| It seems that back in 1850, one Danford Balch filed a claim on a parcel
of land near the newly settled town of Portland. Danford needed some help
clearing the land, so he hired a transient worker named Mortimer Stump.
Balch invited Stump to stay with his family, which included his wife,
Mary Jane and their nine children, while the work was being done. Unfortunately,
Stump ended up staying on a lot longer than was healthy for anyone.
It seems that Stump eventually fell in love with 15-year old Anna Balch
and asked for her hand in marriage. When Danford and Mary Jane refused,
the couple threatened to elope, and Father Balch retorted that if they
did, he would kill Mortimer Stump. Young love being what it is, Mortimer
and Anna ran off to Vancouver and were married in the fall of 1858.
Danford Balch would later claim that what happened next was the result
of his wife "bewitching" him. The next time he encountered
the couple, in Portland with other members of Stump's family, a drunken
Balch shot Mortimer Stump in the head. Balch was arrested, but escaped
while awaiting trial. Finally arrested again six months later on his
own property, he was tried, found guilty, and subsequently hanged in
October of 1859, making Danford Balch the first (legal) hanging in the
Oregon Territory.
Mary Jane Balch, the "Witch" in our story, continued to live
on the property. To this day, some attribute the strange occurrences
at the Witch's House to the ghosts of Danford, Mortimer, Anna, and Mary
Jane.
|
