From a farmer boy with limited advantages of education, Henry Ball,
of Girard township, has become one of the successful men of Macoupin
county and a beautiful homestead provided with all modern comforts and
conveniences is evidence of his thrift and enterprise. Like many
substantial citizens of Illinois, he is a native of South Wales, born
September 25, 1844, a son of Richard McLothlin and Maria (Evans) Ball,
both of whom were born in Wales. The father emigrated to America with
his family about 1855 and located in Virden township where he engaged in
the butcher business. He died in 1856, leaving a wife and thirteen
children. Mrs. Ball, notwithstanding the discouraging outlook, in a
strange country as the head of a large family whose main support had
been taken away, bravely assumed the responsibility and right nobly
did*she acquit herself.
Henry Ball received the rudiments of an
education in his native land and came, with his parents, to Illinois
when he was eleven years of age. He attended school at Virden for a
short time and, in 1859, removed with his mother and other members of
the family to a farm east of Virden, where he continued until 1867. He
then — associated with his four brothers, Thomas, Richard, John and
George — bought three hundred and twenty acres of prairie land in Girard
township. This land was entirely without improvements and required
considerable labor to make it productive. Mr. Ball has continued here
ever since and applied himself with such diligence that he is now the
owner of one of the most productive farms in the township besides four
hundred acres in the Red river valley of Minnesota. He very early
learned the importance of labor and has made it a principle of his life
to be energetic and thorough in everything he undertakes, thus producing
the highest possible returns.
On the 9th of August, 1893, he was
married in Pitman township to Miss Rebecca Clark, a native of Indiana
and a daughter of Walker B. and Sarah (Hudson) Clark, both of whom were
also born in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Ball have two children, Francis
Howard and Lewis Lloyd.
He is a member of Pioneer Grange, No.
435, and is actively identified with the Farmers’ Mutual Insurance
Company, being also a stockholder in the Grange store and the Farmers’
Mutual Telephone Company. He is an earnest supporter of the republican
party and a true friend of education, serving at present as a member of
the school board and also a clerk of that body. Mr. Ball was baptized
and christened in the Episcopal church. Mr. Ball is active and wideawake
to the welfare of the community, and is greatly interested in the
continued development of the region where he has spent more than forty
years of his life. His example cannot fail to prove an inspiration to
deserving young men as he has won his present success and high standing
through his own exertions, having as a youth been imbued with an
unalterable determination to gain financial independence.
Extracted 17 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 540-541.
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