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On June 18, the National Park Service resumed public tours for The Wayside in Concord, best known as the most literary house in America – the childhood home of Louisa May Alcott inspiring “Little Women;” the only house ever owned by Nathaniel Hawthorne; and a landmark protected by Harriett Lothrop, author of “Little Peppers” (pen name Margaret Sydney) until the property was incorporated into Minuteman National Park in 1965.
However, there is another story about the earlier history of The Wayside, related to the Ball Family, current residents of Walpole.
Recently, Chuck Ball and his daughter and wife toured the 300-year ancestral home, which has been closed for almost two years for repair.
Ball is a descendent of the original 3-acre property owner, Nathaniel Ball, Sr. (1625-1705), who immigrated to America as a child, landing in Boston around 1635 with his father and brother.
According to records of The New England Ball Project, a private effort to exhaustively record the genealogy of the Ball Family, Nathaniel of Concord is Ball’s 9x great grandfather.
The Ball ownership of the property dates back to 1666, per the 2008 Cultural Landscape Report by Deborah Dietrich-Smith. The colonial home may have been built as early as 1688 by second-generation Nathaniel Ball (1663-1725).
On the NPS tour, guests view four original rooms: the foyer and stairway, living room, and dining room on the first floor, and master bedroom upstairs entered from the next century addition by Nathaniel Hawthorne, featuring his Sky Parlor where Hawthorne did his writing.
The Ball Family sold the home in 1717, deeded to Samuel Fletcher who later sold to revolutionist Samuel Whitney hosting house guest John Winthrop, son of the Bay Colony Governor Winthrop and President of Harvard College during the one year classes were held in Concord, not Cambridge.
On April 19, 1775, Whitney was the owner of the home as the British soldiers marched by the front door on Battle Road (Rt.20) toward North Bridge, Concord.
Two Ball generations lived their entire life in Concord. The next generation left Concord for new towns in Hollis and later Temple, NH, both part of Hillsborough County.
The great-grandson of Nathaniel of Concord, also named Nathaniel Ball (1717-1814) is recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) for Patriotic Service, Lexington Alarm, April 19, 1775. Later relatives served and accepted Military land grants – Revolutionary soldier Nathaniel Jr. (1751-1805) of MA-NH-NY; and Civil War soldier James H. (1835-1928) of NY-MI. The Ball Family still has strong ties to Northern Michigan today where James accepted his land grant.
The National Park Service Grand Reopening of the Wayside took place June 25. The Ball Family participated in the official event.
Mary Alice McMorrow, wife of Charles L. Ball, Jr, is researching the Ball Family history to complement her own family tree. The Ball Family ties to colonial Concord, MA and The Wayside home were not known, until discovered with resources at the National Park Service, Concord Free Library, Concord Museum, The New England Ball Project, and the community on Ancestry.
com.
