Birmingham, MI

Text resize increase font size

by Donna Casaceli, Birmingham Museum Staff

The Early Years
Elijah Staunton Fish (1791-1861) was born in 1791 in Athol, Massachusetts. Although his mother died when he

was young, he grew up in a comfortable home with his aunt and her daughters. Although he was not formally educated, Fish worked hard at numerous occupations, and his success as a vegetable merchant helped he and his wife migrate to the new territory of Michigan to settle and raise a family. In 1820, he purchased 160 acres on the Saginaw Trail, just north of modern Birmingham, where he soon established the first Presbyterian Church in Birmingham in his barn.

In the 1830’s, abolitionists in the northern states began forming anti-slavery societies to combat slavery in America, with the intent to end the practice altogether. According to the Pontiac Courier in February of 1836, Fish helped found the Oakland County Anti-Slavery Society, with Fish “in the chair” and local prominent landowner John P. LeRoy as secretary. In June, Fish published several public notices in the Pontiac Courier looking for delegates to go to Ann Arbor for the Michigan Anti-Slavery meeting, identifying his leadership role as Vice President in the notice. But Deacon Fish’s anti-slavery activities ranged further and involved others in the movement in Michigan. .

Work with Other Abolitionists
During the 1840’s, Fish was very active in anti-slavery and abolitionist movements, as evidenced by several mentions of his work in the Signal of Liberty, an abolitionist newspaper published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Fish continued as chair for the Oakland County Anti-Slavery Society, and participated on various committees to support the election of sympathetic political candidates to local and state government office. He worked with well-known Michigan abolitionists of the time, including Farmington’s Nathan Power (1801-1874), a Quaker and anti-slavery reformer; and fiery abolitionist lawyer and writer George W. Wisner (1813-1849) of Pontiac. In 1845, Fish was one of twelve delegates to represent Oakland County at the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society convention in Marshall, MI.

Ties to Henry Bibb and Michigan’s Underground Railroad
Working with abolitionists to end slavery politically was one thing; working to help bring enslaved people to freedom in Michigan was another, and Notice 3

for obvious reasons, often kept secret. It turns out that during his time working with the Oakland County Anti-Slavery Society, Fish was also directly involved freedom seekers escaping enslavement, providing money and supplies to help them reach freedom. Michigan’s Underground Railroad had a high

profile voice through a newspaper published in Canada by Henry Bibb (1815-1854), The Voice of the Fugitive. Bibb was a well-known man who escaped enslavement in Kentucky and came to Detroit in 1842. Bibb actively published and lectured across the country as a noted and eloquent abolitionist speaker. It is in The Voice of the Fugitive that Elijah Fish’s involvement in the Underground Railroad is found:

“We would also thankfully acknowledge a small lot of clothing and provisions which H.B. [Henry Bibb] received from the hands of Deacon E. Fish, of Birmingham, Oakland Co., collected by him from the friends of humanity, for the same object, in that town.” (The Voice of the Fugitive, March, 1851).

“Deacon E. Fish of Birmingham” is mentioned several more times in The Voice through 1851, including his involvement in the founding, and becoming the first president of, the “Refugee Home Society.” This organization’s purpose was to raise funds to purchase land in Canada, where freedom-seekers would be safe from re-capture and have a means of economic support.

Birmingham and Abolition
In the Village of Birmingham, Deacon Fish was the public voice of the “Friends of Liberty in Birmingham,” a group of local citizens involved in the Notice 5 abolition movement. The group was responsible for arranging and promoting public lectures by prominent abolitionists. These included Detroit’s Henry Bibb in 1846 and Boston’s William Cooper Nell (1816-1874), a free black journalist and activist, in 1858. In addition, the Friends of Liberty in Birmingham also held at least one “Liberty Convention” in Birmingham in 1844, at the largest assembly building in town--Mechanic’s Hall.

The End of Slavery
Deacon Elijah Staunton Fish died on February 28th, 1861. He had been ill off and on for several years, but had worked diligently to bring the message of abolition to the public, and to work behind the scenes to help enslaved people seek freedom. Although he did not see his work to end slavery accomplished, his children saw slavery officially end on December 6, 1865, with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery. Their father’s legacy of activism has recently come to light, and will help us at the Birmingham Museum tell a more complete story of our community’s history. According to the family history written in the early 20th century, after his death, his children summed up his life on his grave marker with this epitaph:

Elijah S. Fish
born
February 11, 1791
died
February 28, 1861
"A Useful Life and Peaceful Death is the Epitome of his History"

Sources

Durant, Samuel W., History of Oakland County. L.H. Everts &Co., 1877, page 57.
Fish, Elijah S., “Mass Liberty Convention!” Signal of Liberty, Vol. 4, No. 20, Whole No. 176, 09-Sep- 1844, Ann Arbor, page 3. Ann Arbor District Library, aadl.org/node/26833, Accessed 17-Sep-2021.
Fish, E.S., “Public Notice.” Pontiac Courier, Vol. 2, No. 26, 25-Jul-1836, page 3. Digital Michigan Newspapers, Central Michigan University Libraries, digmichnews.cmich.edu/?a=d&d=OaklandPONTC18360725-01.1.3&e=-------en-10--1--txt-txIN----------, Accessed 09-Sep-2021.
Fish, Fannie E., “Early Pioneer Sketch of ’Piety Hill’ and Vicinity.” Pontiac Gazette, Vol. 45, No. 12, Whole No. 2313, 01-Jun-1888, page 2.
Gilpillon, Doct. R., “Oakland County.” Signal of Liberty, Vol. 5, No. 13, Whole No. 221, 21-Jul- 1845, Ann Arbor, page 1. Ann Arbor District Library, aadl.org/node/28527, Accessed 17-Sep-2021.
“Help For the Fugitives.” The Voice of the Fugitive, Vol. 1, No. 6, 12-Mar-1851, Sandwich, ON, page 2. Abolitionist Newspapers of the 1850’s, Ontario Community Newspapers, news.ourontario.ca/abolition/97855/page/2, Accessed 17-Sep-2021.
Michigan History Center, Biography. “Henry Bibb Speaks Out Against Slavery,” https://michiganology.org/stories/henry-bibb-speaks-out-against-slavery/. Accessed 10/1/2021.
Mull, Carol E. The Underground Railroad in Michigan. North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2010, 80-81.
Nell, William C., “Sketch of a Tour to the West” The Liberator, Vol. 28, No. 46, 12-Nov- 1858, Boston, page 3. Massachusetts Collections Online, Digital Commonwealth, www.digitalcommonwealth.org/book_viewer/commonwealth:5h742h84z, Accessed 09-Sep-2021.
“Refugee Home Society.” The Voice of the Fugitive, Vol. 1, No. 12, 04-Jun-1851, Sandwich, ON, page 1. Abolitionist Newspapers of the 1850’s, Ontario Community Newspapers, news.ourontario.ca/abolition/97861/page/1 , Accessed 17-Sep-2021.
Digital Michigan Newspapers, Central Michigan University Libraries, digmichnews.cmich.edu/?a=d&d=OaklandPG18880601-01.1.2&e=en-101txt-txIN, Accessed 30-Sep-2021.

"Elijah Fish: Abolitionist"