Do you know of Ballard ???
This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about Ballard. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with Ballard.
Our sources for Ballard (see Mentions and References below) indicate that it was a community with a post office by the same name. Unfortunately our sources aren't clear about the location of Ballard other than they indicate that Ballard would be found somewhere in McLean County, Illinois.
From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened in 1883 and closed in 1931.
This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.
Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.
Communities Also Named Ballard ...
We found eighteen communities that share the name Ballard.
Within Illinois, the name Ballard is unique.
Beyond Illinois, we know of another eighteen communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Sharp County
- Please visit our profile page for the Arkansas community of Ballard [Sharp County].
- California
- Santa Barbara County
- Please visit our profile page for the California community of Ballard [Santa Barbara County].
- Florida
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Maryland
- Prince George's County
- Please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Ballard [Prince George's County].
- Massachusetts
- Mississippi
- Madison County
- Please visit our profile page for the Mississippi community of Ballard [Madison County].
- Missouri
- Bates County
- Please visit our profile page for the Missouri community of Ballard [Bates County].
- North Carolina
- Martin County
- Please visit our profile page for the North Carolina community of Ballard [Martin County].
- Oklahoma
- Adair County
- Please visit our profile page for the Oklahoma community of Ballard [Adair County].
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
- King County
- Please visit our profile page for the Washington community of Ballard [King County].
- West Virginia
- Monroe County
- Please visit our profile page for the West Virginia community of Ballard [Monroe County].
Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Ballard ...
We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about Ballard:
Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<2>
Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.
A note taken from the Shipper's Guide for Ballard - Services available: had a Post Office, no Railroad mentioned
Rand McNally Map of Illinois (1897)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.
SPV's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - Great Lakes West
Written by: Walker, Mike
Published by Steam Powered Video (SPV), 2005
(Available from Amazon.com)
The FIPS database contains an entry for Ballard.
Referenced FIPS Records ...
FIPS Code: 17/03532 (Place Name: Ballard)
County: McLean (FIPS State/County: 17/113)
Class: U8
Identifies a populated place (in this case, Ballard) located wholly or substantially outside the boundaries of an incorporated place or CDP (Census Designated Place) but whose name has not been verified as authoritative by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
More Orphans in McLean County ...
Can you help?
As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in McLean County.
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer. Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name. Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time. Also keep in mind that Ballard could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <2> | A copy of their list with background information can be found at: https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/ |