House of David

I grew up in Southwest Michigan and I was always aware of the House of David religious colony from Benton Harbor. I had also heard about famous barnstorming baseball teams from the 1920s through the 1940s… However, I really did not know much about the players and their stories.

A few years ago, my mom gave me a book about the House of David baseball legacy. It sat on my book shelf for a long time until I recently picked it up. I was immediately inspired for a new card project.

From Ken Burns Baseball Documentary

I was drawn to this project because the House of David teams barnstormed with and often played against Negro League teams before baseball was integrated in 1947. There is a House of David jersey hanging in the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City. There are a couple of random cards featuring House of David players, but there really isn’t a comprehensive baseball card set.

As this project developed I came to understand that in addition to the long haired colony members, there were several baseball Hall of Famers that played for House of David teams including Grover Cleveland Alexander, Mordecai Brown, Chief Bender and Satchel Paige.

The full House of David set features 24 cards, featuring both Headliners and the relatively unknown “core” players. I have broken this set into three different series:

Series 1 – HeadlinersSeries 2 – HoD CoreSeries 3 – HoD Core
Grover Clev Alexander
Satchel Paige
Three Finger Brown
Chief Bender
Babe Ruth
Pete Gray
Jackie Mitchell
Babe Zaharias
Elmer Dean
George Anderson
Jesse “Doc” Talley
Paul Mooney
Hans “Barney” Dalager
Walter “Dutch” Faust
“Long John” Tucker
Dave “Eggs” Harrison
Bob Dewhirst
H. Tom Dewhirst
Eddie Deal
Herman “Flip” Fleming
John “Slick” Cross
Alvin “Al” Nusser
Roy Hutson
Francis Thorpe (Mgr)

Please feel free to email me if there is a individual card from this set you are interest in purchasing