Ballew, Bellew, Balew, Ballowe, Belue, Blue, Belyou, Balliew, Ballou, Blew, Beleau, Ballow, Belyeu, Balough, Balloo, Billue.... these are various spellings of related families. One historian relates "... Ballou, Ballowe, Belew, etc of Virginia or the southern branch, and the New England or northern Ballous are of the same family, emigrants to America in the early 17th century...descended from Wittekind or Widukind the Great, last king and first duke of Angria, a great military leader who had warred with Charlemagne. In 785 Widukind and his lieutenant Abbio...were baptized with Charlemagne acting as Godfather.

​

The earliest Ballews that have been traced for my family (with reasonable certainly) is Marvel and Heathy Belew, born 1815 in South Carolina. In the 1860 Federal Census of Roane County, Tennessee, this couple is found showing South Carolina as their place of birth. Also listed is their son, among several other children, William Decatur Ballew. William Decatur Ballew, my gg-grandfather, is also found in that census, and in a later census for that county is found our great grandfather, William Andrew Ballew. William Andrew's mother died in Tennessee, and his father, William Decatur married again. The family moved to Douglas County, Missouri. William Decatur Ballew is said to have died in 1911 in Bryant, Missouri.

 

William Decatur Ballew (Belew) was first married to Lurina J. Devers on 7 May 1857. (See marriage record.)  Lurina died in 1879, and in 1880 he married Malissa Jane Bray. Each of the women bore 10 children, if I have the count right.  My great-grandfather, William Andrew, was the fourth child of William and Lurina's. He was born in 1864.

 

William Andrew had evidently had experience with the railroad in Roane County, TN before moving to Missouri, and continued this line of work for most of his life. He moved to Mansfield, Missouri in Oregon County. There he married Matilda Melvina Tippy of Mansfield. The couple later moved to Koshkonong, Missouri where our grandmother, Eva Ballew, a twin, was born in 1894. William and Melvina are both buried in Lanton, Missouri.

 

Eva Ballew married Everette Lingle, and after 1915 the couple moved to Siloam Springs, Arkansas located near the state line of Oklahoma. She and Everette had six children: Ella Iola, Willie Naomi, Gladys Lucille, Everette, Jr. (Buck), and Jimmy Andrew. The couple lived in various locations in and around Siloam Springs, and Adair County, Oklahoma during the remaining course of their lives with the exception that they lived a short time near Drumright, Oklahoma in the early 1950's. They both died while residing in Watts, Adair County, Oklahoma, and are buried in the Oak Hill cemetery in Siloam Springs.