Time capsules, a horse named Barron honour the past
Burlington church digs up mementoes; late Hamilton officer remembered in special way
I was over at Port Nelson United Church in Burlington the other day, where it’s undergoing a terrific building expansion, and my nose and mouth were covered with a dust mask, or whatever it’s called.
I felt very — I don’t know — environmental.
But just to clear things up, the mask was not to protect me from particulate matter kicked up by the construction of the new, but from the black mould gathered by the decomposition of the old.
You know, they say sometimes you have to let go of the past. But even as it finds itself in the enviable position (by mainstream church standards) of building for times to come, Port Nelson UC hasn’t let go; in fact, it’s finding its past again, along with its future. It wasn’t ever let go of, just buried underground. It’s still not let go of. But now that past is being handled with protective latex gloves.
I wore the gloves, too. Now, don’t get me wrong. The Port Nelson United Church building is clean as a whistle. But there is a tiny bit of black mould present — as one would expect — on parts of the contents that church members recently discovered in a time capsule that their forerunners buried back in 1953.
So if you want to see and even gently handle what was in the time capsule, there are gloves and dust masks provided — not compulsory, but if you’re sensitive.
OK, the time capsule. Actually, it should be time capsules, plural — there are two. The discovery of them involves some nice little twists of serendipity.
It starts with Port Nelson parishioner Jean Redgrave.
“I was going through the archives, looking for material, when I came across beautiful newspaper pictures of the placing of the time capsule,” Jean says. “Nobody had even known there was a time capsule.” It was from 1953.
Church members went searching, using the photos as guides, and equipped with tools and safety gear. They were gladdened to find a container but surprised it was made of Tupperware — 1953? — and then they realized: red herring. It was supplies buried by a local Scouts troop, not the capsule.
They kept searching. Finally, a metal container. It contained memorabilia from the day Port Nelson United Church christened its new auditorium in the early ’50s.
That left one time capsule still to be found. This time capsule, 1961, commemorated the laying of the cornerstone for the sanctuary at Port Nelson, but there were no photos to guide their efforts. It wasn’t until the construction started on the expansion project, called Rekindle, that it turned up. The construction crew found it during demolition.
The contents of both, on display now, include a letter from longtime Port Nelson minister Rev. Jewitt Parr, documents from the beginning of Port Nelson United Church, newspaper clippings, a coin and a Bible.
“We are very lucky to have these links to the very foundation of Port Nelson,” said Rev. Dr. Michael Brooks, Port Nelson UC minister. “We enlisted children from the congregation to help us open the time capsules, linking past, present and future.”
The church is planning a new time capsule to be buried.
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When the Currans and Heals left England a few weeks ago, I wonder if they told their friends, “We’re going to see a man about a horse.”
In fact, the Currans (Stephanie and Neal, with Ally and Matt) and Heals (Sue and Joanna) were
going to see a horse (and a force) about a man, their ancestor, Const. James Barron, the first Hamilton police officer to fall in the line of duty, in 1903.
The Brits weren’t able to be at the commemoration ceremony last September, when Hamilton police honoured the seven officers who have fallen over the course of the force’s history.
But they were coming to Canada this summer, and so last week, Hamilton police arranged for them to meet Barron, a handsome Percheron cross, standing 17-hands tall, the namesake horse of their great-grandfather (great-great-grandfather in the case of Ally and Matt). Barron is part of the police force’s mounted unit.
“He’s bigger than I expected,” said an impressed Ally Curran.
It was a moving and joyful exchange, and Hamilton police did it up right for the visitors, presenting them with a beautiful pottery piece, by Barb Dzsudzsak, incorporating horsehair from Barron’s tail.