MADISON – Have you ever driven Balch Road and wondered, ‘Where did it get its name?’ Today, I present to you an answer by examining the Balch family of Madison, an founding family of the town of Madison and Madison County.
Their story in North Alabama started when Hezekiah J. Balch, a native of Sparta, Tennessee, and his wife Tabitha Vaughn arrived in the Monrovia area in probably the mid- to late 1800s. Hezekiah was active in the Mt. Zion Baptist Church as a charter member and first Sunday school superintendent, and his and his wife’s graves are the oldest marked graves in the church’s cemetery.
In 1915, Hezekiah’s son, Samuel Williamson Balch, established the Balch family’s presence in Madison. Samuel left his c. 1887 farmhouse in Nebo, Alabama and purchased the 1880s Burton house at 312 Church Street along with two additional lots for just $625…