Transcribed by Brenda H. Wills

October 1, 1953

* CAL’S COLUMN *

The following information has been received by the editor of the Times form Joseph Ballou, of 1239 Ormsby Court, Louisville, Kentucky. We are passing it on to readers, some of whom belong to the Ballou family and others are related. We are also hoping to preserve some for others who at some later time, may wish to search for information on the family.

The information from Mr. Ballou is as follows: The Ballou family is of French origin. It is said that Leonard Boileau and two brothers, William and James Boileau, fled from France at the beheading of King Louis during the French revolution. They stopped for a time in Ireland where Leonard Boileau married a lady of rank by the name of Meredith. The three brothers emigrated to America and settle in Botetourt County, Virginia, in the latter half of the seventeen nineties. After a short residence in Virginia, Leonard Boileau removed to North Carolina where he obtained a large estate on New River, in the western part of the State. He here reared a family, among whom were two sons, Leonard and Meredith. From the Carolina homestead of the Ballou family, they emigrated to other parts of the country, particularly to the South and West. James Ballou removed to Pulaski County, Kentucky, in the early 1800’s. Another James Ballou was in Pulaski County, Mo., in 1817. Jesse Ballou was in Laclede County, Mo., in 1820; and DeWitt Ballou was in Henry County, Mo., at an early date.

1.Leonard Boileau, from France, by way of Ireland to Virginia, married in Ireland __________ Meredith, settled in Botetourt County, Virginia, and later removed to New River, North Carolina. He had sons, Leonard, Meredith and James.

2.Meredith Ballou, born in 1766, removed with his father to the New River District of North Carolina, possessed himself of the estate of his father and added to it until he owned over 30,000 acres of land, He had 10 children, three sons and seven daughters. Among his children were James and Baker Ballou. He died at an advanced age on the North Carolina homestead.

3.James Ballou, born in North Carolina, came to Kentucky, settling near the Falls of the Cumberland River, at a place called Sawyer. Later he located at Point Isabella, now Burnside, in 1850. He reared his family there, and in the latter part of his life, removed to Indiana where he died. He married Frankie Jones, daughter of Levi Jones and his wife Linda Veatch. He had the following children: Leonard, Levi, Polly, Esther, Andrew Jackson, Tamsy, Watson, Joseph, Allen, James Polk, Meredith, Elizabeth, Thomas, Emerline and Enoch.

4.Leonard Ballou, son of James Ballou, born ___________, married ____________, and had children. Jesse Washington Ballou, born August 19, 1832, married October 19, 1863 to Cicely (Cecelia?) Jane Swink, daughter of Leonard Swink and Phoebe Smith Swink, Cicely, born February 5, 1827; issue, David Smith Ballou, born July 11, 1866, and died July 23, 1888; Nancy Jane Ballou, born May 19, 1868, and married John Martin VanHook. She resides at Greencastle, Ind. Two other children were born to Leonard, son of James, son of Leonard, their names being Jesse W. Ballou, who died November 6, 1872; and Cicely J. Ballou, died in August 1913.

5.Levi Ballou, son of James and Frankie Jones Ballou, born____________, married Polly Ann Lewis, daughter of Shelby Lewis and Jane Kelley Lewis, and who lived and died in Pulaski County, Kentucky, was the father of: James Ballou, married Winnie Lewis, and had by her: Maggie, Mary and Gordon Ballou. Thomas Ballou married Polly Ann Buckner, by whom he was the father of: Loretta, Dora, Maggie, Ida, Eva, Floyie, Elmer, Ottie Lloyd and Earl Ballou; Mary Ballou, married Thomas, son of William Lewis, and became the mother of: Owens, Winnie, Henry, Leona, Magnolia and Bryan Lewis. Mrs. Mary Ballou Lewis lives at Greenwood, Kentucky.

Other children of Levi Ballou and his wife, Polly Ann Lewis Ballou, were: Joe Mart Ballou, married, first, to Elizabeth Jane Heath, daughter of John L. Heath and Sally Smith Heath. Issue: Robert, Lula, James and Guy Ballou. Joe Mart Ballou was married a second time but there were no children. He lives at Tatesville, Kentucky. A fifth child of Levi and Polly Ann was William Ballou, married Ebbie Strunk, by whom he had Carl, Myrtle and Herbert Ballou. A sixth child was Amy Ballou, married Neal Boyer, and became the mother of: Gilbert, Cora, Evelyn, Silas, Arthur, Dalt, James and Juanita Boyer. A seventh child was Jack Ballou, died unmarried in 1901. An eighth child was Rhoda Ballou, married Charles Haynes, and became the mother of: Norman, Hattie and Tommy Haynes. The ninth and last child was Hattie Ballou, married Columbus Sloan, son of Clayton and Polly Jane Tate Sloan. Hattie was the mother of one daughter, Lola Sloan. The Sloan family lives at Beloit, Kansas.

