Birmingham Uncovered

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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 he became the village’s first Black property owner. Come along with us as we trace George’s epic journey and talk about our continuing research into Birmingham’s Underground Railroad Connections.
To access a full episode transcript as well as to access additional material about the Taylors, check out our website.
For questions, concerns, corrections or episode suggestions please reach out to us at [email protected].
Special thanks to the Birmingham Area Cable Board for PEG grant funding that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to past and present staff of the Birmingham Museum, our amazing volunteers and the descendants of the Taylor family.

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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 the country to get a purebred Shetland Pony. And the subject of this podcast episode, Fenton Watkins, spent a great deal of his life working with those ponies, bringing joy to pony enthusiasts and the tourists on Boblo Island who rented the pony concessions that he and his uncle’s farm provided.
For photos and other documents related to the episode, check out our website
For questions, comments or episode suggestions please reach out to us at [email protected].
Special thanks to the Birmingham Area Cable Board for PEG grant funding that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to past and present staff of the Birmingham Museum, and our amazing volunteers.

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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 and two of his friends. The shocking murder caused a stir in the village of Birmingham, which didn’t have a lot of violent crime. And it rippled out and caused a stir throughout both Oakland County and the whole metro Detroit area due to the store owner’s identity and possible connections to a violent extortion scheme targeting this ethnic community. Just who was Edward Crawford and did the infamous Black Hand kill him?

To access a full episode transcript as well as to access additional material, check out our website.
For questions, concerns, corrections or episode suggestions please reach out to us at [email protected].
Special thanks to the Birmingham Area Cable Board for PEG grant funding that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to past and present staff of the Birmingham Museum, and our amazing volunteers.

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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 individuals without talking about the other. Almeron Whitehead and George Mitchell met at work in their late teens and they were inseparable for over 60 years until they died... and even then, their burial plots at Greenwood Cemetery here in Birmingham are right next to each other.
To access a full episode transcript as well as to access additional material, check out our website.
For questions, concerns, corrections or episode suggestions please reach out to us at [email protected].
Special thanks to the Birmingham Area Cable Board for PEG grant funding that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to past and present staff of the Birmingham Museum, and our amazing volunteers.

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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, sex cults, lying toddlers and an intimate look at religion and family life in early 1800s Birmingham.
To access a full episode transcript as well as to access additional material about the Binghams, check out our website.
For questions, concerns, corrections or episode suggestions please reach out to us at [email protected].
Special thanks to the Birmingham Area Cable Board for PEG grant funding that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to past and present staff of the Birmingham Museum, and our amazing volunteers.