Edward Ball (businessman)
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Edward Gresham Ball (March 21, 1888 – June 24, 1981) was a financier who wielded powerful political influence in
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
for decades. Referred to as "a law unto himself", despite the fact that he never held public office and did not own much of the assets he controlled, he led a forest products company, a railroad and owned newspapers. He worked for and with his brother-in-law Alfred I. du Pont for nine years before running the
Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust The Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust is a non-profit organization created by philanthropist Alfred I. du Pont, Alfred Irénée du Pont in 1935, devoted to supporting the trust's sole charitable beneficiary, the Nemours Foundation. As of Decembe ...
's businesses himself for another 46 years. He founded and led the St. Joe Paper Company to become a major player in several industries in Florida. He was a leader of the pro-segregation, anti-homosexual, and anti-communist
Pork Chop Gang The Pork Chop Gang was a group of 20 Democratic Party legislators from rural areas of North Florida who worked together to dominate the Florida legislature, especially to maintain segregation and conserve the disproportionate political power of mos ...
, a group of Democratic Party legislators from
North Florida North Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida comprising the northernmost part of the state. Along with South Florida and Central Florida, it is one of Florida's three most common "directional" regions. It includes Jacksonville and near ...
.


Early years

Edward Ball was born at Ball's Neck near
Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...
in
Northumberland County, Virginia Northumberland County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 11,839. Its county seat is Heathsville. The county is located on the Northern Neck and is part of the Northern Neck George Washin ...
and educated in the one-room Shiloh Schoolhouse. After completing
primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
, he convinced his father to let him quit school and get a job. He had always been obsessed with making money; at one time, he prospected for gold in Alaska. However, when Ball's older sister, Jessie Ball became the third wife of Alfred I. du Pont in 1921, Edward was given the chance of a lifetime. He began working for his brother-in-law in 1923 at the lofty salary of $5,000 a year, and moved to Delaware where he was publicly named manager of the Clean Food Products Company. Privately, he was Mr. du Pont's confidential business partner and became a shrewd financier and caretaker of the du Pont de Nemours estate fortune.Florida State University: Coastal Laboratory Tidings-Spring, 2000
After Jessie & Alfred moved to Florida in 1926, Edward joined them.


du Pont's death

When Alfred died in 1935, his estate was valued at over $56 million, which, after estate taxes of $30 million, left $26 million. Alfred's will named Jessie as the principal trustee, but in reality, she deferred business decisions to her brother, Edward, who took control of the assets of the
testamentary trust A testamentary trust (sometimes referred to as a will trust or trust under will) is a trust which arises upon the death of the testator, and which is specified in their will. A will may contain more than one testamentary trust, and may address a ...
s, which included large Florida landholdings and industrial interests, including the
Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a pr ...
. Jessie preferred to handle the philanthropic activities of the trust while Edward concentrated on making money.


