In 1854, Charles Ballard purchased Thomas H. Rice's shared in woodworking machinery maker Ball & Rice, which Ball & Ballard. (Ball & Rice had succeeded the firm of Thomas E. Daniels in 1848, and continued to make the Daniels planer.)

Ballard's personal finances were hit hard by the Panic of 1857, which presumably slowed machinery sales and may have affected any loans Ballard took to purchase his share of the business. In 1858 Ballard sold his share of the partnership to one Warren Williams, and the partnership became Ball & Williams. Meanwhile Ballard struggled to recover but had to declare bankruptcy in 1860. By 1863 he was employed by Ball & Williams. In 1867 he patented a breech-loading rifle which would gain some fame as the Ballard rifle, which was manufactured by Ball & Williams.

Information Sources

• The earliest known Ball & Ballard ad, from a June, 1855 Scientific American, says,

  Ball & Ballard ... continue to manufacture the well known Daniels Planers; Gray and Wood pattern planers, being a combination of parts of the Daniels and Woodworth planing machines. This machine does the work fast and very nice; also Wright's Scroll Saws. Tenoning and Sash Molding Machines, warranted to be of a superior quality, and have recently been much improved; we also manufacture Mortising Machines, and a variety of other articles wanted to accompany the above named machines.

• An 1855 Scientific American article favorably describes the Gray and Wood's planer, which cost only $210 for the 20" wide by 8' long version (the machine used a carriage similar to that of a Daniels planer, so the size of the carriage determined the maximum length of board that could be planed.)
• 2021 book, Women and Reform in a New England Community by Carolyn J. Lawes.

  Eliza Bliss Ballard was first associated with the CFS [the Worcester Children's Friend Society] in 1849 as an assistant manager but within a year had moved up to manager, a position she held until 1879. Her husband, Charles, followed a similar upward career path as a manufacturer of card setting equipment. Ballard's fortunes improved as he moved steadily from an independent sash and blind maker in 1845, to employment as a machinist for the firm of Ball & Rice in 1854, to buying out one of his employers and forming the partnership of Ball & Ballard in 1855. But the depression of the late 1850s forced Ballard into bankruptcy in 1860. Three years later, he was back at the old shop but reduced in status to that of an employee of a new partnership, Ball & Williams.