Tags
cousins, DuPage, Gayle Neuhaus, Illinois, Levi Ballou, Lillian Nind, Nind, Robert O. Ballou, Wheaton
OK, Cousins, I found it…the treasure, the mother lode!!
So, for the first time ever on the internet, for your viewing pleasure, I present to you…
The Ballou Family Farm
I received these pictures from my father, who received them from my grandfather, Robert O. Ballou. They were taken circa 1903, and were glued to some pages in a photo album. I only have some pages; no album. The farm was located in Milton Township, near Wheaton, DuPage County, Illinois. Levi Ballou and wife, Mary, first lived there with their family. After Levi and Mary were gone, son, Augustus and his sister, Mary, sold off part of the land.
An important transfer of land has just occurred in the County of Dupage, the County Commissioners buying,for $9,000, 120 acres of land three-quarters of a mile from Wheaton, on its southwest border, for the purpose of establishing a poor farm and insane asylum, a home for incurables. The property is a portion of what is known as the “Old Ballou Farm,” and was sold for the Ballou estate by Gus Ballou and Mrs. Ira Brown.
The Commissioners will build handsome improvement on the property right away.
[Daily Inter Ocean, Aug. 18, 1888; p 10]
Augustus and his wife, Lillian Nind, raised their children on the property that was left from the sale. There, Gus raised and sold chickens all over Illinois and to other parts of the country. About 3 months after his 8th child was born, Augustus was killed by a train.
A.M. Ballou, a wealthy farmer living near Wheaton, Ills., was run over by a train while driving across the railroad track at Wheaton.
[The Morning Star, Nov. 30, 1892, p. 7]
Lillian and the children stayed on the farm until the last child, Robert, was ready to go to college.
George Plamondon has purchased from the Jas H. Hill estate the Spring Brook farm living directly across the road from the Chicago Golf club, also the old Ballou farm on the Batavia road now occupied by Louis Schultz. The Spring Brook farm consists of thirty one acres with a large house and barn.The Ballou farm has seventy-six acres with farm buildings.
The purchase price for both properties was $30,000. Harry B.Tufts made the sale. …Hinsdale Doings Jan 1908
[Online Search, Illinois, DuPage County Cemetery Records, Newspaper Abstracts, Genealogical Information from the Hinsdale Doings; from Gayle Neuhaus]
The present home and property was eventually turned into a golf course and the land where the barn stood became a polo farm.
A Few Nuts From The Tree 
Anne, how wonderful to see the house that your Augustus and my Augusta grew up in.
I’m so glad I found the pictures. I’ve been hunting for them for some time and thought they were lost. I have more I will post here or send to you over the weekend.