The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1922-07-06
SKETCH OF LIFE OF
FREDERIC H. BALCH

The ceremonies of dedication of the
Oregon pier of the new, man-made
span to cross the Columbia where once,
according to Indian legend, an heroic
strong arch connected the opposite
shores Of the river Wanna, would not
have been complete without some
pause to pay tribute to Frederic
Homer Balch. pioneer minister and
author, who in his appealing romance,
"The Bridge of the Gods" left as a
monument to himself the sheer cliff
side there on the canyonside through
his popularization of them in his book.
In little rural graveyard not far
from Lyle, in Klickitat county, Wash
intgon. is the grave of the author, who
has made for himself a name in north
western literature. Not far from the
gorge of his inspiring Columbia and in
the eastern foothills of his beloved
Cascades, the body of the pioneer
writer has found the long resting
place, and perchance the spirit of the
youthful dreamer still contemplates
the scenes of natural wonder that so
thrilled him during mortal days.
When one really interested in the
pioneer life of Oregon and of the
legends of the Indians of the Columbia
river communities reads the life story
of Homer Balch and of his early death
at the age of 80, he cannot help feel
| ing that a loss came to the literature
of the state when Atropos welded too
early her shears and clipped the thread
of the young mans life.
1t is intensely appealing, this story
of the days of the young manhood of
the writer of "The Bridge of the
Gods" Frederic Homer Balch was
self educated. He spent less than a
year attending school. For six months
in 1875, when the family resided on a
farm owned by James A. Balch. the
father of the author, in the Mount
Tabor district, Portland, the boy was
student at a school taught by t. r.
Coon, who later moved to Hood River.
After few months study at the Paci-
fic Theological Seminary at Oakland,
Calf, in 1889. he was forced to return
to Oregon because of illness.
Seeking cline more benign for the
health of the mother, the family
moved to Goldendale, WASH, and after
short residence there they went to
Lyle. While young Balch was a
dreamer, he was by no means an idler.
Work was scarce in the early days, but
he found employment in his boyhood
riding the range of the southern Ore
gon country. In the solitude of the
vast stretches, with the great peaks of
the Cascades to inspire him, he felt
first gnawing of the ambition to tell
the story of the mountains and rivers
in books of romance. The impulse of
a genius had stirred within him before
the family left the Willamette valley,
and in his diary is found jotted the
following:
'To make Oregon as famous as Scott
made Scotland; to make the Cascades
as widely known as the highlands; to
make the splendid scenery of the Will
lamette background for romance full
of passion and grandeur, grow more
and more into the one cherished ambi-
tion of my life. !"
While the family was living at Lyle
young Balch. eager to make money,
secured job as an ordinary laborer in
the construction of the old O.-W. r. &
N. line. During the daylight hours,
according to his sister, Mrs. j. W.
Ingalls,, of this city, the boy worked
hard with pick and shovel. The late
hours of night, however, were spent in
reading and rereading the stories of
Dickens and Scott and the essays Of
Macaulay. And he was trying his own
hand and mind on weaving romances
of the Oregon country.
Even before the family had moved
from the Willamette valley the young
man had written a romance built from
pioneer history. "Wallulah" the story
was called. 1t was later revised and
given the title of "Genevieve. The
book, however, has never been pub
lshed. Young Balch also began an
other book which he called, "Ken-
asket." He made a sacrifice of the
book, "Wallulah, "swhen obeying de-
sire of his mother he decided to enter
the ministry.
"trom the stories that are told of
this period of the young mans life by
his sister, the young romanticist must
have undergone the keenest agony.
On his decision to enter the ministry,
young Balch's conscience. impelled by
the more Puritanic standards of early
day morals, told him that it would be
a sort of sacrIlege to preach the gospel
tinue the writing of stories. 'Wallu-
lab" which has been declared meritor-
ious by critics capable of judging. was
burned and Frederic Homer Balch be-
came an itinerant missionary of the
Congregational church. After serving
as travelling minister in the mid-Co-
lumbia district, he was given his first
pastorate in 1885, taking charge Of the |
church at Hood River. No church edi- |
flee had been erected, and it was
through the personality and instru- |
mentality of the young minister that |
a structure, now known as the Valley |
Christian church, was built about three |
miles southwest of the town of Hood |
River. Mr.. Balch, while located here,
used to cross the Columbia and preach |
to the few residents then living at |
White Salmon, Wash.
Despite his resolutions 10 drop his |
writing, the young man. much of |
whose work was among he Indians,
never lost an opportunity to learn from |
them the stories of legends. These he
has embodied 50 we'll in ''The Bridge |
of the Gods"
1t is said that most great writer's
reach their moments Of climax writing |
their own life history. 1t was true,
indeed, of Frederick Homer Balch; for
THE Bridge of the Gods" really tells
Of the sacrifices of the young minister. |
Cecil Gray, the hero Of THE Bridge |
of the Gods, !" who sacrificed his life to |
teach the Indians thelreligion Of Jesus
Christ, in spite of the advice Of men,
bers of his New England congregation /