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Photo: G. Ahnert 2017
James E. Birch memorial in Christ Church Cemetery, Swansea, Massachusetts:
"JAMES E. BIRCH, BORN NOV. 30, 1827, WAS LOST WITH THE ILL-FATED
STEAMER CENTRAL AMERICA, SEPT. 12, 1857."

As soon as his wife Julia received word of his death, she sold all interests in the
line to her half-brother Otis H. Kelton. An ad was placed in San Antonio newspapers:

"San Antonio, November 20, 1857.
Whereas Julia A. B. Birch, of Swansea in the county of Bristol and Commonwealth of
Massachusetts administratrix of the estate of James E. Birch, of the town and Common-
wealth aforesaid has sold, assigned, transferred, conveyed, and set over unto Oltes [Otis]
H. Kelton, of Charleston, South Carolina, for a good and sufficient consideration, all the
stock of the mail lines and post routes from San Antonio, Texas, to San Diego, California,
and from El Paso to Santa Fé, in Texas, so far as the said James E. Birch, deceased, has any
interest in the same; and whereas the said Oltes [Otis] H. Kelton has appointed the under-
signed his agent and attorney by power of attorney duly acknowledged, to take charge of
and superintend his entire interest in said routes, as his sole agent: Now, this is to notify all
whom it may concern, that all contracts and acts made by any person otherwise than those
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that I may appoint, touching the interest of said routes, will be treated as a nullity."

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