John served with Company D of the 3rd Colorado Cavalry in 1864. You can see from the Company Muster-in and Descriptive Roll below and on the left that his name was spelled Ballanger. The copies are rather light but on the right is the Company Muster-out Roll. His name was spelled Ballenger.
John's tombstone which stands in Columbia Cemetery, Boulder, Colorado has the surname Ballinger engraved on it. You can see a picture of it tomorrow in the Tombstone Tuesday post.
This inconsistency in spelling caused problems for the Ballinger family years after John's death when his father, William Ballinger attempted to collect John's military pension as a dependent father.
William's daughter, Nancy, was still encountering problems with this in 1916, several years after her father's death, as illustrated below.
Many decades later, the spelling of this family's surname continues to cause confusion and problems.
Check back next week for part 3 of John Ballinger's life.
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
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