\t\t\t\tJOHN BALL FAMILY<\/p>\n
\u201cBuilder of the first golf course west\u201d<\/p>\n
In several publications during the 1920\u2019s in the northwest, John Ball, the veteran golf course builder, is referred to as the \u201cbuilder of the first golf course west of the Mississippi\u201d. This article focuses on proving or disproving this statement is correct. In order to accomplish this task, the article provides a brief history for pre 1900 golf in Minnesota. When John Ball moved to Seattle in 1901 his name appeared in the history of Northwest golf until his retirement in 1935. This research identifies the courses John Ball and his son Ray Ball constructed and or designed in the northwest. His other sons and relatives also worked in the northwest as professionals and greenskeepers. In short, the extended Ball family played a significant role in the development of golf in the northwest.<\/p>\n
JOHN BALL<\/p>\n
Born 1845 in Cheadle, Staffordshire, John was the oldest child of 5 born to James and Ann Ball. Unlike his father, a painter, John became involved in the gardening\/landscaping business at age fifteen. Interestingly in the 1881 British Census John described his profession as \u201cgentleman landscaper\u201d. \u00a0On April 27th<\/sup>, 1868 he married Jane Walker also a resident of Staffordshire. The couple had five children (Mary, John Jr, George, Flora and Percy before the family moved to St Paul Minnesota between 1885 \u2013 1887. Ray, the youngest child, was born in St Paul in 1889.<\/p>\n Judging by the range of dates the children listed in various census records, John moved his entire extended family to St Paul between 1885 \u2013 1887. Various golf articles in the 1920\u2019s stated John was \u201cthe English landscape gardener who arrived on the east coast began building golf courses and worked his way westward.\u201d Research has not uncovered any golf references for John Ball prior to 1895. After settling in St Paul Minnesota John began advertising his services in various local newspapers. The ad stated; \u201cJOHN BALL \u2013 Landscape Gardener Estimates given for laying out large parks, small lots. First-class grading, sodding, planting. Highest city references.\u201d Clearly, he had he capability for clearing the land, preparing a seed bed, and growing grass for a golf course. George Ball, John\u2019s oldest son, continued working with his Dad as a landscaper just as he had done in England. Percy worked as a day labourer his entire life. Research indicated, he worked mainly for his father and brother Ray on golf course construction and maintenance.<\/p>\n The Town & Country Club<\/p>\n In 1887 the socialites of St. Paul and Minneapolis formed the Town & Country Club (T&CC), a social club. Over the next six years the members introduced the latest sporting activity to their usual dining festivities.<\/p>\n While working as a social columnist for the St Paul Dispatch in the early 1890\u2019s , \u00a0Charles Hawkes published \u00a0a passing remark from William Peet to introduce golf to Minnesota. In 1893, \u201cPeet told Hawkes all the social news he could think of, then offhandedly suggested that Hawkes should write about golf. \u00a0Hawkes published a note stating that Peet was trying to introduce golf to the Town and Country Club.\u201d This passing remark started the T&CC members to consider playing golf rather than cycling. A local Scotsman George W. McCree read the article and offered to assist in the laying out of a golf course for the club. Perhaps the T&CC hired the local established landscaper, John Ball, to constructed the 1st<\/sup> course in 1893. Peet wrote in his 1930 recollection for the club\u2019 \u201cI toyed with the idea for a day or two and finally took McCree out to the Country Club with my lawn mower in the back of my runaboutand with the assistance orf the club\u2019s yardman, we cut the grass for the first green ever used for the game of golf west of New Jersey. Not more than a dozen played thew first summer (1893) nor more than two or three dozen the second. As popularity in the game grew the T&C members wanted a more challenging layout complete with hazards including sand bunkers. On August 25, 1895 The St Paul Globe described the new \u00a0second course layout \u201cThe new grounds are out near Governor Merriam\u2019s property. The ground possesses a natural hazard that is hard to beat in the shape of a ravine, and this, with two large bunkers which hain the direct line of play.