Here is a timeline of what I have been able to find out about Flora:
27 February 1857 or 1859 - Flora is born. In the 3 census records I have for Flora (CO State census 1885, Federal MT 1900 & 1910), she is listed as being forn in Iowa. Between the census records and the Declaration for an Original Pension of a Father, listed below in sources, there is a discrepancy in Flora's birth year.
1860s - Flora and her siblings Nancy, John and Mary Ann are listed as attendees in the first school house built in Colorado (see sources below).
1880 - Living in Boulder, Colorado, with Joseph Wolff, are his wife Eliza J, Flora Ballinger and several hired men. Flora is doing housework. (1880 Federal CO census).
1892 - in the Directory of Farmers in Boulder County for 1892, Flora is listed as a farmer. From the property description, it appears she is farming on her father's former homestead.
1900 - In 1900 in the Township of Stillwater, Carbon County, Montana, Flora J. Ballinger was enumerated with Charles Williams, his wife Georgie L., and their family, a servant and a boarder. Flora is listed as Aunt. She is the aunt of Georgie L. (nee Robinson). Flora’s sister, Nancy Robinson (nee Ballenger) was Georgie’s mother.
1910 - Flora is enumerated in the Town of Joliet, School District No 7, Carbon County, Montana with the Henry family. Oddly she is listed un the relationship column as a patient. Although it is very difficult to read.
After the 1910 census Flora appears to disappear. I am waiting for something else to turn up.
Sources not listed above:
- Ed Hubbard's article from The Daily Camera 17 November 1909 as extracted and appearing in the Boulder Genealogical Society Quarterly February 2002.
- Declaration for an Original Pension of a Father, Military Pension file for John H. Ballenger, file number 630269, National Archives and Records Administration. William H. Ballinger is the informant and made the declaration on 8 February 1896 in Boulder, Colorado. Further he states in the document that he is a resident of Nye City, Montana.
