Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. II, Part 5

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 732

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. II > Part 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

he had a son born September 16, 1751 ; Phinchas, born 1710; Thankful, born in Watertown, baptized January 7, 1728, aged nine: Damel, baptized Janu- ary 7 1728, aged seven; Jane, baptized January 7, 1728, aged four; Susannah, born April 6, 1726, 111 Watertown.

(V) Phinchas Ball, son of Jonathan Ball (4), was born 1716, in Watertown, Massachusetts. June 6. 1741, he married, Martha Bixby, of Andover, Massachusetts, Their intention of marriage dated May 27. 1741, Lancaster Records. Phinchas was living with relatives at Shrewsbury after his father's death, and when he became eighteen years old Daniel Hastings, husband of Sarah Ball, daughter of James, brother of Jonathan, was appointed his guardian. (See Worcester Probate Records, Vol. 217, page 292.) The date of guardianship, August 24. 1734, fixes his birth at 1716 and establishes the fact that he was the son of Jonathan, who died when he was ten years old. The sureties of Hastings' bond were Benjamin Flagg, Jr., son of a brother of his uncle, and Daniel Johnson, a neighbor, at Shrewsbury. December 10, 1740, Phinehas Ball bought thirty acres of land of Jonas Clarke, in the north part of Worcester adjoining the Shrewsbury line. In this deed his residence is given as Lan- caster. This farm must have been near Bolyston line, as Boylston was then known as the north pre- cinct of Shrewsbury. Phinehas Ball sold this land or part of it to Silas Bennett, January 23, 1748-9, when it is described as in Holden (the north pre- cinct of Worcester) near the Shrewsbury line. The birth of his children are all recorded as given be- low in Holden.

The children of Phinehas and Martha ( Bixby) Ball were: Daniel, born January 9, 1742, baptized at Shrewsbury with his father, June 6, 1742; Je- mima, born February 6, 1744: Abner, born April 8, 1746; Elijah, born March 2, 1748; Benjamin, born March 31, 1750.

( VI) Lieutenant Elijah Ball, son of Phinehas Ball (5), was born in Holden, March 2, 1748. He married Rebecca Moore (intentions dated Septem- ber 21.) 1770; both were then of Lancaster, per- haps not far from the farm in Holden, however. The date of the marriage was October 18, 1770. She died at Boylston, October 13, 1829, aged seventy- five years. He died at Boylston, Massachusetts, November 10, 1834, aged eighty-six.

At the breaking out of the revolution he was liv- ing in Lancaster, perhaps on or near the farm in Holden or Boylston. He went with Captain Benja- min Houghton's company in Colonel John Whit- comb's regiment in response to the Lexington call April 19, 1775. He was corporal in Captain Samuel Savage's company in 1776. He was sergeant in Captain William Greenleaf's company, Colonel Job Cushing's regiment, enlisting September 3, 1777, and he was first lieutenant in the Fifth Company, Colonel Josiah Whitney's regiment (second Worcester), commissioned June 17, 1779. Ile was with General Putnam in the campaign on Long Island.

Ile owned land in the second precinct of Shrews- bury, probably by inheritance before 1781, when he sold land there to John Barnard. This land was situated in what is now Boylston. He made his home in Boylston after the revolution and be- came a prosperous farmer and prominent citizen there. Ilis grandson, ex-Mayor Ball, of Worcester, presided at the centennial exercises in 1886. The town of Boylston was incorporated March 1, 1786. The farm of Lieutenant Ball was inherited by Manasseh Sawyer Ball, his son, and the father of Phinchas Ball, of Worcester.

The children of Lieutenant Elijah and Rebecca

WORCESTER COUNTY

(Moore) Ball were: Elijah, born in Lancaster, August 29, 1771, imarried four times; Abigail, born in Boylston, July 25, 1773; Amaziah, born in Boyls- ton, January 30, 1776; Levi, born in Boylston, Jan- uary 6, 1778; Reuben, born in Boylston, May 9, 1780: Rebecca, born in Boylston, June 1, 1782 ; Micah Ross, born July 29, 1784: Patty, born in Boylston, March 20, 1789: Jonah, born May 13, 1791 ; Phinehas, born August 20, 1794; Cinda, born in Boylston, Febru- ary 12, 1797; Manasseh Sawyer, born December 28, 1800.

(VII) Micah Ross Ball, son of Lieutenant Elijah Ball (6), was born in Boylston, Massachusetts, July 29. 1784. He married Rachel Lincoln. They settled at Leominster, Massachusetts, and were the parents of Rev. George S. Ball, of Upton.

