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| Found: One missing time capsule   ime capsules have long been a popular method for municipalities and organizations to commemorate their founding, growth or history. Hundreds of time capsules are buried each year, often with no real information to guide future generations to their locations. All too often as time passes, the location of the time capsule, or even that it exists at all, becomes lost. Because of this loss of information, time capsules are frequently lost to posterity, never to be found again. Such was the case for a time capsule that was buried in Dayton in 1897. Early this summer, workers for Wagner Smith made a surprising discovery while excavating a part of Van Cleve Park in downtown Dayton for the Riverscape project. After opening a tin box that they had unearthed, the workers discovered a forgotten time capsule that commemorated the 1896 centennial of Dayton and the construction of Newcom’s Tavern, the first building in Dayton. After realizing what they had found, they contacted us at the Historical Society and donated the time capsule to us. The Montgomery County Historical Society is a descendant of the Dayton Historical Society, which was founded during the 1896 centennial celebration and was headquartered at Newcom’s Tavern. We were understandably very excited to receive this time capsule that related directly to our founding. The time capsule contents had been placed in a Kennedy Cracker Company tin, which was in turn sealed within another tin box before burial. Local newspapers from 1896 and 1897 described not only the year-long celebration of Dayton’s centennial, but also regional and national events. Among the newspaper articles are an 1896 description of the “relics” located at Newcom’s Tavern. Another article describing the founding and organization of the Dayton Historical Society contains the following timely quote: “In this way the Dayton Historical Society will become a center of authority, of interest and of usefulness in matters of detail throughout the city and county, and especially to the pioneers, and a hundred years hence that which we may be doing today will be interesting history to them.” Over one hundred years later, we are carrying on the work that those enthusiastic volunteer historians began so long ago. The newspapers and news clippings have been cleaned and flattened by archivist Jeff Opt. They are now housed in archival folders so that they may last until Dayton’s tercentennial in 2096. Among the artifacts placed in the time capsule were a teacup and coin produced to commemorate Dayton’s 1896 centennial celebration. Photographs of the interior of Newcom’s Tavern show the arrangement of “relics” housed within the Log Cabin museum. In these photographs, we were able to identify some items that are still in our collection today. BACK TO TOP |
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of main room, interior of Newcom Tavern, in 1897.[Dayton09-07] |
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