Thomas Bloomer Balch was a Presbyterian pastor during the American Civil War. Thomas was born to Stephen Bloomer Balch and Elizabeth (Beall) Balch on February 28, 1793, at Georgetown, District of Columbia, USA. Thomas Balch was a graduate of the College of New Jersey in 1813 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1817, where he was a member of the American Whig Society. Hampden-Sydney College conferred an honorary DD on him in 1860. Baltimore Presbytery ordained Thomas on October 31, 1816. For several years he assisted his father in the church at Georgetown, Virginia. He accepted a call to Snow Hill, Rehoboth and Pitts Creek, Maryland, on July 19, 1820. Snow Hill is the oldest Presbyterian Church in America.
Just after he accepted the call to the churches in Maryland, Thomas Balch married Susan Carter of Fairfax, Virginia, the daughter of Charles Beal Carter, an uncle of General Robert E. Lee. When Thomas and Susan moved to Prince William and Fauquier Counties, they bought a place between Auburn and Greenwich. He called the property Ringwood. He along with Jane Alexander Milligan ran a boarding school for girls there. Part of the structure was later remodeled. Thomas and his wife were direct observers of the American Civil War and interacted with both Confederate and Federal troops. Thomas Balch wrote of their personal experiences in My Manse During the War.
Death
He died on February 14, 1878, at his home, Ringwood. His wife, Susan, had died the year before. His friend William Wilson Corcoran provided stones for the couple and they are buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery in Greenwich, Virginia. Balch frequently wrote for the Southern Literary Messenger, The Christian World, and published in Christianity and Literature.
Georgetown is a historic neighborhood and commercial district in Northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 as part of the colonial-era Province of Maryland, Georgetown predated the establishment of Washington, D.C. by 40 years. Georgetown was an independent municipality until 1871 when the United States Congress created a new consolidated government for the entire District of Columbia. A separate act, passed in 1895, repealed Georgetown's remaining local ordinances and renamed Georgetown's streets to conform with those in Washington, D.C.
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Buildings, sites, districts, and objects in Virginia listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
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Stephen Bloomer Balch was a Presbyterian minister and educator in Georgetown, which is now part of Washington, D.C. In 1780, Balch established Georgetown Presbyterian Church, which was the second church in Georgetown. He also served as headmaster of the Columbian Academy in Georgetown.
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Hezekiah Balch, D.D. (1741–1810) was a Presbyterian minister and the founder of Greeneville College in 1794. After the Civil War, Greeneville College merged with what is now Tusculum University.
The Presbyterian Burying Ground, also known as the Old Presbyterian Burying Ground, was a historic cemetery which existed between 1802 and 1909 in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was one of the most prominent cemeteries in the city until the 1860s. Burials there tapered significantly after Oak Hill Cemetery was founded nearby in 1848. The Presbyterian Burying Ground closed to new burials in 1887, and about 500 to 700 bodies were disinterred after 1891 when an attempt was made to demolish the cemetery and use the land for housing. The remaining graves fell into extensive disrepair. After a decade of effort, the District of Columbia purchased the cemetery in 1909 and built Volta Park there, leaving nearly 2,000 bodies buried at the site. Occasional human remains and tombstones have been discovered at the park since its construction. A number of figures important in the early history of Georgetown and Washington, D.C., military figures, politicians, merchants, and others were buried at Presbyterian Burying Ground.
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Ludwell Lee was an American lawyer and planter who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly representing Prince William and Fairfax Counties and rose to become the Speaker of the Virginia Senate. Beginning in 1799, following the death of his first wife, Lee built Belmont Manor, a planation house in Loudoun County, Virginia, which today is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Rev. David Wiley was an American surveyor, politician, writer, scientist, and Presbyterian minister who served as postmaster and mayor of Georgetown, District of Columbia.
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