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Silent City 2023: Professor and Mrs. A.H. Ballard J.D. and Ellen Zornes portrayed Professor and Mrs. A. H. Ballard in front of the large crowd of folks who came to walk the historic Columbia Cemetery in Silent City last week. The notes from their presentation follow: Professor and Mrs. A. H. Ballard I love to come here to this Silent City where I can visit several of my brothers, their wives and my cousins all together here in the same place. Of course, my parents are buried at Crocus, where I was born. I was born Mary Patience but was called "Mollie" Miller on January 16, 1870, in Crocus, Adair County, Kentucky. I was the 4th child of 11 and the 1st daughter of James Preston Miller, Sr.and Sarah Ann McClure Miller. My mother, Sarah McClure Miller, grew up in Swan Pond Bottom which was on a bend in the Cumberland River of Russell County, not too far from Creelsboro and Crocus. Swan Pond Bottom has high bluffs and one particularly high bluff got a name many years ago as 'Jump Off'. It got that name because a young man was so despondent over losing his sweetheart, that he climbed to the top of the bluff and jumped off killing himself. My father was one of the monied Miller family who resided in and owned the lands of the community of Crocus, in Adair County and situated right by the Adair and Russell County line. You know, the Miller family first settled in the Mid-West where we became monied by owning lots of farms. Then we came East to Kentucky in the late 1700's and established Millersburg, which later became Crocus. During the depression, however, we lost our land holdings in the Mid-West but we still owned a lot of land in Russell and Adair Counties. In fact, we owned so much land, that my grandfather could ride a horse from Crocus to the county seat of Russell County without ever leaving his own property. And speaking of Crocus and my family, probably many of our guests here today will have seen my brother, Bryan Simms Miller's Homeplace that still stands in Crocus, KY on the site of the original homeplace. Bryan rolled the original homestead and built a resplendent home on the site in Crocus. Many of you will remember it as the Marvin and Edith Spickard home. Edith was my niece and the baby daughter of B.S. Miller. The home is now owned by Edith's daughter, Sheila. Another Miller home place just across the way in Crocus, was built by another of my brothers, Albert Adam Miller. His daughter, Mary Irene Miller, my name sake and my favored niece, had a little kitten that she didn't want to be scared so she left a lit candle in a little room under the stairs. Well, the house caught on fire and burned to the ground, leaving only the foundation. Fortunately, no one perished in the fire. Of course, Albert had to have the house rebuilt but in 1928 Albert sold his home place and removed his family from Crocus to Columbia. He bought the Columbia Highlands house from Arthur and me. Oh, Albert's daughter who burned the house down, well, it was definitely not her time to die since Mary Irene Miller is better known as Mrs. Irene Nell, a well-known and respected Columbia businesswoman who died just last year at ripe old age of 107. Now my brother Bryan's son, Dr. J. W. Miller, a doctor in Greensburg, bought up a lot of the Albert Miller land including Albert's rebuilt homeplace and acreage with it that lay across the road in Crocus. Dr. J.W. Miller gifted 150 acres to his eldest son, Paul Miller, because he was moving to Adair County from Frankfort to be the Supervisor of the new Water District for this whole, several counties, area. Now Paul got the house because he was bringing his 'with child' wife and their young son and would need a place to raise his family. The acreage was covered in trees and ponds which suited Paul just fine. His wife, Paula Calhoun Miller, also of Greensburg didn't think it was nearly as wonderful as Paul did. But they got the house fixed up by a talented young carpenter by the name of Harvey whose teenage son helped his father clean up and was kind of learning the trade. Paul Miller died just a few years ago but he is survived by his wife, the incomparable Paula Miller. And then, long before my great-great nephew, Paul, moved to Crocus, I was a young woman who was teaching in Columbia and that is when I met Professor Arthur Henry Ballard and we were married in 1894. I am Arthur Henry Ballard and I was 20 years old when I came to Columbia from Tupper Plains, Ohio, on the northern border. I was a professor with four years of college. I came to Columbia to accept a teaching position at the Male and Female (M&F) High School. The school was funded and built by a group of Adair Countians, but they turned it over to the Transylvania Presbyterian Diocese to manage the school. I was a Presbyterian and probably through that connection, I heard about the school. In its early years it was a private school with tuition and lodging for boarders with up to 300 male and female students from the South, North and in Kentucky. By the time I came in 1885, it probably had less than 100 students. I met my wife, Mollie Miller, who was also teaching at the school. We married in 1894 and had no children. In addition to M&F, we also taught at other schools, private and public, in other surrounding counties. In 1900, I leased M&F school and operated it as