Sporting Saturday: Claude Lawrence

1901 Baseball Team for Western Reserve Academy, Hudson Village, Summit County, Ohio

Claude Ray "Jack" Lawrence is one of the few documented athletes in our family tree.

Born 22 Feb 1881 in Lincoln, Nebraska, he was the first child of William Henry Lawrence and Clara Alice DeMoss. His father was shot by a jealous lover in a Denver, Colorado hotel, and died from his wounds, in 1899.

Claude lived most of his life in Ohio, and is listed in the 1930 census as a real estate salesman. According to the Western Reserve Academy, both his and his brother, William Kalamazoo, attended the "New England style college."  He was in the graduating class of 1901. (Information provided by Tom Vince, Archivist and Historian, Western Reserve Academy, email, May 2011.)