BALLOU, Latimer W., merchant, born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, 1 March 1812. He was educated in the public schools and academies in the neighborhood; went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1828, and, after learning printing at the University Press, established "The Cambridge Press" in 1835, continuing in the business until 1842, when he engaged in merchant pursuits in Woonsocket, Rhode Island In 1850 he was chosen cashier of the Woonsocket Falls bank, and for twenty-five years was treasurer of the Woonsocket institution for savings. He took an active part in the organization of the republican party, was president of the Fremont club in Woonsocket in 1856, presidential elector on the Lincoln ticket in 1860, delegate to the republican convention that nominated Grant and Wilson in 1872, and was a representative from Rhode Island in the forty-fourth and forty-fifth congresses.