Early Years
Edward Ball was born at Ball's Neck in Northumberland County, Virginia and educated in the one-room Shiloh Schoolhouse. After completing primary school, he convinced his father to let him quit school and get a job. He had always been obsessed with making money; at one time, he prospected for gold in Alaska. However, when Ball's older sister, Jessie Ball became the third wife of Alfred I. du Pont in 1921, Edward was given the chance of a lifetime. He began working for his brother-in-law in 1923 at the lofty salary of $5,000 a year, and moved to Delaware where he was publicly named manager of the Clean Food Products Company. Privately, he was Mr. du Pont’s confidential business partner and became a shrewd financier and caretaker of the du Pont de Nemours estate fortune. After Jessie & Alfred moved to Florida in 1926, Edward joined them.
Read more about this topic: Edward Ball (businessman)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“The secret of heaven is kept from age to age. No imprudent, no sociable angel ever dropt an early syllable to answer the longings of saints, the fears of mortals. We should have listened on our knees to any favorite, who, by stricter obedience, had brought his thoughts into parallelism with the celestial currents, and could hint to human ears the scenery and circumstance of the newly parted soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)