ANDREW W. BALL
Andrew W. Ball. Farmer, Delavan, Ill., was born in South Orange. N. J., March 17, 1834, the son of Amzi and Maria (Meeker) Ball, both natives of South Orange. There also, the father was born December 15, 1806, and the mother. September 19. 1812. The Ball family has an honorable record in the history of New Jersey, going back to the old Colonial days. Amzi Ball was the son of Joseph B. and Eunice (Harrison) Ball. Joseph B. Ball, born in South Orange, March 15, 1778, was a son of Joseph and Rachel (Tompkins) Ball, natives of South Orange and Newark. N. J., respectively. The father of Joseph Ball, and the great-grandfather of Andrew W., was Aaron Ball, born in Newark, N, J., in 1713; his father, Thomas Ball, at the same place, in 1687, and Edward BaIl, the father of Thomas, in East Haven, Conn., in 1642. The last named settled in Newark, N. J., in 1666, where he took a prominent part in local affairs. William Ball, the father of Edward, came from Wiltshire, Eng., about 1635.
The maternal grandparents of Andrew W. Ball were Benjamin and Phoebe L. Meeker the former a native of New York, and the latter of South Orange. N. .J. John Meeker was the father of Benjamin. Andrew W. Ball was taken by his parents to Ohio in October, 1835, and to Indiana in February, 1836, where he obtained a common school education. In 1851 he located in Tazewell County, where he worked on a farm, and at the age of nineteen years began teaching school, in which occupation he was engaged some four years, when he rented land for a time. About 1860 he assumed the management of his wife’s farm, thus continuing until 1890, when he removed to Delavan. In the meantime he has bought several tracts of land, 320 acres in Champaign County, 160 acres in Kansas, and another 160, near Oklahoma City.
Mr. Ball is identified with the Masonic fraternity, and long took a prominent part in the local Grange. He secured the papers for the organization of the Tazewell County Fair, of which for a number of years he has been a director and it’s President.
Mr. Ball was married in Delavan, December 27, 1855, to Miss Elizabeth A. Moseley, (born in Tazewell County, March 10, 1835,) and they have had four children; Arthur (who died in infancy), Clarence H., Gertrude H., and Joseph H. Clarence is a member of the Fifth Regiment, Illinois National Guard, with which he has been connected since its organization. Joseph H. was also with the same regiment until his removal from the city.
Mr. Ball is of the Unitarian faith, and in politics is a Democrat; has been School Trustee and has filled various other local offices.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Tazewell County - page 973