The Rochester I Know; 115; Margaret Baum

All Silence Beeping Opening Music WXXI Presents The Rochester I Know. A series of interviews with??? notable residents of Monroe County and contributors to this area's rich history. Your host is William Pearce.

Hello and welcome to our program. Tonight our guest is Margaret Baum otherwise known as Miggie. She is the founder of the Monroe County Planned Parenthood. The Monroe County Citizens for Family Planning and the Rochester chapter of the concern for dying. She was also secretary of the Red Cross for 28 years from 1927 to 1945. Mrs. Baum welcome to the Rochester I Know. I hope you'll let me call you Miggie from here on because apparently that's what everyone calls you. That's right and I'm delighted to have you and I'm very pleased to be here with you. Awe - Miggie nice having you. You grew up - You were born in Rochester. Where? I was born in Rochester on Westminster Road. Right off between Park Avenue and Thayer Street and Harvard. Thayer and Harvard? Harvard and Westminster. That's right? What year - Will you tell us the year you were born? I don't mind Nineteen O' '01. 1901?

What was Westminster Road like in 1901? Well, I only lived there until I was 3 years old and my father died when I was 3 years old so we moved to Buckingham Street Which was quite a ways out. That was a little further - It was further out ?sounds them? a number of well10 or 15 blocks. ?I heard that was a past call that's? past Culver. No no. And no this side of Culver and so, as far as was Mr. Roeder's concern, my mind is very vague. How about Buckingham? Buckingham I remember very distinctly. I had lots of friends on Buckingham Street. Where'd you go to elementary school? I went to number 23 [host. Oh yes.] which is on Barrington Street. That was only a few short blocks away. That's right, it's all very convenient and worked out beautifully. And Culver Road at that time was what ..was way out. So, It was considered country?

Well it was, yes, and it was deserted land most of it. but that time beyond Culver. What did your father do for a living and where was he from? He was born in Seneca Falls and he was in the clothing business. with a company called Wild but ?near him while? That no longer exists I presume No, no, hasn't existed for a long long time. And your mother? And my Mother was born in Rochester. Where was she born in Rochester? and it's terrible but I'm not sure exactly where she was born, but down at what today we called toward the center of town. And where her mother and father also from Rochester? No, her mother was born in New York and um her father might have been born in Germany. I'm not absolutely positive. You went to school 23 and from there after school 23 you went on to high school where. I went to East High School. Walked East High school and back every day. Well that was a good hike. Over Alexander Street and

Alexander Street. And what was East High School like in those days? Well it was a, I had a lot of very good friends at East High School and Albert Wilcox was the principal of the school and an outstanding principal. I don't think there's ever been a better one in Rochester and his son Charles Wilcox was in my class and Mr. Wilcox had the facility of handling the students extremely well so that any student that played a prank or was disruptive and was sent to the principal. He was able to talk to that youngster so that he'd never do it again. He was outstanding and the other item that I think is of interest that it was East High School at the time - They were teaching Latin. I took Latin and most of the students or a great proportion took Latin and they had the Roman state and they would,

at assemblies, they would have days that ?where? the Romans stayed and down the aisles carrying over their shoulders whatever the Romans used to carry. I can't think of the name of them moment. But anyhow as they came down they would say Lo Qaeda day counselors - Make way for the council. Remarkable, But it was remarkable because you learn so much about. You think we're missing something today by not having more Latin taught in high school? Well I do because I believe that is a tremendous help as far as the English language is concerned. It's amazing how many people in this community, well, came from East High School. Well, I guess the community was small and there were really only 2 High Schools. That's right. So you either had to go to [Host]East or West "[Guest ] that;s right [Host} of so many guests that we've had on this program, The Rochester I, know and people have been so active in the community like you went to East High School on Alexander Street that that's had a remarkable history.

Well they had some outstanding teachers. Really the kind of teacher that gave you great empathy. You wanted to study. That's remarkable. That's also where WXXI or channel 21 got it started. That's right I remember that too. I think in the gymnasium probably where you used to play basketball at the old East High. That's where this we used to have our studios in the basement. ?Frankly it? it is now an apartment dwelling or apartment complexes ?Is that what it is?would? i didn't know what ?it would be? Completely refurbished it and now it's an apartment complex so quite a turn. It is. But it still looks, still looks the same. After high school at ?East.? You went off to college. I wonder if you could tell us something about maybe your final years in high school. I think they were during World War 1 and going off to college. Well. The war had just, ah, let's see the war started. Do you remember what month?

