Sarah A. Curtis (1819-1888), from Genesee, Michigan, was a student at Oberlin, in the literary course, from 1840 to 1843. Her husband and classmate, Archibald McCullum Ball (1819-1903), received the A.B. degree in 1844 before they were married by President Asa Mahan (1799-1889). Ball then continued studying in the Oberlin Seminary through 1847. Irene Ball (b. 1815), Archibald's sister, preceded him at Oberlin, attending in 1836-37. She left school to marry Alabama abolitionist William Allen. Archibald's brother, Alonzo Gibb Ball attended Oberlin's Preparatory Academy from 1842-43. Sarah Curtis's sister Elizabeth was also being educated during those years (1835-1838) at the Middlebury female Seminary in Connecticut. Sarah Bedell Ball (b. 1880), a granddaughter of the Ball-Curtis family and of ancestors going back to the Mayflower and Arbella.