The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1913-04-24
LIFE OF AUTHOR OF
BRIDGE OF THE GODS
(By Fred Lockley in the Portland
JournaD

(By Fred Lockley in the Portland
JournaD
Old time residents of Mount Tabor
may remember the Balch family who
lived there in 1875. Mr.. and Mrs.
Balch had several children. One of
the boys, Homer, who attended school
here in Portland, was destined to make
him mark in literature.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Balch were pio-
neers. James A. Bach came to Ore
gOn in 1851. During the Civil war he
was lieutenant in company F, Eight
eenth regiment of Oregon infantry.
After the war he taught school at
Olympia and at Tumwater, as well as
elsewhere. Mrs. Balch, who was an
orphan, came across the plains in 1852,
when girl of 16. She came with DR..
Crawford, who settled in Linn county
near Lebanon. There she met her
future husband, James A. Balch, and
was married. Here, on December 10,
1861, was born to them a son, whom
they christened Homer Balch. In 1871
the family moved up to Klickitat
county, Wash, where the father en-
gagged in the stock business.
Books were scarce in those days and
Homer, then ten years old, spent most
of his time on horseback, with the
stock. In 1875 the Balch family moved
to Portland and rented a house on
Mount Tabor. Mrs. Balch's health
not being good, they later moved to
Lyle, Wash.
Homer was by this time nearly Is
years of age. He was an inveterate
reader, reading and rereading Milton,
Dickens and Macaulay. He showed
decided taste for literary matters, and
wrote great deal of poetry and some
very excellent historical romances.
These, however, not being of any COM
mercial value, he had to drop for more
profitable work. He secured job on
the construction gang of the O.-W. r.
q N. Co.. which was at that time be-
ing built along the Columbia just op-
posite his home. He worked all day
long with pick and shovel and in the
evenings worked on a historial ro-
nance which he was writing, entitled,
'Wallulah." He put in several years
of work on this romance, and Judge
Deadly. who read it. said that it was a
story of remarkable merit.
The mother had always been of an
intensely religious nature, and it had
been grief to her that her son did not
become a minister. His whole ambi-
tion. however, was along literary lines.
He was an ardent lover of his native
state, Oregon, and in writing of his
love for Oregon he said that it was his
deire and hope ''to make Oregon as
fn n1a fA
make the Cascades as widely known
as the Highlands-to make the splen-
did scenery of the Columbia a back
ground for romance full of passion
and grandeur. This becomes more and
more the ambition of my life.
His mothers grief over his not TAX
ing up the ministry led him to make a
thorough investigation along religious
lines, and he accepted Christianity.
Believing the highest call was to be-
come a minister of the Gospel, and
that the writing of historical romanees
would interfere with his religious life,
he burned his recently completed novel,
''Wallulah.
He became a home missionary and
Travelled throughout Oregon and what
is now Washington. He could not sup
press his interest, however, in the old
Indian legends. He heard constant
references to the legend of the bridge
that once spsnned Wanna. as the In
dians called the Columbia river.
In 1886 he became a pastor of the
Congregational church at Hood River
He also preached at White Salmon, just
across the Columbia from Hood River.
Riding to his various appointments
through the drenching winter rains
broke down his health and he had to
take vacation. During this enforced
idleness he began work on historical
romance entitled, "The Bridge of the
Gods.
In 1889 be entered the Pacific Theo-
logical seminary at Oakland for further
training. Here he took la grippe and
the doctor advised returning to his
home in Oregon.
In April, 1891. he went to the Good
Samaritan hospital and two months
later, on June 3, 1891, he died. He
was buried at his old home at Lyle.