The journey that brought the Ball family to Georgia is one that many families made during the early 1800s. Peter Ballâs father, William, was born in Virginia and made his way to South Carolina; Peter Ball and his family moved from South Carolina to Georgia in the 1830s when land became available after the forced removal of the Native Americans.
John W. Ball sits for a portrait on his 75th birthday at his farm on Roswell Road in 1915. SPECIAL
Peter Ball married Margaret Robertson in 1828 in South Carolina. He accumulated a large amount of land, according to the Georgia Property Tax Digest. In 1848, he is listed as owning over 1,000 acres in the Shallow Ford District of DeKalb County, which is now Dunwoody. Over the next 10 years, he also amassed over 900 acres in the Oak Grove District of Fulton County, in todayâs Sandy Springs.