3 Baltimore Sun, February
11, 1907, p. 4
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4 Baltimore Sun, February
14, 1907, p. 7
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5 Baltimore Sun, February
21, 1909, p. 8
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6 Baltimore Sun, August 13,
1912, p. 6
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7 Baltimore Sun, January
28, 1908, p. 12
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8 Baltimore Sun, January
29, 1908, p. 8
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9 Baltimore Sun, January
30, 1908, p. 7
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10 Baltimore Sun, September
11, 1908, p. 8
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11 Baltimore Sun, March 13,
1911, p. 5
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12 Baltimore Sun, June 25,
1911, p. 5
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13 Baltimore Sun, March 18,
1912, p. 14
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14 Baltimore Sun, July 11,
1912, p. 8
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15 Baltimore Sun, November
1, 1912, p. 11
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16 Baltimore Sun, November
6, 1912 p.16
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17 Baltimore Sun, July 17,
1914 p. 11
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