Henry D. Ballard, operating extensively and successfully in the real estate held in Douglas, was born in Allegany county, New York, in 1842, a son of Moses R. and Eliza (Beecher) Ballard, both of whom have passed away. They lived, however, to an advanced age and reared a family of eleven children.
    In the public schools Henry D. Ballard began his education, which he continued in the Iowa City University. He afterward concentrated his efforts and attention upon general agricultural pursuits, which he successfully followed until January 25, 1916, when he removed to Wyoming. For a number of years he also conducted a commercial college at Lincoln, Nebraska, having removed to that state in 1910. Upon coming to Wyoming he opened a real estate office in Douglas and has since negotiated many important realty transfers. He has thoroughly informed himself concerning property values in his city and county and has gained many clients by reason of his honorable business methods and his progressiveness. In addition to his real estate business he is conducting a ranch which he owns. While throughout his entire life he has largely concentrated his efforts and attention upon his business affairs, at the time of the Civil war he put aside all business and personal interests in order to espouse the cause of the Union and for a brief period was with a cavalry company, after which he joined Company A of the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, with which he saw about three years of active service on southern battlefields.
    On the 2d of November, 1884. Mr. Ballard was united in marriage to Miss Mary M. Corcoran and to them have been born a son and a daughter. Mr. Ballard has ever been a great student of history and he is much interested in Wyoming and its development, contributing in active and helpful measure to the work of progress and improvement. His religious faith is that of the Unitarian church and fraternally he is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a republican and he is a broad-minded man who looks at all important questions without partisanship and stands at all times for progress and improvement. He maintains pleasant relations with his old military comrades through his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic and he is as true and loyal to his country in days of peace as when he followed the stars and stripes upon the battlefields of the south.