John Ball was born November 12, 1794 at Hebron, New Hampshire, near Newfoundland Lake. He received a common school education, and in 1816 entered Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1820. After graduation, he went to Lansingburgh, New York, to study law and in 1824 was admitted to the New York bar. In 1827 he was elected to the office of justice of the peace of Utica, New York.

On January 1, 1832, Ball left Baltimore by way of the Ohio River and a trip west. Reaching Independence, Missouri, he joined a party of eighty men with a caravan of three hundred horses and mules. He went through the South Pass ten years before John C. Fremont, and after four months landed at Fort Vancouver, ninety miles from the mouth of the Columbia River, where he met Dr. McLaughlin. Ball taught school to Indian children and was the first white teacher in what afterwards became the state of Oregon. In the spring of 1833 he moved to Portland, Oregon and farmed sixteen acres of wheat.

He sold his wheat and used the proceeds to return to New York, by way of San Francisco, then to the Sandwich Islands (now the Hawaiian Islands) where he met some American friends, then around Cape Horn, reaching his hometown 2.5 years after he left.

In 1836 he came to Michigan via canal boat to Buffalo, lake vessel to Detroit, and on to Grand Rapids by horseback. He returned to New York the same year very much impressed with the possibilities of Grand Rapids. In 1837 he returned to Grand Rapids with $10,000 to invest for friends.

In his business life he was associated with such well known pioneers as Louis Campau, A.D. Rathbone, Rix Robinson, Louis Lyon, S.C. Withey and many others. Always interested in the welfare of his neighbors, his home was the gathering place for many social functions, where school, economic and political matters were discussed. In January 1838 he was appointed to the House of Representatives of the Grand River District, including Ottawa, Kent, Ionia, and Clinton Counties. In politics he was a conservative Democrat and cast his first vote for General Jackson.

In 1841, the United States Congress having granted 500,000 acres of land to Michigan for internal improvements, Ball was chosen by Governor Barry to make the selection. The majority of these lands were selected and purchased near Grand Rapids, and since land warrants could be bought for about forty cents on the dollar, a speedy settlement of the Grand River Valley resulted.

Ball was interested in schools, geology, lyceums and local enterprises. He opened a law office and had as partners at various times, George Martin, formerly Chief Justice of Michigan, and Solomon L. Withey, late United States District Judge. From 1852 until his death, February 5, 1884, he was the senior member of the firm of Ball & McKee.

In 1852 Ball married Mary T. Webster, of Plymouth, New Hampshire, they had ten children.