Transcript:Indiana, United States. Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties/B/Ballinger, Samuel H.

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Samuel H. Ballinger (p 224)

In 1898 one of the oldest merchants of Liberty in years of active business transactions, Samuel H. Ballinger, retired to private life and to the enjoyment of the rest which he has certainly earned during his thirty-one years of commercial enterprise. To his public spirit and desire for local advancement can be attributed much of the prosperity which this town today enjoys. For thirty years he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity and for years he has been one of the pillars in the Methodist Episcopal Church, serving in various official capacities, such as steward, trustee, etc.

A son of Isaac and Orinda C. Ballinger, Samuel H. was born on the old homestead belonging to his parents, April 16, 1845. He passed his youthful days on the farm, supplementing his elementary work in the local schools by a year's attendance at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. He continued to dwell on the farm until he was twenty-two years of age, and now, after a long interval of business life, he has returned with renewed interest to the peaceful occupations of the agriculturists, and takes great pride in the finely improved homestead which he owns and which became his property in 1879. It comprises four hundred acres, all in one body, and, in addition to raising the usual line of crops common to this region, he feeds cattle and livestock, and is making a financial success of the whole.

On the 27th of January 1876, Mr. Ballinger married Miss Lucy Sullivan, daughter of W. W. Sullivan. They became the parents of three children, the eldest of whom, Ora W., died at the age of two years and ten months; Robert Lincoln, lately engaged in the clothing business in San Antonio, Texas; and Mettie, a musician and artist of marked ability, now living at home, who has been engaged in the millinery business for some years and is considered an expert trimmer. Mrs. Ballinger and daughter are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Ballinger has never been an aspirant to office, but in a spirit of banter a Republican friend one day said to him that he intended to run as a candidate for the position of trustee of the township. Mr. Ballinger jokingly replied, "Why, you cannot be elected; I can beat you;" and when the other answered, "I'll bet a dollar you can't," both took up the matter in semiseriousness and announced themselves as candidates. The result of the primary election was that Mr. Ballinger was victorious and was elected by the people. He is now serving his fifth year in the office. He has nine schools under his supervision, hires teachers and buys the fuel and supplies for the schools, and also must look after the poor, the roads and general matters effecting the public more or less directly. While he is allowed wide latitude in these matters and has the handling of large sums of money every year, it is but justice to him to state that no complaint has ever been made against his management and that not the slightest doubt as to his fidelity and integrity has ever been expressed. By his long and honorable business career he is known to be above suspicion, and the good of his fellows has ever been his sincerest interest. Perhaps no better illustration of Mr. Ballinger's business ability can be given than his record in office as Township Trustee. When he first assumed this office the township was four thousand dollars in debt. During his incumbency the township has been placed out of debt and has money in its treasury, while the lax levy of the present year is a lower one than it has had for forty years. Besides this, Mr. Ballinger has built four new brick schoolhouses in the township. One of them, a double (graded) schoolhouse, is a model structure, pronounced one of the finest buildings of its kind in Indiana. He has also superintended the building of more bridges and culverts and done more work on the roads of the township than was done in years before his accession to office.

Mr. Ballinger has done much earnest and efficient service in church work. He has been both steward and trustee of Liberty Methodist Episcopal Church for the past fifteen years. He was the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees during the erection of the beautiful new Methodist Church, collected all the moneys as well as paid them out, and as one of the board had much to do with planning the structure; and it is not too much to say that success of its erection is a prominent degree is due to him. Mrs. Ballinger is an earnest Christian and a hearty partaker in the activities of the church, and has been for years a valued teacher in its Sunday school.

Mr. Ballinger has had a long career as a merchant and leading businessman of Liberty. In 1867 he became a partner with his father-in-law, W. W. Sullivan, in the grocery trade. This firm had a large patronage and was the leading house in this line in all this region. In 1869 Thomas C. Ballinger was admitted to the firm upon the retirement of Mr. Sullivan. The bothers continued together in trade for five years, when T. C. Ballinger purchased his brother's interest. During gout subject's connection with this house the firm handled seventy-five thousand dollars worth of goods annually. After closing his grocery business, Mr. Ballinger and J. P. Kennedy engaged in the dry good trade in Liberty, and Mr. Ballinger becoming sole proprietor terminated this partnership at the end of six months. Conducting a prospering business in this line for five years, his health failed, and he sold out to S. W. Creed. Purchasing the homestead farm of his parents, he made his home thereon with the expectation that the outdoor life incident to conducting a farm would restore his health. This expectation was realized, and for five years he was busily engaged in agriculture. With restored health the desire for mercantile activity returned, and he now purchased from Mr. Creed the dry goods business he had formerly conducted. Thenceforth until his retirement from trade in 1898 he was prominent among the merchants of the county. With the exception of three years, when his brother Bennett was connected with him and two years when his son was a partner, he was the sole proprietor of the business.