Charles Weeghman

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Charlie Weeghman (left) at the groundbreaking ceremony for Weeghman Park, March 4, 1914. Note the shovels in the background.

Charles ("Lucky Charlie") Weeghman 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.

After the Fed folded, Weeghman acquired a part ownership of the Chicago Cubs and oversaw their transfer from their wooden West Side Park to his new steel-and-concrete park on the North Side, which was called Weeghman Park, and it still exists as Wrigley Field, thanks in part to the 99-year lease that Weeghman had acquired on the property.

His lunch counter chain lost favor with the public, and Weeghman had to declare bankruptcy. This compelled him to sell his interest in the Cubs to one of the team's major owners, William Wrigley Jr. The Wrigley family would control the Cubs for the next six decades before selling out to the Tribune Company. This also lead to the change from Weeghman Park to Cubs Park, and later Wrigley Field.

In the words of Marc Okkonen in his book about the short-lived organization, Wrigley Field stands as a "silent monument" to the Federal League... and also to the vision of Charles Weeghman.

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