Power

Ball had no interest in running for office and little desire for material things; for most of his life, he didn't even own an automobile. Ball used various means to acquire enormous unofficial political power in Florida. He amassed a wide network of connections, and was the key figure in a group of 20 rural, conservative, north Florida politicians that controlled Florida from the 1930s to the 1960s called the
Pork Chop Gang The Pork Chop Gang was a group of 20 Democratic Party legislators from rural areas of North Florida who worked together to dominate the Florida legislature, especially to maintain segregation and conserve the disproportionate political power of mos ...
that spawned Florida's version of
McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...
. Their public spokesman was Florida Senate President
Charley Eugene Johns Charley Eugene Johns (February 27, 1905January 23, 1990) was an American politician. Johns served as the 32nd Governor of Florida from 1953 to 1955. Johns was born in Starke, Florida. He worked as a railroad conductor and insurance agent be ...
from Starke. The coalition supported
racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
(which was practiced at the St. Joe Paper Mill) and was known for toasting "Confusion to the Enemy!" with
Jack Daniel Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel ( January 1849 – October 9, 1911) was an American distiller and businessman, best known as the founder of the Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distillery. Early life Daniel was the youngest of ten children born t ...
's whiskey. Ball rarely, if ever, took a public role in politics. With control over the vast du Pont business empire, he exerted political influence through his Florida banking empire, his ownership of numerous Florida newspapers, and by funneling unregulated and unreported cash to political operatives. Ball did not need to get his hands dirty or risk personal resources. Ball was a main (but not the only) financer of the defeat of
Claude Pepper Claude Denson Pepper (September 8, 1900 – May 30, 1989) was an American politician of the Democratic Party, and a spokesman for left-liberalism and the elderly. He represented Florida in the United States Senate from 1936 to 1951, and the Mia ...
's effort to be reelected to the United States Senate in 1950. Pepper's liberalism and Ball's conservatism feuded through much of the 1940s and 1950s, prompting a book to be written in 2000: ''Claude Pepper and Ed Ball: Politics, Purpose, and Power''. According to a 1979 article in ''The New York Times'', Edward Ball at various times was called a Robber Baron and a political power broker; a clever man with a dollar and a dangerous man to cross; a courtly Virginian with the ladies and a ruthless foe. He is known for "orneriness" but insists his reputation is undeserved; he claims he was just a trusted functionary who did his best for the institution he served. Critics say he hijacked the trust as a tool of his personal power, treating the assets like a miser hoarding every coin. He had the reputation of a "tart-tongued, hard-nosed conservative financier".


Personal life

By all accounts, Edward Ball took little time for a personal life. Early on, he travelled constantly, scouting for possible acquisitions and checking up on existing assets.


Marriage

Ball married in 1933, but the union did not last. He approached marriage like a business deal and wanted everything in writing. The
prenuptial agreement A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement (commonly referred to as a prenup), is a written contract entered into by a couple prior to marriage or a civil union that enables them to select and control many of the leg ...
had 19 provisions which described the couple's wedded lifestyle and included a definition of "nagging". Ball wanted children, but his wife was unable to get pregnant due to reproductive problems several years before their wedding. Ruth Ball filed for divorce in 1943, but Edward Ball sought an
annulment Annulment is a legal procedure within Law, secular and Religious law, religious legal systems for declaring a marriage Void (law), null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually ex post facto law, retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is c ...
, unsuccessfully appealing it all the way to the Florida Supreme Court. He finally agreed to pay his ex-wife $250,000 alimony in 1949.New York Times: March 11, 1979-Ed Ball at 91: Embattled, Implacable; The Millionaire Du Pont Trustee Faces Law Suits by Jon Nordheimer
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Habits

In an interview, Ball said, "I suppose some people might call me tight with a dollar." The stories of Ball's frugal nature border on the legendary. Ed Ball owned a country estate called Southwood Farm outside of Tallahassee, but for years lived in a hotel room at the Robert Meyer Hotel across the street from his office in the Florida National Bank Building in Jacksonville. This was the site of a 5:30 weekday ritual for Mr. Ball, his business associates and buddies. Cocktails began when ''everyone'' was present, and lasted until the network news began at 6:00pm, at which time all conversation and movement ceased. Ed Ball took his news seriously. After the news concluded, the group moved to the River Club for dinner.


Banking

Alfred du Pont acquired a major interest in
Florida National Bank Florida National Bank (FNB), founded in 1905, was the second largest commercial bank in Florida. Florida National Group was acquired in 1990 by First Union Corporation, which was renamed Wachovia in 2001; Wachovia was subsequently acquired by Wel ...
(founded 1905) of Jacksonville shortly after arriving in Florida in the mid-1920s. Other banks were gradually added into what became the Florida National Group, which was one of the strongest banks in the state. In size, the branches eventually numbered 185, second only to
Barnett Bank Barnett Bank was an American bank based in Florida. Founded in 1877, it eventually became the largest commercial bank in Florida with over 600 offices and $41.2 billion in deposits. Barnett was purchased by NationsBank in 1997.Ginzl, David: "T ...
.New York Times: March 8, 1989-First Union to Acquire Florida National Bank by Michael Quint
/ref> Ball built the Florida National Bank building at 214 North Hogan Street in Jacksonville in 1961. The structure was eleven stories tall and contained the corporate offices for the bank. Ed Ball also kept his principal office there for managing the du Pont Trust. After Ball's death, the structure was renamed the Ed Ball Building. On March 7, 1989,
First Union Corporation First Union Corporation was a bank holding company that provided commercial and retail banking services in eleven states in the eastern U.S. First Union also provided various other financial services, including mortgage banking, credit card, inv ...
, based in
Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
announced that it would acquire Florida National Banks in a deal worth $849 million. The transaction occurred the following year.


