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J[UBE] H[ENRY] BALL has retired from a business life and has lived in Vinton during the past seven years. He came to Benton county, however, in April, 1864, coming from Massachusetts, and he was born in Holyoke of that state, in 1843, in the same county in which Springfield is located. He traces his descent in a direct line to the founder of the family in America, to Francis Ball, who came from Barkham in Berkshire county, England, near Windsor, in 1640. He settled first at Dorchester Heights and a year or so later at West Springfield, now Holyoke, Massachusetts, and there are still several representatives of the Ball family in that vicinity, including three brothers and a sister of J. H. Ball. Francis Ball had two sons, Jonathan and Samuel.
Jonathan Ball became captain of militia in the service of the crown, and he died in 1741, aged ninety-six years. He left nine children, including the direct antecedent of J. H. Ball, Benjamin Ball, who located on the Holyoke farm, yet in the possession of the family. He planted an elm tree there which stood until 1908. and was then cut down owing to its decay. His son Benjamin was in the Colonial army and was killed at Cape Breton in 1745.
Charles Ball, another son of Benjamin, Sr., and the great-grandfather of J. H. Ball, was a selectman of Springfield and died in 1795, at the age of seventy years.
Charles Ball, a son of Charles Sr., born in 1760, was known as Lieutenant Charles Ball, and he was a soldier and a pensioner of the Revolutionary war. He died in 1838. His wife was a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier.
Edwin H. Ball, the youngest son of Charles, was born in Hampden county, Massachusetts, in 1809, and he became a colonel on the staff of the governor of Massachusetts and was a representative to the state legislature. Like his forefathers he took up agricultural pursuits. He was twice married, wedding first Phoebe Frink, who died in 1842, at the age of thirty-four years, leaving four children: Helen, Edwin H., Jr., James R. and Alice Evelyn. Of this family Helen Alien and James R. and the only ones living, the latter residing on the old Ball homestead. The daughter Alice married Dr. C. 0. Carpenter, of Holyoke, and she left two children at her death. Edwin H. Ball, the father, married in 1842 Eurydice Ely, born at Holyoke, Massachusetts, a daughter of Jube and Lucy (Day) Ely. She came as a widow to Vinton a year before her death, which occurred in 1890, at the age of seventy-five, and she was buried in Massachusetts. Mr. Ball resided in that state until his death in 1889. He was a farmer but also actively interested in the manufacture of writing paper and was a prominent man of affairs. There were four children born of this second marriage, of whom Jube Henry Ball is the eldest. Francis Wayland Ball, the second child, was born in 1847 and he resides at Holyoke. Lucy M. died in infancy. Charles Ely, born in 1852, also resides at Holyoke, a successful business man and a wholesale and retail druggist, owning perhaps what is the finest drug store in the east. He is also interested largely in the tobacco trust, in the sugar trust and in the coastwise trade. He is also the president of the large corporation known as the Ford Auger Bit Company. Gilman Kimball Ball, born in 1854, died at Salem, Oregon. He had lived some ten years at Vinton, a farmer and an active business man.
Eurydice (Ely) Ball, the mother of these children, was a daughter of Captain Jube and Lucy (Day) Ely, the youngest of their four children, the others being Julia Ann, Paulina and Jube, but the last named died young. Captain Jube Ely was a son of Captain Joseph Ely, born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1761, and he died in 1843. Joseph Ely, the father of Captain Joseph, was born March 30, 1718, in West Springfield, now Holyoke, Massachusetts, and he died on the 31st of May, 1803. He married on February 3, 1749, Mary, daughter of John and Abigail (Bagg) Day. Mary was born at West Springfield, August 7, 1726, and died April 22, 1771. Joseph Ely was one of a company of rangers under Captain Phineas Stevens who during the French and Indian war in April, 1747, successfully resisted an attack on the fort at Charlestown, New Hampshire, receiving a wound in his forehead. Joseph Ely, the father of this Joseph, was born at West Springfield, Massachusetts, April 9, 1686, and he died there June 6, 1770. He married Margaret Leonard, born in 1692, and she died there on October 3, 1760. Joseph Ely, the father of this last named Joseph, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, August 20, 1663, and died at West Springfield April 29, 1755. His wife, Mary was a daughter of John Riley, who located in the part of West Springfield called Ireland Parish, now the southern part of Holyoke. She was born June 2, 1665, and died on May 19, 1736. Samuel Ely was the father of Joseph, and no record of his birth can be found, his name first appearing as a witness to an Indian deed given to his father and others, dated February 15, 1651, and the name does not again appear in the Norwalk records. He married in Springfield, Massachusetts, October 28, 1659, Mary Day, youngest child of Robert Day and his second wife, Editha Stebbins. Samuel Ely was a son of Nathan Ely.
