BALL, JAPHET A., was born July 5, 1800, in Madison county, Ky. When a young man he went to Clarkesville, Tenn., where he learned the trade of a blacksmith with his brother John S. From there he went with his brother to Eddyville, Caldwell county, Ky., and from there to Sangamon county, arriving late in Dec., 1825, in what is now Woodside township. He was married Dec. 2, 1828, to Sarah Henderson. They had two children--
CLARISSA J., born in Sangamon county, married Jeremiah Penicks. They had four children, and Mr. Penicks died. Mrs. Penicks and her children reside at Palmer, Christian county.
JAMES H., died in his fourteenth year.
Mrs. Sarah Ball died March 12, 1832. Japhet A. Ball was married May, 1834, to Marinda Davis, who died April 12, 1855. Mr. Ball was married Sept. 30, 1863, to Melissa Morison. They have two children--
JOHN M. and
PANNIE M., and reside east of Sugar creek, in Ball township, four miles southeast of Chatham.
Japhet A. Ball enlisted July, 1827, in Col. Tom M. Neal's Battalion of mounted volunteers, to fight the Indians in the north part of the State. This was known as the Winnebago war. He again enlisted, and was commissioned by Gov. Reynolds as First Lieutenant, June 18, 1831. A treaty with Black Hawk, the chief, terminated hostilities. The Indians commenced depredations again, in the spring of 1832. J. A. Ball was commissioned by Gov. Reynolds, April 28, 1832, as Capt. of a Company in Long's Odd Battalion of Inf. It was mustered out in June, 1832, for the purpose of changing to a mounted organization, but that ended his military career. Mr. Ball served from 1843 to 1856 as Justice of the Peace. He was elected and commissioned by Gov. Bissell, Nov. 14, 1857, as Associate Judge of Sangamon county, for four years. The township organization being adopted in 1860, terminated his official career. The township of Ball was named for him.
Judge Ball says that on the first day of Jan., 1831, while the "deep snow" was falling, he killed fourteen deer. They would founder in the snow, and were easily taken. He built a saw mill on Sugar creek, and sold a large quantity of lumber at the mill, and at times kept teams running to Springfield. The scarcity of money for a few years after the financial crash of 1837, was very severe on the new settlements. The Judge says that during one of those years he did an extensive business in the lumber trade, and his total receipts in cash was exactly seventy-five cents.
Mrs. Nancy Ball, mother of John S., Japhet A., Smith, William, Jane, Bethany, Polly, Elizabeth and Lucy, came with the last of her children to Sangamon county in 1829, and died at the house of her son, Japhet A., in 1846.