The following is taken from Author and Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Historian Karl Stern’s book DragonKingKarl’s Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Omnibus.

1848:

01-25-1848:  500 people are reported to see a wrestling match in New York City, NY near the South Brooklyn Market. Levi Martin verses Martin Titus for $100 a side bet. The two were said to be “celebrated wrestlers' '. The match went to a draw. The match was reported via the newswires in newspapers all over the United States.

02-01-1848: Brooklyn, NY in front of a large crowd: Levi Martin fought Martin Titus to a 60-minute draw.

02-04-1848: The New Orleans, LA newspapers report that Eugene Carriere was arrested after he was found to be carrying $373 away from Alexi Charles (King of Wrestlers Charles). It was said to be the wager money between the two. It is unclear from the newspaper accounts if Carriere was stealing the money from Charles or if this was an attempt at swindling the people who bet on the match.

DragonKingKarl Note: “Von Herrn Alexi King of the Wrestlers Charles” is someone we know little about but if you use archived newspapers in America as a chronology then he is the first wrestling “star” they write about. By that I mean, a person who calls themselves a wrestler who advertises wrestling matches to the public. Charles, whoever he may have been, was written about extensively in the northeast United States and in New Orleans as well. It seems as though he worked with Eugene Carriere and they carried their act around the country where Charles would make grandstand challenges and then be challenged by Carriere. Charles seemed to quickly disappear from the newspapers by 1850.

06-30-1848: A tragedy occurred in Spring Water, NY blamed on wrestling. Several men were framing up a house when two boys helping them engaged in a wrestling match. One of the boys was thrown in the match and died. This shocked his father so severely that he let go of a wall that the men were raising by hand and it collapsed killing six of them. In all, seven people were killed over a childhood wrestling match. The story was carried in newspapers across the United States.

11-15-1848:  Edwin Bibby was born in Lancashire, England.