He moved to Westfield in 1841 to take charge of the Chautauqua land office. It was named for Binger Hermann, then Commissioner of the U. S. Land Office. This naming and surveying allowed platted lands to be sold at the Land Office. From 1861 to 1865 he was registrar of the General Land Office. During part of that investigation, Ballinger served as head of the General Land Office. His father had worked in Hailey since 1883 as registrar of the General Land Office. The phrase "doing a land office business", which denotes prosperity, dates from this era. In the 2014 election, he was elected Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. The BLM used to be known as the General Land Office (GLO). Hendricks resigned as land office commissioner in 1859 and returned to Shelby County, Indiana. Undeterred, on December 10, Greer introduced another bill to move the General Land Office. His mother is retired from the land office, his father is a teacher of mathematics. The General Land Office began selling land here in 1835.