Polly daughter of James Ballou and his wife, Frankie Jones Ballou, married February 6, 1851, to William Swink, son of Leonard Swink and Phoebe Smith Swink. They spent nine years of their married life at Burnside, Ky., and then removed to Humansville, Mo., where he died October 22, 1906, and his wife later. Their children: William Thomas Swink, born in 1852, and died in Missouri in 1926; John Milton Swink, born January 18, 1853, married Mary J. Lefler, and became the father of: Oscar, Lloyd, Earl, Fred, Leola, Lula, Hobart, Tressie and Addie Swink. He lives at Uniontown, Kansas. The third child was Mary E. Swink, married William Yoast and have children. They reside near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

The fourth child was Martha A. Swink, married Jeff Marshall. They have children, and live at Aurora, Illinois.

The fifth child was Nevada A.. Swink, who married Fred Mills. They have children and live at Denver, Colorado.

The sixth child was Joseph E. Swink, who has a family and resides at Walnut Grove, Missouri.

The seventh child was James Leonard Swink, who married Frances Price, daughter of Samuel Hansen and Susannah Owens Price. James Leonard and Frances were the parents of: Lester, Vaera, Frances, William, Neta, Arthur, Albert, Theodore, Lucille, Ruby, and John L. Swink. James Leonard Swink died in 1914, and his widow still lives in Everett, Washington.

The eighth and last child was Leulla Swink, married William Henry Payne, and had two children, Mary and William H. Payne, Jr. She still lives, at Huntington, N.Y., on Long Island.

The fourth child of James Ballou and his wife, Frankie Jones Ballou, was Ester, who married Robert Hardwick and had the following children: Alice Hardwick, married R. O. Lewis, and lives at Burnside, Kentucky, Charlie Hardwick, Joe Hardwick.

Andrew Johnson, fifth child of James Ballou and Frankie Jones Ballou married Martha Gaba and removed to Springfield, Missouri. They had one child that died in infancy. They lived, for a time, with Mrs. Polly Ballou Swink, at Humansville, Misouri, where Mrs. Martha Gaba Ballou died. Andrew Jackson Ballou lived for some years in the Old Folks Home.

The sixth child of James Ballou and Frankie Jones Ballou was Tamsy, who married Hardin Coffee. No additional information.

The seventh child was Watson Ballou, married Drucilla Dick. No additional information.

Joseph Ballou, son of James Ballou and Frankie Jones Ballou, was born January 21, 1836, married October 27, 1856, to Phoebe Catherine Smith, daughter of William Smith and Nancy Colyer Smith. Phoebe was born December 15, 1838, and died June 20, 1860. They had one son, Humphrey Ballou, born October11, 1857. He married Nellie Gains, born February 8, 1868, and died June 2, 1931. Humphrey Ballou was the father of: Lucille and Joseph Ballou, who live at 1372 South Sixth Street, Louisville, Kentucky.

After the death of his first wife, Joseph Ballou married Susan Elizabeth Chrisman, born September 28, 1839, and died June 14, 1921. They were the parents of: Halleck, Flora, Angie, Baxter, Victor, Ellen, and Justin Guy Ballou, the last-named a physician, born March 11, 1882, and died at Oak Harbor, Ohio, in February, 1935. Ellen Ballou lives at Stanford, Kentucky.

Allen Ballou, son of James and Frankie Jones Ballou, was born January 13, 1838, and married Nannie Lewis, daughter of Shelby Lewis and Jane Kelley Lewis on November 18, 1858. She was born December 30, 1842. Allen Ballou was a minister of the Gospel and lived and died in Pulaski County, Kentucky. He died June 17, 1928, and his wife had previously died, on May 4, 1916. Their children were: Jennie Ballou, born April 14, 1862, married a Brogden and lived at Burnside, Kentucky. She never had any children.

