AMOS
ENTHEUS BALL, well known as a farmer and stock raiser in
Delaware township, traces his descent to Caleb Ball,
his great-grandfather, who came to Mercer county from Washington county,
Pennsylvania, in 1794, and located on a farm in Worth township. He was a
soldier in both the Revolutionary war and the war of 1812, and he died
suddenly April 9, 1814, in the town of Mercer. Caleb
Ball married Phoebe Walton, and her
father, George Walton, was one of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence. They became the parents of eight
children: Amos, who was a soldier in the war
of 1812; Caleb, Jonathan, Henry, Sarah, Mercy, Asena
and William.
Amos
Ball, a son of this brave patriot, was born in Washington county,
Pennsylvania, in 1793. He moved to Worth township in Mercer county in
1794, and to Delaware township in 1824. He died on his farm there on the
17th of May, 1861, and his remains now lie at rest in the graveyard on the
old homestead by the side of those of his wife, who died April 1, 1881.
They were members of the Methodist church, and he in politics was a
Democrat. He was a local minister of the Methodist denomination, and was a
justice of the peace of Pymatuning, Hempfield, Otter Creek and Delaware
townships for thirty or forty years, having been appointed by the
different governors of the state of Pennsylvania. He married in 1819 Elizabeth,
a daughter of Daniel Harper, a farmer in Cool
Spring township. To Amos Hall and wife were
born seven children, namely: Phoebe, Caleb.
Elizabeth, Amos Walton, Francis Asbury, Lucinda and William
Fletcher.
Amos
Walton Ball, their son, born in August, 1824, in Cool Spring
township, went to the state of Illinois when a young man and was county
surveyor of Jasper county there for twelve years, He surveyed the borough
of Fredonia, Mercer county, and a map of this which he made is on file in
the prothonotary's office in Mercer. For this he received $55.
Amos Walton Ball married Eliza
Jane Earley, born in 1832 in
Delaware township, a daughter
of Robert
and Elizabeth (Matox) Earley, farmers of this township. Mrs. Ball
was for many years and until her marriage a teacher in the schools of
Newton, Illinois, and she now [1909] makes her home with her daughter
Florence, Mrs. Thomas Jennings, of Whatcom,
Washington. To Amos Walton Ball and his wife
were born eight children, as follows: Elizabeth,
widow of Willis Donaldson and a resident of
New Hamburg; Amos Entheus, who is mentioned
below; Judson, a dentist in Mount Pleasant,
Iowa, married Catharine Allen; Florence, wife
of Thomas Jennings, who was born in Allegheny
county; Norman Elsworth, deceased, married Eva
Lynch, of Mercer, and they had one child, Norman
Elsworth, Jr.; Hiram
Kingsley, of Seattle, Washington, spent four years in mining in the
Klondike gold fields; Robert, a physician in
Tacoma, Washington; Charles Frederick, a
graduate from Volant College in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania. He was
afterward the principal of that institution for ten years, resigning to
take up the study of law. He married Martha,
a daughter of ex-Sheriff Ayers, of Lawrence
county. Amos Walton and Eliza Jane Ball were
members of the Methodist church and to this faith the widow still clings,
lie was in politics a Democrat, and served as a director of the school
board of Delaware township for many years.
Amos
Entheus Ball was born on the 15th of October, 1858, in Jasper
county, Illinois, and he attended in his youth the common schools of
Delaware township and the State Normal at Edinboro. From that time on he
was engaged in farming until 1899, when with his brother Hiram
Kingsley he went to the Klondike and mined for three years with
good success. While there he was the means of saving from drowning the
life of William Evans, a Scotchman, and he
was also the means of rescuing from freezing a man who had already lost
his fingers, ears and feet from the cold. And again he assisted in
rescuing three men, Wolf, Aberg and Conley, from suffocation from gas in
the mines, but Conley died after being taken out. For these many acts of
heroism and bravery Mr. Ball was presented with a gold medal from Captain
Rutledge, of Dawson. Returning to his farm of one hundred and
thirty-five acres in Delaware township, he on the 8th of June, 1904,
married Mrs. Rena (Reigles) Shellheimer, the
widow of Willard Shellheimer, who was
accidentally killed while employed on the Bessemer Railroad. Mr.
and Mrs. Shellheimer had two children, Herbert
and Hazel. Mrs. Ball is a daughter of William
and Lucy (Simmons) Reigles, of Fredonia. The father served in
Company J, Third Indiana Cavalry Regiment, in the Civil war, and was
confined in Libby prison for a short time. Mr. and Mrs. Ball have one
child, Amos Walton, born October 29, 1905.
Mrs. Ball is a member of the Christian Science church. Mr. Ball has
membership relations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in
Fredonia. In politics he is a Prohibitionist.
The
homestead farm of Amos Ball is an historic
one, made doubly so from the old burying ground located thereon. And it is
known to a certainty that in this historic spot lie the remains of a
soldier of the Revolution, a soldier of the Mexican war, three soldiers
from the war of 1812 and three Indians.
It is a valuable old place, rich in the reminiscences of the olden
days.
Twentieth Century History of
Mercer County,
1909, pages 837-839.
