Treasure trove

Courthouse holds time-capsule box filled with relics of 1884 Seneca County


Kevin Risner, krisner@advertiser-tribune.com

Some people have looked at Seneca County’s courthouse and called it a piece of history. Not many might think to look inside a concrete cornerstone to find a different type of history.

An excerpt from “The History of Seneca County, Ohio” offers a brief account of how a copper box of historic items was placed away for safe keeping in a cornerstone of the courthouse on June 24, 1884.

The cornerstone was described as a huge rock 6 feet, 2 inches in length; 2 feet, 10 inches wide; and 1 foot, 7 inches thick. It weighed more than three tons.

The committee met in the office of N.L. Brewer to organize. At the ceremony to place the copper box — the time capsule — and cornerstone, Gen. W.H. Gibson gave a speech in English and Judge William Lang gave one in German.

What was in the large copper box?

The time capsule contained copies of 13 local publications, including the Seneca Advertiser and the Tiffin Tribune. Historical sketches and the names of officers and members were included for 38 local churches, societies and lodges. The court docket of the May 1884 term was placed inside the copper box. A premium list of the Seneca County Agricultural Society from 1883 and a catalog from Heidelberg College were placed inside.

The organizations that provided information for the time capsule included the Knights of St. George, the Tiffin Zouaves, the Tiffin Bruderbund Society and the Tiffin Turner Society.

Zouaves were militia groups formed in the United States about the time of the Civil War, according to Wikipedia. They adopted the name, and probably the conspicuous uniform of the original zouaves of North Africa. The original zouaves were military groups recruited by the French in Algeria from the tribe of Zouaoua. Eventually, the zouaves of Algeria were considered among the elite of French fighting forces.

The official directory of the city of Tiffin, information about iron contractors Caldwell and Lane, and a Tiffin Public Library catalog with a list of officers were placed inside the copper box.

A list of attorneys in the county was included. A photograph and historical sketch of the previous courthouse were included. A memorial badge and a memo from the Ohio Building Stone company were included. Contractor R.C. Greenlee added his cards.

A copy of Lang’s history of the county was placed in the copper box. A card from Commercial and National Exchange Banks was added as well.

There was also money.

The list of items recorded includes a Spanish 25-cent piece of 1784. Also a gold dollar, a silver dollar, a silver 50-cent piece, a silver quarter, a silver dime, a silver nickel, another nickel, copper pennies and two cent coins.

“If the angle of the story is, there is going to be a fortune here, there isn’t,” Richard Schwary said.

Schwary is the past president of the professional numismatist guild. He currently represents California Numismatic Investments.

“What makes it interesting is the following,” Schwary said. “It calls attention to the heritage of the people who made the building. It shows that it was important for those people in 1884 to say something to future generations of America. The value is not going to be in how much these coins are worth, but in the story that it tells about the people who, the local folks who put their sweat into raising the building to begin with and put their money in to make it work.”

Schwary said the the Spanish coin, now 224 years old, might not have any special value. The Spanish, he said, were a big player in global trade and had mints all over the place.

“A Spanish coin back then might have been the same as a silver dollar in the United States in the late 1800s. It’s an important coin, but they made a jillion of them.”

Schwary said it was not so long ago, during the 1960s, when people could win American silver dollars playing dice in Las Vegas. They were old, he said, but not necessarily valuable.

“Value has to do with scarcity and collector interest,” Schwary said.

The coins in the time capsule of the Seneca County Courthouse might be worth a few hundred dollars, or worth less than four dollars.

“If you were in the position of the trustees and you were going to put this money away and never get it out in your lifetime, you wouldn’t put something that was real valuable in there,” Schwary said. “You would put in something that was common that would tell a story.”

So what was the story Seneca County residents in 1884 wanted to tell?

The fate of the courthouse seems less uncertain now with the March 4 failure— by a 2-1 margin— of a ballot issue that would have authorized the restoration of the courthouse. If the courthouse is now removed and replaced, the huge copper box time capsule would be uncovered.



If you have any information about the local Knights of St. George, the Tiffin Zouaves, the Tiffin Bruderbund Society, the Tiffin Turner Society, or any of the other groups listed from 1884, please contact Kevin Risner at the Advertiser-Tribune.