Thomas Bloomer Balch
Thomas Bloomer Balch [1]
a Presbyterian minister, was born at Georgetown, D. C., Feb. 28, 1793, and was the son of Rev. Stephen B. Balch. He was prepared for college in the school in Georgetown, taught by the Rev. David Wiley. He graduated' at the College of New Jersey in 1813. He then went to Leesburgh, Va., to visit a brother, and while there united with the Presbyterian Church, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Mines, with whom he afterwards studied theology for a year. In the fall of 1814 he entered Princeton Seminary, where he remained about two years and a half. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Baltimore, Oct. 31, 1816; and was afterwards ordained by the same Presbytery, Dec.11, 1817, as an evangelist. From the spring of 1817 to the fall of 1819 he preached as assistant to his father, who was then pastor of the Church at Georgetown, D. C. July 19, 1820, he was installed as pastor of the churches of Snow Hill, Rehoboth, and Pitt's Creek, Md., where he spent nearly ten years in happy and useful labor. In 1824, by the action of the Synod of Philadelphia, he and his churches were included in the resuscitated Presbytery of Lewes. He continued to labor in Maryland as pastor of the three churches above named until 1829, after which he lived four years in Fairfax County, Va., preaching as he had opportunity. Then he removed to Prince William County, Va., and supplied for two years the Churches of Warrenton and Greenwich. April 28, 1836, he was received from Lewes Presbytery into Winchester Presbytery. For one year he was agent for the American Colonization Society, and traversed the stare for that cause. For nine months he supplied the Church at Fredericksburg, Va.; then Nokesville Church four years, and Greenwich Church, Prince William Co., two years. He died Feb. 14.1878, at the last-named place, which had been his residence for many years. Dr. Balch never was settled as pastor after he left Maryland, but preached in many places and did a large amount of miscellaneous work. He had a strongly literary taste, wrote much on many subjects, and published several volumes. At the time of his death he had been writing Letters of an Octogenarian, which were published in The Central Presbyterian of Richmond, Va. See Necrol. Report of Princeton Theol. Sem. 1878, p. 8. (W. P. S.)
