"The Charles Ballance Family" Portrait by James F. Wilkins. After 42 years of seclusion and 113 years after its completion, an oil painting has returned to Peoria and is now being displayed at the Museum of the Peoria Historical Society on a permanent loan from the Illinois State Historical Society. The oil painting portrays the Charles Ballance family and was painted by James F. Wilkins in 1853. The parents and their nine children are grouped as a family. A 10th child was born several years after the painting was completed. The 8x12 painting was given to the Illinois State Historical Society in 1924, which was 10 years before the organization of the present Peoria Historical Society by a granddaughter, Virginia Ballance Bash. Charles Ballance, a Kentuckian by birth, was a prominent attorney, and was Mayor of peoria in 1855. He resided here for 41 years. He achieved recognition for his legal work of the French Claims controversy. He married Julia Schnevley in 1835 and the family was composed of 10 children. The homestead was on S. Adams St. near Oak St. and it was here that Mr. Ballance employed Wilkins, a famous portrait and miniature painter of English descent, to paint the family. James Wilkins was 45 years of age at the time. He had become well recognized by his sketches of 200 watercolors that he made in 1849 when he accompanied a party on the overland route to California, who were headed for the gold rush. His exhibition of the sketches made while enroute won him favorable editorial in the 1852 Peoria City Directory and so remained until the 1855 direcotry. Newspaper tiems mention his name periodically between those years. Apparently he returned to St. Louis and later moved to a farm that he pruchased near Shobenier, Illinois. He died in 1888 at the age of 80 years. His wife and a daughter, Rosa survived him. The Missouri Historical Society own a number of his paintings which are located in the Jefferson Memorial Building in Forrest Park, St. Louis. The Ballance Family comprised of 7 daughters and 3 sons. The oldest Virginia, married Lysander Webb, editor of the Peoria Transcript. Webb joined his father in law's Civil War regiment, the 77th I.V. infantry. He was killed at the Red River Campaign in Louisiana in 1864. The 4th daughter married James Montgomery Rice, a lawyer and author of many Army subjects relating to arms. Several Given to the State Historical Society in 1924 by Mrs. Virginia Ballance Bash.

H—64 W—86.5 inches

9966.6.1

Painting

"The Charles Ballance Family"

Illinois State Historical Society

"The Charles Ballance Family" Portrait by James F. Wilkins. After 42 years of seclusion and 113 years after its completion, an oil painting has returned to Peoria and is now being displayed at the Museum of the Peoria Historical Society on a permanent loan from the Illinois State Historical Society. The oil painting portrays the Charles Ballance family and was painted by James F. Wilkins in 1853. The parents and their nine children are grouped as a family. A 10th child was born several years after the painting was completed. The 8x12 painting was given to the Illinois State Historical Society in 1924, which was 10 years before the organization of the present Peoria Historical Society by a granddaughter, Virginia Ballance Bash. Charles Ballance, a Kentuckian by birth, was a prominent attorney, and was Mayor of peoria in 1855. He resided here for 41 years. He achieved recognition for his legal work of the French Claims controversy. He married Julia Schnevley in 1835 and the family was composed of 10 children. The homestead was on S. Adams St. near Oak St. and it was here that Mr. Ballance employed Wilkins, a famous portrait and miniature painter of English descent, to paint the family. James Wilkins was 45 years of age at the time. He had become well recognized by his sketches of 200 watercolors that he made in 1849 when he accompanied a party on the overland route to California, who were headed for the gold rush. His exhibition of the sketches made while enroute won him favorable editorial in the 1852 Peoria City Directory and so remained until the 1855 direcotry. Newspaper tiems mention his name periodically between those years. Apparently he returned to St. Louis and later moved to a farm that he pruchased near Shobenier, Illinois. He died in 1888 at the age of 80 years. His wife and a daughter, Rosa survived him. The Missouri Historical Society own a number of his paintings which are located in the Jefferson Memorial Building in Forrest Park, St. Louis. The Ballance Family comprised of 7 daughters and 3 sons. The oldest Virginia, married Lysander Webb, editor of the Peoria Transcript. Webb joined his father in law's Civil War regiment, the 77th I.V. infantry. He was killed at the Red River Campaign in Louisiana in 1864. The 4th daughter married James Montgomery Rice, a lawyer and author of many Army subjects relating to arms. Several

Ballance, Charles
Ballance, Julia
Ballance, Rosa
Ballance, Virginia
Ballance,

10608

Oil Paint

8'x12'

Wilkins, James F.

9966.6