BFHA-RC-000012
Research record and source registry for William Baker Ball. This archive entry preserves the corresponding publication section for website research review.
Publication excerpt:
WILLIAM BAKER BALL: William F., Edward, Bartholomew; William, Sr. William Baker Ball was born 4 August 1805, in Liberty County, Georgia. His parents were William F. Ball and wife Mary Burgen.1 William Baker Ball moved with his parents and siblings to Baldwin County, Georgia in 1809 when four years of age. He continued to live there with his parents and siblings until about the age of twenty one. Like his father before him, he was afforded every advantage possible and received the best education. He chose the field of medicine and became a doctor. William married Mary M. Hines in Baldwin County 9 May 1826.2 In December of that same year William was licensed as a medical doctor to practice medicine by the Georgia Board of Physicians.3 Bolling Hines Ball, the first born of William B. and Mary Hines Ball, was born 13 August 1828 in Baldwin County. He lived three months, dying 22 November 1828.4 William B. Ball made a tax return on 202-1/2 acres of land, each in District 7 and District 9 in Carroll County, Georgia, for the year 1836.5 William B. Ball was living in Perry, Houston County, at this time and apparently was doing extensive farming in Carroll County. His parents and their family moved from Baldwin County prior to 1834 and were living next door to him in the town of Perry. The status of William F. Ball, William Baker Ball’s father, is not known at this time. In 1828 William owned 202-1/2 acres of land and 27 slaves. Three or four years later he moved to another county and lived in another town. His son, William Baker Ball, granted 500 acres in two tracts by 1836 and farmed them using slave labor. William Baker Ball used his father’s slaves. (?) Did his father still own his land and his slaves? Mary Adaline Ball, second child of William B. Ball and wife Mary M. Hines, was born 18 June 1839 in Perry, Houston County.6 William Hines Ball, third child of William B. Ball and Mary M, Ball, was born 14 March 1841, in Perry, Houston County.7 On 16 March 1842, Mary M. Hines Ball died in Perry, Houston County.8 William Baker Ball married second Sarah Veronica Everett 18 May 1843 in Fort Valley, Houston County, Georgia.9 Veronica Ball, first born of William B. Ball and Sarah Veronica Everett, was born in 1846 in Houston County.10 After the birth of Veronica Ball in 1846 in Houston County, William B. Ball and family moved to Carroll County, Mississippi. He filed on at least two tracts of land, one in Sunflower County and one in Carroll County. The personal tax record of Sunflower County for 1847 lists one carriage and 26 slaves. There is no property tax for 1847.1159 The second child of William B. Ball and Sarah Veronica was a son, Few Ball, born 20 September 1848 in Carroll County, Mississippi.12 General Benjamin Few of South Carolina and Georgia Revolutionary War fame may have been a kinsman of Veronica, or Few Ball was just named after a Revolutionary War hero. The 1848 personal tax roll of Sunflower County shows Dr. William B. Ball with 1 carriage and 25 slaves.13 There is no property tax record for 1848. The last child of William B. Ball and Sarah Veronica was a daughter, Ellanora Ball, born in 1850 in Carroll County, Mississippi.14 Dr. William Baker Ball died 19 January 1854, at his residence in Black Hawk, Carroll County, Mississippi. The fate of his slaves and the extensive land holdings in Sunflower and Carroll Counties are unknown. The Mississippi state Archives in Jackson and the County Records of Sunflower and Carroll need to be searched to solve that question and to find, through the Probate Records, a will, administration ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- Only one of Dr. William B. Ball’s children is still living in Carroll County as of 1870. Sarah Veronica Everett Ball remarried and might have moved to Arkansas. The name of her husband is not known. DIED -- On the 19th January, 1854, at his residence in Black Hawk, Doctor William B. Ball, a native of Baldwin County, Georgia, in the 49th year of his age. He professed religion when about 21 or 22 years of age, and soon after joined the M. E.
[Excerpt; the full publication section is preserved in the BFHA source registry document.]