COME HOME: This card, found in the time capsule, inviting former Boone County residents home for the state's centennial celebration was sent by friends and relatives to those who had left the county.

LEBANON, Ind.– A 1916 time capsule sealed after Indiana’s centennial celebration was cracked open in a semi-private unveiling earlier in the week.

The Lebanon Public Library in Lebanon, Indiana, opened the 100-year-old time capsule made by Tice & Brown, a local tin miner and plumber in Lebanon during the period. The time capsule looks to be constructed of tin and coated in copper. The contents came out in great shape, and provide a valuable snapshot of life in 1916.

“Our fear was, would everything inside be disintegrated, and what condition were the contents actually in,” said library genealogy and history specialist Jamey Hickson.

The items preserved in the capsule were the celebration committee’s meeting minutes book, two guest registers, correspondence, photographs of some of the county’s celebrations, an extensive collection of newspaper clippings, and numerous bits of ephemera.

Two letters signed by then Governor Samuel M. Ralston were included in the capsule. Ralston’s family moved from Ohio and he eventually opened up a law practice in Lebanon before becoming president of the Lebanon School Board in 1908. He became Indiana’s governor in 1913 and served for the following four years, and through the state’s centennial celebration.

“I’m not sure how all chemistry works,” said library local history specialist Eric Spall. “Whatever (Tice & Brown) did, it worked really well. It also benefited from being inside and not buried or placed in a cornerstone of a building, where moisture would have a chance to creep inside.”

John L. Wade, secretary for the county’s 1916 celebration committee, gathered the documents, pictures and records and sealed them in the container. Wade died in 1922, and the capsule was given to the Lebanon Public Library.

A time capsule, sealed 100 years ago, has been opened in #Lebanon, inside Lebanon Public Library! Very,very cool… https://t.co/hUJW4jcvEY

— City of Lebanon (@Lebanon_Indiana) January 14, 2016

County Clerk Penny Bogan donated the time capsule to the library’s Ralph W. Stark Heritage Center, under the stipulation the 2016 county clerk (Jessica Fouts) would be there to open it.

“Penny brought (the time capsule) to me 10 years ago and I thought 2016 seemed so far off that I would not even be here when we opened it,” Hickson said with a chuckle. “Penny said, ‘Here I found this.’ We kept it and were excited to have it.”

Spall and the library will maintain the collection and make it available for researchers. Library staff has prepared a display in the front foyer for visitors to view.

The opening of the capsule and the display are endorsed by the Indiana Bicentennial Commission as a Legacy Project.

Hickson said Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry wants to compile a 2016 time capsule.

“It’s just ideas now, but is being put into place,” she said.

Thompson writes for the (Indiana) Lebanon Reporter.