Joseph F. Birch & Sons Records

The records of the Town's oldest undertakers, Joseph F. Birch sons, of 3034 M Street, are of great interest to historians of Georgetown.

In the early 1820's, Joseph F. Birch opened a cabinet making business in a little frame building on the corner of Bridge (now M) and Thomas Jefferson Streets. Mr. Birch made and mended furniture for an exclusive residential address. In the pre-department store era, there was nothing that could not be purchased in the quality houses of Bridge Street... silver, jewelry, furs, and silk hats all were there for the elegant Georgetown trade.

But in 1842, under pressure of public demand, Joseph Birch switched completely to coffin making. In 1870, the handsome brick building, which stands today on the same site, replaced the original "coffin-rooms." Joseph Birch's son, Isaac, succeeded him in the business and on Mr. Isaac's death in 1934, he in turn, was succeeded by his son-in-law, Archer L. Haycock, the present manager.

While Birch's was still in the cabinet making business, an occasional wooden casket would be made on request, but there was never a supply of coffins kept on hand. That was considered a portent of bad luck, a superstition that today, along with factory production, has been forgotten. Mr. Haycock, who has a fine store of memories of his own, and is well versed in the tales passed on by Birch pere and fils, recalls that the country people would ride into town with a stick the length of the deceased and a notch on the stick to mark the shoulder width. They would take the finished article back to the country - North Virginia, Arlington, and Falls Church - and the undertaker's work was done.

Joseph F. Birch Sons was for many years the only undertaking firm in Georgetown. The incidence of epidemics in the Town and the alarmingly high child mortality rate can be traced by the number of children's names appearing during the same period in the records; and some of the early influences in the Town can be seen in such stark, anonymous entries as: "Name: Irish Man; Burying ground: Catholick (or perhaps Poorhouse)."

The Civil War brought many changes to Birch's. In their records it is shown that the deceased army officers were sent to their home states. Their names were mentioned specifically and their final resting place indicated: perhaps Massachusetts, Vermont or New York States. The soldiers were registered only as "soldier" and were buried locally. With the need to send the officers back to their homes, the Government recognized that advanced embalming methods were required. Dr. Thomas Holmes was sent from New York to Washington to instruct the local undertakers. Mr. Haycock still has the old wooden operating table used in those days.

His records during those war years show the names of perhaps 10 or 12 soldiers buried on the one day. This he explains quite simply. Between Georgetown and Analoston (now Roosevelt) Island there was a cable where a little boat was pulled from one side to the other. After the fighting up the river at Ball's Bluff or Chain Bridge, the bodies of the slain would be washed downstream and would catch on this cable. Perhaps once a week the bodies would be taken off and buried.

Though in the long years of their existence Joseph F. Birch Sons have devoted most of their time to undertaking, perhaps in the long run they will be remembered for their fine cabinet making. Not long ago, Mr. Haycock went to visit an old friend in Maryland. Her family had for many years lived in Georgetown. Intrigued by a black walnut "Governor Winthrop" desk, Mr. Haycock asked permission to look at the trademark at the back of the copy drawer. To his delight he found the seal of Birch's craftsmanship. He wonders how many other such items, made a hundred years ago in the little workshop on M street, may still be found in the gracious homes of Georgetown?

Transcribed from The Georgetowner, Vol. 7, No.49, Thursday, August 9, 1962 and reprinted from the July 14, 1995 issue.