\u201d According to the Town & country Club history, Fowble & Fitz surveyed and laid out the course. There is no mention John Ball constructed it. \u201cIn And probably the 2nd<\/sup> course.<\/p>\n Also at this time (September 14th<\/sup>, 1895) the Minneapolis Journal reported \u201ca golf club has been organized in Winona. Links have been secured in the West End and they will be laid out according to the rules of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of the success of the T&CC a group of citizens living in Minneapolis decided they should have their own links. Soon the Bryn Maer course opened. John Ball also claimed he constructed this course.<\/p>\n In 1899 William Watson arrived in Minneapolis to supervise the design and construction of the new Minikahda course. News accounts credit Ball as the builder.<\/p>\n When the Minnesota Golf Association formed on August 29th<\/sup>, 1901, the seven founding clubs included: Town & Country<\/em>,,St Paul; Minikahda Club<\/em>, Minneapolis ; Bryn Mawr Club<\/em>, Minneapolis; the Tapeta Golf Club, Faribault (the original private Peavy course constructed by Ball); the Rochester GC, Rochester; the Merriam Park Club, St Paul; and the Meadow-Brook Club, Winona. In 1903 the Northland CC of Duluth, the Minnetonka Ice Yacht club<\/em>, Minneapolis, and the Lafayette Club of Minneapolis. \u00a0Ball had constructed 6 of these courses. Including the first 2 for theT&C plus a 1900 renovation. Other courses that existed in 1901 included; Deephaven<\/em> (the original private Burton course constructed by Ball), Fergus Falls, and Janynesville. \u00a0In 1900 Ball travelled to Wisconsin to build the La Crosse<\/em> course. {Italic course built by John Ball)<\/p>\n MOVE to SEATTLE<\/p>\n John moved the entire family including sons daughters, spouses, and children from St Paul to Seattle in March 1901. He expanded his original advertisement he used in Minnesota to now include golf links \u201cLANDSCAPE GARDENING Grade lawns, plant shrubs, roses, prune, consult John Ball, landscape gardener. Golf links a specialty.\u201d The newly formed Seattle Golf club hired him to layout and constructed their new golf course at Laurelhurst on Lake Washington. \u201cOn this idyllic spot the club has spent a considerable sum in the construction of the link. The work has been under the charge of John Ball, a Scotch landscape gardener who has laid out attractive courses for leading clubs both in this country and his native land. \u00a0The course will be 2,400 yards long with a fair green fifty yards wide the entire length.\u201d George Ball, John\u2019s oldest son, \u00a0became the first greenskeeper for the Seattle Golf Club. As a side note George made an abrupt career move in 1903. He never worked or played golf again. Rather he purchased a brass foundry in Tacoma that produced brass equipment for the various railway companies that used Tacoma as their western terminal. The Ball Brass foundry Co. operated until George retired in 1950.<\/p>\n 1902 \u2013 1904 Ball used his experience working with the Minneapolis Parks Board to encourage an independent park board to oversee the parks for Seattle. At this time, he also served the University of Washington as their permanent landscaper. His son Percy listed his professional on all the Washington State census forms as a day laborer. Comments in various newspaper articles indicated Percy worked part time for his father or his brother Ray.<\/p>\n In August 1905 John left for Salt Lake City to design and construct the Country Club course. \u201cI have constructed a good many courses both in the East and West. But nowhere have the conditions seemed so favorable to making a wonderfully complete links. There are natural bunkers and hazards enough to bother the beginner, and the expert will not find the local course an easy one when it is finished. There will be no artificial bunkers put in the course at present, but will probably be added later to increase the difficulty for the golfer. I have utilized all of the streams, ditches, and other obstacles put on the course by nature. The course when completed will be 3000 yards in length. The holes vary from 175 yards to 520 yards.\u201d The course opened in July 1906.