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John Rhys Ballou was born August 17, 1819 in Ashe County, North Carolina as the ninth of 11 children born to Owen Meredith and Mary Baker Ballou. Meredith Ballou was an early settler in Ashe County, NC, having arrived shortly before Ashe was formed from Wilkes County, NC in 1799. Meredith came from Amherst County, Virginia, where his father was involved in iron mining. Meredith was a major force behind the establishment of the iron industry in Ashe.
The Tradition Continues
John continued his family's iron manufacturing tradition. After Meredith's death in 1847, John built an iron forge at the mouth of Helton Creek in 1848. This forge was located just a few feet down stream from the old Ballou Mill Dam. Pieces of slag from iron smelting can still be found at this location. The forge was rebuilt in 1871 by Jefferson Paisley and later operated by Jerome Uriah Ballou, a nephew of John Ballou.
In a 1954 issue of The Skyland Post, Robert L. Ballou wrote of Meredith Ballou's interest in mining. The following is an excerpt from that article titled, Early History of Iron Mining in Ashe Reveals Heroic Efforts of Pioneers, which concerns John Ballou's contribution to the iron industry:
"Meredith Ballou kept up the manufacture of iron until the time of his death, about the middle of last century, and supplied the manufactured iron to the trade over this entire section of North Carolina. Soon thereafter one of his sons, John R. Ballou, built another forge near the mouth of Helton Creek, where Dr. Ballou's milling property is located, and he kept up the manufacture of iron for a great many years. During the war between the states he furnished the Confederacy with bar iron for making gun barrels for the army. Finally, my father, J.U. Ballou, purchased the Helton Forge property and continued to manufacture iron for the benefit of the people until in the nineties, when the work was finally discontinued, and it has been said that this Catalan forge near the mouth of Helton was the last one to be operated in the world."
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Married Sarah Porter
John married Sarah (Sallie) Porter about 1838. John and Sarah married young - John being about 19 and Sarah only 15. Sarah was born October 7, 1823 in Virginia to William and Frances Porter, who moved to Ashe County, NC before 1830.
John and Sarah first lived in their "Clay Bank" house on Ballou land located near Smithy Road in Crumpler. Before 1870, John and Sarah built a new home located on a 150-acre tract of land that John inherited after his father's death. Meredith Ballou had purchased the property from Henry Eller in 1813. Portions of this property still remain in the hands of John and Sarah's Shepherd descendants.
John inherited other properties and mineral rights after his father's death. John sold off these properties over the years as the demand for iron began to wane, preferring instead, to concentrate on working his farmland.
Bankruptcy and Family Tragedies
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The Civil War created hardships for a great many people in the 1860's, and the 1870's during Reconstruction. John and Sarah were not spared. They declared bankruptcy on May 20, 1873. The "Assignment of Bankrupt's Effects" reads:
Form No. 18
ASSIGNMENT OF BANKRUPT'S EFFECTSIn the District of the United States, For the Western District of North Carolina.
In the Matter of John Ballew, Bankrupt, In Bankruptcy, Western District of North Carolina, ss.
Know all Men by these Presents that David M. Furches of Statesville, in said District, has been duly appointed Assignee of the Estate of John Ballew of _____, in the County of Ashe and State of NORTH CAROLINA, who has been adjudged Bankrupt by decree of this Court. Now, therefore, I, ROBERT H. BROADFIELD, Register in Bankruptcy, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Fourteenth Section of the Act of Congress entitled" An Act to Establish a Uniform System of Bankruptcy throughout the United States," approved March 2, 1867, do hereby convey and assign to the said David M. Furches, Assignee as aforesaid, all the Estate, Real and Personal, of the said John Ballew, Bankrupt, including all property of whatever kind, of which he is possessed, or in which he was interested, or entitled to have, on the 27th day of May, A.D. 1873, together with all his Deeds, Books, and Papers relating thereto, saving and excepting such Property as is exempted from the operation of this Assignment by the provisions of said fourteenth Section of said Act. To HAVE AND TO HOLD all the foregoing premises to the said David M. Furches and to his heirs forever. IN TRUST NEVERTHELESS for the use and purposes, and with the powers and subject to the conditions and limitations, prescribed and set forth in said Act.