The second child was Daniel Webster Ballou, born September 5, 1864, married Luverna Lewis, daughter of John Wesley Lewis and Lydia Shadoan. Their Children were: Lillian, Violet, Pansy, Forrest, Carroll, Rose and Kenneth Ballou. They live at Burnside, Kentucky.

The third child of Allen Ballou and his wife, Nannie Lewis Ballou, was Robert M. Ballou, born November 10, 1866. He married Lou Williams, by whom he had three children, Herbert, Tibbs, and Clyde Ballou.

The fourth child was Tibbs Ballou, born May 8, 1868, married Alena Woods, by whom he had one daughter, Helen.

Emma was the fifth child. She was born December 17, 1873, married a Hiatt, and bore him two children, Ralph and Ernestine Hiatt. Mr. Hiatt is dead, and she lives at Burnside, Kentucky.

Louise Ballou was the sixth child, born December 23, 1876, and married a Simmons. They had no children.

Margaret Ballou was the seventh child and was born December 9, 1878. She married George Thomas, but had no issue. She lives in Somerset, Kentucky.

Walter V. Ballou was the eighth and last child of Allen Ballou and his wife, Nannie Lewis Ballou. He was born June 23, 1880 and married Winifred Pitser, by whom he has two children, Joyce and Walter Ballou, Jr., They reside in Olathe, Colorado.

We return to the children of James Ballou and his wife, Frankie Jones Ballou. The next was James Polk Ballou, who died in infancy. The next or 11^th child was Meredith Ballou, married either Paralee Rose or Betsy Barnett. He was the father of: Robert, Luke, Jake, James, John, Andy, Linda, Frankie and Susannah Ballou.

The 12^th child was Elizabeth Ballou, married a Barnett. The next was Thomas Ballou, married Frankie Powell. The 14^th child was Emerine, married a Baldwin and removed, with her father, to Indiana.

The 15^th and last child was Enoch born April 3, 1847, married Carrie Elizabeth Bible, who was born August 4, 1856 and died in 1883. Enoch and Carrie Elizabeth were the parents of: Creola Jane, born December 29, 1872, married Hayden Routh and had three children: David Andrew Ballou, born in 1874, and died in 1925; Robert Edward Ballou, born October 13, 1877, married Maria Womack, by whom he has one daughter; John Walter Ballou, born March 1, 1881, died 1920; and Arthur Enoch Ballou, born June 5, 1883. The wife and mother died the same year, 1883, as above set out. Later, on September 20, 1887, Enoch Ballou married the second time, to Emma K. Estell, by whom he had one son, Ralph Perry Ballou, born January 12, (Here part of the record is torn and illegible.) Enoch Ballou removed, with his father to Indiana, and in 1871, settled in Ballinger, Texas, where he died December 23, 1916.

Levi Jones, above mentioned as the father of Frankie Jones, came from North Carolina to Pulaski County, Kentucky, and married Lida Veatch, by whom he had: Calvin, Alfred, Alvin, Maldin, Daniel, Milton, Jasper, Frankie, Libbie, Sarah and Martha Jones.

Some additional information concerning Humphrey M. Ballou, mentioned above, is here noted. As previously stated, he married Nellie Gaines. We gave only two of his children in the account above. Here is a full list of his offspring: Angie Ballou, date of birth not given; Pattilin Ballou, date of birth not given, but she died October 13, 1906; Joseph Ballou, born in Lancaster, Garrard County, Kentucky, July 27, 1900, married Christine Lewis, June 6, 1925, and became the father of: Joseph Ballou, born December 24, 1928; and Kenneth Ballou, born December 8, 1930. They live at 1372 South Sixth Street, Louisville, Kentucky.

The last child of Humphrey was Lucille W. Ballou, mentioned above. She was born at Lancaster, Garrard County, Kentucky, February 27, 1905, and died March 21, 1937. Nellie Gaines Ballou was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, February 8, 1868, and died June 2, 193l. Humphrey M. Ballou died February 6, 1910.

Editor’s Comment—The above information relative to the Ballou family has come to us from Joseph Ballou, at present residing at 1239 Ormsby Street, Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to be above, he sends along some information from Walter W. Smith, who, at the writing of his communication, resided at 410 East B. Street, Moscow, Idaho.This bore the date of July 39, 1935. We wonder if he is still living and if he has the same address if he is still on this side of the river we call death.

