Vivaldo A. Ballou (1840-1906)

BALLOU, MULLINS, THORNBRUE

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 1/17/2012 at 00:53:02

From Story County Watchman January 26, 1906

Front page: Three Nevada Pioneers are Called to Rest (Headline)

VIVALDO A. BALLOU

Vivaldo A. Ballou, for twenty-five and a half years of the Watchman at Nevada, died at his home in this city Monday morning, January 22, 106, aged 65 years, 4 months and 15 days. Mr. Ballou's death was the immediate result of Bright's disease from which he had been suffering for past few months; but he had been for the past two or three years in obviously declining health from various causes. His critical illness, however, dates from the 21st of last October, when he was advised to give up his work upon the paper; and within a few days from that time he was himself convinced that such relinquishment of work was necessary. On the 4th of November he tranferred ownership of the paper to his son Victor, and the consequent release from worry undoubtedly prolonged his life; but nevertheless he continued to fail gradually and within the past week or so his decline was so rapid that his death was a surprise to no one.

Mr. Ballou was the son of Dr. David Hosea Ballou, and he was born at Plattsburg, New York, September 7, 1840. When he was ten years old he moved with his father's family to Wisconsin, where his mother died soon after. His father married again, and the boy at the age of twelve started out for himself. He went to Dubuque, where he learned th printer's trade in the offices of the Tribune and Herald. He remained there a number of years and then went to Webster City, where he worked for Hon. Charles Aldrich on the Hamilton Freeman. From Webster City he went to Cornell College for couple of years and then returned to Webster City; where he enlisted in the summer of 1861 in the 2nd Iowa Cavalry. He saw real service in the south during the next year, and he was discharged for disability at Rienzi, Mississippi, in September 1861. Returning in feeble health to Webster City, he recuperated in the family of Mr. Aldrich until he was able to go to Upper Iowa University at Fayette for another year of college training. Returning from his he helped Mr. Aldrich to reopen the Freeman office, which had been locked up during the greater part of the war. Soon after he leased the paper and later bought it, selling it however, in 1867 to Mr. J. D. Hunter, who is still senior editor of the paper. Mr. Ballou then removed to Boone, which was then called "Montana," and was there associated with Messrs. Gallup and Hall in the publication of the Standard. Withdrawing from the paper, he came to Nevada in 1869 and bought the Aegis, now the "Representative" which he ran for year and a half, and then sold to Mr. W. H. Gallup. For nearly 18 years he was out of the newspaper business and for a considerable part of this time he ran a drug store in a building on the same lot where the Watchman is now. This store and building went in the general fire of December 1879, and in the spring of 1880 he bought the Watchman, which paper he continued to publish until the shadow of the Reaper was upon him bidding him to cease his labors.

Mr. Ballou was married at Janesville, Ia., February 23, 1868, to Mrs. Armetta Mullins Sharp, who died Juen 23, 1899, after a wedded life of thirty-one years. Their children have been Maude, Edith Victor and Ruth, all of whom, with Victor's wife, survive him. Mr. Ballou also leaves a brother, S. A. Ballou, a retired railroad man of Boone. He was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and he was also much interested in the Masonic order, in which he had the rank of a Knight Templar.

Mr. Ballou came of a scholarly family; for his grandfather was Rev. Hosea Ballou, one of the great preachers of the first half of the last century and a founder of the Universalist church, and a cousin was Dr. Hosea Ballou 2d, first president of Tufts College. He himself had literary tastes and an excellent education, which he had gained almost or quite wholly through his own efforts, and he gathered a very considerable library of standard works, for which he had actual use. He had absolute business integrity; and in all local matters he sympathized with whatever appeared to be for the good of the community. He gave his children a better chance in the world than he himself had had, and in all essential respects he met fairly and conscientiously the requirements of a true standard of citizenship. But of all his characteristics the one that always impressed the writer most strongly was his marvelous industry. For considerably more than twenty years to our personal observation he managed somehow to handle in the Watchman office amount of work which would reasonably have furnished employment for two busy men. He looked after the business, furnished nearly all the copy, and worked not a little in the mechanical department. And doing all this, he got out a paper which always afforded real competition to his opposition papers, although he was running a Democratic paper in a community where Democrats were quitte too scarce to yield to the paper an adequate support. Possibly people who are not in the newspaper business may not fully appreciate what all this means but to one whose point of view affords opportunity for a just understanding of the achievement, it means a great deal, and it does entitle him to credit for having accomplished honestly and fairly what very few men in his place would have been able to do. This was the achievement to which he gave his best years and which is to be regarded as having been his real life work. It marked him as one of the men most conspicuously identified with the history of Story county in the years of the county's greatest development and advancement, and it made him an example worthy of imitation among his fellow men.

