James E. Birch (entrepreneur)

James E. Birch (November 30, 1827 – September 1857) 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.

James E. Birch was born in South Carolina, Birch 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 the spring of 1849, he arrived in Sacramento City, which was fast becoming the supply center for the mining region. It was the departure point for the thousands of prospectors heading for the gold fields, most by foot, some by horseback. Prices for land, goods and services were high and climbing daily. Instead of heading for the gold fields, Birch determined to start a stagecoach business to provide transportation to the various mining areas, as well as provide mail delivery to the prospectors. Previously, most mail for the miners had been held in San Francisco until they personally picked it up.

Birch first used an old ranch wagon which he drove himself, hauling passengers from Sacramento City to Coloma in the rugged foothills of the Sierra Nevada and to points between, including “Sutter's Fort,” a resting/relay station near Coloma. For the 50-mile trip at a speed of 10 to 12 miles per hour (16 to 19 km/h), Birch charged 2 ounces of gold (about $32 in 1849) each way. Miners hurried to reach each new mining area as it opened up, in order to stake their claims before an area became saturated. Birch was very adept at forecasting where the next important area would be and at quickly providing service there. For the first several months, Birch had a partner, Charles F. Davenport, a close friend and former owner of a stage company in Rhode Island, who had traveled with him to California. By August 1849 Birch had bought out Davenport and become sole owner of the enterprise.

On August 18, 1849, Birch advertised the changes in his business in Sacramento's Placer Times, announcing himself as the sole proprietor. By the spring of 1850, he hired drivers for his stages, and turned his full attention to managing the business. With the arrival of a fleet of top-of-the-line stagecoaches which he had ordered from the East, his firm became the envy of all others. Among those he hired as drivers was Charley Parkhurst, who became known as Six-Horse Charley, one of the top drivers and, only after his death in 1879, as a woman who had passed as a man. Although business was sometimes adversely affected by frequent stagecoach robberies, and periods of terrible weather, forcing temporary closure of some lines, Birch rapidly expanded. Before the end of 1851, Birch's company was providing service to all the northern and southern mining areas east of . Birch returned for a time to Swansea, Massachusetts, where he arranged for and oversaw the building of a mansion. On September 12, 1852, he and Julia Chace were married and began living on their new estate.

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