Rev. William Tunnel Ball biography
Wayne County West Virginia Biography of Rev. William Tunnel BALL


         Reverend William Tunnell BALL was born in Butler district, Wayne county, January 26, 1827, a son of Robert and Sarah (Wilson) Ball. His parents were Virginians, his father born in Russell county in 1781, and his mother born in 1791. Robert Ball died on Twelve Pole creek, Wayne county, November 28, 1832, and his widow long survived him, dying June 2, 1872. William T., left fatherless at an early age, had few opportunities of availing himself of the limited educational privileges of his youth. He grew to manhood in Wayne county, caring for his mother and sisters, and, in this county on the 28th of November 1848 married Elizabeth, daughter of Jordan and Mary (Cartier) Clay. Her father was born in Virginia, her mother in Canada, and they passed the early years of their marriage in Kentucky where Elizabeth was born in 1817. Her parents came to Wayne county in 1855 and died here in the following year.

         The children of Mr. and Mrs. Ball are four: Mary Jane, born November 17, 1852, married William F. Walker January 18, 1869, and lives on Trace Fork, Wayne county; Lafayette F., born January 24, 1854, married December 24, 1874, and lives on Twelve Pole; Melissa B., born January 27, 1857, and Sarah Alice, born November 11, 1860. William T. Ball was commissioner of revenue in Wayne county, 1856-8, and justice of the peace, 1866-7. He was a minister of the Gospel, a faithful and efficient worker in the service of the Master for all these years and is respected by all who know him, of whatever denomination. He is pastor of the Greenbrier and Cassville Baptist churches in Wayne county, and of the Bloomingdale Baptist Church of Cabell county. He has travelled four years as missionary in West Virginia and lived in Echo, Wayne county.


    Submitted by Marilyn Gouge and extracted from Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia, Wayne County, WV, Biographies List, 1884.

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