22 Facts About Charles Weeghman

Charles Henry Weeghman was an American restaurant entrepreneur and sports executive.

Charles Weeghman was born on March 8,1874, in Richmond, Indiana, and attended Richmond High School.

At one point, Charles Weeghman owned fifteen of these diners, with the one located at Madison and Dearborn serving 35,000 people each day.

In 1911, Charles Weeghman made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a controlling interest in the St Louis Cardinals.

Charles Weeghman refused Weeghman's offer of $350,000 for the club, eventually selling the team to Sam Breadon in 1917.

Charles Weeghman 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.

In 1915, the major league clubs settled with the Federal League opening the door for Charles Weeghman to buy a team.

Charles Weeghman acquired an interest in the Chicago Cubs from Charles Phelps Taft in 1916, emerging as the older club's majority owner for $500,000.

Charles Weeghman then moved the Cubs from the wooden West Side Park to Weeghman Park.

The Cubs board authorized up to $200,000 to acquire star players from other teams and Charles Weeghman spent lavishly on them, paying $50,000 to buy the contracts of Grover Cleveland Alexander and Bill Killefer from the Philadelphia Phillies in 1917.

Charles Weeghman offered $50,000 for Cardinals star Rogers Hornsby, angering Branch Rickey as Hornsby was holding out for a larger contract at the time.

Charles Weeghman reportedly considered making an offer to Brooklyn for Zach Wheat and tampered with Heinie Groh of Cincinnati.

Over time, his lunch counter chain lost favor with the public and Charles Weeghman was forced to sell more and more of his stock in the Cubs to chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr.

In October of that year, during the investigation of the Black Sox scandal Charles Weeghman told reporters that he had been tipped off in August 1919 that the 1919 World Series would be fixed.

Charles Weeghman moved to Manhattan, New York City with his 8-year-old daughter.

Charles Weeghman unsuccessfully tried to start over in the restaurant business.

Charles Weeghman died of a stroke at the Drake Hotel on November 1,1938, in Chicago, Illinois.

Charles Weeghman was in transit from Hot Springs, Arkansas to his home in Manhattan, New York City.

Charles Weeghman met his first wife, Bessie Webb, when she worked at his first lunch room as a cashier.

Charles Weeghman's wife filed for divorce on February 27,1920, claiming Charles Weeghman had been intimate with at least one other woman.

In 1922, two years after he divorced his first wife, Charles Weeghman eloped to East St Louis with Carol Osmund, who was 29 years old at the time of their wedding.

Osmund and Charles Weeghman remained married until he suffered a fatal stroke on November 1,1938, at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.