Clara Gregory Baer described the basic elements of the game, consisting of a court divided at the midpoint, with lines marking where the players could move, and outlining the object of the game, to "make the ball touch the opposite ground, beyond the base—when it counts a point for the side sending the ball". This game would eventually become Newcomb ball, and has many similarities to the game of volleyball. The letter by Baer appeared in the January, 1895 edition of the journal, while the first game of volleyball, invented by William G. Morgan was reported to be first played in February 1895.
William Duane Morgan William Duane Morgan William Duane Morgan (1817–1887) was a newspaper editor and Democratic politician. He owned papers in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and later Ohio. He was also Ohio State Auditor 1852-1856. William Duane Morgan was born to a prominent family in Washington County, Pennsylvania. In 1837, he and his brother, Thomas Jefferson Morgan, owned and edited the Washington County Democratic newspaper "Our Country". In 1840 he moved to New Lisbon, Ohio, where he owned the "Ohio Patriot". He was nominated at the state Democratic Party convention for Ohio State Auditor in 1851, and defeated his Free Soil Party