Ball brothers

The Ball brothers (Lucius, William, Edmund, Frank, and George) were five American industrialists and philanthropists who in 1880 established a glass manufacturing business in New York and prospered hugely from their mass production of home canning jars, sometimes known as "Ball jars".[1] In 1888, they moved their glass manufacturing operations from Buffalo, New York, to Muncie, Indiana, due to the abundance of natural gas in the area. By 1937, the value of the company was estimated at nearly $7 million .[2] The family also owned other profitable businesses in Muncie and elsewhere.

The brothers were noted for their philanthropy and community service. Earnings from their business ventures provided the financial resources to support a number of civic building projects and large charitable gifts to their home city. Most notably, the brothers became benefactors of several Muncie institutions including Ball State University, Ball Memorial Hospital, Keuka College, the YMCA, and the YWCA. The Ball Brothers Foundation, established in 1926, continues the family's philanthropic interests.

The family firm was renamed the Ball Corporation in 1969, becoming a global manufacturer of plastic and metal containers for food and beverages, as well as a manufacturer of equipment and supplier of services to the aerospace industry.

George A. Ball

George Alexander Ball (November 5, 1862 – October 22, 1955),[11] youngest of the Ball brothers, was born in Trumball County, Ohio, and grew up in upstate New York. He attended public schools and Canandaigua Academy.[12] George's interest in his brothers' glass manufacturing company was quickly identified after its inception; he joined the family business in 1883, at the age of twenty-one. George rose through the ranks in the family business. He worked as a bookkeeper and went on to become the corporation's secretary, treasurer, vice president, president, and board chairman.[13] In the 1930s George became a partner in a railroad empire that also included steamship lines, grain elevators, bus and truck lines, coal mines, and a fruit orchard in Georgia.[15] In addition, he served on the boards of organizations that included Borg Warner, Nickel Plate Railroad, several banking institutions, Indiana University, Ball State Teachers College (which became Ball State University), and Ball Memorial Hospital, among others. George was also active in politics, serving as a Republican national committeeman from Indiana. He was a Freemason, a Rotary Club member, and joined the Presbyterian church.[6][25]

George married to Frances Woodworth in Buffalo in 1893.[26] The couple had one daughter, Elisabeth, born on December 26, 1897. Elisabeth, who never married, lived in her parents' home until her death on April 29, 1982, at the age of eighty-four. Oakhurst, the family's shingle-style residence, was built in 1895, becoming the second of the Ball brothers' homes to be erected on the family property in Muncie. Indianapolis architect Louis Gibson designed the estate home on Minnetrista Boulevard. At the time of its construction the three-story residence stood on approximately 2 acre of land.[27] George died in 1955 at the age of ninety-two.[13] The Ball Brothers Foundation deeded his home and its grounds to the Minnetrista cultural center, restoring it in 1990.[15]

Aside from his business interests, George was a collector of children's literature, a hobby he shared with his daughter. In 1964 Elisabeth Ball donated a part of their collection to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Following her death in 1982, other books that she and her father had collected were donated to the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and the Bracken Library at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.[21]

Philanthropy

Due to the financial success of the Ball Corporation, the Ball brothers amassed considerable personal wealth and became influential men in Muncie's political and civic affairs. The Ball brothers made a number of philanthropic contributions to support the needs of the community and foster the city's growth, which included working with nonprofit agencies to provide aid to local and regional residents. The Ball Brothers Foundation, established in 1926, further expanded the impact of their philanthropic efforts. Eleven years later, in 1937, the George and Frances Ball Foundation was established to further the family's philanthropic efforts within Muncie and other locales of interest to the family.

Over the years the Ball brothers made financial contributions to establish or strengthen an abundance of institutions: the local branches of the YMCA and the YWCA, the Masonic Temple auditorium, the Art Museum at Ball State, Ball Memorial Hospital, Ball State University, and Minnetrista, Muncie's cultural center, and assisted other groups.[22][29]

Ball Memorial Hospital

One of Ball Brothers Foundation's first projects was to establish Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie. The hospital opened in 1929 and later affiliated with IU Health.[22][30]

Minnetrista

In 1893 Frank C. Ball bought approximately 30 acre of land along the north bank of the White River, outside Muncie, where the Ball family built their homes. His two sisters named the site Minnetrista, a combination of the Native American word for water, mine or minne, and the Middle English spelling of a word meaning a pre-arranged "gathering place", trist or tryst. Frank Ball's estate home, which was also called Minnetrista was the first to be built on the site in 1894; it burned in 1967. In 1988, a museum was built on the site as the city's cultural arts center. It preserves artifacts that document the history of Muncie and east central Indiana, and continues as a gathering place an important part of the Muncie, Indiana, community. Situated on 44 acre, visitors may still visit its gardens and natural areas, which contain an assorted community of native Indiana plant and animal species, for free.[24][31]

