Elijah Ballard was a soldier in the Revolutionary Army. He carried a piece of tallow under his coat and ate from it when his hunger became unbearable." Margaret Ballard, History of Monroe County
In biographical sketch of son James Ballard (90 years old), in Hardesty's history of Lincoln Co WV (1883): "His father was Elijah Ballard, who was born in Orange County in the year 1743, and, together with two of his brothers, served throughout the Revolutionary War, and was with Generals Greene and Gates in all the southern campaigns, participating in the battles of Guilford Court House, King Mountain, Cowpens and Yorktown. At the latter place he saw General O'Hara present the sword of Cornwallis to Washington. Soon after the close of the war he married Mildred Dahoney, and in 1796, when his son James, the subject of this sketch, was three years of age, removed farther west, and until 1810 resided near Indian Creek in Monroe County [must be earlier, since Elijah appears in Kanawha 1809 tax list). He was a millwright by occupation, and in his labors was greatly assisted by his son. In the above year another move was made, and this time a cabin was reared on the banks of Coal River, three miles below where Boone Court House now stands. Here they were pioneer millers, and for years were the only ones who built mills in this section of the state. In the year 1811 they erected a horse mill for George Bentley. It was located in Teays Valley, near the present site of Scott Depot, in Putnam County. Four years later (1815) they built a two-wheel mill at the upper falls of Coal river for Joseph Thomas, who was the first settler at that place. In 1819 contracted and built a tub-wheel mill at the lower falls of Coal for Phillip R. Thompson and James Swindler, and the same year repaired to Teays, and built a water mill for Joshua Morris. It stood on the creek, about one mile from the railroad crossing near Hurricane station." (reprinted by Sigfus Olafson in Kith and Kin of Boone County, West Virginia, VII, p127-128.)
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=hagerj&id=I188766
