Appalachian Figures
A Lewis County story that briefly touched the majors
For two crowded weeks in June 1913 the St. Louis Cardinals handed the ball to a right-hander tied to a small Tennessee town with Swiss roots. Walter William “Walt” Marbet’s major-league line is short. Three games. One start. An 0–1 record with a 16.20 ERA. Then the road curved back to Hohenwald, where he raised a family, ran a store and service station, and left his name on a house locals still point out. The paper trail from box scores, headstones, and hometown records lets us tell the whole arc.
Early life and the Swiss Colony
The Marbets were part of Hohenwald’s Swiss community. A photograph labeled “John Kunz and Jacob Marbet, 1895” shows Walt’s father behind the counter of his Hohenwald store, where Kunz clerked and served as postmaster. It anchors the family in town during the colony years and explains why Walt always pointed back to Lewis County as home.
Small-town ball to the KITTY League
Before St. Louis called, Marbet pitched around Middle Tennessee and Kentucky. By 1912 he was throwing in the old KITTY League for Paducah, a stint still noted on team histories of the Chiefs. Contemporary clippings show a promising start followed by uneven results, the familiar story of a strong local arm meeting professional batters.
Two weeks in the National League
Manager Miller Huggins used Marbet in three games against Brooklyn and Pittsburgh in June 1913. He debuted on June 17 in relief as the Dodgers beat the Cardinals 8–3. Two days later Huggins gave him the ball to start. Brooklyn won 11–5 and Marbet took the loss. On June 25 he entered in the tenth inning of a 1–1 game against Pittsburgh and issued three straight walks as the Pirates broke it open 9–1. Box scores and game accounts give the exact shape of a short big-league stay that still mattered back home.
Home, work, and civic life in Hohenwald
After 1913 Marbet returned to Lewis County. A local walking-tour guide says simply: “In 1937, W. W. Marbet built the existing house” at the old “Grove” corner on Maple and East Second, placing him in the built landscape of town between the wars. Later county memories and clippings tie him to a grocery, a filling station, and service as trustee in the mid-1940s.
Registration, service, and a headstone
Tennessee’s official World War I veteran roll for Lewis County lists “Marbet, Walter W(illiam), 1890 … residence Hohenwald,” and his draft registration survives in the national cards collection. His death falls neatly into the statewide certificate series now digitized. You can stand in Swiss Cemetery and read the granite yourself, “Walter William ‘Walt’ Marbet, 1890–1956,” a headstone photo that confirms burial and dates.
Family notes and local memory
The family name kept appearing in the Lewis County Herald long after Walt’s last pitch. In August 1955 the paper carried the death of Jacob “Buddy” Marbet, and the following month his widow Sue announced she would continue operating Marbet’s Service Station. Obituaries and local columns hold as much of the Marbet story as any sports page.
Why this little career still matters
Marbet’s numbers are modest, but they knit together Appalachia’s baseball past with the immigrant story of Hohenwald. A boy from a Swiss store on Main Street reached the National League for a week. He came back to the same streets, built a house in 1937, worked, voted, served the county, and is buried on the hill with neighbors whose names came from the Alps and the Duck River both. The sources below let anyone retrace his steps.
Sources and further reading
Brooklyn at St. Louis, Jun 17, 1913; Brooklyn at St. Louis, Jun 19, 1913; Pittsburgh at St. Louis, Jun 25, 1913. Baseball-Reference. Baseball Reference+2Baseball Reference+2
Parallel box for Jun 25, 1913 at Baseball-Almanac. Baseball Almanac
Walter William “Walt” Marbet, Swiss Cemetery, Hohenwald. Find a Grave memorial with marker photo. Find a Grave
Tennessee World War I Veterans, Lewis County roll, Tennessee State Library and Archives. Share Tennessee Government
United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918. National Archives microfilm M1509; images available via FamilySearch. Mighty Casey Baseball
Tennessee, Deaths, 1914–1966. Index and images at FamilySearch, citing TSLA. FamilySearch+1
“John Kunz Family Picture Book, Vol. 1,” caption JKP1895-01A, photo of John Kunz and Jacob Marbet in Marbet’s store. Grundy County History & Heritage. Grundy County History & Heritage
Historic District Walking Tour, Hohenwald. Entry for “The Grove” notes “In 1937, W. W. Marbet built the existing house.” Hohenwald Chamber of Commerce
Walt Marbet player page. Baseball-Reference. Baseball Reference
Walt Marbet profile. MLB.com. MLB.com
Walt Marbet biography with newspaper citations. Mighty Casey Baseball. Use as a map to clippings in the Tennessean, Nashville Banner, Paducah Evening Sun, St. Louis Star and Times, Brooklyn Standard Union, etc. Mighty Casey Baseball
Paducah Chiefs history noting 1912 roster alumni. Wikipedia. Wikipedia
Lewis County Public Library & Archives, Hohenwald. County records since 1848 and local-history collections. Lewis County Public Library and Archives+1
Lewis County Herald archives and the “Glimpses of Hohenwald’s Past” series for Marbet family references, including 1955 notices. Lewis County Herald