Paper Mill

In anticipation of increased trade through the
Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...
, the
Apalachicola Northern Railroad The Apalachicola Northern Railroad was a short-line railroad which operated in the Florida Panhandle. It owned and operated a between Port Saint Joe, Florida, and Chattahoochee, Florida, with a short spur to Apalachicola, Florida. It was founde ...
was built from
Chattahoochee The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the con ...
to Port St. Joe in 1910 with plans to load large ships with goods to be taken through the canal, advertised as the “Panama Route”. When the depression hit, business dropped off and the railroad was in bad shape financially. Alfred I. DuPont purchased the struggling railroad in 1933 and created the St. Joe Paper Company. Dupont drew up elaborate plans for the development of his mill town as “The Model City of the South”, and then died. Ed Ball took control of the company in 1935 but never acted on the master city plan. Construction began in 1936 and from 1938 to 1996, the company operated a paper mill at Port St. Joe, Florida.Humanities & Social Sciences Online: ''Green Empire: The St. Joe Company and the Remaking of Florida's Panhandle'' by Kathryn Ziewitz and June Wiaz-2004
The company invigorated the local economy following the depression, employing thousands and paying good wages, but wreaked havoc on the environment. The mill released sulfurous exhaust and
dioxin Dioxin may refer to: * 1,2-Dioxin or 1,4-Dioxin, two unsaturated heterocyclic 6-membered rings where two carbon atoms have been replaced by oxygen atoms, giving the molecular formula C4H4O2 *Dibenzo-1,4-dioxin, the parent compound also known as ...
, a byproduct of the paper bleaching process that is a
carcinogen A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...
. By the 1950s, the company was drawing of water a day from the Floridan aquifer, seriously depleting the water table. St. Joe Paper also clear-cut millions of acres of
old growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...
, engaging in
silviculture Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, and quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests and wo ...
to replant the areas with
slash pine ''Pinus elliottii'', commonly known as slash pine,Family, P. P. (1990). Pinus elliottii Engelm. slash pine. ''Silvics of North America: Conifers'', (654), 338. is a conifer tree native to the Southeastern United States. Slash pine is named after ...
. The practice decimated the native
longleaf pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...
stands, reducing the species to "2 percent of its former range." Because of this, the
United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
designated parts of the region a ''Critically Endangered Ecosystem''. Under Ball, the company also kept workers at the mill
racially segregated Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
. Ball continued the trust's aggressive land purchases throughout the 1940s and 1950s, sometimes for "mere dollars an acre" and landholdings reached . Most of the land was situated between
Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...
and
Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...
, but there was substantial acreage in southern Georgia. The paper mill was most profitable in the 1960s, with products being directly marketed to company-owned box plants.


