Creative industries in Washtenaw County add hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy. In the weeks and months to come, host Deb Polich, the President and CEO of Creative Washtenaw, explores the myriad of contributors that make up the creative sector in Washtenaw County.
ABOUT THELMA TUCKER:
Thelma Tucker’s background is in project management and computer programming. She retired in 2012 from the Society for Research in Child Development after 21 years on the staff. As Program Operations Manager, she directed the submissions process for its biennial meeting with about 7,000 attendees and 5,000 research presentation submissions, developing the process from paper to online submitting with the help of a very talented computer programmer.
In 2013, she co-wrote Sky Blue-Pink with Orange Polka Dots: The Wheeler Family and the Community in which They Lived with James Baldwin Parker (565 pages with over 400 photos). It is the saga of her family’s beginning in Webster Township in 1829. Ms. Tucker is the Great Grand Niece of the blacksmith who established the 1875 Wheeler Wheelwright and Blacksmith Shop now located in Historic Webster Village.
After serving on the WTHS Board of Directors from 2012-2017, Ms. Tucker was elected president of the Society and served in that role from March 2017 through June 2024. The second annual Bluegrass Jamboree, held on August 3, 2024, was born from conversations between Ms. Tucker and Chris and Stephanie Sorenson of the Companion Custom Banjo Company in Webster Township.
RESOURCES:
Webster Township Historical Society Official Site
About the Webster Township Historical Society
TRANSCRIPTION:
Deb Polich: Welcome to 89 one WEMU's creative:impact. I'm Deb Polich, president and CEO of Creative Washtenaw and your host. Thanks for joining us weekly as we meet people involved in creative initiatives that make our cities and townships wonderful places to live, work and play. Washtenaw County has 21 townships and villages. There is pride in the history of these villages, and many, such as Pittsfield, Salem and Northfield Townships have historical societies that hold the past and record the present for current and future generations. The Webster Township Historical Society is one that our guest, Thelma Tucker, knows and knows well. Thelma, welcome to creative:impact!
Thelma Tucker: Thank you very much! Thank you for having me!
Deb Polich: It's great to have you here! So, Webster Township, like many of the towns and cities in Washtenaw, was founded in and around the 1880s. And it was 1826, in fact, when the area was first settled and then organized as Webster Township in 1833. For our listeners who may not know, where exactly is Webster Township?
Thelma Tucker: Well, it is between Dexter and Ann Arbor.
Deb Polich: And it actually, if I remember right, touches the school systems of Dexter and Ann Arbor.
Thelma Tucker: And Whitmore Lake.
Deb Polich: And Whitmore Lake. Okay, okay. Good to know. There we go. You've been involved with the Webster Township Historical Society, or WTHS as you call it, for some time. What was your connection to Webster Township?
Thelma Tucker: My family settled there in 1829.
Deb Polich: Oh my gosh! Really early!
Thelma Tucker: Yes! They were among some of the first settlers that came from the East.
Deb Polich: Interesting! And they've stayed all of these years.
Thelma Tucker: Yes.
Deb Polich: Wow wow wow wow wow! What a history you have there! And I expect that your appreciation for the township comes from that history. And if I could ask you, because I know you've done a lot of work on this. If there's one or two things in Webster's history that might be indicative of its personality as a community, is there anything that comes to mind?
Thelma Tucker: The Webster Fall Festival.
Deb Polich: Okay. Tell us about that.
Thelma Tucker: Actually, it is the primary fundraiser for us and co-hosted with the Webster United Church of Christ. And this year will be our 41st year. And the goal of the festival is family fun.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: And community entertainment. It's really all about we want to bring people out to have fun. There are hayrides and good food and bands that play in our corncrib stage, demonstrations in our buildings and lots of fun all over the place.
Deb Polich: So, you're telling us that the Historical Society is much more than an archive. It's actually a living space. So, what do we see when we come there?
Thelma Tucker: You are confronted with a mini Greenfield Village.
Deb Polich: Oh, really?
Thelma Tucker: Yes! We own seven buildings total. Four of them are over 150 years old.
Deb Polich: And are they on their original sites?
Thelma Tucker: No. They were all moved to our, what we call now, historic Webster Village.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: And the first one that arrived was the Wheeler Wheelwright and Blacksmith Shop. And it arrived in pieces. It was reconstructed by a team of Amish carpenters from the western side of the state.
Deb Polich: And that was the start.
Thelma Tucker: It was this lovely structure.
Deb Polich: So really. Seriously, who does that? Who decides to create a village, if you will, by moving buildings to create kind of this place where you go to find out what happened in the past?
Thelma Tucker: Well, it was a group of people from the church who decided that they needed a historic committee.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: That was the beginning. Then, in 1980, that group decided to become an official organization. And they got a charter through the state of Michigan. They bought their first piece of land and moved that blacksmith shop--actually two miles, they moved it.
Deb Polich: Wow!
Thelma Tucker: In pieces on trucks.
Deb Polich: I've seen some of those pictures of buildings being moved. It's just an amazing feat as far as I'm concerned. 89 one WEMU's creative:impact continues. My guest is Thelma Tucker, and we are learning about the historic Webster Village and all it has to offer. So, you mentioned the Fall Festival, but the village is really active. There are events all year round. Before you tell me about some of those, is it open to the public all the time, or is it only open at certain times?
