Charles Birch

Charles was born in North Beach, Maryland, on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay, to John E and Elizabeth (Smallwood) Birch. By 1870, the family had moved to the ocean side of the state, living in Berlin, MD where his father was employed as a laborer. The draw of the water must have been too strong for John and, by 1880, he moved his wife and eight children to Chincoteague, VA while he worked as an oysterman.

Along the way, young Charles attended school through only the second grade, educating himself further by participating in the hard world of work. In 1891, at the age of twenty-four he married a young girl from Chincoteague, sixteen-year Jennie E Bloxom (see note 1). The young family remained in Chincoteague through at least 1900 while Charles found employment as an oysterman. By that date the couple had already had five children, but tragically, two of them had died young. They would ultimately have nine children, not all of which survived.

Moving to Willis Wharf by 1910, Charles continued to work as an oyster planter, selling most of his catch to Walker Brothers or Ballard Brothers Fish Co. From the 1920 census through the late 1940's he had given up the oyster trade to become a self-employed carpenter, either working in home construction or doing "piece work". From the 1930's until his death, he and Jennie had daughters (first Naomi, then Louise and their husbands and or children) living with them. In the 1950 census they also had taken in a boarder, presumably to help with expenses.

His wife died in 1952 and Charles passed away four years later. They are buried in The Belle Haven Cemetery in Belle Haven, Virginia.

There is no written record that documents when Charles started making decoys for sale. Photos in Fleckensteins "Southern Decoys of Virginia and the Carolinas" depict him as a young man, perhaps in his late twenties to early thirties with a few geese, brant, and bluebills. Another photo depicts him with a bench or table containing about fifty black ducks. In the latter photo, he appears to be in his sixties or seventies.

Fleckenstein states that he was selling his decoys for $25.00 pr dozen in the 1920's when he would have been in his mid-fifties. Perhaps his assertion in the 1940 census saying that he was a "carpenter" doing "piecework" might hint at the fact that his decoy production was slowing down by that time. In addition to home construction and decoy carving, he is known to have made violins and, reportedly, a number of "fine work boats" and "at least one sporting yacht".

His decoys are more closely related to those of New Jersey than those carved by his contemporaries in Virginia. All of Birch's decoys demonstrate a very high level of craftsmanship and finish, but his eloquent swans, which he made in very limited numbers, were his lasting achievement.

Notes: 1. It appears that "Jennie" was actually Elizabeth Jane Bloxom. but she preferred to use the name Jennie E.

Decoy carver Charles Birch was born in 1867 in Willis Wharf, Virginia. Birch made almost all of his decoys hollow in a New Jersey style. He is admired for his grace of form.