John Tennant Balch II
TNMap-doton-Greeneville.PNG

John Tennant Balch (Dec. 12, 1809* - December 12, 1861) was born in Greenville, Tennessee (shown on map) to John Tennant and Allie (Badger) Balch. Little is known about John before his graduation from Georgetown College (Genealogy of the Balch Families in America says the college was Greenville) (Kentucky) in 1833. In 1834 John was attending the Princeton Theological Seminary and in 1835 he was elected an Adopted Graduate Member of Whig Hall (also at Princeton) [1].

John is said to have gone against his father's wishes when he studied to enter the ministry. Upon graduating from Princeton, in 1836, he began to minister in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Mt. Carmel, Tennessee, Green Lake, Texas, Oak Island and Mindon, Louisiana [1].

According to Galusha Balch's book, Genealogy of the Balch Families in America, John is said to have taught Latin to President Andrew Johnson. In return for his instruction Johnson is said to have made clothes for John to wear.

Marriage and Family:

On October 2, 1839 John married Sarah Ruth Blackmore [2] and together they would have ten children throughout their marriage. John would spend the later years of his life in Mindon (Balch Genealogica says Meriden), Louisiana and die there on December 12, 1861 [2][3].


*Balch Genealogica indicates a birthdate of December 12, 1809 while Genealogy of the Balch Families in America has a date of December 1, 1809. Also there seems to be a discrepancy on what college John is said to have attended and the name of the town where he is said to have spent his final years.


Genealogy of John Tennant:

Father: John Tennant Balch I
Mother: Allie Badger

Wife: Sarah R. Blackmore
Married: October 2, 1839 [2]

Children:

1. Mary Vance
2. Lucinda
3. John Tennant (Twin)
4. Allie (Twin)
5. Catharine
6. Andrew Grur (Greer?)
7. Nathaniel B.
8. Samuel Miller
9. Lila S.
10. Charles Hezekiah


Primary Sources/Links:

Balch Genealogica - By: Thomas Willing Balch [1]

Balch Relations - By: Gene Balch [2]

Genealogy of the Balch Families in America - By: Galusha B. Balch [3]

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License