Russell Wells Ballard (1826-1907)

BALLARD, STOLP, SHEFFIELD

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/9/2017 at 21:14:54

From Nevada Representative August 23, 1907

OBITUARY

RUSSELL W. BALLARD

The funeral of the late Russell W. Ballard was held at Story City Thursday afternoon, and the interment was at the Sheffield cemetery in Howard township near the home where he lived for fifty years. A delegation of nearly twenty of the Masons from Nevada met the cortege at the cemetery and the last rites were in accordance with the ritual of the Masonic order.

Mr. Ballard was born near Smyrna, New York, December 24, 1826, and died at Story City, Iowa August 19, 1907, aged 80 years, 7 months and 26 days. He removed with his parents in childhood to Ohio and from there in youth to Illinois. There he grew up and married, and thence he came in 1857 to Iowa, locating on the farm in Howard township. There he continued to reside until only two weeks before his death, when he and Mrs. Ballard removed to Story City. His death was peaceful. As he expressed it, "his machinery was used up," and in a little while he went to sleep and from the sleep he never wakened. Mr. Ballard was always an active man and interested in public affairs. He was an ardent Republican, and he enjoyed on sundry occasions the notable confidence of his party and of the people. He was nominated and elected county supervisor in 1880, and again after an intermission of late years, in 1885. He had always the esteem and confidence of those who knew him; and he honored the county which he helped to build and which in its turn honored him.

His funeral was largely attended and numerous children and grandchildren honor his memory.

SUBMITTER'S NOTE: Russell Wells Ballard married twice: (1) to Lois Elizabeth Stolp and (2) to Bashua M. Sheffield on 30 October 1864 in Story City, Story County, Iowa. His second wife, Bashua Sheffield, was the niece of his first wife, Lois Stolp, as Bashua's mother was Maria Celestia Stolp, Lois' sister.