Early Days In Grand Rapids
By Miss Lucy Ball Read at the annual meeting, June 27, 1907. In 1836 my father, John Ball, [1]See biographical sketch, Vol. VII, pp. 496-509, this series. was practicing law in Troy, New York. It was a year when conservative eastern capitalists speculated wildly in western government lands. Some of father’s friends, knowing his love of travel, proposed to him that he take their capital west and buy and sell land on speculation. Father readily accepted the offer. He left Troy July 31st, 1836, in company with a Mr. William Mann. They crossed New York state by railroad to Utica […]