He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, to Thomas Ball, a house and sign painter, and Elizabeth Wyer Hall.

[7] Ball was an accomplished musician from his teenage years, working as a paid singer in Boston churches.

There, he painted several religious pictures and a portrait of Cornelia Wells (Walter) Richards, editor of the Boston Evening Transcript.

In Boston, he managed to avoid receiving the invitation to the ceremonial dedication of his statue of Governor John Albion Andrew.

[14] He died at the Montclair home of his daughter, Eliza Chickering Ball, and son-in-law, sculptor William Couper.

[9][15] The monument was sold in 1958, disassembled, and moved to Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California.