George Harvey Ball (1819-1907) was an American academic, pastor, writer, and founder of
Keuka College
Keuka College is a private college in Keuka Park, New York. Founded in 1890, the college emphasizes experiential learning as well as career and pre-professional education. It is classified among "Master's Colleges and Universities (small)" and ...
in New York.
Early life and education
George H. Ball was born in 1819 near the city of
Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional count ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
to American parents from
, William and Marcy (Harvey) Ball. In 1836 his family moved to
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Rev.
Ransom Dunn
Rev. Ransom Dunn, D.D. (July 7, 1818 – November 9, 1900) (nickname: "the Grand Old Man of Hillsdale") was an American minister and theologian, prominent in the early Free Will Baptist movement in New England. He was President of Rio Grande Coll ...
, a
Free Will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...
Baptist minister befriended Ball and introduced him to that denomination. Ball studied at
Farmington Academy and
Grand River Institute and received a license to preach in 1843 and moved to Canada to preach and teach. In 1847 Ball graduated from the
Baptist Bible School (later named
Cobb Divinity School
Cobb Divinity School (also known as Bates Theological Seminary or the Free Will Baptist Bible School) was a Baptist theological institute. Founded in 1840, it was a Free Will Baptist graduate school affiliated with several Free Baptist institution ...
at
Bates College
Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...
), which was then located in
Whitestown, New York
Whitestown is a town in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 18,667 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from Judge Hugh White, an early settler. The town is immediately west of Utica and the New York State Thruway (Inte ...
.
Bates College
Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...
later awarded Ball an
honorary doctorate of divinity
A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity.
In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...
. After giving them a loan, George Ball's nephews, the
Ball brothers
The Ball brothers (Lucius, William, Edmund, Frank, and George) were five American industrialists and philanthropists who established a manufacturing business in New York and Indiana in the 1880s that was renamed the Ball Corporation in 1969. Th ...
, developed the Ball
canning jar and eventually founded
Ball State University
Ball State University (Ball State, State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana. It has two satellite facilities in Fishers, Indiana, Fishers and Indianapolis.
On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, indust ...
with the proceeds from this successful investment.
[Charles Lachman , ''A Secret Life: The Sex, Lies, and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland'' (2011), pg. 177 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1616082755]
George H. Ball descends from an early colonial immigrant, Edward Ball, and several other
founders of Newark, New Jersey.
Career
Ball married Maria L. Bensly and served as a pastor in
Chester, Ohio
Chester is an unincorporated community in central Chester Township, Meigs County, Ohio, United States. It lies along the Shade River at the intersection of State Routes 7 and 248. It has a post office with the ZIP code 45720.
History
Ches ...
and principal of
Geauga Seminary
The Geauga Seminary (also known as Western Reserve Labor Seminary) was a Free Will Baptist school in Chester Township, Geauga County, Ohio. President James Garfield attended the Seminary.
History
The school was founded in 1842 by the Western Res ...
in Ohio where he taught future President
James A. Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...
and future First Lady
Lucretia Garfield
Lucretia Garfield ('' née'' Rudolph; April 19, 1832 – March 13, 1918) was the first lady of the United States from March to September 1881, as the wife of James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States.
Born in Garrettsville, Oh ...
. In 1851, Ball started a church in Buffalo, New York and then became pastor of Roger Williams Church in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
. Ball also served as a Trustee of
Storer College
Storer College was a historically black college in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, that operated from 1867 to 1955. A national icon for Black Americans, in the town where the 'end of American slavery began', as Frederick Douglass famously put i ...
and
Hillsdale College
Hillsdale College is a Private university, private Conservatism in the United States, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan. It was founded in 1844 by Abolitionism, abolitionists known as Free Will Baptists.
Its missio ...
. Ball was the founder of
Keuka College
Keuka College is a private college in Keuka Park, New York. Founded in 1890, the college emphasizes experiential learning as well as career and pre-professional education. It is classified among "Master's Colleges and Universities (small)" and ...
in New York. He also served as an editor of the "Morning Star" and "Baptist Union." Ball returned to Buffalo and during the election of 1884 was known for his investigation of a scandal involving
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
fathering a child out of wedlock.
Ball died in 1907 in New York.
[Gary Bonvillian, Robert Murphy, The Liberal Arts College Adapting to Change: The Survival of Small ...(2014), pg. 44 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1135589267]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, George H.
1819 births
1907 deaths
19th-century American male writers
19th-century Baptist ministers from the United States
American Baptist theologians
Baptist writers
Bates College alumni
Cobb Divinity School alumni
Hillsdale College people
Writers from Ohio