<\/p>\n In 1907 Robert Johnstone designed the new Seattle Golf Club permanent course in the \u201cHighlands\u201d location. Ball constructed the course. Work on the course began May 15, 1907 \u00a0and needed to be completed for the June 1909 Yukon Exposition tournament. On August 24th<\/sup>, 1919 the Seattle Times golf writer published a story criticizing John Ball\u2019s construction practices during the initial building of the Seattle GC in 1907. John\u2019s response provided valuable insight into the challenges facing golf course architects and builders in the Pacific Northwest. \u201cThe construction for the course began on May 15th<\/sup>, 1907. The building committee for the Seattle GC course wanted the course completed for the Yukon Exposition tournamnt scheduled for June 1909. I found acres to be cleared where, while creeping among the trees, one could not see the sunin the search for the greens. The slashers were provided with pocket compasses to run the lines and to ensure their safe return to the camp for dinner.<\/p>\n An open spot, about the center of the links was selected on the county road from which to attack the clearing job. From this spot the tools men and horses moved into the area to be cleared. An average of seventy-five men including two-night watchmen to guard the fires plus seventeen teams of two horses per team worked on the land. The crews felled the two \u2013 six foot cedar and fir trees. The stumps were blown. This was followed by two-horse stump \u2013 pullers which took out every large root. Men with grubbing axes followed and removed the small roots. When all were pulled and burned the holes were partly filled with earth so that the teams could walk through the cleared land and tramp down the surface. The land was then ploughed and stakes driven into the land whenever a root was encountered. The grubbers came back to remove the exposed roots. Rocks were drilled and blown. Harrows, levelers, and seeders followed the clearing. The work was all done including the seeding in 127 days.<\/p>\n I wondered who could have been more thorough than I was in the building of this course.\u201d<\/p>\n Here is a list List of courses designed\/constructed by John and Ray Ball:<\/p>\n Bellingham 1912; Aberdeen 1913; Meadow Park, 1915, Rainier 1918, Centralia 1923 ( resulted from a visit by John Sr with John Jr in 1921 ) ; 2nd<\/sup> city course West Seattle 1922; Mercer Island 1924; Olympia 1925; Willapa Harbor 1926; Queen Anne 1928; Steilacoom Lake 1928 Ray Ball design constructed by John Sr.; Allenmore 1931 Designed by Ray Built by John Sr.<\/p>\n Raymond Ball\u00a0 –<\/p>\n Ray Ball, John\u2019s youngest son, was born in St Paul, Minnesota in 1889. When the Ball family arrived to Seattle in April 1901, Ray, age 12, joined Robert Johnstone\u2019s pro shop staff. Ironically Ray never worked at the Seattle club as a caddie. At age nine John taught his youngest son Ray how to make golf clubs. By age 12 Ray was an experienced clubmaker. Bob Johnstone added him to his club making staff immediately. Ray\u2019s nephew, Bert Wilde, began his golf career as a caddie at the same time. (Bert\u2019s story appears later in this article). \u00a0On Nov 10,1910 \u00a0Ray married Rose Raunchy. Her brother James developed a golfing relationship with Ray that would create golf opportunities for James. (James\u2019 story appears in this article)<\/p>\n Raymond Ball, John\u2019s youngest son, and his Dad over the next twenty-five years designed and constructed a dozen golf courses in Washington. In many instances Ray designed the course and John constructed it. In some instances, such as at Gray\u2019s Harbor CC, John did the design and construction.<\/p>\n After graduating from high school Ray joined Tom Morris at Everett as the assistant golf course greenskeeper. After John completed the construction of the \u00a0Grays Harbour \u00a0course Ray assumed his first head professional position at the club. After two years he moved to the new Mountain View in Olympia. After his father completed the Meadow Park course, he assumed professional\/greenskeeper position at the fledgling course. His nephew, Bert Wlide, joined him as a teaching professional.