Balch Cemetery

Balch Cemetery. . , William Balch (1804-1870) migrated to Texas from Illinois in 1848 with his wife and family to receive land from the Robertson land district. In 1851 Balch and his sons and grandson arrived in Alvarado to mark their land claim of 320 acres about one mile north-west of town. Balch purchased land from the Ira Glaze land grant and donated this site for a cemetery. , The first recorded burial was that of Wallis Austin in October 1853, followed by Balch’s daughter Rebecca Balch McClure Parker in November 1853. By the end of the Civil War, five additional pioneer women from two families died and their burials formed the core of the cemetery. They were Panina Ralls, Phoebe Balch, Patsy Myers, Elizabeth Myers, and Cynthia Myers., Buried in the west central section of the cemetery are several Mexican nationals who came to supply the Mexican army with wheat in 1862 during Mexico’s war with France. Also among those interred here are many of the area’s pioneer families and their descendants, veterans of the Civil War, and three local outlaws. A yellow fever epidemic in 1883 and a smallpox outbreak in 1889-1890 caused the Balch cemetery to fill much of its available space, and another cemetery was established on College Hill.