The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-09-07
.W|LLIAMBALL|NGER
DIES IN CHICAGO
We'll Known keokuk Business Man
Answered Call in the Presby-
terian Hospital in That
City.
UNDERWENT OPERATION
Body VIII Arrive Here Friday Morn
lng-Decedent Spent Most
Of His Life
Here.

William Bauinger, president of the
Keokuk Canning company and one OF
Keokuk's leading citizens, passed
! away at the Presbyterian hospital IN
! Chicago at SO o'clock this morning.
Mr.. Ballinger was taken to the hos
pital the first part of the week and
underwent an operation for cancer on
! Tuesday.
The body will be brought to Keo-
kuk tomorrow morning and will be
taken to the home Of the ,decedent
at 223 Morgan street.
/ In Mr.. Ballinger's death Keokuk
has lost a citizen that she could Ill
afford to spare. Although Mr. Bal
linger had lived here for almost all
of the seventy-two years of his life
and had worked long and successfully
for the good Of the city, there was
still much need for such life as
his, filed so full of usefulness and
activity. His family had come here
during the early history of the towns
frst prosperity and had been identi-
fed with it's growing life. He him
self had fought for the union when
he was only boy, going back after
! the conclusion Of the war to finish
his education at the University OF
Kentucky, and in 1857 had come to
Keokuk to settle permanently and to
practice law. The progress OF Keo-
kuk since that date-and Keokuk has
come a long way in forty-nine years
progress in the way of increasing the
business activity of the city, of beau
tifying it, of building up it's religious
life, has all been associated with the
name of William Ballinger. Such
| further advance as Keokuk is to make
must go forward on the foundations
laid by men of his sort, men who
saw the opportunity and who labored
quietly and faithfully to lay the cor
ner-stone of a finer and a greater city.
Born In Kentucky.
| William Ballinger was born in Ken
lucky, at Barbourville, Knox county,
on the tenth Of March, 1874. His
| father, Frank Ballinger, was lawyer,
| later a judge and member OF the
state legislature of Kentucky. He
moved to Harrodsburg, Kentucky,
1 when William Ballinger was two
years old Ills law practice was OF
! the pioneer fashion when court was
not held in one or two established
places, but the whole cavalcade of
| judges, lawyers and clerks travelled
on horseback through the wood roads
from place to place of their circuit.
| In the year 1853, Frank Ballinger
came to Iowa upon the advice of
Judge Samuel F. Miller who had read
law with Mr. Ballinger. The family
resided on what is still known as the
Ballinger homestead at Sandusky,
half way between Keokuk and Mont
rose. William Ballinger was nine
years old at tho time OF their coming
here. He grew up on the home farm
and was a student at the district
schools.
! He was eighteen when the war
broke out and ON the ninth of August,
1862, enlisted in Company A, Nine
lteenth Iowa volunteer infantry. He
entered as a private, but on account
of bravery won rapid prom otton, be-
coming first sergeant, then orderly
sergeant and finally second lieuten-
ant. He was often In command OF a
company and always proved gallant
and fearless leader. In spite of his
youth and in spite Of the demoraliz-
ing influence of army life as it was
In that day, he maintained through
out the three years Of his service
that absolute integrity and upright
ness of character that have marked
him through all his life.
His Army Life.
He took pat in the engagement of
Prairie Grow, Arkansas, where one
hundred and ninety-eight men out of
three hundred in his regiment were
lost in killed and wounded. Follow
ing this battle he was in raid on
Van Buren, and Fort Smith, Arkansas,
and was present at the siege and fall
Of Vicksburg. His stories of the hard.
! ships of that long struggle of the
broiling, unshaded rif1e-pits, Of the
relentless wearing out of the bonn.