Adrian “Cap” Anson was one of baseball’s first superstars. He debuted in the National Association in 1871 and remained in the league until many of its teams created the National League in 1876.

From 1876 through the rest of his playing career, Anson played for the NL’s Chicago White Stockings. A first basemen by trade, Anson led Chicago to six pennants in the 1880s and was the first Major Leaguer to amass 3,000 hits. In all he played 27 big league seasons.

Anson’s greatness on the field is profound. He retired in 1897 with 2,075 runs batted in; only Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron reached the 2,000-RBI plateau by the end of the next century.

Upon retirement, Anson served as city clerk of Chicago from 1905-1907. It is in this capacity that baseball’s first member of the 3,000 hit club signs this document granting permission of a company to erect and maintain a tunnel and a bridge.

The signature is likely a non-malicious secretarial example.

The document folds open from the page where the signature resides on this permit. Here is the inside of the document. Cap Anson remains one of the Chicago Cubs franchise’s greatest players.

Though he died nearly in 1922, Anson still holds the Chicago career records for average (.339), runs (1,712), hits (3,081), singles (2,330), doubles (530) and RBI (1,879).

The story of Anson’s baseball legacy is incomplete without discussion of his racial intolerance. In 1883 he refused to play in an exhibition game against Toledo because their catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker was African-American.

His actions eventually led to the color barrier.