Résumé

Day Laborer, Pasadena, CA, c. 1900.

Balch enlisted in the US military on 03/11/1901, and held the rank of corporal. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Military Registers, 1858-1923 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014, accessed 11/19/2025.) He also joined the military during World War I.

Architect, Pasadena, CA, c. 1910. The 1910 US Census indicated that Clifford Balch was an architect of houses.

Records indicated that he was in the US military on 05/03/1919. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT. USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2019, accessed 11/19/2025.)

Partner, Balch and Balch, Architects, Los Angeles, CA.

Partner, Balch and Stanbery, Architects and Engineer, Los Angeles, CA.

Relocation

Clifford Allison Balch was born in Preston Lake, MN, and lived there for about his first five years, before his parents moved to the expanding grain milling, banking and railroad center of Minneapolis by 1886. His father William C. Balch found work as a carpenter, the family dwelling in a house at 2112 Chicago Avenue in 1886. (See Minneapolis, Minnesota, City Directory, 1886, p. 133.) William Balch had become a carpenter and building contractor by 1887, and the family shifted to new quarters at 1710 6th Avenue South in Minneapolis. (See Minneapolis, Minnesota, City Directory, 1887, p. 146.) They changed addresses in 1888, living at 1710 Portland Avenue, and moved again by 1890, finding a residence at 3728 South Lyndale Avenue. (See Minneapolis, Minnesota, City Directory, 1888, p. 247 and Minneapolis, Minnesota, City Directory, 1890, p. 185.) This frequent movement in Minneapolis may have reflected some personal difficulties or financial setbacks for William in the construction business.

For whatever reason, William and his family left MN to relocate to CA before the Depression of 1893. The Balchs first settled in Oakland, CA, by 1892, and continued to reside there in 1897. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Registers, 1866-1898; Collection Number: 4-2A; CSL Roll Number: 3; FHL Roll Number: 976448, accessed 11/19/2025 and Galusha B. Balch, Genealogy of the Balch Families in America, [Salem, MA: Eben Putnam, Publisher, 1897], pp. 378-379.)

They relocated to Pasadena, CA, in 1897. (See Oakland, California, City Directory, 1897, p. 99.) The five-person Balch household resided on Colorado Street near Delmar Street in Pasadena, CA, as per the 1900 US Census. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Pasadena, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 91; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 0112, accessed 11/19/2025.)

His father died in 1907 at age 53, leaving his wife to raise four sons. By 1910, they dwelled in a house at 140 Broadway in Pasadena. At age 29, Clifford continued to reside at home, working as a residential architect, and helping to support his mother and three younger brothers. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Pasadena Ward 1, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T624_86; Page: 8b; Enumeration District: 0302; FHL microfilm: 1374099, accessed 11/19/2025.)

Balch married Pearl Lowdermilk in 1914 and lived with her in an apartment building at 205 North Broadway in 1920. Pearl's three children by a previous marraige--Margaret, William and Nina--also resided at 205 North Broadway. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 65, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_109; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 237, accessed 11/19/2025.) At this time, 205 North Broadway housed a number of actors and entertainers, a producer and the silent film director Archer MacMackin (1888-1961). (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 65, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_109; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 237, accessed 11/19/2025.)

Clifford, Pearl and her two daughters--Margaret and Nina--lived in a rented house at 235 North Manhattan Place, Los Angeles, CA, in 1930. Rent cost $80 per month at the time. At the time, Margaret worked as a nurse in a doctor's office and Nina had a job as stenographer in a real estate office.

Pearl passed away in 1942. Between at least 1942 and 1950, Balch at 12009 Huston Street in the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles. When the US Census was taken in 1950, he lived here with his step-daughter Nina May Wilson (who was divorced at this time) (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at St. Louis; St Louis, MO, USA; World War II Draft Cards (4th Registration) For the State of California; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147, accessed 11/19/2025 and Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 2149; Page: 76; Enumeration District: 66-182, accessed 11/19/2025.)

