Charles Weeghman

Charles Weeghman

Charles H. ("Lucky Charlie") Weeghman (March 12, 1874– November 1, 1938) was one of the founders of the short-lived major league baseball organization called the Federal League (1914–1915). He had made a fortune in an early type of fast-food franchises in the Chicago area.

Weeghman worked for Charlie King as a waiter for $10 a week. King quickly promoted Weeghman who eventually open his own lunch counter in Chicago. King, who would have been Weeghman's main rival, died the day Weeghman's first restaurant opened. Serving only cold sandwiches, his diners would eat at one-armed school tables so Weeghman could fit more chairs into the restaurant. At one point, Weeghman owned fifteen of these diners, with the one located at Madison and Dearborn serving 35,000 people each day. His net worth was estimated at $8,000,000.

In 1911, Weeghman made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a controlling interest in the St. Louis Cardinals. Cardinals owner Helene Hathaway Britton had recently inherited the team upon the death of her uncle, Stanley Robison, but she refused Weeghman's offer of $350,000 for the club, eventually selling the team to Sam Breadon in 1917.

Weeghman founded the Chicago Whales and built a new steel-and-concrete ballpark, Weeghman Park, for them to play in. He leased the land, the former site of the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, from Edward Archambault, for 99 years at a cost of $16,000 per year. Weeghman's lease forbade the use of the land for "immoral or illegal purposes." Weeghman chose the site, in part, because of the proximity of the 'L' tracks. After the Federal League folded, Weeghman bought majority control of the Chicago Cubs and oversaw their transfer from their wooden West Side Park to the new stadium.

On August 16, 1921, Weeghman sponsored the first state-wide rally of the Ku Klux Klan on his property in Lake Zurich, Illinois. The rally may have drawn more than 12,000 people and saw the initiation of more than 2,000 new Klan members.

His lunch counter chain lost favor with the public, and Weeghman was forced to sell more and more of his stock in the Cubs to chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. to raise money. By 1923, Weeghman was out of the picture entirely, and his lunch counter chain was bankrupt. The Wrigley family would control the Cubs for the next six decades before selling out to the Tribune Company. This also led to the name change from Weeghman Park to Cubs Park, and later, Wrigley Field.

Weeghman also lost control of his restaurant business, with his brother, Albert, taking over. Following his losses, Weeghman moved to New York, where he unsuccessfully tried to start over in the restaurant business.