Frank Wade Ballard was born in New York City on November 7, 1827. He grew up and attended school in New York City, and he began work at a dry goods store. He spent three years working as a farmer in Iowa before returning to New York City. He married Anna J. Marten on February 9, 1853, and they had at least five children: William, born around 1857; Frank, born around 1860; Charles, born around 1862; Anna, born around 1864; and Sumner, born around 1866. In the late 1850s, he helped organize the Importers and Traders’ Insurance Company, and he served as its secretary. By 1860, he owned $600 of personal property.

 

He supported the Republican Party, and he acted as corresponding secretary of the New York Young Men’s Republican Union. He also served as vice president of the Metropolitan Temperance League and secretary of the New York Young Men’s Christian Association. According to an early biographer, he “became intimate with [Abraham] Lincoln, [Charles] Sumner, [William] Seward, and Horace Greeley.”

 

In September 1862, he received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in the 176^th New York Infantry. The regiment was “raised under the auspices of the Young Men’s Christian Association.” According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 6 ½ inches tall, with brown hair and dark eyes. He served as a regimental quartermaster, and he mustered out on December 30, 1862.

 

He moved to Darien, Connecticut, in the 1860s, and he worked as an editor there. By 1870, he owned $6,000 of real estate and $1,500 of personal property. He returned to New York City in the 1870s, and he worked on the editorial staffs of the New York Mail and the Commercial Bulletin. He reportedly specialized in “insurance matters.” He died of pneumonia in New York City on April 23, 1887.

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