The funeral was conducted from the home Wednesday afternoon by Rev. C. L. Nye of Des Moines and was in the general charge of the Masonic order. Among the friends from abroad who were here for the funeral were Mr. Ballou's brother and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Ballou of Boone; his brother-in-law, Rev. Thornbrue of Valley Junction; Mr. Howard Sewell of Waverly, and Mr. and Mrs. Geo. H. Welsh of Boone.

From Story County Watchman February 9, 1906

Ballou in Early Days.

A Tribute From an Old Friend and Patron to the Memory of Vivaldo A. Ballou

(Taken from Representative.)

Historical Department of Iowa, Des Moines, February 5, 1906.-- My Dear Sir: Since you were here the other day and requested me to write my recollections of the late Vivaldo A. Ballou, of your city, I have read your beautiful tribute to his memory in "The Representative." It has interested me very much, indeed, and you have paid an exceedingly just meed of praise to his many excellent qualities, for shich you deserve the thanks of all his old friends.

Happening to visit Dubuque n the summer of 1858, I called upon the foreman of the old Tribune office, with whom I had some acquaintance, as I had myself worked several weeks as a compositor in that office, whole on my way out to Webster City. To my inquiry as to where I could find a boy, with some knowledge of type-setting, to take out to my place in Webster City, he suggested that he had the very one I wanted, and going down stairs he returned with the boy, Vivaldo. I must confess that the latter was unpromising looking specimen as I saw him then. He had recently suffered from an explosion of gun powder which left a fearful and most disfiguring scar covering the whole of one side of his face. He had also worked the engine and his face and hands were blackened sith coal dust. My friend, the foreman, however, gave me such a glowing account of his good qualities that I concluded to take him back with me, and we struck a bargain at once. Starting home the next morning, we went out to the end of the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad, now a part of the Illinois Central system, from which point we took the stage to Webster City. This was during the terribly wet season of 1858, and we were more than once stuck fast in wide sloughs. On one occasion we had to wade out, the water coming up to our knees. We reached Webster City at last and I was not long in discovering that Vivaldo was a real treasure as an apprentice learning the trade of a printer.

He stayed in my office until September, 1861, when he enlisted in Co. E, 2d Iowa Cavalry. At my request the captain appointed him one of the sergeants, but only allowed him to keep the place until they were safely away from Webster City, when for some trival excuse he was reduced to the ranks. The captain himself was partially under sloud and did not stay long with the company; but Vivaldo remained with the company until September 17, 1862, when he was discharged for disability. His military record is certainly a proud one, for which he should always be kindly remembered by Story county. While he was modest and not given to pushing or exploiting himself, he was as brave as a lion is said to be. One incident in his career fully establishes this fact. He attracted the attention of Colonel (afterwards Brig. Gen.) Hatch, who made him his orderly. In that teriffic charge at Farmington, Miss., Vivaldo followed close behind the colonel. The colonel's horse was shot under him, when Vivaldo dismounted and gave his horse to the colonel, escaping himself by crawling out through the bushes. In this charge I have heard it stated that fifty men and 100 horses were killed or wounded. The charge was undertaken simply to hold a formidable body of rebels in check for a short time until the Union forces could get out of a very tight place. With this fact in view, the charge was a successful one, but it was lidke that of Balaklava in the Crimean war. As Maj. Byers relates in "Iowa in War Times," the Second Cavalty were hurled against a vastly superior force, armed not only with small arms but with field artillery. Our cavalry reached the big guns but were immediately forced to retire. They had succeeded, however, in the purpose for which they were sent, and having delayed sufficiently the movement of the enemy, retired in good order. Col. Pete Hepburn once told me, and he was there, that had the war ended at that time, this charge would have been considered one of the most daring exploits in the whole history of the conflict. Mr. Ballou was in the front, but came out without a scratch. For his bravery on this occasion, I repeat, he deserves the kind of remembrance of those who annually go to your cemetery to decorate the graves of Union soldiers.

Mr. Ballou had many peculiarities, which made him seem at times a little eccentric, though by no means disagreeable. I never knew a more honest man. Whatever he had earned and was due him, he wanted with no unnecessary delay. Whatever he owed, he was always ready to pay. As a workman, I had many more rapid than he, but never one upon whom I could more implicitly rely to do his very best. It is to me a matter of very deep regret that he could not have been spared many more years to enjoy the society of his children, to whose interest he was always conscientiously and most thoroughly devoted. Whatever duty or obligation he assumed he discharged to the very best of his ability. Very sincerely yours,

CHAS. ALDRICH.

To W. O. Payne, Esq., Nevada, Ia.