James E. Birch

Who was James E. Birch?

James E. Birch was a stagecoach line entrepreneur, founder of the California Stage Company, the largest stage line in California in the 1850s; and in 1857 the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line, the first transcontinental mail route in the United States.

Born in South Carolina, Birch gradually moved as a young man to Providence, Rhode Island, where he worked at a livery stable as a stagecoach driver. After getting engaged, in 1848 he left for California to make his fortune. In Sacramento, he decided to provide stagecoach services to miners, including mail to the various mining areas. That was the start of his business. He returned to marry in Massachusetts, and periodically returned to his family, as well as lobbying for business in the capital of Washington, DC. He died in the Atlantic Ocean after his ship went down from a hurricane, on a trip to set up a national office in New York City.