Biography of Frank L. Ball

Frank L. Ball, M. D. A resident of Kansas nearly all his life, Dr. Frank L. Ball had for the past fifteen years been one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Cherokee County. His family were among the pioneer settlers of Southeastern Kansas, and the name had been closely identified with the agricultural development and with the civic and professional life of various communities. The Ball family is of Scotch-Irish descent. Originally they were Quakers, and it is said that the first of the name came to Pennsylvania with William Penn. Doctor Ball’s grandfather was Guy Ball, a native of Pennsylvania and a devout Quaker all his life. By trade he was a blacksmith and moulder, and became an early settler in Columbiana County, Ohio, where he spent his last years.

Guy L. Ball, father of Doctor Ball, was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, April 11, 1839. The first sixteen years of his life were spent in his native county, and he then removed to Fayette County, Ohio, where he married and began life as a farmer. He was still a young man when in 1861 he enlisted for three years’ service in the Union army, and was in the south for three years and three months following the flag on many a hard-fought battlefield. He was a member of Company C in the Twentieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and among the more important battles in which he contended were those of Vicksburg, Memphis, Shiloh, Columbus, Lookout Mountain, and a number of others in the march of the Union arms across the center of the South. In September, 1867, Guy L. Ball moved to Johnson County, Missouri, where he was engaged in farming. In 1897 he removed to a farm at Oswego, Kansas, but after a few years went to Hallowell, and was a grain buyer for the Pearl Roller Mills of Oswego. He died at Oswego in December, 1915. Guy L. Ball was an active republican, filled the office of justice of the peace during his residence at Hallowell, and was a director of the public schools at Oswego. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was active in the Presbyterian Church. He married Ann Elizabeth Larimer, who was born in Fayette County, Ohio, in 1841, and is now living at Oswego, Kansas. Their children were: Mary, who died in Missouri the wife of A. W. Perry, a farmer in Union County, Missouri; Sarah Olivia, who married Howard Kiddoo, a farmer near Oswego; Dr. Frank L.; Dr. O. H., a graduate of the University Medical College of Kansas City, and is now practicing at Dennis, Kansas; Lizzie Maude, who married Charles Kiddoo, a miller at Coffeyville, Kansas; A. E. Ball, druggist at Omaha, Nebraska; R. Guy, who is assistant cashier in the Parsons State Bank at Parsons, Kansas.

Dr. Frank L. Ball was born on his father’s farm in Johnson County, Missouri, January 20, 1868. The first eighteen years of his life he spent on his father’s farm, and received most of his early training in the public schools of Centerville, Missouri. After leaving school he had some active experience in business affairs, and for five years was manager of a flour mill owned by his uncle, Robert Kiddoo, at Neosho, Kansas. His inclinations were for a professional career, and with means largely earned by his own efforts he entered the Kansas State University, medical department, at Kansas City, from which he received his degree, M. D., in 1900.

Since his graduation Doctor Ball had been in active practice at Hallowell, Kansas, with the exception of the year 1909 which he spent at Columbus in this state. His proficiency and skill have been attended with an increasing reputation and with a constantly enlarging practice in this part of Cherokee County. Doctor Ball is an active member of the Cherokee County and of the State Medical and the Southeast Kansas Medical societies and the American Medical Association.

He had been very successful as a business man as well as in his profession, and owned some of the fine farming lands around Hallowell. One farm of 200 acres is situated two miles south of Hallowell, and he also had 150 acres of good land a mile west of that town.

Both Doctor Ball and his wife are active in the social affairs at Hallowell, both are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and both belong to the order of the Rebekahs, the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and the Home Brothers Order at Des Moines. Doctor Ball is also affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, Lodge No. 105, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Royal Neighbors, all at Hallowell. In politics he is republican.

On May 3, 1905, at Hallowell, Doctor Ball married Miss Zella LaMaster. Mrs. Ball was born December 28, 1882, a daughter of James and Martha (Thompson) LaMaster. Her father, who was a farmer, is now deceased, and her mother is living at Salt Lake City, Utah. Mrs. Ball was born in Hallowell, received her education in her native county, finishing in the Cherokee County High School. In the paternal line she represents an old Colonial family of French extraction. The LaMasters were pioneers in Kentucky, where Mrs. Ball’s grandfather, Alexander LaMaster, was born. He belonged to the planting and slave-holding class and was an ardent southern democrat. He moved into Northeast Missouri, and died there before Mrs. Ball was born. Alexander LaMaster married Nancy Lear, also a native of Kentucky, and her death occurred in Northeast Missouri. James LaMaster, father of Mrs. Ball, was born in Kentucky, near Louisville, November 6, 1845. He accompanied his parents in 1858 to Northeast Missouri and grew up on a farm near Labelle. He was one of the pioneers of Cherokee County, Kansas, having come to the locality of Hallowell in 1865. He was one of the settlers on what were known as Joy lands, and acquired a 160 acre homestead there. At that time he was a bachelor, and it was not until March 23, 1882, that he married. After his marriage he continued as one of the prosperous farmers of Cherokee County until his death on September 5, 1907, at Hallowell. James LaMaster was a democrat, a member of the Christian Church and belonged to the Anti-Horse Thief Association. The maiden name of his wife was Martha E. Thompson, who was born near Indianapolis, Indiana, September 18, 1859. Mrs. Ball was the only child of her parents.

Doctor and Mrs. Ball are the parents of five children: Zella Mildred, born April 27, 1907; Ila May, born May 29, 1909; Grace Elizabeth, born August 6, 1910; Ruth Elzada, who was born August 6, 1910, and died at the age of one month and twenty days; Frank Earl, born December 19, 1914, and died of pneumonia at the age of two months and nine days.