Balch. The best evidence obtainable is that Balch was named for E. T. Balch, who served the community as postmaster in 1859. The post-office occupied a double log house with a side-room on the north and a porch on the south. Mail came twice each month, coming on horse back from Waco to Fort Belknap.
Early day doctors in the community were Drs. Morgan of Long Creek, Davidson of Center Mills, and W. C. Milliken of Milliken Bottom on the Brazos, two miles west of Balch.
Dr. W. M. Campbell of Weatherford, an early settler there, has many recollections of conditions as they were there when he was a boy and when he attended school in a double-log house. He recalls that the school yard was full of bee hives. As quickly as the closing bell sounded, the children would rush to the branch to escape being stung. Geese belonging to negroes on the branch, however, usually frightened the children until they rushed back in the direction of the bees.
Balch at one time was quite a little village with several stores, a mill, gin, and sawmill. The Cretsingers and Hursts were two of the families in that locality at an early date. - History of Parker County and the Double Log Cabin: being a brief symposium of the early history of Parker County, together with short biographical sketches of early settlers and their trials, Weatherford, Tex, 1937, page 116
In 1949, residents of Balch, along with those of Irby, Horseshoe Bend and Hightower combined together to form the community of Tin Top. From 1980 through 1990 the community reported a population of twenty-five. The Tin Top Suspension Bridge, which spans the Brazos River, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
32° 39' 47.412" N, 97° 48' 10.26" W
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