And I'm I'm not sure the month or week but this country got in the war in 1917 and I do recall it. You know I don't recall but I remember a big folder reading about that. The war ending in November. That's right. By 1918?. It did. November 11th. Well by that time I was a Smith College. And about I think it was November 8. There was a false alarm about peace but we didn't know it was a false alarm. And it swept the country. And I remember being in a parade of great excitement through the little town of Northhampton where the college ?inaudible? everybody was out marching and feeling so happy until the next day when we found it was false. But then on November 11th of course we had the armistice. What did you do after Smith College? Did you come back to Rochester? Well, I became engaged my junior year at Smith College so when I came back I was married shortly after my graduation and

then it became very interested in having a couple of children which I had and which we had. And then oh about 19. In the late 1920s. I found there were no educational toys for children in Rochester .There wasn't a store that sold one and so, I, between Halloween and Christmas I opened a shop where the Hotel 11 was that what it's called 111 East Avenue, 111 East Avenue. I opened a shop in one of those shops along East Avenue. That hotel was there then. Yes, it was the Sagamore and so from Christmas, from Halloween to Christmas

I sold these educational toys until the stores started having them and then I went out of the business. So you started a trend. So I think I did. What was peculiar about the toys? I can't believe there were no toys for children. Well, there were no educational toys. The kind of puzzles that would give you the map of the United States or putting things together in certain kinds of blocks and all kinds of games. That gave them an education as well as just handling them. So you started a new trend in toys. And the other local stores put you out of business finally? Well, no. The minute that anybody, that any store and I don't remember which was the first one to bring it to Rochester. But the first time that I heard that there were any educational toys. That's when I closed up because I was doing it just to get them started.

You felt you'd done, done your job. You have a reputation as a golfer Miggy. Now when did you start playing golf and tell us a little bit. Well I always regretted that I didn't play when I was younger because I didn't play until after I was married and I was then about 21 or 22 and it's much better if, as you know, you start in the teens. But I worked terribly hard on it and I remember feeling the almost the most important thing in life was to be sure that putt went down. Laughter Do you still think that's the most important thing? Oh, I'd say I think I kept to that idea until World War II broke out. And then I decided there were a lot of things much more important than golf. But before long before World War II you got it you were interested in other thing but I don't want to leave your golfing career entirely because when you played golf I'm not sure where you played. You may want to tell us about that but I know you played with some interesting people and one of the people you played golf with was Margaret Woodbury Strong who, who

had tremendous collection that a couple of years ago was put into one of our I think one of our most famous local museums and a Strong Museum here and you know Lou and you played golf with her. And I wonder if you could tell us something about her we don't know many people who knew her. I knew her fairly well. I played golf with her a number of times. And she was a very really a very both she and her husband were eccentric. And one of the stories that I remember. What, what what is being eccentric mean well. Having. Well I'll give you an example and you tell me if you think this is eccentric that the red, um, both Margaret and Homer Strong were very interested in the Red Cross and then when it came to a drive for number of years they'd given certain amount some one year they couldn't decide how much to give to the campaign and

so they took their telephone number. Now, I call I consider that I ?get? ?sent back I don't know but I don't know.? "[Host]:Depends on what the phone number was. Were they, were they 7 digit numbers? "[Guest]: No, no there were 4 digit numbers and I don't remember what her number was or what it was a nice liberal gift. "[Host]: Was that any other stories about Margaret Woodbury Strong? "[Host]: Was she a good golfer. "[Guest]: Um, I'd say fair. "[Host]:What kind of person was she? "[Guest]: Well she was in her later life she was a very, very lonely person and her family, as you probably know, took her around the world when she was very young and bought lots of things ?on the side.? And I That's the basis I think of her having become so interested in. Well, we now see the Strong Museum because she bought anything and everything and

