Jefferson-Montgomery County AlArchives Biographies.....Ball, George Claiborne 1841 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Carolyn Golowka http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002972 May 30, 2006, 8:55 pm Author: “Memorial Record of Alabama,” Volume 2, published by Brant & Fuller in Madison, WI (1893), pages 246-247 “George Claiborne Ball, the Birmingham broker, was born in Montgomery county, Ala., in 1841. He was educated at a private school at that place, taught by Prof. McNutt. At the age of eighteen he left school, and entered the service of the Confederacy under Col. J. H. Clanton, of the Eighteenth Alabama cavalry, but after the battle of Shiloh he was assigned to Col. John H. Kelly’s regiment of Arkansas infantry as a staff officer. He was afterward on Gen. W. W. Allen’s staff until the close of the war, holding at the time the rank of Major. He was engaged in the battles of Shiloh, Harrisburg, Ky., Murfreesboro, Tenn., Chickamauga, Resca, the fights about Atlanta, Savannah, Greensboro and Charlotte, N.C. Going back to Montgomery after the war, he accepted a position with the Alabama & Florida railroad. Here he remained until 1870. Going then to Escambia county, he built and conducted a saw mill for a couple of years, out of which he realized large pecuniary returns. In 1872 he sold out his saw mill, returned to Montgomery, and was again in the service of the same railroad, now known, however, as the Mobile & Montgomery, remaining until 1880, when he built the cotton-seed oil mills at Eufaula, Ala., and Albany, Ga., and ran them until 1886, the year he removed to Birmingham. In Birmingham, he engaged in the real estate business until 1888 when he was appointed general manager of the Elyton Land company power works and machine shops. This position he held with credit to himself, and satisfaction to his employers for two years. He then engaged in the iron and steel commission business, now conducting the same. In 1872 Mr. Ball was united in marriage to Miss Hattie G. Mays, daughter of Thomas S. Mays, of Montgomery, Ala., and they have three surviving children – Sumter Mays, Elese G. and Sue Allen. Mr. Ball is a consistent member of the Episcopal church. He descends from the well-known Virginia family of that name, being a son of George C. Ball, of Virginia, and his mother was Miss Eliza J. Pollard, daughter of Charles T. Pollard. They had seven children, five of them living, as follows: Charles P., of Cartersville, Ga.; Maria M., widow of Frank Reynolds; Sue Pendleton, wife of Gen. W. W. Allen, of Montgomery; George C. and William Munford, of Salisbury, Md. (an Episcopal rector). Mr. Ball’s father died in 1858 and his mother in 1868." File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/jefferson/bios/ball730gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 3.1 Kb