In 1915, Cass County and Dowagiac native Webb Miller quit his job at the Chicago American newspaper to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border to cover the Pancho Villa Expedition as a freelance reporter.

That trip led to Miller covering the globe for the United Press.

Miller’s story is a great “Local Boy Makes Good” story, and Jim Bussler will share that tale during his presentation, “World Wide Webb Miller,” at the Dowagiac Area History Museum at 6:30 p.m Wednesday. Bussler’s talk is part of the museum’s Spring Lecture Series.

While in New Mexico covering the Pancho Villa story, Miller showed himself to be adept at getting good stories out and was quickly hired by the United Press. Over the next 25 years, Miller covered most major events across the globe, including World War I, the Spanish Civil War, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and the opening salvos of World War II.

His biggest scoop proved to be his coverage of the Salt Marches in India — he was the first western journalist to cover the independence movement and his dispatches shook the globe.

This program is also part of the community One Story Read series of programs. One Story Read encourages the community to read a shared book each year.

This year’s theme is “A Sense of Place,” and the chosen book is “Images of America: Dowagiac” by Steve Arseneau and Ann Thompson. The secondary book is “I Found No Peace” by Webb Miller, which chronicles his life and adventures up to 1936.

One Story Read’s partners are the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Dowagiac Area History Museum, Dowagiac District Library, Dogwood Fine Arts Festival Committee, Dowagiac Union Schools, and Southwestern Michigan College. Partner institutions have a limited number of free copies of each book available this spring.

Museum Director Steve Arseneau continues the series with “The Lee Mansion and Other Images of Dowagiac, Part 2” on May 3 and “Baseball, Amusement Parks and Faith: A History of the Israelite House of David” by Archivist David Kohrman closes out the series on June 7.

The programs are free to museum members and cost $5 to non-members. Children under 18 years of age are also free. Membership will be available at the museum for those interested.

The museum is located at the corner of Division and West Railroad Streets. For more information, call the Dowagiac Area History Museum at (269) 783-2560 or visit dowagiacmuseum.info.