Ball State University

Eastern Indiana Normal University, a small, private teacher training school that was a forerunner to Ball State University, opened in 1899 to help boost the development of the city of Muncie Indiana located in Delaware County, Indiana. The school opened to much fanfare after the dedication of the administration building on August 28, 1899.[32] The school would go onto have a great first year with an enrollment of 250 students who were enrolled in one of eight programs offered by the school. Tuition was cheap compared to modern standards with a ten-week session costing students $10.[33] Soon after that first year enrollment dropped to 110 and only 40 new students signed up [34] The Eastern Indiana Normal University would close soon after on September 24, 1901.[35]

After the college and subsequent efforts to established an institution of higher learning at Muncie had failed, with the financial help of George A. Ball, the assets of the Muncie National Institute, a former normal school that was then training hotel employees, were purchased and donated to the State of Indiana

Keuka College

Although the Ball brothers moved to Indiana early in their careers, they did not forget New York or the early support they received from their uncle, George Harvey Ball, founder of Keuka College, a private liberal arts-based and residential college based in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. After they became financially successful, the Ball brothers expressed their gratitude by donating additional land and providing funds to the college. In 1921 Ball Hall (Ball Memorial Hall) was named in honor of George Harvey Ball and the Ball brothers' contributions to the college.[8]

Other contributions

The Ball brothers made other donations to support hospitals, schools, and nonprofit organizations. In Indiana these included funding for James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis; Hanover College, in Hanover, Indiana; Indiana University; and the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial at Lincoln City, Indiana. They also contributed to Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan.[30]

References

Ball Mason Jars, Mason Jars Headquarters^

Ball State University. The Ball brothers Ball State University, retrieved November 1, 2012^

Descendants of Founders of New Jersey - Dedicated to the Origins and Heritage of New Jersey retrieved July 2, 2020^

History of Delaware County Indiana Historical Publishing Company, 1924^

Barbara Quigley. Ball Family Photographs Collection Guide Indiana Historical Society, January 24, 2005, retrieved November 1, 2012^

Our History: History of Ball—the Ball Family Ball Corporation, retrieved March 18, 2016^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, p. 80.^

Philip A. Africa. Keuka College: A History Judson Press, 1974^

Ball State University: An Interpretive History Indiana University Press, 2001^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, p. 82.^

Barbara Quigley, "The Ball Brothers" in Indiana's 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State Indiana Historical Society Press, 2015^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, p. 668.^

Quigley, "The Ball Brothers", p. 15.^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, pp. 664–65.^

Boomhower, p. 48.^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, 648.^

Ray Boomhower. Destination Indiana: Oakhurst, East-Central Indiana's Natural Beauty Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Indiana Historical Society, Winter 1995^

E. B. and Bertha C. Ball Center Records, RG.05.09.01, Finding Aid Ball State, retrieved March 18, 2016^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, p. 83.^

Edmonds and Geelhoed, p. 51.^

Boomhower, p. 46.^

A History of Philanthropy Ball Brothers Foundation, retrieved March 21, 2016^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, p. 27.^

Boomhower, pp. 44–45.^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, p. 668–69.^

Haimbaugh, v. 2, p. 669.^

Boomhower, pp. 44–46.^

Quigley, "The Ball Brothers", pp. 14–15.^

Ball State University: The Ball Brothers Ball State University, retrieved March 18, 2016^

Quigley, "The Ball Brothers", p. 16.^

Minnetrista History Minnetrista, retrieved March 18, 2016^

Glenn White The Ball State Story, p. 29.^

Lieurance, Cecil The History Of The Organization, Administration And Control Of The Normal School AT Muncie, Indiana, p. 67.^

Brown, R. (2006). EASTERN INDIANA NORMAL SCHOOL. American Educational History Journal, 33(2), 143-153.^

Glenn White The Ball State Story, p. 32.^

Cumming, J. (2002). Ball State University: An Interpretive History (Book). Indiana Magazine Of History, 98(3), 237-238.^

Ball State University History and Mission Ball State University, retrieved November 6, 2012^

Haimbaugh, v. 1, pp. 334–35.^

Edmonds and Geelhoed, p. 1.^

Our Grant Programs Ball Brothers Foundation, retrieved October 30, 2012^

The original sculpture by Dallin is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. See Thomas A. Sargent. The House and Its History Ball State University, 1989^

Early life and family

Lucius L. Ball

William C. Ball

Edmund B. Ball

Frank C. Ball

George A. Ball

Manufacturing business

Philanthropy

Ball Memorial Hospital

Minnetrista

Ball State University

Keuka College

Other contributions

Ball Brothers Foundation

Honors and tributes

Further reading

External links

References