Samuel Ball was born in Concord, MASS, August 7, 1790 and died at Ballstown, Ripley County, Ind, in 1874.His parents, of purely English descent, emigrated to America in the early part of the Eighteenth Century, and settled on a small clearing. At the early age of one year Samuel was left an orphan by the death of his father. He lived with his mother until twenty-two years of age, when he married Miss Olive Nelson, of Stafford, Connecticut. At the age of twenty years he learned the carpenter trade. Having early cherished the idea of emigrating to the far west, in the latter part of 1824 he set out on his journey. In the fall of 1825 he landed on the preent site of Ballstown, Laughery Township. Here he remained one year, and then fearing the winter and a scarcity of provisions, he returned to as far as Ohio, where he had friends and relatives, remaining and working at his old trade (carpentering) until the early spring of ’40, when he returned to Ballstown, this time to stay. He was a valuable citizen, and one of the kind needed in the building up of a new country. He served as justice of the Peace and as Postmaster for a number of years. He was always ready to take part in anything that tended to advance or enlighten his community.