(VIII) Rev. George S. Ball, son of Micah Ross Ball (7), was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, May 22, 1822. He received a meagre education in the district schools until the age of sixteen, when, obtaining a release of his time from his father, he devoted himself to study in the higher schools with- in his reach. He found it hard to earn enough to pay for his education, but he persevered working it is said with his books in one hand and his work in the other. He was in the first class to graduate from the Unitarian Theological School at Mead- ville, Pennsylvania, in 1847. In the fall of the same year he was called to the Unitarian church in Ware, Massachusetts, and was ordained there October 13. 1847. He remained there two years, when he asked for his dismission on account of ill health. After a few months he began to preach at Upton, Massa- chuseets, and after a few months accepted a call there and was installed as minister in February, 1850. This pastorate continued until April 11, 1892. He became a leading citizen of the town as well as a prominent clergyman. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention held in 1853. In 1861 he was elected representative to the general court for the district composed of Northbridge and Up- ton, but at about the same time he was chosen chap- lain of one of the Worcester county regiments al- ready in the field, the famous Twenty-first -Regiment of Volunteers. His patriotism and the pressing needs of the soldiers in the field made him decide to go to the front instead of accepting the legislative honors and remaining in his church work. He accepted the post of chaplain and went at once to Annapolis, Maryland, where the regiment was then stationed.

In the first battle of the regiment he won the hearts of the soldiers by his brave and efficient aid to the wounded, and in the report of the colonel commanding. a copy of which was transmitted by the general in command to Governor Andrew, he was generously commended. He was with the regi- ment thirteen months. General Charles F. Walcot, historian of the regiment, writes of his service thus : "In the thirteen months that he had been with us he had shared with the regiment every peril and hardship which it had been called to face and en- dure, and had won the lasting respect and love of every man in it of whatever creed. Never losing sight of his duty as a Christian clergyman, he had been far more than a mere chaplain to us. Ardently patriotic, always hopeful, manly and courageous, he exerted a strong and lasting influence in keeping up the tone of the regiment in its soldierly as well as its moral duties. As our postmaster, no matter at what inconvenience to himself, the mail was never left to take care of itself, when by his energy it could be forced to come or go. To our sick and wounded he had been with unfailing devotion, a brave, tender and skilful nurse. An honor and

grace to his calling and the service, it was a sad day in the regiment when he left us."

His pastorate was interrupted once more when for two years he served as colleague of the Rev. Dr. Kendall, at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He was chaplain of the Massachusetts house of representa- tives in 1863 after his return from the field, and was a member of the house the following year. He was promoted to the state senate, where he served his district in 1866-67. He again served his district as member of house of representatives in 1891-92. He affiliated with the Republican party when it was organized and always remained a Republican. Ile was very active in the anti-slavery move- ment and in other reform movements. He was a man of influence and a power for good all his life. One who knew him well has written: "Mr. Ball has been far more in Upton than a mere clergyman, a good man, a good citizen, never a strong partisan, but friend and minister to all who needed or would receive his help."

He married, June 18, 1848, while settled at Ware, Hannah B. Nourse, daughter of Caleb and Orissa ( Holman) Nourse, of Bolton, Massachusetts; they had eight children, seven of whom lived to matur- ity. The children of Rev. George S. and Hannah B. (Nourse) Ball were: Clinton Dale, born in Bolton, October 2, 1849, married Jennie L. Stowc, of Grafton, October 2, 1884: Susan Austin, born Upton, July 26, 1852, married George A. Wood. Up- ton, February 3, 1876, died August 27, 1901 : Lydia Walker, born Upton, November 6, 1854: George William, born in Plymouth, May 25. 1857. dicd in Upton, September 23. 1891 : Lizzie Holman, born in Upton, October 26. 1863; Walter Seaver, born in Upton, March 17, 1867; Elsie Lincoln, born in Up- ton. August 15, 1878.

(VII) Jonah Ball, son of Lieutenant Elijah Ball (6), was born in Boylston, Massachusetts, May 13, 1791. He was brought up on the farm and edu- cated in the Boylston district schools. In early man- hood he worked in Providence, Rhode Island, but returned to Boylston to live and died there at the age of seventy-two in 1863. He married (second) Mary Caldwell. She had four children, all of whom grew to maturity, but died early, except James E. Ball, who was only six years old when his mother died.

