Dave Reed, Jr., the popular song composer, is his son.
Dave Reed was born in New York, November 18, 1830; he died there December 5, 1906.
Billy Birch was a name to conjure with for many years, especially in the Metropolis. He made his first appearance in New Hartford, N. Y., in 1844 with a minstrel show, as an amateur.
His initial professional appearance was with the Raymond Minstrels at Stamford, Conn., in 1846.
Subsequently he was identified with many prominent organizations until 1850, when he appeared first in New York with Fellowe’s Minstrels.
When Wood and Christy were running two houses on Broadway, 444 and 472, Birch and Geo. Christy would simultaneously appear at their respective theatres in the first part, and would then proceed to the other theatre and finish their performance for the evening; this was about 1855. In 1851, with Sam Wells and Dick Sliter, he opened in San Francisco with Birch, Wells and Sliter’s Minstrels, and remained six years; under the management of Tom Maguire.
August 20, 1857, Mr. Birch sailed for New York, and a few days later was wrecked off the coast of Charleston, S. C.; he finally made his way to New York, where he played a brief engagement with Bryant’s Minstrels, commencing September 28.
In February, 1858, Birch’s Minstrels opened in Chicago; subsequently he was one of the performers on the steamer “Banjo,” which plyed the Mississippi River. Afterwards Mr. Birch was associated in several minstrel ventures with J. B. Donniker, Joe Murphy, Sam Sharpley and Ben Cotton. With the latter he formed Birch and Cotton’s Minstrels in San Francisco in 1862; likewise nearly a quarter of a century later (July, 1886) did these old minstrels reunite, and the great California metropolis again saw Birch and Cotton’s Minstrels.
September 15, 1864, Birch, Dave Wambold and Charley Backus opened in San Francisco as the San Francisco Minstrels, and in January, 1865, Wm. H. Bernard joined the organization. In March following they sailed for New York, and on May 8th, 1865, gave their first performance at 585 Broadway; four days previous they appeared in Newark, N. J.
The company continued at 585 until April 27, 1872; on August 28, 1872, as Birch, Wambold and Backus’ Minstrels, they opened at St. James Hall, the present site of the 5th Avenue Theatre; season of 1873-74 the company traveled, and on September 3, 1874, they opened at their own new theatre on Broadway, until when recently demolished, known as the Princess Theatre.