Wakulla Springs Lodge

Wakulla Springs is one of the deepest and largest freshwater springs in the world.Florida State Parks website: Ed Ball Wakulla Springs
/ref> Ball purchased surrounding
Wakulla Springs Wakulla Springs is located south of Tallahassee, Florida and east of Crawfordville in Wakulla County, Florida at the crossroads of State Road 61 and State Road 267. It is protected in the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. Description ...
in 1937 and constructed the Wakulla Springs Lodge as a guest house. He imported marble and tile and hired craftsmen and artisans who built everything needed for the lodge on-site. Blacksmiths, millwrights, masons, stone cutters, painters, and artists created an elegant retreat using iron and stone; the high ceilings were painted with murals. There are 27 unique guestrooms, each with a voluminous marble bathroom,
walk-in closet A walk-in closet (North American) or walk-in wardrobe ( UK) or dressing room is typically a large closet, wardrobe or room that is primarily intended for storing clothes, footwear etc., and being used as a changing room. As the name suggests, walk- ...
, and antique or period furniture. Ball dynamited parts of the
Wakulla River The Wakulla River is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 18, 2011 river in Wakulla County, Florida. It carries the outflow from Wakulla Springs, site of the Edward ...
to open the way for boats bringing his guests to the springs, then fenced off the water passage to keep out the "riff-raff". At the time the Lodge was built no telephone service was available in
Wakulla County Wakulla County is a County (United States), county located in the Big Bend (Florida), Big Bend region in the North Florida, northern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 33, ...
, so Ball ran a line through the forest from his base in distant (89 miles)
Port St. Joe Port St. Joe is a city located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 98 and State Road 71 and the county seat of Gulf County, Florida. As of the 2020 census,the population was 3,357. This was a decline from 3,644 as of the 2000 census. Histo ...
. In the mid-1960s, he donated land to
Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...
for a marine laboratory, which was completed in 1968 and named in his honor. Ball then sold the remaining land surrounding Wakulla Springs to the state of Florida, who created Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park.


Railroads

The
Stock Market Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
and subsequent
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
were particularly hard on the
Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a pr ...
(FEC). The railroad declared bankruptcy and was in receivership by September 1931, just 18 years after
Henry Morrison Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder ...
's death. Bus service began to be substituted for trains on the branches in 1932, and the Key West Extension was abandoned after the
Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 was the most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record by pressure, with winds of up to 185 mph (297 km/h). The fourth tropical cyclone, third tropical storm, second hurricane, and se ...
. However, streamliners terminating in Miami nevertheless plied the rails between 1939 and 1968, including such famous trains as ''The Champion'' and ''The Florida Special'' jointly operated with the Atlantic Coast Line. Adding to the woes was the
Cuban embargo The United States embargo against Cuba prevents American businesses, and businesses organized under U.S. law or majority-owned by American citizens, from conducting trade with Cuban interests. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern hist ...
, thus reducing a significant portion of FEC's revenue. In 1961, Ball purchased a majority ownership of FEC for the DuPont Trusts, allowing the FEC to emerge from bankruptcy. That same year, a labor contract negotiation turned sour, leading to a prolonged
work stoppage Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...
by non-operating unions beginning January 23, 1963, and whose
picket line A picket line is a horizontal rope along which horses are tied at intervals. The rope can be on the ground, at chest height (above the knees, below the neck) or overhead. The overhead form is usually called a high line. A variant of a high l ...
s were honored by the operating unions (the train crews). Arguably the most noteworthy chapter in Ball's business career was his battle against the railroad unions in the Florida East Coast Railway strike of 1963 to 1977. In order to try to save the railroad from its three decades-long state of bankruptcy, which if allowed to continue would have threatened the railroad with physical deterioration and even partial abandonment, Ball fought for the company's right to engage in its own contract negotiations with the railroad unions rather than accept an industrywide settlement that Ball thought would include
featherbedding Featherbedding is the practice of hiring more workers than are needed to perform a given job, or to adopt work procedures which appear pointless, complex and time-consuming merely to employ additional workers. The term "make-work" is sometimes used ...
and wasteful work rules. His use of replacement workers to keep the railroad running during the strike led to violence by strikers that included shootings and bombings. Eventually, Federal intervention helped quell the violence, and the railroad's right to operate during the strike with replacement workers was affirmed by the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. As the strike continued, the Florida East Coast took numerous steps to improve its physical plant, install various forms of automation, and drastically cut labor costs, all to an extent that most other railroads would not succeed in matching until years later. Ball therefore was a pioneer in the American railroad industry's struggle, beginning in the 1960s, to improve its economic efficiency. Ball's tenure saw the permanent end of FEC's passenger service. The FEC was forced to resume carrying passengers two years after the strike began, when the courts ruled the FEC corporate charter mandated that the railroad carry passengers as well as freight. In response, Ball instituted a bare-bones passenger service with only a box lunch for food and no baggage, which lasted until 1968.


