In the 1890s, Franklin had a very active town baseball team – and it was named the Franklin Kildees. That name for the team was chosen because many people likened the players, with their skinny legs, to and resembled a popular bird of that period called the Kildeer – somehow, “Kildee” became the name used by many people.  Recently, an 1892 photograph of the team turned up at the Museum of Southampton History in Courtland; however, unfortunately, the only man individually identified in the picture is Cecil Crawley Vaughan Jr. — sitting in the middle with his arms folded.

Others in the photograph, but not specifically identified, include Bob Lawson, Willie Magee, Livy de Bordenave, John Mills, John Kimball, Fenton Bryant, and Willie Bogart.

Back in the 1890s, baseball was the most popular form of outdoor entertainment in Southampton County. The 1892 Kildee team, composed partly of home talent, was a fast semi-pro aggregation that took on all comers from Danville to Norfolk. Their pitcher, Bob Lawson, went up to the major leagues for a spell and was, for many years thereafter, director of athletics at the University of North Carolina. The moving spirit behind the team was Crawley Vaughan, who had acquired a taste for the sport while at Randolph-Macon College. When playing at home, the Kildees attracted large crowds to their baseball park at the southeastern corner of Franklin and Jackson Streets. 

Cecil C. Vaughan Jr. went on to become an outstanding military man in his later life — serving as a captain in the Spanish-American War, as commandant of the Virginia National Guard, and as a brigadier General during World War I. He retired as a major general and became involved with the development of the Virginia highway system. He also served as a senator in the Virginia Legislature. Earlier, he and his father, Cecil C. Vaughan, Sr., organized Vaughan & Company Bankers in Franklin. 

 In the late 1940s and early 1950s, another Franklin-Southampton baseball team was established. It was a professional team in the Class D Virginia League. In 1948, the team was called the Franklin Cubs; however, in 1949, 1950, and 1951, it was renamed and officially called the Southampton Kildees.

CLYDE PARKER is a retired human resources manager for the former Franklin Equipment Co. and a member of the Southampton County Historical Society. His email address is magnolia101@charter.net.