He died at age 83 in Los Angeles County, CA, and was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA.

Parents

His father was William Clark Balch (born 09/18/1853 in Fisherville, NH-d. 07/06/1907 in Bishop, CA), who worked as a carpenter and building contractor in Minneapolis, Oakland and Pasadena. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. Geneanet Community Trees Index [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022. Original data: Geneanet Community Trees Index. Paris, France: Geneanet, accessed 11/19/2025.) William's family had deep roots in New England, an ancestor, John Balche, having arrived from County Somerset, England, in 09/1623. He became a freeman in 1631 and thereafter obtained the right to vote and own land in Salem, MA, during the 1630s. (See Galusha B. Balch, Genealogy of the Balch Families in America, [Salem, MA: Eben Putnam, Publisher, 1897], p. 5.)

William C. Balch died in 1907, leaving his wife to raise four childen. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. Geneanet Community Trees Index [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022. Original data: Geneanet Community Trees Index. Paris, France: Geneanet, accessed 11/19/2025.)

Clifford's mother was Anna Sophia Houck (born 05/06/1859 in Lakeville, MN-d. 05/16/1935 in Pasadena, CA), a homemaker, whose parents came from PA and MD. William and Anna married in MN on 11/02/1879 and had six children by 1900, three of whom survived: Clifford, Choate Newton Balch (born 06/13/1889 in Minneapolis, MN-d. 04/14/1971 in Big Pine, CA) and Robert Elmer Balch (born 06/03/1894 in Oakland, CA-d. 12/27/1963 in Long Beach, CA). In 1901, another son William Glenn Balch (born 06/21/1901-d. 03/14/1989) was born. Deceased children included Charlotte Balch (born 06/19/1882 in Minneapolis, MN-d. as an infant) and and Edwin Balch (born 07/07/1877 in Minneapolis, MN-d. as an infant). (See Galusha B. Balch, Genealogy of the Balch Families in America, [Salem, MA: Eben Putnam, Publisher, 1897], p. 379.) Choate became a clergyman, Robert an educator and William Glenn, an architect.

The architect's unusual middle name "Allison" was that of his paternal grandfather, Allison Houck (born 08/28/1817 in Huntingdon County, PA-d. 07/05/1877 in Preston Lake, MN).

Spouse

He wed Pearl N. Lowdermilk (born 05/11/1889 in IL-died 12/24/1942 in Los Angeles, CA) before 1920. Pearl's family had come from IL. She previously had been married to William Oscar Lowdermilk (born 10/1884 in IL-d. 02/11/1929 in San Diego, CA), a carpenter and iron worker, whom she wed on 05/03/1906 in Pasadena, CA. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California Department of Public Health, courtesy of www.vitalsearch-worldwide.com. Digital Images, accessed 11/19/2025.) With him, she had at least three children: Margaret Adele Balch Bacon (born 07/14/1907 in Pasadena, CA-d. 01/19/1989), William Edward Balch (born 08/30/1908 in CA-d. 05/23/1978 in Los Angeles County, CA) and Nina May Balch Wilson (born c. 1910 in CA).

The 1916 Pasadena City Directory indicated that Pearl lived at a separate address from William Lowdermilk. (See Pasadena, California, City Directory, 1916, p. 242.) William's World War I draft registration card of 09/2/1918 indicated that he lived and worked in San Diego, CA, while Pearl remained in Pasadena. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Registration State: California; Registration County: San Diego Source Information: U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005, accessed 11/19/2025.)

Children

All three of Clifford's step-children adopted his last name, suggesting that he remained on good terms with them after their father's death in 1929.

Biographical Notes

At age 61, Balch's World War II draft registration card listed him as being Caucasian with ruddy complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He stood 5-feet, 11-and-1/2-inches tall and weighed a modest 130 pounds. The draft card noted that he had an appendectomy scar at this time. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at St. Louis; St Louis, MO, USA; World War II Draft Cards (4th Registration) For the State of California; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147, accessed 11/19/2025.)

SSN: 565-28-0882.