In Witness Whereof, I, R.H. BROADFIELD, Register in Bankruptcy, have hereunto set my hand, and caused the Seal of said District Court to be affixed, this the 2nd day of July A.D. 1873.RH Broadfield
Register in Bankruptcy
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Certain real and personal property was exempted from Bankruptcy such as "Necessary household and kitchen furniture, not exceeding $500 in value... Other articles and necessaries... Wearing apparel of Bankrupt and his family... Equipments, if any, as a Soldier... Other Property exempted by laws of the United States... Property exempted by State laws." The following is a list of additional exempted property written in John's hand:
Our Clay bank house (Deficient) $30.00
Our bay mare $60.00. Our pare oxen $60.00 - $120.00
Nine Cows $11.00 each $33.00 - Two year old heffers $8.00 - $41.00
Our oxen $15.00. Two small calves $2.00 - $17.00
Eleven head hogs $8.00 - Wagon Thones $90 - $98.00
House hold & Kitchen furniture - $65.00
Farming tools $30.00 - Bacon $15.00 - $45.00
Corn 60 bushels $30.00 - Wheat 5 bushels $5.00 - $35.00
Rye 3 bushels $1.50 - $1.50
Cash on hand - $97.00
Our Note on John WalGroiu (sic) for - $275.00
John was "forever discharged from all Debts and Claims" on December 6, 1873.
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John and Sarah also suffered personal losses during the 1860's. Two of the couple's four children died in the 1860's. According to entries in the John Ballou Family Bible, their daughter Mary (age 21) and their son Reid (age 2) both died on February 5, 1962. The Ballous had previously lost son Meredith (age 17 months) in 1844.
Enter - Grandsons Grover and Harrison Shepherd
A bright moment during the Civil War era was the birth of John and Sarah's fourth child, Sarah Anna, born June 13, 1863. Sarah Anna would be the only child of John and Sarah Ballou to live long enough to marry and produce heirs.
On July 23, 1883 Sarah Anna married John Calvin Shepherd. Sarah Anna had four children by John Calvin Shepherd: Grover Cleveland, born May 6, 1885; Fieldin Jones, born Sept. 13, 1886; Victoria Maud, born Jan 16, 1888; and Benjamin Harrison, born Feb. 9, 1890. Fieldin and Victoria both died as children. Sarah Anna got sick and died August 29, 1890. This left John and Sarah Ballou with no living children. Their only heirs were grandsons Grover and Harrison Shepherd.
With all their children dead, in the 1890's, the aging John and Sarah hired a local widow, Caroline Price, to live with them and help tend to their needs. They also turned to their young and able grandsons, Grover and Harrison, to help out on the farm.
John and Sarah still owned 90 acres of the 150-acre tract that included their present homes. In a deed dated January 2, 1901, John and Sarah named grandsons Grover Shepherd and Harrison Shepherd as "...our only heirs at law..." The deed transferred their home and 90-acre farm to Grover and Harrison with the retention of a life estate. The deed reads in part:
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Know all men by these presents that whereas we John Ballou and Sarah Ballou have reached a ripe age and are desirous of presenting all controversy concerning the hereinafter described tract of land after our death and whereas Grover Cleveland Shepherd and Benjamin Harrison Shephard, minor children of John C. Shepherd, by our daughter Sarah Ann, are our only heirs at law to whom we desire the property to go at our death; Now therefore in consideration of the premises and the further consideration of one dollar to us in hand paid receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, we, the said John and wife Sarah, do by these presents, give grant and convey unto the said Grover Cleveland Shepherd and Benjamin Harrison Shephard, and their heirs and assigns forever the following described tract or parcel of land lying and being in the county of Ashe, State of North Carolina on the waters of Piney Branch and Big Helton Creek, containing by estimation ninety acres more or less...
John and Sarah had been married about 65 years when Sarah died on February 25, 1903. According to marriage records in Ashe County, NC, John married Elizabeth Taylor (b. 1858) on March 28, 1904, but nothing more is known about this marriage, or Elizabeth.
Two years after Sarah's death, John made a new deed to Grover and Harrison on February 1, 1905, where he relinquished his life estate and turned over complete possession to the brothers in exchange for "maintenance of J.R. Ballou during his natural life time... to be furnished at the home of J.C. Shepherd by the said Grover C. Shepherd and B. Harrison Shepherd."
At this point, John had outlived his wife (Sarah), all five of his children, and all 10 of his siblings. He was the only child of Meredith and Mary Baker Ballou to live into the 20th century. John lived out the last three years of his life at the John Calvin Shepherd home, where died on November 24, 1908.
John and Sarah Ballou are buried at the John Calvin Shepherd Cemetery in Crumpler, North Carolina.
Grandson Grover Shepherd married Ethel Isabelle Walker in 1910. They moved into the John Ballou home and lived there while Grover build a new two-story house nearby. Bly and Callie Cox then occupied the Ballou home. Grover later used the old house for storage and it was torn down after 1930.
Harrison Shepherd deeded his half interest in John Ballou's estate to Grover in 1916. Grover's youngest son, Mont Shepherd, purchased the 90-acre farm from his siblings in 1954. Mont deeded the farm to his sons, Brodrick and Ryland Shepherd in 2000. Brodrick currently owns 25 acres, and Montra May (daughter of the late Ryland Shepherd) owns 26 acres of the old Ballou property which has been passed down through the family since Meredith Ballou first bought the property in 1813.
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Five known children of John and Sarah Porter Ballou:
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