Jessie's death

After his sister died in 1970, Ball came under strong criticism for reinvesting the trust's income to build up their value instead of fully respecting the requirements of du Pont's will, which stipulated that after Jessie Ball du Pont's death, trust income was to be used to aid the
Nemours Foundation The Nemours Foundation is a non-profit organization in Jacksonville, Florida, created by philanthropist Alfred I. du Pont in 1936, and dedicated to improving the health of children. The Foundation operates the Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware ...
in caring for crippled children and indigent elderly in
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
. Ball ignored the criticism, but he couldn't ignore the wave of lawsuits that were brought by other trustees, the State of Delaware and others.


Biographies

In 1976,
Raymond K. Mason Raymond Knight Mason (February 28, 1927 - January 2, 2020) was an American business leader for nearly sixty years, almost 40 as head of the Charter Company in Jacksonville, Florida. Charter was in the Fortune 500 for 11 years beginning in 1974 a ...
collaborated with Virginia Harrison to author a book about the life of Edward Ball, ''Confusion to the enemy : a biography of Edward Ball''. This book was the "authorized" biography, whereas the book, ''Ed Ball, confusion to the enemy'' by Leon Odell Griffith, published the previous year, was done by an outsider. Both were published prior to Ball's death.


Across the Creek

Ed Ball's favorite euphemism for death was "going across the creek", a reference he learned from Alfred du Pont. Three sides of the DuPont gunpowder mills were made of stone; the side closest to the creek with the water wheel was built of wood. If the powder accidentally exploded, the wooden wall acted as a safety valve so whole building would not collapse on the men inside. Unfortunately, if you were between the explosion and the wooden wall, you would be blown "across the creek" and probably die. In a New York Times interview two years before his passing, he said that his life had been long and the critics be damned; he lived it the best way he could. "When I go across the creek, it will be because I can't help myself or can't work any longer." Shortly before his death, he said, "I waited until I was too old to decide what to do with my own personal assets and have decided that I worked most of my business life managing the duPont estate." Ball said he was very proud of what duPont had established in the Nemours Foundation, and upon his death, save a few minor bequests, he left his entire estate to the Foundation, with one stipulation – his bequest could be used in Florida only." Ball died at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital in
New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
on June 24, 1981 from cardio-pulmonary disease and kidney failure; he had a history of heart problems and had suffered four previous heart attacks. When he died, the value of the du Pont trust had ballooned to $2 billion.New York Times: July 1, 1981-Edward Ball, Financier, Wills Estate to Crippled Children
/ref> His late sister's foundation, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, had assets of $75 million. Ball's own estate was estimated to be worth $75–200 million.


Legacy

* His name is prefixed to the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. * There is an Edward Ball Building in
Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
.


References


Further reading

* Raymond K. Mason and Virginia Harrison, ''Confusion to the enemy: a biography of Edward Ball,'' , University Press of Florida, 1976. * Leon Odell Griffith, ''Ed Ball, confusion to the enemy,'' , Trend House, 1975. * Tracy E. Danese, ''Claude Pepper and Ed Ball: Politics, Purpose, and Power,'' , University Press of Florida, 2000. * David Nolan, ''Fifty Feet in Paradise: The Booming of Florida,'' , Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984. * Ziewitz, Kathryn and June Wiaz. Green Empire: The St. Joe Company and the Remaking of Florida's Panhandle. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. 432 pp. .


External links


University of Florida Smathers Libraries: A Guide to the Edward Ball Papers




{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Edward People from Jacksonville, Florida 1888 births 1981 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople Alfred I. du Pont Pork Chop Gang Wakulla County, Florida American anti-communists