(VIII) James E. Ball, son of Jonah Ball (7). was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He passed his boyhood in Dedham, Massachusetts, and attended the schools there. At the age of fourteen he went to Boylston, Massachusetts, and resided there until his marriage. He was in the tripe business. After his marriage he removed to Holden and worked as butcher and marketman. He went to Vermont, but stayed only a short time, returning to Massachu- setts and settling at Clinton, where he was cm- ployed in the tripe business for five years. He re- sided on a farm in Sterling for nine years, and in 1865 returned to his father's town, where he has since lived. He was assessor in Boylston three years and for a number of years road commissioner. He is a member of the Unitarian church. In politics he is a Democrat.

He married Abigail Howe, daughter of Silas Howe. Jr., of Sterling, a well known farmer and carpenter. The children of James E. and Abigail (Howe) Ball were: J. Nelson, born August 18, 1847 : Hattie : Abbie. married John N. Flagg ; Mary. married John Keogh.

(IN) J. Nelson Ball, son of James E. Bali (S). was born in Holden, Massachusetts, August 18, IS17. He is the well known superintendent of the Lancaster mills in Boylston, Massachusetts. He at-

BL. PUBI LIER'

PHINEHAS BALL

WORCESTER COUNTY

tended the district schools in Clinton and Sterling and later took a course at Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, New Hampshire. He remained at home until twenty-one years old, when he went into the meat business in Worcester. He went to work as a laborer to help in the rebuilding of the Lan- caster mills at what was then Boylston, now the thriving town of Clinton, after the famous washout in 1876. He worked up to the position of ma- chinist and after a time took a position in the mill of Eli Holbrook at West Boylston. Three years later he returned to the Lancaster mills as ma- chinist, and after two years was made an overseer there. After six years he accepted the post of super- intendent of J. Edwin Smith's cotton mill at Smith- ville in the town of Barre. He was called back to the Lancaster mills in 1893 as superintendent, a position that he has since filled creditably and satis- factorily to all concerned. He had charge of the yarn department.

Mr. Ball is a Republican and has served the town in various positions of trust and honor. He was a constable nine years and selectman in Boylston for eight years. In 1894-95-96-97-98 he was chair- man of the board of selectmen, board of health, and overseers of the poor. He has been a member of the school committee for a number of years. He has been road commissioner and fire warden. He is a member of Centennial Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of West Boylston and has been vice grand; he is a member of the Boylston Grange, Patrons of Husbandry. He attends the Congregational church at Boylston.

He married, 1870, Julia Wilson, who was born in Torrington, Connecticut, the daughter of James Wilson, formerly a shoemaker of that town. Mr Wilson came to Boylston and settled on a farm when his daughter was a child. He had fourteen chil- dren. The only child of J. Nelson and Julia (Wil- son) Ball is Grace, married Harry Parker, a mer- chant of Colbrook Springs, Massachusetts.

(VII) Manasseh Sawyer Ball, son of Lieutenant Elijah Ball (6), was born in Boylston, Massachu- setts, December 28, 1800. The farm passed to him when his father was too old to continue with it, and he had to struggle with the rundown farm which was burdened with a mortgage. Manasseh Ball hunted game and burned charcoal at night besides working the farm.

Mr. Ball married Clarissa Andrews, who was descended from Simon Bradstreet and other well known settlers of the Massachusetts colony. Their children were: L. Phinehas, born January 18, 1824; Caroline Maria, born September 28, 1826, married Charles D. Howe, April 22, 1845; married (second) Charles H. Chace; Mary Adaline, born November 5, 1828, married Moses A. Coolidge, of Lancaster, July 4, 1849: Sawyer, born March 3, 1833; Albert, born May 7, 1835.

(VIII) Phinehas Ball, son of Manasseh S. Ball (7), was born in Boylston, Massachusetts, January 18, 1824. Like many other successful men Mr. Ball began life with a frail constitution and his youth was a continual struggle with ill health. The seasons of close application to study and teaching were followed by periods of severe illness that absorbed his savings. Until he was sixteen he at- tended the district schools in winter. In 1840 he went to Woonsocket and spent the winter there with an uncle, Gardner Smith, who taught him the prin- ciples of surveying. About the same time he. came into possession of an ancient compass, once the property of his great-great-grandfather. Robert Andrews, of Boylston. Thus equipped Mr. Ball be- gan to practice surveying in his native town, but up ii-2

to the time of his employment by the Nashua & Worcester Railroad in 1847 he had seen no sur- veying done by men of experience,

In the fall of 1841 he went for a term of six weeks to Josiah Bride's English Boarding School in Berlin, Massachusetts, and he had another term the following year. The bill for this part of his education has been preserved and reveals one of the customs of former times. The payment was made with one hundred and fourteen bushels of oak charcoal, ten bushels of potatoes, two barrels of apples and forty pounds of dried apples. In the winter of 1841-2 Mr. Ball taught school in South- boro, Massachusetts, the following winter in Lan- caster and the next in Marlboro.