its principal through May of 1901. By this time, the student population had dropped to thirty and there was competition with similar private schools in Greensburg as well as in Adair County and with the Lindsey Wilson Training School. In 1908, after the school had as its principal, the local Presbyterian minister, the school was conveyed to the local school district. For the next ten years, I taught in high schools, became active in Democratic politics along with my wife Mollie, who was very involved with our local Democratic Woman's Club and was twice elected its president, was elected mayor and because of my aptitude for math, became a surveyor. In 1910, I became involved with a Mr. Weddle and Mr. Meyer, and we purchased an energy and supply generator that provided electricity and lights for the city of Columbia. During WWI, I was the head electrician at Fort Knox, which was an Army training camp. In 1918, I became the local franchise for the Delco Electric Generator. This was designed to provide electricity to small farms for Adair and surrounding counties. Thanks to Franklin D. Roosevelt and his support for the Rural Eectric Assistance Act, my president put me out of business but brought much needed electricity at an affordable price to farmers all across America. It was during this year that Mollie and I became active in the newly forming Red Cross. We were instrumental in starting a Chapter here in Adair County. Judge Hurt and I would speak and Mollie and a couple of the other ladies, would canvas the meeting and take memberships. It was also around this time that due to my knack with numbers, I became involved with real estate and along Mollie began building homes. The early homes that we built were in a cottage, bungalow style and built on land in the Highlands of Adair County but still close to Columbia proper. These same skills later allowed me to be a Special Commissioner for the Adair Circuit Court in the sale and division of real estate, including Mollie's mother's holdings. I also served to value real estate and in a budgetary position at different times for the City of Columbia and Adair County. Life wasn't all dull work, Mollie and I took trips to the Kentucky State Fair, to Florida and other destinations. We would also spend time on our farm in Russell County as well. I did fairly well professionally, but the prosperity of Mollie's family certainly helped. And then, on one of those coveted trips that I, Mollie, had been able to take with my brother, Bryan, and nephew, Dr. J.W. Miller and his wife, things took a bad turn and at the age of only 69 years, I died of apoplexy on January 28, 1939, while in Jacksonville, Florida. But possibly our crowning achievement in house building was the beautiful brick, colonial style house up at the top of Jamestown Hill called the Boomer Heights area. We built that magnificent house for the sum of $5,000 in 1932. That was a lot of money but the house was well built and has stood the test of time. After Arthur died, the house was sold in 1947 at auction to settle our estate. It sold for $12,710 to Mollie's nephew and his wife, Russell and Loraine Pickett Miller. When Russell and Loraine Pickett married, Mollie made the comment, "Russell married that poor little girl from Greensburg and they'll never amount to anything." In 1942, during WWII, Russell and Loraine moved to the Ann Arbor Michigan area where they worked at the Bomber Plant. Russell wired airplanes and Loraine fixed oxygen masks. While there, they had a daughter, Susan. The Millers heard that Aunt Mollie's house was going to be auctioned and so they made their way back to Columbia, daughter in tow, for the express purpose of buying the house. It was sold at auction - changed hands 3 times during the auction. E. Campbell bought it first, then went to George Staples but finally ended with my nephew, Russell Miller and his wife, Loraine...the ones who would never amount to anything owning it. I was wrong. Russell was an electrician and while working for the state, installed Columbia's first stop light at the top of Jamestown Hill. Loraine, became a well-respected Adair County teacher and their daughter, Susan Upchurch, followed in her footsteps. It was a very large house and upstairs rooms had been made into apartments. The downstairs, also very large, was divided into two dwellings. The upstairs was occupied by such well known people as Dr. Millard C. and Harriet Loy while he was attending LWC, by Mr. Hubert and Billie Jo Edwards and Mr. Cotton and Virginia Phelps occupied the main floor with the Millers. Later, when the house was given another life and turned into United Citizens Bank, Bank President, Matthew Loy, made his grandparents apartment area his office. And the remodeling, carpentry work was done by the Paul Millers' carpenter Harvey's son, Terry. All grown up and considered the best around these parts. Arthur, how we have gone on. We're going to be late for the Red Cross meeting. Let me tidy the kitchen. Oh, I love these dishes. And I understand that my favorite niece, Mary Irene, had them and gave them to her daughter Sue. Well, come on, Arthur. Let's go. Let me get my speaking papers together. I think I'm speaking before Judge Rollin Hurt again. Now that man can stir up the crowd. This story was posted on 2023-10-16 21:59:03
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