Birmingham Uncovered
Join us as we uncover the diverse and compelling lives that built Birmingham, Michigan. How does a sleepy village evolve into an urban mecca known for its thriving cultural scene, great schools and bustling downtown? We’ll take a deep dive into the stories of the people behind one of Michigan’s most prosperous and vibrant communities.
Episodes
24 episodes
Florence "Twink" Willett is a Perfect Size 12
Did you know that Birmingham was among the first cities in Michigan to have a female mayor? In her 1960 acceptance speech, Florence “Twink” Willitt stated “I hope to do a good job. I want the women in the community to be proud of the manner in ...
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27:53
James and Jim Peabody: From Farm to Table
Last month we covered one half of the Birmingham Peabody story with Lyman Peabody and his dry goods store. This month we are diving into James and his descendants, notably Jim Peabody… he of the Peabody’s restaurant fame. If you are a long time...
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32:13
Lyman Peabody and the Japanese Tea Craze
What's in a name? Quite a lot if you are a Peabody in Birmingham. There's been many businesses and one still standing fancy house associated with the name. In this episode, we start at the beginning of the Peabody story in Birmingham and the dr...
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25:16
Ruth Shain Touches Grass
The near constant gloom of a Birmingham winter can be a lot for anyone. On her first winter in Birmingham in 1918, Ruth recalled “I just felt I couldn’t live-maybe I’d just die, because the winter was so hard”. But she lived, and threw herself ...
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26:58
Edward Crawford and the Black Hand
Edward Crawford was 15 years old when he was shot and killed the evening of September 6, 1916 while walking home from a store in Birmingham after it closed with the store owner, a clerk an...
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24:16
The Moral Treatment of Washington Willits
Mental health care in the 1800s wasn't always a hellscape of overcrowded asylums filled with patients chained to floors and beds. In the 1840s and 1850s, a new treatment paradigm called "the moral treatment movement" offered patients dignity, r...
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29:54
Besties for the Resties: George Mitchell and Almeron Whitehead
Friendship can be a very powerful thing. It can empower an individual and redirect their life and sometimes it can reshape the fabric of an entire community. Today’s podcast has two subjects because it is impossible to cover one of these indivi...
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25:49
A Pony Life: Fenton Watkins
What image comes to mind when I say the word “Birmingham”? I’m going to take a wild guess and say that it’s probably not Shetland Ponies. But, for a period of a few decades in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Birmingham was the premier place in ...
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29:03
Birmingham's #1 Hater: Minnie Hunt Saltzer
Minnie Hunt Saltzer considered herself the foremost expert on the lives of Birmingham’s pioneers made it one of her life’s goals to educate everyone on it. Unfortunately, her stories contained more prejudice, unchecked gossip and pettiness than...
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37:24
Catch For Us the Foxes: Harris Machus
It is just not fair that the life and work of Harris Machus gets overshadowed by the disappearance of a certain Teamster from the parking lot of his restaurant. This is us putting some respect back on Machus’ name by exploring his exciting life...
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26:09
The Jacobson's Episode: Nathan Rosenfeld
When Nathan Rosenfield brought Jacobson’s Department store to Birmingham in 1950 there was only one huge problem-shoppers didn’t have anywhere to park! Rosenfield would radically alter not just the shopping landscape forever but the urban plann...
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26:00
Department Store Genesis: Gitel and Morris Levinson
For some Birminghamsters, the story of department stores in Birmingham begins and ends with Jacobson's, but the story doesn't start there. In 1896, two Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe changed the retail environment in Birmingham forever b...
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24:10
Horses, Bicycles and Cars: Edwin A. O'Neal
When Edwin O’Neal opened his harness shop in 1885 he probably never dreamed of exactly what the landscape of Birmingham would look like at his retirement. His business straddles the period where horsepower was shifting from ...
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23:41
It's in Her Threats: Martha Baldwin
What Birmingham would be like today without Martha Baldwin is hard to picture. She has an outsized legacy that would be far too much to cover in one episode, so over however long this podcast runs we are going to be breaking up her life and leg...
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24:54
The Disappearing Man: Robert Opdyke
Robert Opdyke took a train from Birmingham to Detroit and was never seen again…until his son received an alarming telegram several years later. Robert’s story is one of business and failure in mid-late 1800s Birmingham. To access a full...
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27:05
How to Steal a Train: John Allen Bigelow
John Allen Bigelow was a man of many talents but taking life too seriously wasn’t one of them. Come along with us as we sneak into the Union Army to fight in the Civil War twice, form a love connection with a good friend’s sister, steal a...
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29:33
Bonus Episode! Napoleon the AntiChrist
The world has always been ending, which means there's always a candidate or two around waiting to be cast in the role of the Antichrist. In the late 1700s, a friend or family member of Rhoda Bingham Daniels wrote an 8 page manifesto about how N...
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24:34
Puritan Shame: Rhoda Bingham Daniels
Rhoda Bingham Daniels was a direct descendant of a famous puritan minister back East, which meant letters from the family contained more hellfire and information on how babies are evil than you might expect. This story has everything: TULIPs, s...
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23:47
Flight to Freedom: George Taylor
It took George Taylor 4 weeks along the Underground Railroad before he achieved freedom. In the following decades he got married, adopted a child and helped to found a still active church community in Kansas before settling in Birmingham, where...
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25:58
Not a Zebra: Ziba Swan
Ziba Swan was an early Birmingham settler who is perhaps best known today for donating the first ½ acre of land to make
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23:44
Prindles Go Everywhere Together: Margaret, Olive and Mariah
The lives of Margaret, Olive and Mariah Prindle were three sisters who really did everything together-including moving out to the middle of nowhere. When Margaret and her husband, John West Hunter, moved to what would become Birmingham in 1819 ...
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22:12
The Founder Who Wasn't: Benjamin Pierce
The term “founder” can be a tricky thing. Can someone really “found” a place that already had people living in it? Does a “founder” have to do anything other than just be the first? In some older historical material for Birmingham, four men get...
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21:51