In the fall of 1846 he began to study draughting. and mechanical drawing in Worcester, but was pros- trated with typhoid fever and unable to work until the following March, when he again went to Wor- cester. Work came to him slowly at first. In June he was employed to survey the old Worcester acque- duct, and thus enabled to free himself from debt he felt fairly started in his profession. Though he tells us that his cashbook showed that he earned but twenty-five cents in the month of November of that year, yet he was able to make both ends meet by using the strictest economy for several years. Mr. Ball did not decide easily upon his life work. He hesitated between farming and surveying, and at one time had thoughts of studying for the ministry. But once begun he continued in civil en- gineering despite great discouragements, and de- clined every opportunity that was offered to him either to take up a different line of work or to leave his native town.

In April, 1849, he went into partnership with Elbridge Boyden under the firm name of Boyden & Ball, architects and engineers, and the partner- ship continued until 1860. His field books covering a period of twenty-five years work as surveyor in Worcester show how closely he was identified with the growth and development of the city from its incorporation. With his transit and rod he laid

out Governor Lincoln's pasture into streets and building lots. Many other of the old farms he laid out into blocks that are now entirely built up. One foundation after another he staked out for buildings public and private houses until the num- ber reached nearly five hundred. When he first came to Worcester the problem of sewerage was first solved by cesspools that he laid out in many instances, and later when they became obnoxious, he planned the first sewer which took their place in Main street. He took whatever work came to him, no matter how simple or how complex. Into the survey for Mechanics Hall and the building of the water works he put no more painstaking effort and skill than into the measurement of a wood lot. He regretted his lack of scientific training despite his skill and accuracy, and lacked the confidence that others had in him. While engaged in general work of the character mentioned he was employed as engineer for the Taunton Hospital for the Insane and the Fitchburg Jail.

He became a member of the Worcester County Mechanics Association in 1853, and was clerk from 1859 to 1865 inclusive and treasurer for seven years of that period. He was afterward director. vice-president and president for short terms. He was best known perhaps as a hydraulic engineer of the city and as an inventor. Mr. Ball patented a number of devices for use in water-works, with the building of which he became an expert. He worked for several years on a water meter. Find- ing that Benajah Fitts had developed a similar de-

WORCESTER COUNTY

vice he joined hands with him, patented the meter and in November, 1869, formed the Union Water Meter Company to manufacture the patent. Mr. Ball was president of this company until his death. His connection with this company, which had rela- tions with the city water department, prevented his holding office in the city government after 1872. In that year he was called as consulting engineer in the abatement of the Miller's river nuisance. He became engineer for many water works constructed at this period. In 1873-1875 he constructed the Springfield Water Works as engineer, and at the same time made plans for or reported upon proposed water works at Nashua, New Hampshire; Amherst, Leomister, Marlboro. Lawrence and Westboro, Massachusetts ; New Haven and New Britain, Con- necticut, and Portland, Maine, and upon sewers for Keene. New Hampshire: Fall River, Massachusetts ; New Britain, Connecticut, and some others.

In 1876 he sustained a grievous blow in the break- ing of the dam of the Lynde Brook reservoir. It was his first important work of the kind and he had taken no little pride in it. He made 110 apologies, but learned the lessons that the disaster taught engineers who were then experimenting in work of this kind and put into effect the knowledge he gained in repairing the break that year in the dam at Clinton, Massachusetts. The Lynde Brook reservoir was constructed while D. Waldo Lincoln was mayor and notwithstanding this one break, Mr. Ball gained a deserved and lasting reputation as an engineer for planning and building the water works, the first built to supply the needs of the city of Worcester.

