History Professor Patricia Colman brought to light information on an influential and previously little-known African American family, the Ballards of Los Angeles.

It was while working for the park service on a 1900 census that Colman discovered the early Agoura Homestead of John Ballard, an African American pioneer. Since Colman’s discovery of John Ballard, she has worked steadily to collect more information.

“I would love to find descendents of John Ballard,” Colman said. “It will be his grand children and great grandchildren who will have pictures.”

Colman’s lecture on the Ballards coincides with Black History Month and is the first talk in this semester’s Faculty Lecture Series at Moorpark College. The lectures are held the second Wednesday of every month in the Communications building, Room 129. These live taped lectures are intended for members of the community interested in hearing Moorpark College professors speaking on subjects in their field.

From the census and other records, Colman found that Ballard came to California in 1850 from Kentucky, where the population of free blacks was only 1%. By traveling to Kentucky, Colman hopes to continue her research on Ballard.

“I think there will be archives in Kentucky. Sometimes slave owners left slaves in their will, mentioning them by name. That could be really helpful in tracking John Ballard’s early years in Kentucky, and will confirm whether or not he was a slave,” Colman said. “There may even be freedom papers in Kentucky. Sometimes slave’s owners gave their slaves these papers setting them free.”

Colman’s study of the Ballard family history reveals a new side to 1850’s Southern California. This was a time when black families like the Ballards came to Los Angeles and found they could own property, start a business and even take part in the local government. After coming to California in 1859, Ballard married a woman named Amanda and they had 7 children.

By 1880, Ballard left the community he had helped create for Seminole Hot Springs, an area in Agoura near Kanan Road. Ballard improved, worked on and lived in this land under the Homestead Act of 1862, which gave public land to settlers on the condition that they improved the land within five years.

Colman pieced together information on the last years of Ballard’s life from short newspaper articles and accounts written by neighbors. In 1905, Ballard died in the L.A. county hospital.

Moorpark College History Professor Patricia Coleman sheds light on to the lives of John Ballard and his family, some of the early influential African American settlers in the Los Angeles area of the 1850´s. (Iris Smoot)