BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF
PAUL BALLIET.
Page 538
The
family of Balyards were of French extraction and flourished as warriors and
statesmen in France, England, and later in Germany. During the seventeenth
century there lived a branch of this family in the province of Alsace, on the
Rhine, of whom a descendant known as Paulus Balliet was born, in the year 1717.
At the age of twenty-one he, with many other Huguenots, was compelled to flee
from the religious persecution which followed the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes. He embarked for America on the 10th of September, 1738, and located in
Lehigh (then Northampton) County, Pa. He married Maria Magdalena Wotring, who
was born in 1727 in the province of Lorraine, France. His death occurred in
1777, and that of his wife in 1802. Both are buried in
Whitehall township. Their children are five sons – Jacob, Nicholas, Stephen,
John, and Paul – and four daughters, – Catherine, Susan, Eva, and Magdalena.
Stephen Balliet was born in 1753. He was by occupation a merchant, and active
in public affairs as member of the House of Representatives at Harrisburg in
1789-90, and as United States revenue collector for the Second District of
Pennsylvania. Tradition relates that he was also a Revolutionary patriot. He
married Magdalena Burkhalter (then spelled Burgalter), born in 1765, and had
two sons, –Stephen and Joseph. Mr. Balliet died in 1821, and his wife in 1805.
Their son, Stephen, was born Oct. 27, 1781, and married, Jan. 22, 1804, to
Susan, daughter of Conrad Ihrie, of Easton, Pa., whose birth occurred Oct. 7,
1784. Their eleven children were Stephen, Susan, Stephen (2d), Paul, Aaron,
Maria, George, John, Charles, Sabina, and Caroline. The death of Mr. Balliet
occurred in 1854, and that of his wife in 1852. Their son, Paul, the subject of
this biographical sketch, was born on the 11th of May, 1811, in Whitehall
township, at the hamlet known as Ballietsville, where the years of his youth
were spent. His education was chiefly obtained at home, with later advantages
at Easton, Pa. On returning from the latter place he assumed charge of a store
in Heidelberg township, which he managed in connection with a furnace belonging
to his father, and remained several years thus employed. Preferring the life of
a farmer to the sedentary employment of a merchant, he cultivated his father’s
farm, of which he later became owner by purchase. He has continued the labors
of an agriculturist from that time to the present. In connection with his
brothers, Aaron and John, he subsequently embarked in mining
enterprises in North Whitehall township, which interest he still retains. At a
later day he became and is still a stockholder in a furnace at Coplay in the
vicinity of his home. Mr. Balliet was married
to Sarah, daughter of Peter Moyer, of North Whitehall township, whose surviving
children are Paul E., Sabina (Mrs. James D. Schall), Josephine (Mrs. Harry H.
Trumbower), Catherine (Mrs. David Kline), Ella M. and Amanda M. (Mrs. James
Roney). Mrs. Balliet died Feb. 11, 1869, and Mr. Balliet was married a second
time (on the 20th of May, 1878) to Mrs. Kate Emery, daughter of John Haines. In
politics Mr. Balliet is a Republican, and has served as county commissioner,
though the excitement attending active political life in not congenial to his
tastes. He is a supporter and member of the German Reformed Church of
Unionville.
END
********************************************************************************
RETURN
TO THE MATHEWS & HUNGERFORD
INDEX
PAGE
From
The History of the
Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
By
Alfred Mathews &
Austin N. Hungerford
Published
in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1884
Transcribed
from the original during winter 2006
by
Shirley
Kuntz
Proofing and web page by
May 2006