Staff photos / Ed Runyan ...Bill Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, shows a copy of the Youngstown Vindicator from the original time capsule placed in the cornerstone of the Mahoning County Courthouse when it was built. The time capsule was removed March 4, 2011, on the 100th anniversary of the completion of the courthouse.

YOUNGSTOWN — One can only guess at the reason why the individuals in charge of the cornerstone-laying ceremony on June 11, 1908, and the placing of a time capsule in the cornerstone of the Mahoning County Courthouse, chose the items inside.

Bill Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, said they did not leave behind records of what was in the time capsule or indicate why the items were chosen.

The time capsule was removed from the cornerstone March 4, 2011, on the 100th anniversary of the courthouse dedication ceremony, which took place March 6, 1911. The contents of the first time capsule will be on display at a ceremony to place a new capsule in the cornerstone at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the courthouse.

Tuesday’s ceremony also will celebrate a $6 million renovation of the courthouse, which was completed about two years ago. The ceremony was delayed by COVID-19 and other issues.

“I think it will be interesting. We hope everyone can come down and enjoy it with us,” Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said Thursday of the free event, which will include a historical presentation by Lawson. Spectators also can take a tour of the building.

“People can go through it, see the history — the paintings that have been in it since Day One,” she said. “It will be fun.”

WHAT’S INSIDE

Lawson said he does not know why only one photograph was in the old time capsule. It is a photo of the children of Glenwood Children’s Home on Millet Avenue. The only information known about the photo is the names of the children and adults in the photo, which are written on the back.

The children’s home was the forerunner of today’s county children services board. In 1908, it was a child-care institution for dependent and neglected children and was the county’s first publicly run children’s home. It operated until 1934 when trustees of the home became the Mahoning County Child Welfare Board, according to the children services website.

Another mystery regarding the contents of the first capsule, which few people have seen, is the existence of many materials calling attention to community and fraternal organizations such as the M.W. Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons and the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

Inside the time capsule is a book about the Free and Accepted Masons and a booklet about the Scottish Rite. Freemasonry is the teachings and practices of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, a society often devoted to fellowship, moral discipline and mutual assistance that conceals some of its rituals from the public.

Christopher Hodapp of Indiana, author of the book “Freemasons for Dummies,” wrote in 2016 that Freemasonry grew in Youngstown as steel grew its population to 170,000. He said Freemasonry also “sank with the economy.” He was referring to the loss of population of Youngstown, which is now about 60,000.

He wrote his post at the time the six-floor Masonic Temple on Wick Avenue, which was built in 1910, closed. The building was too expensive to operate for the declining number of members, so the remaining Masons relocated, according to a local news report.

Pamela Speis, Mahoning Valley Historical Society archivist, said last week she believes that fraternal organizations such as the Masons were well represented in the time capsule because such groups had a lot more members and were much more active when the courthouse was built than now. She said she also believes many of the people on the committee that collected the items included in the capsule were involved in such organizations.

LETTERS AND BOOKLETS

There also are letters or booklets from fraternal organizations such as the Knights of Pythias, Logan Lodge No. 4 of West Federal Street in Youngstown; the Knights of the Golden Eagle, Coeur De Lion Commandery No. 8 K.G.E.; and Knights of the Golden Eagle, Governor Tod Castle No. 7.

The www.pythias.org website says the Knights of Pythias follows three principles — friendship, charity and benevolence — and exists in many cities and towns across the United States, Canada and Europe. The Knights of the Golden Eagle is a fraternal benefit society that reached a peak membership in 1900 and was active in 20 states, according to the National Heritage Museum website.

Also in the time capsule is a Masonic Directory for Mahoning County, listing six lodges and a “list of fire alarm boxes in Youngstown, Ohio.” There also is a typed list of members and officers for the Miriam Chapter 278 of the Order of the Eastern Star, which is a Masonic-related fraternal organization of women and men “dedicated to charity, truth and loving kindness,” according to the website for the Bangor, Maine, Eastern Star group.

National Public Radio reported in 2020 that membership in the Masons has dropped about 75 percent from a high of more than 4.1 million in 1959, when about 4.5 percent of all American men were members.

The time capsule also contains a handwritten manuscript that gives the history of the Bricklayers and Masons’ International Union of America No. 8, which was founded in 1886 and tells what wages were at that time. The organization had an address of 220 N. Phelps St. in Youngstown.

Today, the organization is known as the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers.

MANY MORE ITEMS

Also included in the time capsule are histories for several local churches, including First Christian Church; First Church of Christ, Scientist; and First Presbyterian Church.

An envelope in the capsule is labeled the “History of the Jewish People of Youngstown,” signed by C.J. Strouss of Strouss-Hirschberg, Dry Goods, Carpets, Cloaks, Furs and Millinery, Youngstown.

There was a business represented in the capsule, Guess and McNab, Tailors, Clothiers, Hatters and Furnishers of 245 W.Federal St. A Republican nominee for board of education, Louis E. Guess, is on an advertising card in the capsule.

Many items in the capsule are associated with the construction of the new courthouse, such as a “program of the exercises attending the laying of the cornerstone of the New Mahoning County Courthouse” that was printed by The Vindicator Press. The program cover states the laying of the cornerstone was “under the auspices of the Western Star Lodge, No. 21 of the Free and Accepted Masons.

The Youngstown Vindicator and Youngstown Telegram newspapers are well represented in the capsule with sections of both newspapers being included in the capsule for the days leading up to the laying of the cornerstone June 11, 1908.

In the June 6, 1908, Vindicator is an article about a woman who was burned to death when her clothes caught fire while baking in her home on Pine Street.

A curiosity of the time capsule is that there also is a copy of the 16-page June 4, 1908, edition of Youngstown Rundschau newspaper. It was a German language newspaper published from 1874 to 1916 in Youngstown by William F. Maag, owner of The Youngstown Vindicator.

There also is a booklet that names members of the Youngstown Board of Education and a handwritten history of the Haselton School in Youngstown with a list of faculty.

There also are booklets for the Junior Order United American Mechanics, Youngstown Council No. 51; and Junior Order United American Mechanics, Samuel J. Randall Council No. 96; Youngstown Council No. 51; and Idora Council No. 126 Daughters of America.

The Junior Order of Mechanics is “composed of American citizens of good moral character who believe in a Supreme Being as the Creator and Preserver of the Universe,” according to a web page for the order, which is nonsectarian, meaning having no religious preference.

Audrey Tillis, Mahoning County administrator, said the new time capsule will contain items that will “show what the Mahoning Valley is doing in 2022 with new developments, things happening in the schools, some effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

erunyan@vindy.com