Uncovering the Generosity of the Balch Women: A Legacy of Giving

Stained glass windows in the Chapel of the Holy Cross

Have you taken a good look at the beautiful Balch windows in Chapel? They are the ones on the back wall opposite the altar with two large female figures.

The stained-glass windows depict two Christian martyrs whose stories survived to our present day, thanks to their accounts being preserved in the Canon of the Mass. On the left, we can see St. Cecilia (patroness of music), and to the right stands St. Agnes (patroness of young girls). Legend says that both women suffered persecution for their Christian beliefs in Roman times and while their traditional stories differ, they shared the same devotion to faith and selflessness.

The windows were placed in 1891-1892 in the Chapel in memory of Emily Balch (nee Wiggin) (1826-1891) and her daughter Emily Balch (1858-1890). You may recognize the Balch name from Reverend Lewis Penn Witherspoon Balch (1814-1875), one of our early founders. Balch desired to have a school in the area, but passed away before this could come true. His widow, Emily Wiggin Balch, then allowed for the land and buildings to be developed as a school in September 1878. A year later, in September 1879, our doors opened.

The Balch family played an important part in the early years of the school. In her history of the school, Judith Solberg notes how the women in this large family hosted parties, dinners, and tea for the school community, especially the boys enrolled at that time (2004, 49). They lived in a house called “Woodlands” across from the school, which unfortunately burned down in the early 1900s. William Porter Niles, one of the first students at the school and later trustee, remembers fondly their warm character and hospitality:

Mention of the Balch family suggests at once the large part they played in the social life of the school. The family was a large one and very hospitable. The whole school was invited to supper in groups during the winter and on Thanksgiving Day the whole school was invited for the evening. This influence upon boys, none too careful of their manners, was an extremely humanizing one and is looked back upon with real gratitude by those who attended this school in those early years. This suggests at once the large part played in the life of the school by those gracious women who presided over the social life of the school from Mrs. Gray down to the present day.
(Historical Address given at the Celebration of the School's Semi-Centennial, 1930, AR.2.1)

In particular, the Balch women have carried a long line working for the greater good. Emily’s daughter Catherine Holmes Balch was a firm believer in the town of Plymouth needing a hospital. Advances in medicine were happening and nursing became one of the professions open to women at the time. Catherine created the Emily Balch Cottage Hospital in 1899, which became the predecessor to the current Speare Hospital. The hospital was named after her mother and the original location was at 37 Highland Street, Plymouth, where “an experienced nurse with competent assistants [was] permanently employed” (Stearns 391). The building probably burned down around 1911-1916 but we know that by 1919 the Schofield property in Campton was purchased for the new hospital (Campton Historical Society 45).

The photo shows the new hospital. It was then named the Emily Balch Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital in 1920 and opened in a Georgian-style house on land near Livermore Falls (I believe the house no longer stands, but locals believe it might be the site where Forrest Howes’ Auto Repair is on Route 3). Finally, Speare Memorial was built in 1949 and after subsequent renovations, we have the current hospital working in Plymouth.

For more information about the Balch Legacy Society and how you can leave your legacy at Holderness School, please contact Tim Scott '73 at 603-383-9318 and tscott@holderness.org.