An old family tradition has survived the Great Depression and everything between then and now: homemade baseball bats.

Though hard to come by now, Huckabay & Baum bats were made and sold here in Monroe County from 1933 to 1937.

Craig Baum of Monroe City has spent many decades researching and writing about his family’s history making the bats.

“We make some every once and a while, but we don’t sell them anymore,” he said. “We still have the original brands that etch the names in.”

From 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17, Baum will present the story of his family’s baseball bat producing as part of the “Hometown Teams” traveling Smithsonian exhibit now on display at the Monroe County History Museum in Waterloo.

“I’ll talk about my whole process in discovering my family’s history over the years,” he said. “I’ll also have some of the bats with me.

“I’ve always enjoyed talking to people about the bats and the ones they owned when they were younger,” he said. “Filling in the history and documenting it has been a journey.”

Baum said the fact these bats were made here in Monroe County is what makes them special.

“That includes cutting the trees down,” he said. “My grandfather and great-grandfather would drag them home, sand the logs into blanks and then do the work. These bats have lasted all these years.”.

Harold G. Baum needed income to sustain his growing family, and there were an abundance of ash and hickory trees on the farm. He converted a chicken house on the farm into a kiln.

William “Huck” Huckabay served as a the salesman, selling the finished bats for just 25 cents each throughout the area.

Baum said people have found Huckabay & Baum bats in their attics, basements and other odd places.

“I was 28 years old before I saw my first finished bat,” he said.

Though he doesn’t know exactly how many were produced between 1933 and 1937, he guesses it’s several hundred.

“There were three different brands, and probably 150 of each,” he said. “It was all done down in Monroe City. The name on the bats says Waterloo, which was the mailing address of our farm.”

“Geared to Hit” was the first bat model, followed by the “Waterloo Walloper” model introduced later.

The bats are all different shapes and sizes, and Baum guesses that they were relatively custom-made for the buyer.

“They’re hand-made, so they all turn out a little bit differently,” he said.

Baum said he hasn’t actively looked for the bats in the past 10 years or so, but he guesses there are probably close to 200 of them still in the region.

“They don’t splinter like the new bats,” he said. “Most of them survived and are probably in closets and basements.”

The bats were used primarily by local Monroe County ballclubs, “back when every little town had a team,” Baum said.

Though he said some of the bats probably made their way over to St. Louis, he hasn’t heard of any found across the river.

Since he has spent a considerable amount of time researching his family’s history with these bats, he’s hoping to pass some of it down to his kids.

“I’ve got three children and I’ll hopefully pass the bats along to them one of these days,” he said.