Who has not played his youth, and wicket his manhood?1This question appeared an 1841 New Orleans Daily Picayune reprint of a Cleveland Herald editorial defending boys' ball games against charges by a local letter-writer complaining of infantile sports. Viewing barn ball as one of the common ball games of childhood, he added, there is fun, and sport, and healthy exercise a game of ball. We like it: for with it is associated with recollections of our earlier days, and we shall never be too old to feel and take delight the amusements which interested us our boyhood. For a game designated as common, however, barn ball has always shown up only infrequently early America. New Hampshire farmer, Abner Sanger, may have been referring to barn ball when he wrote his diary on April 27, 1782, Caleb Washburn, young Benjamin Hall, Tom Wells the younger and El play before my barn.2 Knickerbocker magazine briefly mentioned barn ball a January 1850 editorial column.3Most references to barn ball come from later the 19th century. Some of the sources testify that barn ball was a common game. In 1877 a Portage, Wisconsin, newspaper reported that a new window for a store would crimp the local lads: The boys will not be permitted to play barn ball against the new front.4 Many of the remembrances are tinged with nostalgia. Referring to a younger brother, one writer declared 1852, If you wanted him, you would find him ... playing barn-ball.5 In 1855, a columnist for Burritt's Citizen of the World wondered with some whimsy, How is it with ... Base-ball, and Barn-ball, and Long-ball...?6 Sometimes boys played barn ball against a rock ledge, as an 1874 story Youth's Companion attested, describing an incident which a lost ball, suspected as stolen, provoked a moral lesson.7 An 1882 Atchison, Kansas, piece surmised that politician Hannibal Hamlin, who had returned recently from Spain, had found no bull fight that has any of the cheerful and healthful excitement of a game of barn ball.8 In 1908, a New Hampshire writer recollected barn ball his youth, especially one game which he accidentally threw the ball over the roof and lost it.9 In 1874, a Cleveland writer answered the question, What is a Sturgeon Good For? by asserting, A sturgeon is good for nothing, except his nose, and that's good for a ball center, or core, to make the ball bound for games including barn ball in our ball-hood days.10 An 1896 Christmas toys article reflected on how grandfathers had used a homemade sock ball for barn ball and other early ball games.11 In 1889 a reenactment of two-old-cat and barn ball Bismarck, North Dakota, inspired one writer to gush:The game was not one of these narrow stringy performances that close with a half-dozen runs, but was on the broad, old-time plan, which gives the audience the worth of its money runs and shouts. Burnt Creek team took the lead early the game, and won by a score of 65 to 33. There were many exciting chases after the ball, and the way the sphere was pounded over the grounds was proof of the superiority of rural muscle and vim.12Additionally, a Brooklyn lawyer, J.H. Littlefield, who had read law the same office with Abraham Lincoln, asserted that Abe was a fervent barn ball player: As a relaxation from professional cares he would go out and play ball. game was what was called barn ball, and it consisted of knocking the ball against the side of a building and then hitting it again on the rebound. I have seen Mr. Lincoln go into this sport with a great deal of zest.13Perhaps the most detailed expression of the nostalgic attitude toward barn ball appeared an 1877 story, Good-Will, by prolific juvenile literature author John Townsend Trowbridge. In this piece-for St. Nicholas magazine-Trowbridge featured barn ball a small morality play about unselfishness. Trowbridge started with a capsule description of the game:In one of my walks, the other day, I saw two boys of my acquaintance, whom I shall call Orson and Robin, playing a game of barn-ball. …