Purcell Dow Ball (1892-1968)

From the Schenectady Gazette, December 20, 1968.

  Obscure Saratoga County, New York resident Purcell Dow Ball served one term as mayor of the village of Ballston Spa in the mid-1940s, having never before been active politically. Following his term, he served as a Ballston Spa village trustee for several years. The son of Simon and Carrie (Becker) Ball, Purcell Dow Ball was born on December 28, 1892, in Albany, New York. Little is known of Ball's early life and education and by 1919 had resettled in Saratoga County, New York.

  Purcell D. Ball married in November 1919 in Saratoga to Ada G. Green, who would survive him upon his death in 1968. The couple had two children, including a son, William J. Purcell Ball and his wife would move to Ballston Spa following their marriage, where Purcell would work at farming, and later was employed by the American Hide and Leather Co., where he would be a foreman in the business's shipping department.

  After decades of residence in Ballston Spa, Purcell D. Ball was drafted into local politics for the first time in March 1945 when he was named as the mayoral candidate for the newly established Citizens' Party. On March 20th Ball and the Citizen's Party emerged victorious at the polls, defeating six-year Republican incumbent Wright Scidmore by a vote of 812 to 784.

  Early in his mayoralty Ball assumed the role of honorary chairman of the Ballston Spa spring clean-up campaign, and in April 1945 issued a village-wide proclamation upon the death of President Franklin Roosevelt, declaring April 14 to be a day of mourning, and that "all business places be closed" during the hours of the president's funeral. Ball's term as mayor concluded in 1947 and in 1950 was appointed as a member of the board of village trustees, filling a vacancy. He would serve in that capacity into the mid-1950s and in 1951 held the additional office of sewer commissioner for the village.

From the Saratogian, February 17, 1949.

  Purcell Ball retired from the American Hide and Leather Co. in 1955 and continued to reside in Ballston Spa until his death at the Benedict Memorial Hospital in that village on December 18, 1968, ten days short of his 76th birthday. He was survived by his wife and children and was later buried at the Powell-Wiswall Cemetery in West Milton, Saratoga County, New York.

From the December 20, 1968 Schenectady Gazette.