Hosea Faxon Ballou (1799-1881) was born in Dana, Massachusetts. He married in 1817 and he and his wife Mary had ten children. Ballou began theological studies under the Rev. Benjamin Whittemore in 1832 and was ordained in Boston in 1833. For nearly fifty years he was a man of enormous religious influence in southern Vermont. In addition to his pastoral duties, he served as the Whitingham, Vermont, town clerk for seventeen years; was twice elected to the Vermont State Constitutional Convention; served in the Vermont State Legislature, and was president of the Wilmington (Vt.) Savings Bank for seven years. He died in Wilmington, Vermont.
From the guide to the Ballou, Hosea Faxon. Papers, ca. 1835-1871., (Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School)
