Mary Ann was the 2nd child of 5 children (4 surviving infancy) of Justus DUNHAM by his 1st wife, the former Eliza Budd. Mary Ann was the full sister of John Budd DUNHAM (1829 – 1903), Eunice (Dunham) DALE (1834 – 1933 or 1839 – 1937), Franklin DUNHAM (1834 or 1839 – before 1850), and Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Dunham) PLATTER (1843 – 1923), all born in Mercer Co., PA., where their mother died and is buried. Her father remarried when Mary Ann was 12, and her stepmother Mary bore 5 children (3 surviving infancy), leaving Mary Ann with 6 surviving siblings/half-siblings.

In about 1848-49, Mary Ann moved with her family and the families of two paternal aunts over 1,100 miles to settle on the west bank of the Mississippi River, near Bellevue (today's Belleview), Jackson County, in northeastern Iowa, where they were living at the time of the 1850 federal census. Jackson County is also where Mary Ann -- possibly already married to a Mr. HAMLIN or HAMBLEN but widowed -- was married on Feb. 3, 1854 (one of the first marriages in surviving county records) to the widower Abner BALLARD, who had 3 children from his first marriage; Mary Ann would bear him 10 known children:

Emma Sarah (Ballard) HILL (1854-1908)
William Budd BALLARD (1856-c.1920s)
Eliza Iantha (Ballard) KETCHUM (c.1857 – before 1901)
Justus Dunham BALLARD (1859-1943)
Catherine Malissa “Kitty (Ballard) HATCH (1863-1948)
Mary Louise (Ballard) QUINN (c.1864 – after 1901)
Harriet Ballard (1867-97)
James BALLARD (1874-78)
Sankey BALLARD (1876-78)
Kate Ballard (1878 – before 1900). Emma and the last 4 are buried in Deep Creek Cemetery.

Along with Mary Ann's extended family, the Ballards soon moved to south-central Iowa, where they appear in the 1856 Iowa state census in Decatur County. Mary Ann's father, stepmother and younger siblings remained in Decatur Co., Iowa, when the Ballards moved to Northern California in about 1857.

In the 1870s, they moved to Tulare County, where Mary Ann bore and lost her youngest children. She is listed as co-owner on the title to the family farm near Saucelito (between Pixley and Terra Bella). Widowed at 69, Mary Ann went to live first with her son William & family in Tulare County (where they were living at the time of the 1910 census), then with her youngest daughter Kitty (Ballard) HATCH in La Habra, Orange County (literally across the street -- now Valley View Avenue) from the border of East Whittier, Los Angeles County, where Mary Ann died after a two-week bout of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle, often caused by congestive heart failure and/or various viruses). She had also suffered from “senility” for at least two years (probably longer, given the 8- to 10-year progression of today's Alzheimer's Disease) since being observed by her local doctor (indicating her possible move to Southern California in about 1913-14). Her embalmed body was sent on Sept. 4, 1916, to undertaker D.H. White in Visalia, and was buried alongside that of her late husband.

By the time of her death, Mary Ann had moved a total of 3,700 miles across the nation, from her birthplace in western Pennsylvania and all around California. Almost all of this would have been by wagon, with probably only the last 200 (down to La Habra / East Whittier) by train!