Biography of William Alton Ballard
Monroe Co. WV


William Alton Ballard, son of William Ballard and William Ballard and Clementine Campbell Ballard,1 was born May 6, 18402 and lived at Crimson Springs, Monroe County, W. Va. His father, William Ballard, was a staunch Union supporter during the Civil War and was killed while under captivity by Monroe County Confederate forces.
William Alton Ballard served in the Union Army during the Civil War as a private in Company "B" of the Ohio 139th Volunteer Infantry.3 

At the end of the Civil War hostilities he was to serve as Assessor in Monroe County in 1866 and 1867. He was elected to the West Virginia State Senate in 1904 and was chairman of the committee on Immigration and Agriculture in the Session of 1907.4 William Alton Ballard died January 16, 1911 and is buried in the Gap Mills Cemetery, Gap Mills, W. Va.5 

 
1 Ballard, Margaret B. William Ballard: A Genealogical Record of His Descendants of Monroe County, 1957, privately printed, reprinted by Higginson Book Company, Salem, MA. Pg. 28.
2 Headstone inscription, Gap Mills Cemetery, Gap Mills, Monroe County, W. Va.
3 Ballard, Margaret, pp 28, 37.
4 Swisher, C. W. Secretary of State of West Virginia (compiler), Manual of the State of West Virginia for the Years 1907-1908, printed by The Tribune Printing Company, Charleston, W. Va. 1907.
5 Headstone inscription.