George Birch was born on May 10, 1905, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father either passed away or abandoned the family, leaving George’s mother, Katherine Halligan, an illiterate Irish immigrant, to raise him alone. Around age 10 or 11, George suffered a head injury that left him deaf, a condition that was medically irreversible at the time. He later attended the Trenton School for the Deaf.
The 1920 Census records George living with his mother on Cook’s Lane in Brick Township, New Jersey. Katherine worked as a domestic servant at the school George attended. After completing his education, George moved to Camden, New Jersey, where he found work as a varnisher. The 1924 Camden City Directory lists him living at 305 Warren Avenue, the home of a Mr. Boileau, where he and his mother lodged until at least April 1930. Shortly afterward, George became a furniture refinisher for the J. B. Van Sciver Company in Camden, a position he would hold for 29 years. During this time, George met Mary Beatrice Hannigan, who was also deaf.
On August 27, 1930, George married Mary Beatrice Hannigan at St. Edmond’s Church on 21st Street in Philadelphia. The couple initially rented on Trenton Avenue in Camden, where other deaf tenants also lived. By 1932, they had moved to Woodlynne, New Jersey, renting a row home on Cedar Avenue. They started a family, and their three children were not affected by hearing difficulties. In 1937, the Birch family purchased a house at 111 Linden Street.
George’s mother, Katherine, passed away in Philadelphia in 1934. During the 1930s and 1940s, in addition to his work at Van Sciver’s, George served as a bartender at The Silent Club, a social organization for the deaf located above Skulnick’s Jewelry at Broadway and Washington Street.
After Van Sciver’s closed its refinishing department in 1960, George found work at Tiedeken Brothers Body Works. He retired at age 65 in 1970. In June 1975, Mary Birch passed away, and later that year, George died of a massive heart attack in October at West Jersey Hospital. He was still living at the Linden Avenue home at the time. George and Mary Birch are buried together at New St. Mary’s Cemetery in Bellmawr, New Jersey.
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George Birch
George Birch was born on May 10, 1905, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father either passed away or abandoned the family, leaving George’s mother, Katherine Halligan, an illiterate Irish immigrant, to raise him alone. Around age 10 or 11, George suffered a head injury that left him deaf, a condition that was medically irreversible at the…
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