go in and buy 100 watches one time. ?So Mets except brick? "[Host]: I think I could" ?use one good watch it would tie a little but I don't know if that's a word you couldn't either but? '[Guest]: she'd like to pick up. But what she saw. "[Host]: All those eccentricities are now in a I think quite a famous local museum. "[Guest]:That's right, that's right and I don't think many people certainly I was one who didn't dream she had such a tremendous collection. I used to go to her for, I did it for a couple of years to collect at the campaign, the campaign for Planned Parenthood. and when I'd get there she wouldn't let me say a word. Talked about her doll houses and elves and when it would get to be almost an hour I'd say well Margaret Now may I tell you about Planned Parenthood She'd oh, come back next week. All this I did that for two years and then I handed them to somebody else.

You went there originally to try to get a donation. That's right and when I ended up I had a hundred dollars which didn't satisfied me. Before we jump on to World War II, you played golf during the 20's I presume. In 1932 Margaret Sanger came to town gave a lecture. And I wonder if you would describe that lecture where she saw. Who she is first of all. What she talked about and how it influenced your life for a long time. Well, Margaret Sanger, I believe, is one of the people who has made a tremendous contribution to civilization; that she is the one that not only started it in the United States and fought. Started what. Started, I'm sorry birth control in the United States. And when she came here in 1932 she been invited to speak at Temple B'irth Kodesh.

And a cordon of police was thrown around the building just waiting for her to say something so they could haul her off the platform and put her in jail. What could she possibly say that they would arrest her for? Well, they would feel. For instance I'm sure she'd use the word abortion. She would have been arrested or if she'd gone into too much detail about contraceptives another word that wasn't used. But she did talk about contraceptives. It was, she did talk about a but in rather a veiled way. As to as being very careful. But she was a very inspiring speaker and a remarkable person. I knew her quite well, and um Did you know her before she came here and then. No I didn't know her before to came here but I was national board a few years later. For planned ?departure? For what was birth control. They changed the name in the early 40's to Planned Parenthood to put it on the positive side.

And, so I had a chance to meet her a number of times in New York and then I went to three of the international conferences where she was. You became the head of the local Planned Parenthood or birth control group, if you will in 1932? No. And, well, 1932 was when Margaret Sanger came here and she inspired a group. A small group to start the cry to get birth control into Rochester and um so Mrs. William Lee. When I was in my shop one day, in my toy shop, I spoke, of she came in to see me and wanted know if I would be a member of the group to found birth control in Rochester and I said I'd be very glad to. So, what, why were you interested in birth control that time which I'm sure was not a normal attitude or for women.

Well, I had read about Margaret Sanger and I'd heard a lot about it and I felt that these women who had 12 and 14 children and were desperate to know and not knowing what to do. It just seemed to me like very helpful and interesting committee to be drawing and I did. Then I became the first secretary and then later I was president in Rochester um for a couple of years. But it was so vital at that time that it got in the bloodstream of everybody that was on my committee. And so it never has gotten out of any of their bloodstreams including mine. I'm just as interested as I ever was. Do you believe just as strongly today as you did then? Yeah, I certainly do. And we had a terrible battle. Now how did you go about disseminating information about birth control to a community who probably didn't want to hear it?

Well, they didn't it was too intimate of a subject and a example of that is that ?you know of? the campaign for funds in the first year we were out for a thousand dollars which we thought was going to be very difficult and it was. Now which year was this? This was 1932. ?Lord? and 1933 and I would telephone to a man in his office to make an appointment to see him and I would arrive and I'd get to the door and he'd be sitting at a desk.This happened to me with two or three men um sitting at a desk opposite me and Crimmins with you and writing. And he wouldn't look up. And he'd invite me in. Now, he knew why you were there. He knew why I was there. You were there asking for money to help support what a birth control clinic? Support a birth control clinic and he felt this was just too intimate a subject and he couldn't deal with two cents that ?we can? look up.

