John Ball: Member of the Wyeth Expedition to the Pacific Northwest, 1832; and Pioneer in the Old Northwest: Autobiography
Glendale, Californina: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1925.
Hardcover.
An autobiography of John Ball printed from a manuscript written by Ball at the age of 80 and taken from scanty diaries, letters, and memory. He began life as the youngest son of a New Hampshire farmer, attended Dartmouth College, and had many adventures before settling in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1836. In 1832 he crossed the plains with Captain Nathaniel Wyeth on his expedition to Oregon, resting for a time at Fort Vancouver at the home of Dr. John McLoughlin, Chief Factor of the Hudson Bay Co. In the fall of 1833, Ball boarded a Hudson Bay Co. ship bound for the Sandwich Islands where he made acquaintance with traders, missionaries, and natives. Next, a whaling expedition to the Society Islands and around Cape Horn to Rio De Janeiro where he spent 2-1/2 years as a clerk on a US Sloop. By 1836, he was ready to settle in the Michigan territory where he helped attract immigrants to the Grand River Valley and contributed to building up of the school system in Grand Rapids. Although Ball settled in Michigan for the remainder of his life, he went on many excursions related here - to the South after the Civil War, to visit with family in Europe, to return to his New Hampshire home.
Item #9019086-1/8 x 8-3/4”, dark green cloth with gilt titling and decoration, xi, 231pp, frontis. illus., 7 full-page illustrations in the text.
A bit of mild toning to leaves, clean of owner’s marks, square, crisp, near fine in very good dust wrapper with most of front flap neatly excised and a bit of light edge-wear, in protective mylar.
Price: $75.00