Beaufort Watts Ball

• American

White Supremacist

Col Beaufort Watts Ball was an attorney, Confederate Army veteran, member of the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1865, State Representative, Intendant of Laurens, Solicitor of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, and Laurens County Democratic Party Chairman. He was a strong supporter of Wade Hampton and frequently hosted political meetings at the villa during the Red Shirt campaign. In the late 1880s Col Ball purchased a weekly newspaper, the Laurens Adyertiser, and became its editor. When his health became poor, the paper was edited by his son and daughter, William Watts Ball and Sarah Ball (later Copeland). William Watts Ball (1868-1952) purchased the paper in 1890 and served as its editor for three years, beginning a prominent publishing career. He later served as editor of The State newspaper in Columbia (1913-23) and the Charleston News and Courier. He was author of The State That Forgot, a book about South Carolina. - NRHP