Earnings from their business ventures provided the financial resources to support a number of other projects in the community of Muncie, Indiana, and elsewhere.

[4][5] The boys' sister, Lucina, was an educator who assisted in the founding of Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and served as its financial secretary.

After the boys' father died in 1878, Uncle George provided financial support and some measure of stability.

[7] The family descends from an early colonial immigrant, Edward Ball, and several other founders of Newark, New Jersey.

[10] Lucius Lorenzo Ball (March 29, 1850 – July 22, 1932),[11] the eldest of the brothers was born in Greensburg, Ohio.

[13][14] In addition to becoming a shareholder and serving on the board of the Ball brothers' manufacturing company, Lucius practiced medicine in the Muncie community.

[15] William Charles Ball (August 13, 1852 – April 30, 1921)[11] was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, grew up in upstate New York, and attended public school and Canandaigua Academy with his siblings.

When two of his brothers, Frank and Edmund, moved to Indiana in the mid-1880s, William remained in Buffalo, New York, to close out business affairs.

William served on several boards, including the Muncie and Portland Traction Company, Merchants National Bank, and Hillsdale College.

Designed by John Scudder Adkins and completed in 1898, it was built on Ball family property just east of Oakhurst, George's home.

Born in Greensburg, Ohio, he moved with his family to upstate New York, where he attended public schools and Canandaigua Academy.

[12] In the mid-1880s Edmund relocated from Buffalo, New York, to Muncie, Indiana, where he served as vice president and general manager of the company, and as treasurer and secretary of the Ball brothers' corporation.

Edmund and his wife, Bertha, donated funds to renovate property on Tippecanoe Lake in Kosciusko County, Indiana, for a Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) boys' camp.

[19] In 1904 Edmund hired Marshall S. Mahurin, a Fort Wayne, Indiana, architect to design his Gothic-Revival style home in Muncie.

He also served as director the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, among his other activities in business and civic organizations.

[23] In 1893–94 Frank bought approximately 30 acres (12 hectares) of land along the north bank of the White River, outside Muncie, where he built a home designed by Indianapolis architect Louis Gibson.

[12] George's interest in his brothers' glass manufacturing company was quickly identified after its inception; he joined the family business in 1883, at the age of twenty-one.

In 1887–88 the brothers moved their manufacturing operations to Muncie, Indiana, where the firm would be closer to an abundant natural gas supply.

As the brothers' company continued to prosper and expand, it became especially well known for its glass canning jars, but diversified into other industries.

Beginning in the 1950s, the Ball Corporation entered the aerospace sector, and later became a global manufacturer of plastic and metal food and beverage containers.

The Ball brothers made a number of philanthropic contributions to support the needs of the community and foster the city's growth, which included working with nonprofit agencies to provide aid to local and regional residents.

Situated on 44 acres (18 hectares), visitors may still visit its gardens and natural areas, which contain an assorted community of native Indiana plant and animal species, for free.

[33] Soon after that first year enrollment dropped to 110 and only 40 new students signed up [34] The Eastern Indiana Normal University would close soon after on September 24, 1901.

[35] After the college and subsequent efforts to established an institution of higher learning at Muncie had failed, with the financial help of George A.

[39] Although the Ball brothers moved to Indiana early in their careers, they did not forget New York or the early support they received from their uncle, George Harvey Ball, founder of Keuka College, a private liberal arts-based and residential college based in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.

After they became financially successful, the Ball brothers expressed their gratitude by donating additional land and providing funds to the college.

[40] In 1929 Edmund Ball's wife and children commissioned Cyrus Edwin Dallin to create a bronze casting of his original 1908 sculpture, Appeal to the Great Spirit.