Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/92



John Ball was the youngest of ten children born on Tenny's Hill, Hebron, Grafton County, New Hampshire, November 12, 1794. His father, Nathaniel Ball, whose ancestors came from England, settled in the county of Worcester, Massachusetts.

The subject of this sketch was born in a log cabin, and his earliest recollection was the building of a frame house, into which the family moved when he was but three years old. His childhood was spent on this farm. Of school he had but very little before he was twenty years old. Being anxious for an education, after much urging, his father consented to his leaving home. In 1814 he was sent to a clergyman in Groton, the next town. Thence he went to Salisbury Academy, and entered Dartmouth College in 1816, spending his summer vacation on the farm, and teaching what he could during the winters. He was graduated in 1820. The late George P. Marsh was a classmate.

After graduating he went to Lansingburgh, New York, where his youngest sister (the late Mrs. Deborah Powers) lived, and studied law, teaching school to meet necessary expenses. In 1822 he fancied he could better himself, and took passage from New York City for Darien, Georgia. Arriving off the coast of that state, a violent storm came on, and in attempting to reach an "inland' passage by St. Catherine's Sound the vessel grounded on a bar five