Ball, Eli

Ball, Eli a Baptist minister, was born in Marlborough, Vt., Nov. 2, 1786, and united with a church in Boston in 1805. Having pursued a course of theological study under private instruction, he preached for several years in Harwich, Mass.; Wilmington and Lansingburg, N. Y.; and Middletown, Conn. He removed South in 1823, and was successively pastor in Lynchburg, Va., and of a church in Henrico County, in which latter place he remained seven er eight years. He performed much service for several of the organizations of his denomination in Virginia and Georgia; was for a short time a professor in Richmond College and editor of the Richmond Herald. In 1848 he visited Africa. for the purpose of gaining information regarding the Liberian mission. As he was preparing to make another visit, he died in Richmond, July 21, 1853. See Bapt. Ency. p. 64, 65. (J. C. S.)