WILBUR F. BALL. It is to Mr. Ball's perseverance and indomitable energy that he owes his success in life. He is one of the most prominent lawyers of Fargo and one of the best known men of North Dakota.
He was born in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, June 15, 1843, and is of English descent. Representatives of the family took a prominent part in the Revolutionary war and to it belonged Mary Ball, mother of General Washington. Dabney Ball, our subject's grandfather, was a native of Virginia and a farmer, who died in Washington, D. C. The parents of our subject, John and Sarah (Webb) Ball, were natives of Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively. The father was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, as were also three of his brothers, and he preached in Virginia, Maryland and a part of Pennsylvania. He attended college in Baltimore, Maryland, and died in that state in 1845. His wife passed away in 1860.
During his early boyhood Mr. Ball attended the public schools of Virginia and Pennsylvania, but is principally self-educated, as he began the battle of life for himself at the age of twelve years as "devil" in a printing office at Washington, D. C. Later he was employed on some of the old newspapers of that city and was in the office of the "Washington Constitution" for a tine. From there he went to Baltimore, Maryland, and subse¬quently returned to Pennsylvania, working on the "Titusville Gazette" for a time. He next drifted to Canton, Ohio, and front there to Akron, that state. At the opening of the Civil war he enlisted at Canton, in 1861, in the Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but was rejected on account of his youth. The same spring he again enlisted and went to the front as a member of Company A, Second Ohio Cavalry, with which he served for some months,. fighting bushwhackers in southern Kansas and Missouri. He was injured by the fall of his horse and was discharged at Fort Scott, Kansas, in the fall of 1861.
Returning to Meadville, Pennsylvania, Mr. Ball entered the service of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad as brakeman, and after some months spent in the employ of that company became connected with the Buffalo & Erie Railroad, where he remained until the spring of 1864. During that year he commenced the study of law at Ontonagon, Michigan, and on his admission to the bar, in 1865, opened an office at Eagle River, Michigan, where he engaged in practice until 1868. The following three years were passed at Alexandria, Minnesota, and in 1871 he went to Otter Tail City, where he founded the "Otter Tail Record" and conducted the same for one year. He then moved his plant to Detroit, Minnesota. and edited a paper there in connection with his law practice until 1876, when he returned to Alexandria. In 1878 he came to what is now Fargo, North Dakota, driving across the country, and formed a law partnership with John A. Stowell, then district attorney and prosecutor for the third judicial district, comprising all of What is now the state of North Dakota. Mr. Ball began active practice in Fargo January 19, 1879, and two years later was elected district attorney for the district last above named, which position be filled until 1885. In the meantime he was engaged in private practice with George P. Wilson, of Minnesota, for seven years. Judge Wallin became a member of the firm in 1887. In 1888 General Wilson retired from the firm and business was conducted under the name of Ball, Wallin & Smith until the Judge was elected to the supreme bench in 1889. Since then John S. Watson has been admitted to partnership and the firm is now known as Ball, Watson & McClay. Mr. Ball is one of the most successful lawyers of the state, and is assistant counsel for the Northern Pacific Railroad, with which he has been connected since 1872. He was one of the organizers and builders of the Fargo Southern Railroad and was one of its officers and directors during its existence. He is a man of good executive and business ability, who generally carries forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes, and has been a director of the Merchants State Bank of Fargo for some years
On the 25th of December, 1865, Colonel Ball married Miss Mary A. Menyweather, a native of Michigan, and they have four children: William M., John G., Frank A. and Sarah G. The Colonel has been a life-long Republican and has taken a very prominent part in party affairs. Socially he is a thirty-second-degree Mason. a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Fargo and is widely and favorably known throughout the state as a lawyer and public-spirited citizen.
Source: Compendium of History and Biography of North Dakota 1900 Page 213