HON. WALTER BALLOU
Hon. Walter Ballou is of French Huguenot descent and was born in Boonville, Oneida county, N.Y., June 21, 1839. His grandfather, Pelatiah Ballou, was a native of Rhode Island, his parents having moved to that State from Massachusetts on account of the religious persecution which the Huguenots received at the hands of the Puritan colonists. Pelatiah Ballou married Hannah Sheldon and in 1799 came to Boonville, Oneida county, where they settled on a farm about one and one half miles west of the village. A portion of this farm has ever since remained in the family, being one of the few tracts which can claim nearly a century's continuous ownership under one name. He was endowed with qualities which make the model pioneer, and as a successful farmer exerted a wholesome influence in the infant settlement. By hard labor he cleared his farm, and accumulated a modest competency
for those days. He held several town offices. He died on the homestead July 4, 1837, at the age of sixty-seven, and his wife's death occurred there in 1855. Their children who attained maturity were Jesse, Ellis, Lydia and William. William Ballou was born on the paternal farm in Boonville in 1812, and after spending his entire. life on the place died there March 7, 1847, aged thirty-five years, six months, and eleven days. He was also a successful farmer, and like his father took great pride
in the advancement of the community. He married Harriet, daughter of Anson Crofoot, of Leyden, Lewis county, who survives him and occupies the homestead. They had five children: Charles, who died in Buffalo, N. Y., in April, 1893; Walter, of Boonville; Albert, who died, after enlisting in the army, but just before being mustered in in 1862; Anna (Mrs. Gustavus B. Horner), of Ripon, Wis.; and Alice (Mrs. Benoni S. Brown), of Onset, Mass.
Hon. Walter Ballou was educated in the district schools of his native town and in the high school of Boonville, and in 1857 was graduated from Whitestown Academy. He had prepared for Hamilton College with the intention of entering that institution, but a serious difficulty of the eyes at this time compelled him to abandon the idea of a collegiate training. He therefore remained on his father's farm until August 30, 1862, when he enlisted in Co. D, 146th N. Y. Vol. Inf., and when his company was mustered in he was elected and commissioned its first lieutenant. At the battle of Fredericksburg he was slightly wounded. He remained with the regiment until December, 1862, when he was taken sick with typhoid fever and honorably discharged on a special order from the War Department. Returning home he spent several months recuperating and by the end of a year had permanently recovered.
Mr. Ballou had now decided upon a professional career, and early in 1864 he entered the office of H. Romeyn Hadley, where he studied law until April, 1868, when he was admitted to the bar at Albany. Soon after his admission he began active practice in Boonville in partnership with Hon. Thomas S. Jones, under the firm name of Jones & Ballou. Four years later this firm dissolved and Mr. Ballou formed a copartnership with L. W. Fiske, which continued for three years. Since then Mr. Ballou has successfully practiced his profession in Boonville alone.
In politics he was originally a Republican, a strong sympathizer with the Union, and a staunch supporter of Lincoln's administration, casting his first and second presidential votes for that martyred statesman. In 1866 Mr. Ballou differed on the reconstruction question as embodied in Republican principles and affiliated with the Democratic party, with which he has ever since been prominently identified He was deputy assessor of internal revenue for the Fourth Assembly district of Oneida county under President Andrew Johnson, holding the office about one year. In the fall of 1875 he was elected to the Assembly, being the first Democrat elected to that office in the Fourth Assembly district of the county in twenty years. This in itself shows the esteem and popularity in which he is held by his fellow citizens. During the session of 1876 he served as a member of the committees on Laws, Rules, Engrossed Bills, etc., and distinguished himself as an able advocate of honest legislation. He has also served the village of Boonville as president for three years and was a member of the Board of Education for nine years and its president six years. He was a trustee of the Boonville Fair Association, the predecessor of the present society, and in every enterprise or movement affecting the general welfare of the place his influence has been felt and appreciated. He is a member and for five years was master of Boonville Lodge, No. 165, F. & A. M., and is also a member of Imperial Council, R. A., of Utica. Mr. Ballou is a representative citizen of Northern Oneida and one of the best known men in that section of the county. As a lawyer he has attained a wide reputation. Public spirited, enterprising and patriotic, imbued with high qualities of citizenship, he liberally encourages all worthy movements promising general benefit, and in the prosperity of his village and native town he has always taken a just pride.
Mr. Ballou was married on October 13, 1864, to Miss Eugenia, daughter of George and Lydia (Knight) Brinkerhoff, of Boonville, and they have two daughters: Harriet, a graduate of Cornell University, class of 1895, and Eugenia, who was graduated from Boonville Academy in 1893.
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