2 Fish 2 Furious: Elijah Fish

05/17/23 • 29 min

Elijah Fish was a prominent abolitionists and his gravesite is part of the National Park Service Underground Network to Freedom. How did one brother become a respected minister and human rights campaigner while the other committed Oakland County’s first murders? And how did Birmingham and Oakland County become a hotbed of the abolitionist movement?
To access a full episode transcript as well as to read the newspaper and family accounts referred to in the episode, 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, in particular Leslie Pielack and Donna Casaceli, who have been hard at work uncovering the Underground Railroad Network in Oakland County. Thanks also to members of the community who, like the Fish family, provided the museum with their family’s stories.

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A Tale of 2 Fish: Imri Fish

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In 1825 a tiny settlement along the Saginaw Trail was rocked by a double murder. The intertwining stories of Imri Fish and his victims, Polly and Cynthia Utter, can tell us a lot about early migration to Oakland County, early 1800s mental health care and how that small settlement started congealing into the Birmingham we know today.
To access a full episode transcript as well as to read the newspaper accounts and court documents referred to in the episode, 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, in particular Leslie Pielack who located the court records for the United States vs Imri Fish and Brittany Phalen, who transcribed the documents, including a rather grisly coroners report that I’m sure wasn’t very fun first thing in the morning. Thanks also to members of the community who, like the Rowley family, provided the museum with their family’s stories.

Next Episode

The Founder Who Wasn't: Benjamin Pierce

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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 called Birmingham’s “founders”, which is problematic in itself because three of those men moved to the land they purchased with families, so why aren’t their wives, siblings and parents called “founders”? This becomes even more problematic when we consider that one of those “founders” didn’t even live on the land he purchased in what would become Birmingham and maybe only visited once. This episode we are looking at that guy. Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, the founder who wasn’t: why he never even lived here, what his legacy was and why he has so many things in Birmingham named after him.
To access a full episode transcript as well as to access additional material about Pierce, 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