William and Lizzie Ballard

The WVGenWeb Project

William and Lizzie Ballard

William Henry Ballard was born September 28, 1882 at Cabin Creek, WV, the son of Wash (William Pletus or Poletus) and Mary Ann Coiner Ballard. His siblings were: Forest Luther, Bertha, James William, Hattie, Lillie, Elmer Russell, and Ella. On May 20, 1901, he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Batton. Elizabeth had a troubled childhood. Her mother, Caroline Keeney Batton, died when Lizzie was at a young age. Her father, James Overton Batton, remarried a woman by the name of Ethel who had two daughters and possibly a son. Lizzie and her sister Anna were most of the time ordered around or tormented by Ethel's demanding children. To break away from her despair, Lizzie married William Ballard. Together, they had 11 children together. Living in Cabin Creek, William was a coal miner and Lizzie ran the boarding house they had at Wevaco until she got ill in approx. 1939. From the boarding house, which the Ballards had from about 1927 to 1940, they moved to a small house at Wevaco where Lizzie could rest. On January 3, 1942, Elizabeth Ballard died at Kanawha Valley Hospital of an ovary carcinoma. William, in terrible grief, remained at Wevaco until he got ill also over the period of many years. He lived with a few of his children until he was hospitalized. Before his death, he went in and out of a coma. William Henry Ballard died February 4, 1955 at Charleston Memorial Hospital of pulmonary lung cancer. Their tombstones read: WILLIAM BALLARD 1882 - 1955 ELIZABETH BATTEN Wife of W.H. BALLARD 1884 - 1942

Submitted by J. Versiackas (WrldTrvlr2@msn.com) on Tue Aug 26 15:23:30 1997