We believe there is an error in the account above given on at least one point. That is on the point which states that Leonard, William and James Boileau left France for Ireland during the French Revolution which began in 1789 and Louis XVI was executed on January 21, 1793. Yet the above account informs us that the three Boileau brothers fled to Ireland at the beheading of Louis. In Ireland Leonard married a Miss Meredith, who bore him a son, Meredith Ballou, born in 1766, which was nearly 30 years before his parents were wed. This is a discrepancy which ought to be corrected. We hope that Mr. Joseph Ball or some other member of the Kentucky branch of the family will try to correct this. We have no desire in the world to be critical, but we are sure there is some error in this part of the account.

That the Tennessee Ballous, from whom the writer is descended, arrived in Middle Tennessee as early as Leonard and his brothers crossed the Atlantic from Ireland is easily proven. In fact our great-great-grandfather, Leonard Ballou, was born in Botetourt County, Virginia on April 4, 1767, and died in Smith County Tennessee on August 4, 1840. His father was named Leonard Ballou who married, so we are told by the oldest members of the family, Esther Meredith. Leonard Ballou, husband of Esther Meredith Ballou, died during the Revolutionary War, as the result of an attack of small pox contracted by him when he took a drove of beef cattle to Philadelphia for sale. His widow and several of the children came to Middle Tennessee, then called West Tennessee. Mr. Peck, in his correspondence with the Southern branch of the Ballou family in the years, 1875-6-7, was undoubtedly misinformed on at least some points and these incorrect statements have been incorporated in Adin Ballou’s history, “The Ballous in America.” This may be a rather bold assertion for a country newspaper editor and a hillbilly at that, to make. Some of the known errors appear in the account of the sons and daughters of Leonard Ballou, who, our folks say, married Ester Meredith. The history lists Leonard Ballou, born perhaps 1762. This should have been as above given, April 4, 1767. The history says he Married Mary Wingfield. This should have been Mary Metcalf. Later he married her sister, Sarah Metcalf. The history states that one of the daughters married a Johns. This is correct, for Esther Ballou, born in Virginia in 1776, married Elias Johns, and came to Tennessee in the last years of the 18^th century. Elias was born in Virginia in 1780, and was four years younger than his wife. Elias and his wife resided a few miles south of the writer’s home town of Lafayette, on the waters of Dixon’s Creek.

In the history, it states that Meredith Ballou was a son of Leonard, who, we know, was the man that died of small pox and whose sons, Leonard and James were. But the history gives the date of the birth of Meredith Ballou, son of Leonard and brother of Leonard, Jr., as September 29, 1766. We have documentary proof that Leonard, our own great-great-grandfather was born April 4, 1767, which would have been a virtual impossibility, with Meredith born 6 months before. The history leaves Leonard, Jr., in Virginia, married to Mary Wingfield and the father of: William Ballou, born in Goochland County, Virginia, in 1795, and married Sarah Oney; Charles Ballou, born in 1797; Thomas H. Ballou, born on February 22, 1798; Robert Ballou, born probably in 1802; and Joseph Ballou, born in Goochland County, Virginia, and married Sarah Webster. This Leonard Ballou is listed in the history as a Baptist minister and pastor of a church in Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1796. Although our great-great-grandfather, Leonard Ballou, was a member of Mt. Tabor Baptist church, he was never a minister. The history states that he died in 1853, but the Leonard Ballou, son of Leonard, died as above set out, on August 4, 1840, in Smith County, Tennessee, and is buried about 13 miles southeast of Lafayette.

Our ancestor, Leonard Ballou married Mary Metcalf, by whom he had four children. They were: Betsy, or Elizabeth Ballou born August 5, 1798, and married B. P. Lipscomb; Leonard Ballou III, born May 8, 1800, and married Jane Nixon; James Ballou, born June 2, 1802, and married a Key; and Rice Meredith Ballou born August 24, 1803, and married Amanda Nelson.

Leonard, after the death of his first wife, Mary Metcalf, married her sister, Sarah. By her he was the father of our great-grandfather, Lorenzo Dow Ballou, born December 1, 1808 and married Mary R Kittrell on November 5, 1829; Julia, who died at about 16 years of age and unmarried; Minerva married Booker Wakefield; Anthony W. Ballou married a Cummings; William Ballou, married a McMurry; and John Ballou, married a White.

We desire to get this matter straightened out and would appreciate help from any source. We hope to have more on the same line in an early issue of the paper.

(To be continued)