Humphrey was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, the son of Russell and May (nee Castle) Humphrey. He joined the Charlotte Hornets minor league baseball team for the 1909 season.[1] Initially a pitcher, by 1911 he had converted to an outfielder and was signed by the Youngstown Steelmen of the Ohio-Pennsylvania League.[2] In August 1911, the Brooklyn Dodgers (then called the Superbas) purchased his rights.[3] Humphrey made his major league debut in the second game of a doubleheader against Boston on 1 September, in which he hit a single off the first pitch he received.[4] However, his career in Brooklyn would be short-lived, playing only eight games. Before the end of the month, he was released to Toronto's minor league team.[5] He announced the following February that he intended to give up baseball and would become a farmer, partly because he had recently gotten married.[6]
Farming apparently did not pan out, as by 1932 he was an inspector for Ohio's Prohibition agency.[7] In 1935, he was promoted to head of the Ohio Liquor Department's enforcement division following the dismissal and death of his predecessor, Edmond G. Mathews.[8] Beginning in 1937, a series of scandals shook the department. One inspector was found by an Ohio Senate investigation to have illegally sold liquor on commission while working for the department.[9] This was followed by a broader investigation into graft within the department, during which the investigating committee threatened to "level [Humphrey's] department to the ground and reduce it to ruins."[10][11] This further expanded into inquiries of other state departments, until Governor Martin L. Davey requested it be halted.[12] Humphrey was subsequently dismissed from his position in early 1939, and the staffing of the liquor enforcement division was cut in half.[13]
