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James E. Birch was born November 30, 1827, in South Carolina. In 1847, he
moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he worked in a livery stable and then
went to work as a stage driver for Otis H. Kelton. Julia Ann Briggs Chace, of Swan-
sea, Massachusetts, was the half-sister of Otis. James soon became engaged to her
and they were married.
Birch went to Sacramento in 1849, because he saw the opportunity to make his
fortune in the staging business and established his successful California Stage Com-
pany. His devotion to Julia was the reason for this venture:

"Birch's heart was already in Swansea Village when he arrived in Sacramento. He was
engaged to Julia Chase [Chace], half-sister of his Providence employer, Otis H. Kelton. Birch
historians, Mary McLennon Gallucci and Lieutenant Colonel Alfred D. Gallucci, wrote that
Julia 'had told him of her wish to live in her native village of Swansea, Massachusetts, in a
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mansion filled with beautiful things, with servants to care for them, and he was determined
to make it all come true for them by getting some of California's gold.'"
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Photo: G. Ahnert 2017
The mansion in Swansea, Massachusetts, that James E.
Birch had built to suite the wishes of his wife Julia.

James E. Birch—President of the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line

On July 1, 1857, the Post-Office Department awarded the first trans-continental
mail contract No. 8076 to James E. Birch. The contract stated:

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