Mary Esta Ball Shelman (1848-c1885)
This is Martha Jane’s aunt Mary, sister of her father John Washington Ball.
and here is another photo of her, which looks like it was taken about the same time.
I think she looks like her father’s daughter. And I also think these photos were taken around the same time. Mary died sometime between 1885 and 1890 at the age of 40 – 45. Her last child was born in 1885 and I don’t know if her death was related to childbirth.
Do you think she looks older here? I need lots more work in the styles and ways of earlier times as portrayed in photographs. I would have guessed she was at least 60 here, and I don’t know if it’s that her life was hard so she does look older or if the styles made women look older, or both.
Mary was likely born in Missouri, though I don’t know where. I believe her family went there from Clark County Indiana about 1842 and then was in Warren County Iowa by 1845. Some of the census records say she was born in Missouri, and I keep finding scraps of info about the “Dr. Ball family” who came to Warren County from Missouri. My initial searches of Wm. Green Ball’s land records did not indicate where he was in Missouri, but then again, when I was looking, I didn’t know he’d been there.
So that’s a lesson learned–I’ll have to go back now and look at those records again to see if there’s a hint of their location in Missouri. They might be in his Indiana records or they might be in the Iowa records–I just know that I’ve used land records before to track down the former residence of a person. Or to prove that the two men in separate counties are the same person. This happened with Dr. Ball himself–I did find records in Iowa of him having been in Montgomery County, Kansas. When these sorts of moves are in between census years and are stays of only 3-4 years, land records are one of the best ways to track them. Deeds will say something like, “Wm G. Ball of Benton County, Arkansas, formerly of this county. . .” in Montgomery County, or perhaps he’s sold the land after he left the county so it’s registered also in Benton County. You have to be a detective, and that’s the addictive part for me.
Mary Esta Ball is buried Butler Creek Cemetery, Benton Co., Arkansas.
Birth: Apr. 18, 1845
Clark County
Indiana, USA
Death: 1898
Benton County
Arkansas, USA
She is buried with her son William John Nelson.
Check out Find A Grave Website. I have posted her memorial there with a picture of her headstone. There is a link to her son there also.
Diana–Would you please contact me directly? Are you related to Mary? I cannot seem to get an email to go through to you and I would like to talk to you about this family. Thanks.
Yes I am related to this family. Mary Esta Ball and John Wesley William Shellman had Louis Carlton Shellman. Louis Carlton Shellman married Anna May Price and there son Otis Stanley Shellman was my grandfather. I am not sure how to contact you if the email won’t go through.