Subscribe
Community
Burch family continues on in five-generation tradition
Company started in Charlotte Hall
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN
F. Elliott "Sonny" Burch, 75, is president of Burch Oil. The company started 81 years ago near the county line and has employed five generations of the Burch family.
|
E-Mail This Article
Bell Motor Company in Leonardtown has been sold and is operating under a new name, but other longtime family businesses are still in operation in St. Mary's County. Burch Oil is one of them.
The Burch Oil Company has seen five generations of Burches come through so far.
When Burch Oil began in 1928, gas oline was delivered to the company by train at The Oaks station in Charlotte Hall. Samuel B. Burch bought the company from a Baltimore cousin and went into business May 21, 1928. In August, F. Elliott Burch Sr. joined the company.
The train's payload filled two large tanks at Burch Oil, one for gas and one for kerosene.
Before electricity became widespread in St. Mary's in 1938, many farmers used kerosene to light their homes at night and it was for sale at most general stores.
Burch Sr., when he was 19, became driver of the Burch Oil gasoline delivery truck, which had a capacity of 436 gallons. The fuel had to be pumped out and measured manually when delivering to gas stations' storage tanks. At this time, gas pumps were commonly found in front of general stores.
Burch Oil carried a lot of Gulf products, according to an unpublished history written by Regina Combs Hammett in 1978 about the Burch family and its company. Gasoline in 1928 was 15 cents a gallon.
F. Elliott "Sonny" Burch Jr. was born Feb. 4, 1934, during the Great Depression in a small rental house near where the McKay's grocery store in Charlotte Hall now stands. Another boy, Donald, was born 18 months later.
Their mother, Elizabeth Buckler Burch, was a teacher at the one-room schoolhouse in Budds Creek in the late 1920s. "I do remember the little pink schoolhouse," Sonny Burch said last week. It literally was painted pink and was also known as the Valentine school house.
It sat abandoned off Route 234 in Budds Creek from 1938 to 1970 when it burned down.
When it was time for Sonny Burch to go to school, he went to one in Hughesville where his mother was then teaching. He later attended, like his father before him, Charlotte Hall Military Academy, which closed its doors in 1976. It is now Charlotte Hall Veterans Home.
In the 1940s the pace of business for Burch Oil quickened as more automobiles hit the local roads and more families used kerosene rather than firewood for heat. But during World War II fuel was rationed, so that added to the burden of paperwork.
Sonny Burch's grandfather kept working until he died on May 16, 1944. His father, F. Elliott Burch Sr., took over as president, the position that his son now holds. His father died in December 1992, after 66 years with the company.
The main plant was moved from The Oaks to Clarke's Landing in Hollywood in 1956. The business office is in Hollywood.
The two Burch brothers joined the company in the 1950s. Sonny Burch said his parents wanted him to become a doctor, but he said he knew he would eventually follow in his father's footsteps.
The Burch family owned several corner properties in the county that eventually became home to Burchmarts and other convenience stores such as Korner Karryout in Mechanicsville.
"Thank God for that, because we couldn't have made it alone on gasoline," Sonny Burch said of the nine stores.
The first Burchmart opened in Hollywood on the corner of Sotterley Road and Route 235 on Aug. 7, 1987.
A Burchmart at Millstone Landing Road and Route 235 in Lexington Park closed recently because of competition from Sheetz and Wawa nearby, Sonny Burch said.
Home heating oil is now the core business for the company.
"Who would have known that they would have turned into what they are now? said Bob Schaller, director of St. Mary's County Department of Economic and Community Development. "To have an enterprise like Burch Oil, I think, is unique."
F. Elliott Burch Sr. also served as president of the St. Mary's County commissioners from 1962 to 1970, when it was still a three-member board.
Sonny Burch recalled his father's time as commissioner. "It was always the school budget" as a recurring issue, he said. County government secured the old railroad right of way from the General Services Administration, which declared it surplus property. The federal government had taken over the same railroad line that originally brought gas to the Burch Oil station at The Oaks during World War II. The line was extended to the Navy base being built at Cedar Point in 1942.
While SMECO wanted the corridor for its utilities, Burch Sr. had rapid transit in mind, something his son isn't enthusiastic about today. "I think we need to be careful" in opening that right of way to mass transit, he said.
Slot machines were still legal when Burch Sr. began as commissioner. "He may have leaned toward keeping them," Sonny Burch said.
He ran for county commissioner himself twice, but was not elected in 1986 or 1990. He said he ran for good county planning and a strong school system, but said he never got the support from the teachers union.
Asked if he would want to run again for office at 75, he said, "No. I really wanted the job [then]. I thought I could make a difference."
He said he plans on staying on with Burch Oil for a while longer as his children and nieces and nephews continue to work there.
"I don't have any plans. I enjoy what I do," he said.
Burch Oil employs about 325 employees, though some are part time, along with a grandson who works there when not in college. "We consider all of these people to be part of the family," he said.