Thelma Tucker: Well, it's kind of open.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: Because we now have a walking path that connects all. It surrounds the village green and connects all the buildings.
Deb Polich: Okay. So, one could just walk up and visit.
Thelma Tucker: They could.
Deb Polich: Without having access to the buildings. They're not open all the time.
Thelma Tucker: No, they are not.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: We do keep them locked except during events.
Deb Polich: Got it. Got it. And speaking of those events, I know you have a bluegrass jamboree every August. You mentioned the Webster Fall Festival. I think there's other things coming up the rest of the year.
Thelma Tucker: Yes, we have a...let's see. In October, we will have a Celtic harp concert in our old town hall.
Deb Polich: Is there a Celtic connection or is that just happens to be?
Thelma Tucker: It happens to be that one of our board members is learning to play the harp.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: And she's a world renowned harpist.
Deb Polich: Oh, wow! So she's not learning. She's already there.
Thelma Tucker: Yeah, yeah. Our board member is learning from the other woman, and she brings in the Ann Arbor harpists...harpers?
Deb Polich: Harp players, whatever. Whatever the proper term is.
Thelma Tucker: But it's beautiful. There's a little snippet of last year's concert on our website.
Deb Polich: Okay. Okay. So, let's talk about archives a little bit. I remember that Pat Vaillancourt, who's the mayor of Manchester, mentioned to me a while back that genealogy and people looking for their roots has become a big thing. Is that something that you deal with here in Webster Township as well?
Thelma Tucker: Well, we don't really keep the genealogy. We more collect artifacts.
Deb Polich: But do people looking for genealogy come to visit you?
Thelma Tucker: They often email us.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: They will ask a question like, "I just bought this farmhouse. It used to belong to so-and so. What can you tell me about them?" And sometimes we can help them, and sometimes we can't, because it depends upon if the material has been donated to us.
Deb Polich: Right. So, most of the archives are donated materials rather than somebody researching and finding for information about various parts of the community.
Thelma Tucker: Yes.
Deb Polich: Got it. Got it.
Thelma Tucker: And it's composed of documents and photographs and all kinds of donated items. We have a huge copper kettle. It's oblong, and it's probably three feet long. It used to sit in a fireplace to heat water.
Deb Polich: Wow! What about your family? Is there information about your family and the properties that it owned?
Thelma Tucker: Actually, we're starting that we just had our reunion--our family reunion. It was our 80th, and we talked about bringing some of our materials to the archives, because, so far, the family is hanging on to them.
Deb Polich: Sure.
Thelma Tucker: Which families do. It's understandable. However, we are finding that more and more people are donating their precious items to us. And we display them in our buildings. We've recently put together a farm museum in our barn. And it's all just coming together to be a much more interesting and historic place to visit.
Deb Polich: So, do you do school tours?
Thelma Tucker: We do not. We want to, but transportation has always been an issue here with the school systems.
Deb Polich: And the kids everywhere.
Thelma Tucker: And we've talked about it many times. And I think we'll start with one-room schools.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: Excuse me. I'm sorry. Homeschooled.
Deb Polich: Oh. Oh, sure. Okay.
Thelma Tucker: We thought that would be a good place to start.
Deb Polich: Yeah, yeah. So, when people do visit, and for some reason, I always go to youngsters because they see a world that is not part of what they've grown up with and they don't quite have that history that many of us that are a bit older have, what kind of response do you get?
Thelma Tucker: Oh, they find it exciting.
Deb Polich: Yeah?
Thelma Tucker: They love the one-room school, especially ringing the bell. That's the most fun!
Deb Polich: And is that the original bell?
Thelma Tucker: No, it's a reproduction.
Deb Polich: I know that I visited a place up in northern Michigan with my granddaughter and grandson, and, I don't know, does this happen? They just pretended they were the teacher and a pupil. And do kids play that out in the school room?
Thelma Tucker: Well, usually, what we have during the Fall Festival, we have a schoolmarm.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: And she puts on a little school session for the kids. And, I mean, they're standing room only. They love it!
Deb Polich: That sounds really great! So, if we want to know more about all of these things, where do people go to find out?
Thelma Tucker: The best place to look is our website and Facebook.
Deb Polich: Okay. So, people can follow you on Facebook, and you'll know what's happening.
Thelma Tucker: Yes.
Deb Polich: Great. And is there a charge to come to the festival or any of these events?
Thelma Tucker: The festival is free.
Deb Polich: Okay.
Thelma Tucker: Parking is free. Some of our fundraising events, we sell tickets.
Deb Polich: Hence fundraising.
Thelma Tucker: Oh, yes.
Deb Polich: Yeah, yeah. Well, listen. I think I need to take a family ride out there for the Fall Festival. And I just want to thank you for telling us about it and getting us excited about this wonderful resource that we have in Washtenaw County!
Thelma Tucker: Oh, thank you very much for the opportunity!
Deb Polich: That's Thelma Tucker, one of the many custodians of Webster Township's history. Find out more about Thelma and the Webster Township Historical society at wemu.org. You've been listening to creative:impact. I'm Deb Polich, president and CEO of Creative Washtenaw and your host. Mat Hopson is our producer. Please join us every Tuesday to meet the people who make Washtenaw creative. This is 89 one WEMU Ypsilanti. Public radio from Eastern Michigan University.
If you'd like to a guest on creative:impact, email Deb Polich at deb.polich@creativewashtenaw.org.
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