The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 542

RALPH T. AND EDWIN R. BALLARD.

Ralph T. and Edwin R. Ballard, constituting the firm of Ballard Brothers, are
numbered among the prominent orchardists of the Yakima valley, having extensive
and important interests in this connection. They are natives of Kentucky and
sons of Samuel R. and Blanche T. (Thompson) Ballard, the former a native of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while the mother was born in Kentucky. The Ballard
family has long been represented on this side of the Atlantic, one of the
ancestors having served in the Revolutionary war. The grandfather, Robert Eames
Ballard, was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, and removed front that state to
Pennsylvania, where his last days were passed. The patriotic spirit which has
ever been characteristic of the family was manifest by him in active service in
the Civil war. His son, Samuel R. Ballard, removed from Pennsylvania to Kentucky
in 18£39, settling at Louisville, after which he engaged in the steamboat
business. He continued a resident of that state until 1913, when he passed away
in Harrisburg. He had been married on the 22d of December, 1887, to Miss Blanche
V. Thompson, a daughter of Edwin Vivian and Jane Lilly (Thirlwell) Thompson. The
father was born at Christchurch, England, and was reared on the Isle of Wight.
He came to the United States when a Youth of fourteen years with his father,
Joseph Anson Thompson, who on leaving England with his family established his
home in Kentucky. He carried with him letters of introduction to Henry Clay. The
Thompsons were landscape gardeners of England. Edwin Vivian Thompson was reared
to manhood in Kentucky and afterward wedded Jane Lilly Thirlwell, a native of
Uniontown, Pennsylvania. It was their daughter, Blanche T., who became the wife
of Samuel R. Ballard.

Of this marriage there were born three children. Henrietta, whose birth occurred
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, became the wife of Charles Leigh Hunt, who is now
in the traffic department of the telephone company at Seattle, where they make
their home. Ralph T., born in Kentucky, May 19, 1891, is a graduate of the
Louisville preparatory school and is now managing the ranches owned by Ballard
Brothers in the Yakima valley. Edwin R. is in the Officers' Training Corps of
the field artillery at Camp Zachary Taylor in Kentucky and this camp is partly
situated on land which was formerly owned by the family.

It was in September, 1909, that Mrs. Blanche T. Ballard with the three children
came to Yakima county and purchased three tine ranches-one of twenty-two acres
in Naches, one of thirty acres on the Parker Heights and one of fourteen acres
in Fruitvale. They have sixty-six acres in all, of which sixty acres is planted
to fruit, including apples, pears, peaches, plums and cherries. They are among
the leading orchardists of Yakima county and in the year 1918 they packed twelve
thousand boxes of peaches from two thousand trees. They also gathered fifteen
tons of prunes from two and a half acres. They exercise the utmost care and
wisdom in the management of their orchards, utilizing every possible agency for
the development of their trees. Horticulture at its highest point of scientific
attainment here finds expression and what they have already accomplished will
make the future career of the Ballard Brothers well worth the watching.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.