<\/p>\n In 1917 Ray decided to pursue his golfing career in San Francisco under the famous golf professional MacDonald Smith at the Olympic club. During his eight years in CA he constructed and served as professional Byron Springs and Crystal Springs golf courses. Bert Wilde followed him to San Francisco in 1921. In 1925 he sought work in Hawaii. In 1925 he returned to Centralia WA for a family reunion at his older brother\u2019s home 1926. At that time his father had convinced John Jr. to start a golf club for Centralia. John, served the community, as the owner of the main grocery store for the area. His father constructed the course for the locals. Ray served the club as greenskeeper\/professional for a few months prior to moving to Fircrest. Ironically Ray assumed the Fircrest position after his former Everett CC boss Tom morris left.<\/p>\n In 1928 Ray and John designed and constructed the Steilacoom Lake golf course. In 1931 Ray left Fircrest to fulfill his golf passion for teaching especially new golfers. He opened the Tacoma Golf Studio. In a typical year he gave over 1000 lessons to new and old puplis. Among his noteworthy students included: Chuck Hunter Wa state champion BC amateur champion, PNGA champion. In 1932 Ray and his father collaborated on the design and construction on the Allenmore golf course.<\/p>\n Albert (Bert) Wild<\/p>\n While living in St Paul John\u2019s oldest daughter Flora married Wilde. Bert was born in 1899, one year after Ray, Flora\u2019s brother. Bert, and his uncle Ray began their golf careers entered the golf business at the Seattle Golf Club. Bert started as a caddy and then progressed to the club making section \u00a0with Ray in Johnstone\u2019s pro shop. \u00a0STORY shipment \u00a0Bert joined Ray as an assistant at Meadow Park in 1917. When Ray left for California Bert assumed the head professional job. He followed Ray to California 1921. When Ray moved to Crystal Springs Bert assumed the vacant job at Byron Springs. Six months later he moved to Burlingame CC. \u00a0Burlingame CC. When Ray decided to try Hawaii Bert soon followed. After too much sun Bert returned to Washington to join the Bellingham Golf Club. In 1912 his grandfather had constructed the course. During his decade tenure at Bellingham he accumulated an impressive playing record winning\u00a0 the Oregon Open (1926), the Washington State and the Pacific northwest Opens (1930).In 1936 the Wilde\u2019s moved to Chicago to work for the Westward Ho GC. . Earl Wilde, Bert\u2019s son, was the Chicago District juniors medalist and semi-finalist in 1939 , the \u00a0Chicago City Amateur Champion 1946, the Illinois State Champion, 1946. He turned professional in 1947. He worked\u00a0 in the Chicago area \u00a0for varus clubs as a head professional.<\/p>\n Research indicated Bert moved from Chicago in 1940 and resurfacesd in 1949 in Kansas as the head professional at Garden City 1949 1950. And Emporia GC 1952.The remainder of the years until his death in 1970 he worked\u00a0 in Texas at many clubs including at Pampa CC (1948), Paducah CC, 1950, Meadowbrok GC 1954<\/p>\n James Raunchy<\/p>\n Like his relatives, Ray and Bert, he began his golf career as a caddy at the Seattle GC. His first professional position was at Lochburn in Tacoma. Around 1930 \u00a0he followed his brither in law Ray to to San Francisco. \u00a0He formed a parrtnership with an established California professional Alex Hay. In 1930 the two patented the first indoor golf course complete with real sand bunkers. Depending on the space available, the course comprised 4- 6 holes ranging between 50 \u2013 75 yards in length. Research indicated Jim totally disappeared from the golf scene around 1935. He died in 1954 on the streets of San Francisco totally destitute.<\/p>\n This article shows the Vancouver CC at Jericho Beach formed in Nov 1892 is the 0ldest golf club not golf course west of the Mississippi River. Several areas west of the Mississippi claim to have the first golf course west of the Mississippi.<\/p>\n The BC Golf Museum is on the search for any golf clubs with markings showing members of the Ball family. For example John Ball, Ray Ball, Bert Wild, James Raunchy.<\/p>\n Contact the Museum at email: office@bcgolfhouse.com\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" JOHN BALL FAMILY \u201cBuilder of the first golf course west\u201d In several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itbcpro.ca\/bcgolfhouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}