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Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
JOSEPH LIGHTFOOT BALL, having
retired from farming, is a business man residing in Harrington, Washington,
and one of the leading citizens of Lincoln county. Born December
26, 1844, in Jefferson county, Ohio, he was the son of Colonel Joseph L.
Ball, a prominent military man, native to Virginia. The father was
an early settler of Jefferson county, Ohio, and in young manhood was commissioned
colonel of State Militia, which commission he held up to the time of the
outbreak of the Civil War, but was of too great age to go to the front
with his command. He died in the county of his adoption, aged seventy-five
years, in 1872. For eighteen years during his residence in Ohio he
held the position of justice of the peace. Our subject's mother was
Mary (Cameron) Ball, also a native Virginian, and died many years ago.
It may be of interest here to state that the Ball family is descended from
the family of the mother of George Washington.
Mr. Ball has had five brothers and two sisters,
as follows; John C., an attorney, who died in California during the spring
of 1903; James, in Jefferson county, Ohio; Castello, also an attorney and
deceased; Jasper F., of Jefferson county; Byron, an attorney of Woodland,
California; Mrs. Lucinda Cameron, of Harrington; and Mrs. Esther Steward,
deceased.
Joseph L. Ball was reared on a farm.
He received a good common school education, and in the spring of 1869 came
to California with the first train ever run over the Union and Central
Pacific railroad. After three years spent in working at various occupations
in Yolo county he engaged in farming in Colusa county, and was there married
on October 14, 1882, to Mrs. Theresa (Cook) Swan, a native of Bristol,
Kendall county, Illinois.
Mrs. Ball's father, Peter Cook, was born on
the Monmouth (New Jersey) battle ground, in 1818, and was a descendant
from Aneka Jans, who was a granddaughter of the king of Holland.
Aneka Jans settled at New Amsterdam, now New York in an early day.
Both of Mrs. Ball's grandfathers were soldiers in the Revolutionary War.
Her great-grandfathers' names were Amor Cook and Isaac Morris, the latter
a relative of Robert Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Mrs. Ball's mother was Theresa (Haggerty) Cook, also a native of Monmouth,
and died in Olympia, Washington, in 1894, aged seventy-seven, after having
lived with her husband fifty-seven years. Mrs. Cook's mother was
Susan Howland, the wife of Asher Haggerty, and lived to be seventy-four
years of age. Mrs. Mary Taylor, the mother of A. Haggerty, died near
Monmouth, New Jersey, aged ninety-four. Mrs. Ball's father crossed
the plains in 1850, returned, and brought his family across in a wagon
in 1861, to Carson City, Nevada, and came from that city to Eldorado, California.
The father arrived at Chicago in 1837, located on Fox river, fifty miles
west of where Chicago now stands, and it was for his family that Cook county,
Illinois, was named. He came to Washington first in 1867, locating
at Tacoma. In 1894 he came to Lincoln county and is now living with
the subject of this sketch.
Mr. and Mrs. Ball came to Lincoln county by
way of San Francisco and Tacoma, purchased eight hundred and forty acres
of unimproved land and engaged in farming. Mr. Ball has now thirteen
hundred and twenty acres all under cultivation and well improved, lying
two and one-half miles southwest from Harrington. He rented his land
in 1902, removed to Harrington, where he has a fine home, and engaged in
partnership with F. A. Hoes in the retail lumber, paint and oil business.
He came to the county with limited means and is now, as may be judged from
the amount of valuable property he owns, in circumstances bordering upon
wealth. He has one adopted son, Thomas S. Ball.
Mr. Ball was made a Mason thirty-five
years ago, and both he and Mrs. Ball are members of the Eastern Star fraternity.
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