'Inheriting DuPage' tells story of DuPage's early settlers

Through just one person, the stories of five founding families in DuPage County can be told.

That person — Patricia Torode Vaillancourt Woodstrup — devoted much of her life to preserving documents, photos and artifacts from the generations that came before her.

The collection eventually grew to more than 5,000 pieces, most of which Patricia's family donated to the DuPage County Historical Museum after her death in 2003.

“A lot of collections and donations to museums do not come in that kind of shape,” said museum educator Michelle Podkowa. “They're not as large, they're not as all-inclusive for such a large number of family members, and a lot of them, they're just a piece here and there of something historically significant.”

Patricia's artifacts are now on display at the museum, in an exhibit called “Inheriting DuPage: A Family History,” which is being held in conjunction with the 175th anniversary of the founding of DuPage County.

Exhibit Curator Mychal Brown laughed as she said she knows more about the founding families in the exhibit than she does of her own ancestry. She has been working on the project since 2010.

Her passion for preserving the history of some of the county's early settlers — including the Torodes, the Fullers, the Rodgers, the Plummers and the Thurstons — was evident as she led a tour through the exhibit, which is spread over three floors.

“It's the largest donation we've ever received and a lot of it dates back to the early period of DuPage history, so it's very exciting,” she said.

Brown will explain what's involved in putting together an exhibit during “Inside Inheriting DuPage,” a free event taking place at 1 p.m. Saturday at the museum.

“We'll have a presentation at the beginning and I'll give more of a history about the collection — about Patricia, how we got the collection — and then what we've done at the museum to process the collection,” Brown said.

The event will also include a tour where Brown hopes to highlight some of her favorite artifacts and stories that didn't get into the exhibit.

“Now, we have a pretty good handle on what is in the collection and the history of family, but there is like this fringe area, and everywhere there's room for more research, more information,” she said.

Even though the exhibit is based on Patricia's lineage, Brown and Podkowa said it serves as a way to explain the shared experiences of early pioneers in the county: their hard work, sharp business sense, attempts to be frugal, perseverance.

“This is an average settler story,” Brown said. “There are a lot more stories that different families have, from the same time period, the same type of story, but to be able to focus so minutely on one collection kind of gives you depth.”