Figure of the Week

Nathaniel Ball (1830-1906) was the son of William Ball (c.1799-after 1860) of Stafford County, Virginia and resided in the upper part of the county.  During the War Between the States, Nathaniel served in the 47th Virginia Infantry and according to his obituary, he “served faithfully from Bull Run to Appomattox.”  Nathaniel married Jane Ball (1822-1909) by whom he had several children.  During the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, this branch of the Ball family owned land on both sides of Courthouse Road (Route 630) just west of the Interstate 95 interchange.  In 1868 Nathaniel Ball was overseer of the road “from the Woodcutting road to the Coal Landing road through the land of James E. Towson and others.”  The Ball family cemetery is located off Cedar Lane (Route 732) on the south side of Courthouse Road.  Some of this family also lived on the north side of Courthouse Road not far from William W. Robertson’s “Old Stone House.”  In January 1900 Nathaniel was relieved of the “Capitation Tax and County Levy for 1899 and thereafter upon the grounds of physical infirmity and age.”