John H. Ball

JOHN H. BALL, president of the Citizens State Bank of Kensington, is a farmer by early training and experience, and still has a large stock farm under his management near Kensington, but banking is not an incidental experience since he has been an active official in banks for more than thirteen years.

Mr. Ball was born in Saline County, Nebraska, May 23, 1872. His paternal grandfather came from Ireland and settled in New York State, where the father, Peter James Ball, was born in 1845. The latter grew up in his native state, and when a young man went to Wisconsin and married in Dodge County Elsie Jensen. She was born in Denmark in 1845. Peter James Ball was a farmer all his active career. In 1869 he went to the western frontier in Saline County, Nebraska, homesteaded and accumulated a large tract of land and was a prosperous citizen of that locality the rest of his life. He died in Saline County January 29, 1908. He was a republican. His widow is now living at Friend, Nebraska. They had four children: William B., who has the special agency for the Great American Insurance Company for the state of Nebraska and lives at University Place; John H., second in age; Winnie, wife of John Drake, a farmer near Friend, Nebraska; and Francis J., an automobile and garage man at York, Nebraska.

The first twenty-one years of John H. Ball's life were spent usefully but uneventfully on his father's farm. He attended the public schools for his education. His first active business experience was in the real estate, loans and insurance business at Friend. In 1906 he bought an interest in the Merchants and Farmers Bank of Friend, served as its cashier and later as its vice president.

In May, 1913, Mr. Ball came to Kensington, and acquired the controlling interest in the Citizens State Bank. This bank, which was established under a state charter in 1905, has a capital of $20,000 and surplus of $6,700. Mr. Ball is president. P. A. Levengood, vice president, and Charles K. Glenn, cashier. Mr. Ball is also secretary and treasurer of the Farmers Grain and Elevator Company at Kensington. His farm of 400 acres, located ten miles south of Kensington, is devoted to diversified agriculture and stock raising.

Mr. Ball's bank is a member of the Kansas State Bankers' Association and the American Bankers' Association. He is affiliated with Kensington Lodge No. 405, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past master, and he is a republican in politics. December 1, 1897, in Saline County, Nebraska, he married Miss Eva M. Good, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Good, farmers, now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ball have one child, Merton J., born April 3, 1903.