From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Ball, William Baton
(born: 1839 - died: 1923) William Baton Ball, a former enslaved person, was born in Danville, KY and graduated from Oberlin College. He served in the U.S. Army, 99th Division, 149th Regiment. Later he moved to Texas where in 1871 he formed a reserve militia, 25th Regiment Company K in Seguin, Guadalupe County.That same year, Ball and Leonard Ilsley, a white minister, established Abraham Lincoln School, the first school for African Americans in Guadalupe County. He also helped found the Negro Baptist College.
Ball served as pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Seguin. A street and a school in Seguin are named in his honor.
For more see William B. Ball, by N. Thompson in The Handbook of Texas; and A Sure Foundation, by A. W. Jackson.