So he'd say," Now tell me what do you want to say and I can go on writing." Well, if you want to sell a product it's a very difficult way to do it. But, I would stand there and tell him then ?hair and how I met him? When I had finished and he didn't have any more questions as still standing I'd turn around and leave. He didn't say goodby; and almost everyone sent me a check. Really, yeah, even though they were obviously embarrassed to talk to you about it. But they did, they did think it was a worthwhile effort. Now what did you talk to him about? You talk to them about what dispensing contraceptives? Telling them about these poor women. For instance, this is later but it gives you an idea of what was going on in the study. I was at the center one day. What is today a clinic we call the center. Where was the center and? Well by this time the center was in the Unitarian Church. ?which we're at where?

We had tried to get a place to open the center. And in our ?naivete'? we thought it would be simple that one of the hospitals would certainly be interested. They would have none of us. Then we went to the Baden Street Settlement and the vice president of the Baden Street Settlement. The moment the subject was broched, put on his rubbers and his overcoat and strode out of the room. He couldn't possibly listen to a subject like that. And of course the Baden Street turned us down as did other settlements and we were desperate. When David Rice Williams who was the minister of the Unitarian Church, which was at that time or Midtown Plaza is now, told us that we could use their basement and they had a billiard table in there and they said the one thing we ask is be very careful you don't touch that billiard table.

And so that's where we started. So that was your first Center. You didn't call it a clinic. No, no we couldn't because the state laws were such at that time that you had to meet certain requirements so we couldn't have met. So we called a Center and it was called the Maternal Consultation Center. And what were you allowed to do there? Well, um. What did you do?. Well, we well, then we had a very hard time getting a doctor and we finally got a brave soul by the name of Dr. ?Saul Moress? and he was our doctor. And, um, the first day they opened they had 4 patients and were very pleased and we had a wonderful executive of a woman by the name of Ruth Baucus who was a social worker and she became our executive. And, so I can remember the day that I walked in there

and a woman who had 14 children had walked in all bent over and looking so aged and pathetic. And she was fitted with a contraceptive and she walked out erect her whole expression had changed. Her whole posture changed, and those of the people we were helping in those days were to prevent their having more children because they were poor desperate women. Margaret ? ? you've had such a long and varied career we want to touch on a couple other things before this half hour is over and it's rapidly drawing to a close. Later on you became involved in an organization called Concern For Dying. And I wanted you to tell us how you got, which I guess still exists in Rochester. How that came about as a result of your work with Planned Parenthood. Yes, well having worked with Planned Parenthood and I became a very close friend

of Mrs. Katherine Mali, M AL I, that is\ who lived in New York and she was on the National Board of what was then called Euthanasia. And you may or may not know that euthanasia comes from two Greek words ?inaudible? meaning good and Thanatos meaning death. So that's what euthanasia stood for. But due to Hitler it changed and people began to think of it as killing people and it ruined the name Euthanasia and ?both came out I? had been a very good friend of mine and parenthood and being on the National Board of Euthanasia she asked me to become a member, which I was very glad to do and found it very interesting although when it started it was a group of quite elderly women and about eight people. However, the board became a much stronger

board and much more interesting. So back, well it's now about 11 years ago, I think, and maybe it's longer than that. Ah, it's about right I think. I decided that it would be a good idea to have a Euthanasia organization in Rochester and so I found some people prominent in the community who were very interested in it and who were willing to be sponsors and we had a meeting. I think it was of the Academy of Medicine to get it started and people were tremendously interested. Now the biggest um item I think connected with what is today when the name was changed from Euthanasia to Concern For Dying. Um That that is the living will and I don't know how much you know about the living will. What is a living will?

Well a living will is a document which not verbatim but which in substance says I am now of sound mind and body. But when I'm not I want no measures to extend my life. And this is a document that is signed and witnessed and dated and you talk it over with your family and make them understand what you want 'cause you will be the patient and then you give it to your lawyer or anyone else you want. But it must end up in your file in your doctor's office if you're fortunate enough to have a private doctor. How do you feel about dying Miggie. Well, I feel that I've had a very satisfying full life and when the day comes that I can no longer make a contribution to society I don't want to be here, so I'm am ready any time actually. I'm having a wonderful time but when that's over then it's finished for me.

I know you carry a card that says in effect exactly what you just told us. Miggie, thank you so much for being with us today on the Rochester I know I'm Bill Pearce so long for now. See you next time. Theme Music Theme Music Theme Music For a VHS copy of this program send $19.95 plus $3.50 shipping and

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