of North Carolina, Campbell/Bracken Co. Kentucky, Ford Co. Illinois, Redwood Co. Minnesota

Research of

of Virginia, Johnson/Lawrence Co. Kentucky, Illinois, Greene Co. Iowa, Redwood Co. Minnesota

05/04/12

William Davis Ball and Lettita Harriet Ellis

25 year family reunion  June 2004

on Washington Trace Road, California, Campbell Co., KY [all pictures were taken and is my copyright by Annette DeCourcy Towler]

Was held at Lou Ball’s home (pictures with the deck and swimming pool) and at the Quirk

Place, down the road a piece ( about a half a mile).  (Hint:  Double click the picture to see it full size.) Lou Ball's  home known as the Maples (part of the original 800 acres that was settled in 1810 by Edward Porteus Ball b. 1774)  Of which Ball Heights, and the Ball Cemetery are also a part of.

About two miles north of the Great Grandfather Ellis’s farm now owned by Peggy Kinney’s son Ellis on Washington Trace Road. I felt very privileged to be able to be invited there, and was accepted by new found cousins, but they had quite a time trying to figure out the relationship I had with them.  All of us descendants from Oliver Miles DeCourcy and Katherine Emma Ellis* (* means  our) are twice related to them. From the John Ellis line and also the first Edward Porteus Ball line.  Who are these people, they are all descendants of our Great grandmother DeCourcy (Adelia) brother’s s child, her nephew, William Davis Ball married our grandmother (Katherine Ellis) DeCourcy’s aunt.  Lettitia Ellis. The easiest way to tell them how we were related was that Peggy is my Dad's first cousin. 

 Because of the Ellis connection, Peggy Kinney and her family were also included and as they were neighbors when Peggy and her brother Frank were growing up and all went to the same Church.  Peggy was there, and enjoyed the couple of hours that she could take.  She looks happy in this picture, she stayed on the deck at Lou Ball’s and had lunch with us.  Peggy was brought there by her son, Van, (our* second cousin). It was fun getting acquainted with Van and his wife Carol.

 Remember Double Click on Pictures to see them better

Peggy Ellis Kinney			The walk to Ball Heights
Lettitia Ellis Ball and her brother Joseph Robert Ellis (our great grandfather*)			Discovering the Kitchen, and the stories being told. Checking the Outhouse also.

 Edward Porteus Ball (the first one) owned Ball Heights.  It is a well known spot in the area of Washington Trace Road and California KY.  We walked about a mile back in to see Ball Heights. At one time, owned by James Lindsey Ball (known by the family as Uncle Polk, and a brother of William Davis Ball). Last owned by the daughter who married a Hauss.  It was like you walked into the past. Quiet, no Minnesota bugs, no high humidity, just a pleasant afternoon walk.

Ball Cousins looking at the kitchen which is a separate building and  checking the Out house behind the buildings. Oh yes it is still there. 

 A Ball cousin, Pete Worthington, used to work as a teenager here and he insisted that we go into the barn.  It looked more like a shed to me. Doors were standing wide open and this is what we found inside behind the tractor.

The barn which looked like a shed to me		Probably was where tobacco was hung. and the cattle in the lower level.
James Lindsey Ball’s buggy, already to roll, with the picnic basket in the front seat.

 About the only thing in the barn that was new was the tractor.Can’t you just image getting in there and off you go.  Not many cobwebs either.  I could not believe what I was seeing.

Then the walk to the front of the house.		Front the Deck of the new house
Two of our cousins and the View from Ball Heights		Walking back from down towards the river.

 The stories were many, especially how the slate walls were built, instead of wire farm fences like us in MN have.

 Here are some of our* Ball/Ellis cousins that we are double related to.

Lettitia Ball Keefe and her husband. They live in Fresno, CA. She surprised me by asking if I knew an Ollie DeCourcy,  I looked at her and said, “Yah, that was my grandfather.”  She told me of stopping in Redwood Falls and staying with him, about 1950 and she could not figure out how he was related.  I think she knows now.

Discussions with other cousins, Peggy and Louise Ball being the oldest ones there.

 The Worthington's talking with Peggy.

 Then a walking trip back into the Ball Family Cemetery.  Very peaceful and beautiful setting.  Right behind Lou Ball’s home and part of the original 800 acres.

Sunday, we were at the California Christian Church, where the current Ball family go.  This is right on the hill up from California KY on California Crossings.  Interesting how they built this so close to the road and on the hill road.

This Church was in California, but the Ohio River floods (1937 especially) forced them to move up the hill a ways.

After Church I drove through California, and found the building that our grandfather said his dad used to run the store there. We were there in 1950, when we took Grandpa back to KY.  It has survived many floods and is now a home in the upper level and storage in the lower level.  It is about a block from the wharf that Uncle Claude and Dad talked about. The wharf is a concrete slab going down to the river edge.

 I meet a DeCourcy and a Lewis cousin also while I was there.  Found some really old records, and will be putting them on my web site.

Did not mean to bore you with this, but I wanted to share a new experience for me, of meeting many people that I did not know and ones we were related to.  There about 60 of us at the reunion.