2026 marks 200 years since the first permanent white settler arrived in modern day Grand Rapids. To commemorate, News 8 will produce a series of stories throughout the year profiling some of the city’s founders and those who helped shape Grand Rapids into what it is today.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Like Louis Campau, Rev. Lyman Parks and several others, the name of John Ball lives on in Grand Rapids. The man for which the city’s zoo is named lived a long, storied life that took him around the world, but West Michigan is the heart of his legacy.
Ball arrived in Grand Rapids on Oct. 18, 1836. He was a savvy 41-year-old who grew up on a farm in New Hampshire and had worked as a lawyer, a teacher and ran his own business. But at his heart, he was an explorer and he constantly wrestled with his desire for adventure.
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In 1835, Ball was once again feeling the urge to uproot and explore the world. In the past, his friends and family would let him leave, never knowing whether he would return. This time, they put him to work. Some of Ball’s friends pooled together some funds and sent Ball to Michigan to look for some good investments amid the state’s untapped potential…