Grace Episcopal Church celebrates 150 years

MENOMONIE Wis. (WEAU) - The Grace Episcopal Church in Menomonie is celebrating 150 years of worship. To recognize such a significant anniversary, the church opened two time capsules from over 100 years ago.

“It’s been rather amazing, actually, and it’s not because of the contents necessarily, but because 150 years ago people had this dream,” Reverend Jacalyn Broughton, Grace Episcopal Church Priest in charge said.

The time capsules are from 1875 and 1916 and contained some expected items.

“In both of the time capsules, there were some of the really classic items that we still put in time capsules today,” Melissa Kneeland, Executive Director of the Dunn County Historical Society said. “Contemporary newspaper is almost always in a time capsule. Money is almost always in a time capsule, specifically coins minted in the year of the time capsule.”

Church bulletins and books of prayer were also in the capsules, but there were also some unexpected items, like business cards, to commemorate the past.

“It was all kind of exciting to find out what they kind of treasured as symbols of our church and faith,” Broughton said.

Kneeland said time capsules provide the opportunity to recognize both the past and the future.

“Something like a time capsule and celebrating 150 years of existence gives the perspective that this organization, through care and love and community, has been through a lot and can give a sense of longevity,” Kneeland said. “So, I think that time capsules can really do that for us and give us not only a sense of the past but lets us think about the future.”

Kneeland said the historical society is always happy to preserve past objects and share community stories.

“It’s important to recognize a lot of these communities in our county have existed for long periods of time and do tell an important aspect of Dunn County history, and that we always encourage folks to share those histories and see themselves are part of the fabric of the county,” Kneeland said.

The Grace Episcopal Church is donating the items from the time capsules to the Dunn County Historical Society. But before that, these times will be on display at the church for the next few days.

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