Jube Henry Ball, a son of Edwin II and Eurydice (Ely) Ball, was reared at Holyoke, and in 1862 he enlisted for the Civil war, joining Company B, Forty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, though but eighteen years old at the time. He was in the nine months service and remained in the ranks about a year, participating in the battles of Kingston, White Hall and Goldsboro. In the spring of 1864 he came to Benton county, Iowa, locating three miles from Vinton in Taylor township, and he still owns a farm there. He conducted the place many years, and he is also interested in various other enterprises. He was married in this city to Miss Missouri E. Beck, born at Bethel, Ohio, in 1844, a daughter of Dr. Oliver C. and Jemima A. (South) Beck, one of the pioneer families of Ohio and of Vinton, Iowa. Dr. Beck practiced medicine a number of years, and he died here in the fall of 1864, his wife passing away a year or two previously. Mrs. Ball died in 1882, leaving four children: Edwin H., with a wholesale house in Phoenix, Arizona, and he is married and has two sons and two daughters; Catherine, wife of J. Albert Gallaher, an attorney at Jefferson, Iowa, and they have three sons and one daughter; William is a printer and a real estate operator in Chicago, and he is married and has one son; and James is operating his father's farm in Taylor township. He is also married and has one son. In 1885 Mr. Ball married Mrs. Adeline C. Allbright, nee Smith, born at Delavan, Wisconsin, in 1851, a daughter of Heman and Jane (West) Smith, who came to Fayette county, Iowa, in 1853, and both died at Vinton to which place they had moved in 1897, the father dying in March of that year, when seventy-seven years of age, and the mother died in the fall of 1905, when eighty-five years of age. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ball. Jube H. Ball, Jr., the elder, born in 1888, attended the naval academy at Annapolis from June of 1907 until his resignation in October, 1908, and he is now a draftsman with the Stotts Signal Company at Marion, Iowa. Charles Francis Ball, born in 1892, died in 1895, when but three years of age.
Mrs. Ball at the time of her marriage to Mr. Ball was the widow of John W. Allbright, who was born in Cass county, Michigan, in 1840, and died in Winnebago, Forest City, Iowa, in December, 1874. They were married near West Union, Fayette, county, Iowa, in September, 1869. Mr. Allbright served with the Forty-sixth Iowa for about a year. He was a school teacher and farmer in Fayette county and was at one time principal of the Forest City, Iowa, school. By their marriage there were three children, Frank W., who died when thirteen years old; Cora, who died when fifteen years and six months old; and Bessie W., who died when nine years and six months old.
Mrs. Ball's father, Heman Smith, was born November 20, 1820, in Tioga county, New York. He was married in September, 1844, to Jane West in Livingston county, Michigan, where he had gone with his mother and the remainder of the family in 1834. His father was Heman Smith, who was born November 23, 1776, in Massachusetts, and died May 6, 1813, in New York state. Heman Smith, Mrs. Ball's great-grandfather, was born in 1741, in New York state, and died there June 10, 1833. His wife was Lucy Taylor. Mrs. Ball's maternal grandfather, Ezra B. West, was born in Berkshire, Vermont, and died at Waupaca, Wisconsin, in 1860. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. The Smith family is related to Admiral Dewey. When Mrs. Ball's parents came to Fayette county, Iowa, the father purchased a quarter section of government land, which he improved and lived on until he sold and moved to Vinton. Mrs. Ball was one of five children, three of whom died in infancy, the other was Swain, who died at thirty-three years of age in 1879, and left two sons.
Mr. and Mrs. Ball are members of the Baptist church. Mr. Ball is a Republican and a "standpatter." He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of P. M. Coder Post, No. 98, and a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, belonging to the Blue Lodge and Chapter.
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