Miriam Pede Interview Trailer, Michigan

During the summer of 2016, Michigan students took part in the Youth Ambassadors program at the Heritage Museum and Cultural Center, developed as part of Museum on Main Street's Stories: Yes program. The students researched, conducted, and transcribed the oral histories of area locals. They created short "movie trailers" for each interview so that museum visitors could quickly glean the content of the longer-format oral histories. 

This story features Miriam Pede, who talks about her time as a teacher and volunteer work in the community at historic Morton House and the Benton Harbor-St. Joseph chapter of the Federation of Women's Clubs. The full oral history can be found at the Heritage Museum and Cultural Center in St. Joseph, Michigan.

Miriam Pede (00:00): Miriam Jean [inaudible 00:00:03] Pede. My birthdate is July 13th, 1925. Yes, I received my teaching certificate from Albion College is where I attended and graduated from and had a double major. I majored in history and I majored in English. So, I had a total assignment of English there at Greenville, and I was there for a year and then learned of a position here in St. Joseph. And in the fall of 1950, then I came here to St. Joe and began my teaching career here. So I taught here in St. Joe for 27 years and retired in 1977. I met my husband here. We were married in the fall of 1953. There were family reunions, so that I sort of knew the area.

Miriam Pede (00:58): So, then an aunt and uncle who lived in this area, the aunt said, "Why do you want to go to St. Joe? That's just a sleepy little town on the hill?" Well, it was because Benton Harbor was the thriving place, but there was a bus service between St. Joe and Benton Harbor. I still didn't have a car. Or I mentioned that earlier that I never dawned on me that I might own a car. So when I first came and of course I wasn't married when I first came, so I would get the bus and go over to Benton Harbor. And that's where the dress shops and gift shops and everything. JC Penney was there and [inaudible 00:01:38] was there. And well, eventually when the Fair Plain Plaza was built, that took a lot of Benton Harbor merchants out to Fair Plain, which took the heart and soul out of Benton Harbor.

Miriam Pede (01:55): When I was retiring from teaching, I wanted something to do. So I had spouted off on this that I needed something to fill in. Well, as soon as she heard that I had retired, she invited me to her home for a cup of coffee and she presented the opportunity to be in charge of the guides at the Morton House Museum. Well, that meant securing the guides. And there were a number of them and also an annual training session. And then we were open two days a week over there as a museum. And I had to have people there and there had to be two people because if somebody was upstairs taking someone through the museum, there had to be somebody down near the door. So I would have to do that.

Miriam Pede (02:53): Well, I came after this cup of coffee with this friend, I came home to my husband and I said, "I can't turn her down as far as taking this responsibility, after all of my spouting off about the fact that I needed something to do when I retired." Well, I successfully did that for a number of years and enjoyed it. And we weren't overrun with visitors, but it was nice.

Miriam Pede (03:26): The Morton family were a leading family in Benton Harbor, going back to when the first family came from the east in 1835. And there were four generations of this family that contributed to life in Benton Harbor. The fourth generation did not outlive the third generation. And the third generation was Stanley and Carrie Morton, who had these two sons that... They had four children, but two reached adulthood, but they died as fairly young men. Stanley was known for being involved with the Graham and Morton Transportation Company. So when the children did not outlive the parents, Stanley and Carrie willed their house to the Federation of Women's Clubs and women's clubs were very important to women back in that time.

Miriam Pede (04:28): Then after my husband died, having been in charge of the guides, then I did become, and was president of the Federation of Women's Club for two terms, six years. It was a good experience. And the Federation did a very fine job. In the 1960s is when they decided not to be a clubhouse any longer. As a clubhouse, they rented the building out for wedding receptions, recitals, and things like that. And then, there were other places available, and they were not getting all of that "business" so that they were struggling a bit to keep up the house. Oh, and they had painted the woodwork green and it didn't look like a home. So then in the 1960s, there was a little group that thought since this is the oldest house in Benton Harbor and since the Morton family were very much leaders in the community, why not make it into a museum, which is how it all began as the museum.

Asset ID: 2022.20.04
Themes: Teaching, education, history, retirement, busses, transportation, downtown, retail, shopping, museums, museum training, Morton House, Federation of Women's Clubs
Date recorded: 2016
Length of recording: 05:50 m
File Type: Video
Related traveling exhibition: Crossroads: Change in Rural America
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Heritage Museum and Cultural Center, St. Joseph, Michigan
More information: https://museumonmainstreet.org/blog-node/st-joseph-benton-harbors-youth-ambassadors