1. Pius Louis Schwert was an American politician and professional baseball player.
36 Facts About Pius Schwert
1. 2.
Pius Schwert played for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from from 1939 to 1941.
3.
Pius Schwert was elected to Congress in 1938 and reelected in 1940.
4.
Pius Schwert died following a heart attack as he was giving a speech on March 11,1941.
5.
Pius Schwert was born in Angola, New York, on November 22,1892.
6.
Pius Schwert was the only child of Louisa and Julius Schwert, who was the town supervisor of Evans, New York.
7.
Pius Schwert attended Angola High School in Angola, until he transferred to Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New York, in 1909.
8.
Pius Schwert played as a catcher on the baseball teams of both high schools, and played semi-professional baseball on the weekends.
9.
Pius Schwert enrolled at the Wharton School of Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania.
10.
Pius Schwert graduated from Penn in 1914 with a Bachelor of Science in economics.
11.
Pius Schwert played in three games for the Yankees in 1914, and did not have a hit in eight plate appearances.
12.
Pius Schwert was pursued by the Cincinnati Reds, but Bill Donovan, the Yankees' new manager, convinced him to sign a new contract with the Yankees.
13.
In 1915, Pius Schwert was the third-string catcher behind Jeff Sweeney and Les Nunamaker.
14.
Pius Schwert played in four games for the Yankees before they demoted him to the Jersey City Skeeters of the Class AA International League.
15.
Pius Schwert opened a general store in Angola in 1916.
16.
The Mobile Sea Gulls of the Class A Southern Association purchased him from Newark, and Pius Schwert refused to report to Mobile.
17.
In March 1918, Pius Schwert enlisted in the United States Navy.
18.
Pius Schwert served first as a yeoman at the Bremerton Navy Yard, and later he was commissioned as an ensign at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
19.
Pius Schwert was discharged from the Navy at the end of the war.
20.
Pius Schwert returned to Angola in 1920, and played semi-professional baseball locally.
21.
Pius Schwert returned to the Bisons in 1921, under the agreement that he would only play for Buffalo in home games.
22.
Pius Schwert was released in April 1922 when he did not report to the team.
23.
Pius Schwert worked at the Bank of Angola, starting as a clerk and cashier, and working his way up to serve as its president.
24.
Pius Schwert remained involved in semi-professional sports, becoming the president of the Western New York League in 1929.
25.
Pius Schwert was elected vice commander of the American Legion, president of the Angola volunteer fire department and the Southwestern Volunteer Firemen's Association, and the master of the masonic lodge in Evans.
26.
In 1933, Pius Schwert ran for county clerk of Erie County as a Democrat.
27.
Pius Schwert won the election to a three-year term, won reelection in 1936, and served from 1934 to 1938.
28.
Pius Schwert won the election, defeating Republican John Cornelius Butler.
29.
Pius Schwert supported providing aid to France and Great Britain during World War II.
30.
Pius Schwert attended a dinner party at the Annapolis Hotel and collapsed shortly after making a speech.
31.
Pius Schwert was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead of a heart attack.
32.
Pius Schwert was buried at Forest Avenue Cemetery in Angola.
33.
Pius Schwert had survived a previous heart attack in 1940 that occurred when he was exercising in the United States Capitol gymnasium.
34.
Pius Schwert married Harriet "Hattie" Elizabeth Pius Schwert, a distant cousin, on February 12,1923.
35.
Pius Schwert was a teacher in Buffalo and Eden, New York.
36.
Harriet Pius Schwert ran against Butler in the special election to fill the remainder of Pius Schwert's term in Congress.