Davy Crockett, Around the World on Foot: The Early Globetrotters, the chapter on "Paul Jones" (Emil C. Pfeiffer)

Sourcesources/book-crockett-around-the-world-on-foot-paul-jones.md

012.6 KBsize
0238lines
032filed with

As written

title
Davy Crockett, Around the World on Foot: The Early Globetrotters, the chapter on "Paul Jones" (Emil C. Pfeiffer)
type
book
date
undated (a modern account, drawn from newspapers of 1894-1898)
repository
Text as posted to Emil's profile in the FamilySearch tree; a copy in research/holbrook/paul-jones-crockett-around-the-world-on-foot.txt
seen
transcript
access
public

A popular history of the "globetrotters" who walked or worked their way round the world for wagers, with a chapter on Paul Jones. It quotes newspapers of the time but gives no citations. Read 11 Oct 2026. Its account, in brief, where it goes beyond the papers found so far (Newspapers on Emil C. Pfeiffer as "Paul Jones," 1894-1902):

  • The start: announced in the Boston Globe in January 1894; on 12 Feb, in a blizzard, he stripped in the Press Club rooms in Boston (charging a cent to watch), made suits of newspaper and then brown paper, entertained the club for money, and left at 1:45 a.m. in the paper suit and a horse blanket.
  • The collapse: he borrowed $50 at Pawtucket, against the terms; was arrested at Providence and jailed at Springfield for debt; admitted the wager was a fake; and was not, after all, a member of the Boston Athletic Association. Acquaintances said he had run up debts and been dismissed from a school.
  • The year: Hartford (5 Mar 1894), New York (9 Mar), arrested at Jersey City for a hotel bill (May), Rochester (July), Erie, Kansas City (end of September), where he left behind a 15-year-old secretary, James Anthony Murphy. Then New York, a passport, and the Umbria to Liverpool (mid November); the London Concentric Club (21 Nov); by steamer through Suez to Hong Kong (Christmas Day) and Japan; the Empress of Japan to Vancouver (15 Jan 1895); Seattle, Portland (29 Jan), Spokane, and Minneapolis (2-5 Feb). After that the papers lost him.
  • Afterwards: a plan in 1898 to ride through the eastern states printing a paper, On the Go, from a press on his bicycle; his marriage that year "in Cambridge" to Mollie Frances Holbrook; Seattle; an arrest in Boston "in 1901"; and his death at Los Angeles on 25 Nov 1934.

Where it can be checked, it mostly agrees: the passport application of Sept 1894 and its return date (U.S. passport application of Emil Charles Pfeiffer, sworn in Jackson County, Missouri, 28 Sept 1894), the Seattle story of Jan 1895, and the date of his death. It differs in two places: the marriage was at Boston (the Cambridge entry is a copy; Massachusetts marriage record: Emil Charles Pfeiffer and Mollie Frances Holbrook, 15 June 1898), and the arrest for selling borrowed directories was on 5 June 1902 (the Portsmouth Herald of the next day). The London, Hong Kong and Vancouver legs have not been checked against the papers.

  1. ---
  2. title: "Davy Crockett, Around the World on Foot: The Early Globetrotters, the chapter on \"Paul Jones\" (Emil C. Pfeiffer)"
  3. type: book
  4. date: undated (a modern account, drawn from newspapers of 1894-1898)
  5. repository: "Text as posted to Emil's profile in the FamilySearch tree; a copy in research/holbrook/paul-jones-crockett-around-the-world-on-foot.txt"
  6. seen: transcript
  7. access: public
  8. ---
  10. A popular history of the "globetrotters" who walked or worked their way round the world for wagers,
  11. with a chapter on Paul Jones. It quotes newspapers of the time but gives no citations. Read 11 Oct
  12. 2026. Its account, in brief, where it goes beyond the papers found so far
  13. (`newspapers-paul-jones-1894-1902`):
  15. - **The start:** announced in the Boston Globe in January 1894; on 12 Feb, in a blizzard, he
  16. stripped in the Press Club rooms in Boston (charging a cent to watch), made suits of newspaper and
  17. then brown paper, entertained the club for money, and left at 1:45 a.m. in the paper suit and a
  18. horse blanket.
  19. - **The collapse:** he borrowed $50 at Pawtucket, against the terms; was arrested at Providence and
  20. jailed at Springfield for debt; admitted the wager was a fake; and was not, after all, a member of
  21. the Boston Athletic Association. Acquaintances said he had run up debts and been dismissed from a
  22. school.
  23. - **The year:** Hartford (5 Mar 1894), New York (9 Mar), arrested at Jersey City for a hotel bill
  24. (May), Rochester (July), Erie, Kansas City (end of September), where he left behind a 15-year-old
  25. secretary, James Anthony Murphy. Then New York, a passport, and the *Umbria* to Liverpool (mid
  26. November); the London Concentric Club (21 Nov); by steamer through Suez to Hong Kong (Christmas
  27. Day) and Japan; the *Empress of Japan* to Vancouver (15 Jan 1895); Seattle, Portland (29 Jan),
  28. Spokane, and Minneapolis (2-5 Feb). After that the papers lost him.
  29. - **Afterwards:** a plan in 1898 to ride through the eastern states printing a paper, *On the Go*,
  30. from a press on his bicycle; his marriage that year "in Cambridge" to Mollie Frances Holbrook;
  31. Seattle; an arrest in Boston "in 1901"; and his death at Los Angeles on 25 Nov 1934.
  33. Where it can be checked, it mostly agrees: the passport application of Sept 1894 and its return
  34. date (`passport-application-emil-pfeiffer-1894`), the Seattle story of Jan 1895, and the date of his
  35. death. It differs in two places: the marriage was at Boston (the Cambridge entry is a copy;
  36. `marriage-record-pfeiffer-holbrook-1898`), and the arrest for selling borrowed directories was on 5
  37. June 1902 (the Portsmouth Herald of the next day). The London, Hong Kong and Vancouver legs have not
  38. been checked against the papers.
BeginEnd