In 1870 he began the Broekton, Massachusetts, water works and was employed for a number of years as consulting engineer by that city, planning the sewerage system. He also planned the sewerage of the towns of Amherst and Westboro, Massachu- setts, and of the state prisons at Concord and Sher- born. He planned the water works for Claremont, New Hampshire, Gloucester, Massachusetts, and im- portant additions to the water works of Lynn, Massachusetts, and New

Haven, Connecticut. Though in the years 1883 to 1885 inclusive he suf- fered severely from asthma, he recovered sufficiently in 1887 to undertake the drainage of the Mystic Valley at the request of the state board of health. He was unable to complete the work, which he began with enthusiasm, and had to resign his of- fice. He continued as consulting engineer of the Brockton, Taunton and Framingham sewer systems, but was not able to undertake any new work.

Mr. Ball was carly interested in the temperance and anti-slavery movements. He was a Free Soiler and joined the Republican party when it was formed. He was interested in public affairs and always per- formed his duty as a citizen at the caucus and at the polls. He was a member of the common council in 1862 and 1863 His success with the new water works made him a rather unwilling candidate for mavor. He was the chief cxecutive of the city in 1865. He was water commissioner from 1863 to 1867 inclusive, and city engineer from 1867 until 1872.

He was a member of the Worcester County So- ciety of Engineers, the Boston Society of Engineers and the American Water Works Association. He was greatly interested in the subject of technical education. Of all the duties that came to him as mayor none was more pleasing to him than his con- nection with the planning the first buildings for the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science, now called the Worcester Polytechnic In- stitute. In company with members of the board of

trustees he visited Williamstown, the Rensseleat Polytechnic and the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University. In February, 1866, he himself surveyed the lot of land now occupied by the techni- cal buildings, and at the Commencement in 1873 he served on the board of examiners. For many years he regularly visited the old laboratory in Boyn- ton Hall and never lost his interest in the school. He was interested in the sciences and in theology. He studied chemistry when ill health kept him confined to the house. He knew the plants and Howers as well as the soils and rocks. He was a student rather than a reader. He had no great love of literature. He possessed unusual reasoning powers and a logieal mind. He was a member of the Worcester Society of Antiquity and gave it his first compass, mentioned above. For thirty- one years he was deacon of the First Unitarian Church of Worcester, for seven years was president of the Worcester County Conference of Unitarian churches, and was deeply interested in religious work as well as abstract theology. He died Decem- ber 19, 1894.

He married (first). December 21, 1848. Sarah Augusta Holyoke, daughter of William Holyoke, at her hom: in Marlboro. Massachusetts. Their chil- dren were: Allard Holyoke, born in Worcester, September 9, 1851, died in Worcester, October 7, 1857; Helen Augusta, born in Worcester, April 25, 1858. Mrs. Ball died January 14, 1864. He mar- ried ( second) Mary Jane Otis, daughter of Benja- min B. and Mary ( Carter) Otis. She was born in Worcester, September 3. 1833.

GEORGE McALEER, M. D. Learned philolo- gists and antiquarions who have given much time and research to the matter, claim that the names Mc- Aleer, MeClure, and McGuire have a common origin, and that they are derived from the ancient Irish MacGiolla Uidhir, or MacGiolla Uidhre as spelled by others (Uidhir and Uidhre being pronounced, as nearly as the sound can be indicated by letters, "ooir,") meaning "the son or descendant of the fol- lower of the pale, wan, or dun one." There is what may be called positive and negative evidence in support of this derivation of the name. In the "Annals of Ulster" for A. D. 1216. it is re- corded that Euchdun MacGiolla U'idhir, Archbishop of Armagh, died. He was an eminent man, and was a member of the Lateran Council of 1215. That is the positive evidence, while the negative is the total apparent absence of the names of MacAleer, MacClure and MacLir ( Lear) from the Indexes of personal names in Irish Annals.

The carliest mention of the name, so far dis- covered, is found in Cormac's Glossary, which was written about A. D. 000, of which the following is a translation: "Manannan MacLir, a celebrated merchant, who was in the Isle of Man. He was the greatest pilot that was in the west of Europe. He knew by studying the Heavens the time which would be fine weather and when bad weather, and when each of these times would change. Inde Scoti et Britonis cum deum vocaverunt maris: et inde Fileum esse direrunt, i. e. MacLir (son of the sea). Et de nomine Mannannam, the Isle of Man is named."

This Manannan MacLir, abbreviated to McLir, son of the sea. or great navigator, is claimed to be the "pale, wan or dun one."-the progenitor of the clan or sept from which have descended the McAleers, the MeClures and the McGuires. Be this as it may. the headquarters and home of these clans or families for centuries past was and is in the county Tyrone. Ireland, where many of them

your Very truly LIED Lies Wieler.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. II, Part 5

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 732

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 732