He was born in 1926, and grew up as the seventh of eight children at 2308 Chestnut Avenue in Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. There was a nine-year gap between him and his next older sister Evelyn, but only a one-year difference with his younger brother Henry.
[Barnesboro in 1930. Once Chestnut Avenue was extended, the city changed Sheppard Avenue. Today that section of the street is named Roosevelt Avenue. Source]
[Since Philadelpha Avenue didn't exist in 1930, my guess is that this house -- 2308 Philadelphia Avenue, Barnesboro, PA -- was the Birchalls' home from 1920 all the way up to Delila's death in 1962.]The head of the household, James Birchall, died in 1936 when Philip was 10 years-old, leaving Philip and his younger brother Henry to be raised by their mother Delila during their teen years. The 1940 census showed just the three of them.
Philip came of age in the middle of World War II. In May 1944 -- after three years of high school -- he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and trained to be a B-24 tail gunner. He then deployed overseas in February 1945.I suspect he served in the Pacific Theater because he returned to the United States on 27 September 1945, but this is unclear. Regardless, Philip Birchall finished his two-year enlistment in May 1946, and was honorably discharged.
[Photo source]Despite his comparatively short service, Philip had seen enough of war, and took his next career in an entirely different direction. He used his G.I. Bill benefits to attend Houghton College in New York, where he majored in Biblical Literature and Theology. After graduation in 1951, he attended the Biblical Seminary in New York, becoming a Wesleyan Methodist minister.
Philip then spent the next 58 years in a variety of callings between New York and North Carolina, where his wife was from. In 1962, he returned to Houghton and served as President of Houghton Academy until 1969. After that, he served in several different congregations before finally settling down in Franklin, NC.
After retiring from his life of service -- first military, then religious -- Philip James Birchall passed away in June 2013 at the age of 87. As stated in his obituary, he was survived by his wife of 65 years, Helen; his daughter Charlotte; his four sons Andrew, Charles, David, and Philip Birchall, Jr; seven grandchildren; many great-grandchildren; and his sister Evelyn.
[Obituary website]
There's just one problem with that, though. Philip James Birchall didn’t actually have a sister.
The obituary went on to say, “in addition to his parents, Philip is preceded in death by 2 sisters and 3 brothers.”
That, too, is false. Philip only had one sibling –- his brother Henry.
The confusion stems from a simple question:
Who exactly were Philip James Birchall’s parents?
On the draft card he filled out in 1946 (ironically, *after* he returned from the war), Philp listed Mrs. Delila Birchall as his “person who will always know your address.” Nothing unusual there -- it was very common for an unmarried young man to list his mother.
Again in 1950, as Philip was filling out his Veteran Compensation Application, he listed Mrs. Delila Birchall as his mother, and his father as deceased.
But Delila could not have children -- neither by her first husband Herbert Shank nor her second husband James Birchall. That was the whole reason why she and Herbert adopted Jennie back in 1906. As shown in the 1910 census, Jennie was Herb and Delila Shank's only adopted only child.
Philip understandably claimed Delila as his mother because she was the one who raised him. She may have been all he could remember, but -- strictly speaking -- Delila was not his mother. Consider:
In Charles Kinkead’s 1926 obituary, Jennie is described as “Mrs. David Roberts.” That marriage fell apart before the 1930 census.
In the 1930 census, James Birchall listed Philip and Harry as his adopted sons.
Jennie K. Edmiston's obituary in the Altoona Mirror on May 17th, 1972, stated that she was survived by Philip and Henry as her sons, not brothers.
Whether Philip knew this or not, I can’t say, but the reality is -– even if unwittingly -- the last public detail of Reverend Philip James Birchall's life was a lie.
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