hometown's first major leaguer

[banny]

hi,i'm new to the forum. i have been researching who i believe is my hometown's first major league player. his name is joe e.brown. he played for the 1884 chicago white stockings(later cubs) and the 1885 baltimore orioles.
the white stockings had some pretty good players incl,cap anson. i was able to find out that the played their home games that season at lakefront park,which had a rightfield fence only 200 ft away. prior to 1884,balls going into this area were ground rule doubles but in 1884,they were counted as homeruns,allowing several team members to lead the league.
i would be interested in any research tips anyone can give me. i'm going to try the library for microfilm papers and the historical society.
baseball seems like it was pretty big in that era,i would think a kid making the majors would warrant some news but maybe not. i hope to trace his journey from probably a local town team to the big leagues.

[RuthMayBond]

It looks like he's the first of three from Warren PA

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/PA_born_place.shtml

[banny]

you are correct!

brown was the first,followed by art johnson in one game for the 1927 giants and then tom tellmann,who pitched for the padres,brewers and a's.

[RuthMayBond]

I've been to Warren PA (my wife wanted to go to the Blair outlet at the time). Not sure if it's still there.

[banny]

blair outlet is gone

yep the outlet is gone. blair is still in business but it's all catalog and online. they still have a small downtown retail store but that's it.
warren has quite a baseball history. honus wagner played for warren in the iron and oil league in 1895.