Stephen Birch

Stephen Birch (1872–1940) was the President of the Kennecott Copper Company and one of the most revered business men of his time. “Stephen Birch was one of the thousands who came north in 1898 seeking their fortunes. He found his high in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska. Most sought wealth in gold; Birch found it in copper. Birch succeeded while others failed because he had assets that many prospectors lacked- a technical education, wealthy friends and remarkable tenacity.” Under his direction, the Kennecott Corporation became the largest copper producer in America and the second largest fabricator of copper.

Birch was born in 1872 in New York. He was the second son out of six children. His father was a Union Army sergeant who died when Stephen was only ten years old. Three years after her husband’s death, Stephen’s mother moved her six children from Brooklyn to Mahwah, New Jersey to be near relatives. The young Birches quickly became friends with the children of their neighbors, Theodore Havemeyer, the vice-president of American Sugar Refining Company, and his wife Lillie. “Mrs. Havemeyer took a special interest in young Stephen providing financial assistance for his education at Trinity School, New York University, and Columbia School of Mines.”

“At the peak of the Klondike gold rush in 1898, Stephen announced that he wanted to go to Alaska rather than continue working with an engineering team that was surveying for the New York City subway system.” While many of his friends and relatives did not take him seriously, Mrs. Havemeyer offered to pay for his trip to Valdez, a newly established city named “the port for an All American route to Alaska’s interior.” Because of Mrs. Havemeyer’s kind gesture, Birch was able to travel to Valdez in the summer of 1898. He quickly made a name for himself in the mining industry and found his wealth in copper up in the Wrangell Mountains, the future site of Kennecott, Alaska. In Alaska, he examined a vastly rich copper deposit in the Copper River region. “He bought 21 claims and consolidated them in 1903 as the Alaska Copper and Coal Company. Equipment and supplies had to be hauled in by boat and horse team to the remote site at the base of the Kennicott Glacier.” In need of proper resources, Birch formed an organization and sought out the help of Daniel Guggenheim and J.P Morgan. It became known as Kennecott Mining Company with offices in New York City and Birch as Managing Director. In 1915 Birch had full power and became President of the reorganized Kennecott Copper Company. “As resources were depleted at the Alaska Mines, which closed in 1938, Birch led the diversification into related products and alternate sources of copper in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Chile.” “Under his direction, Kennecott Copper experienced impressive growth. In 1915, the firm had 450 employees and $11 million in sales.”

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