Marblehead takes trip back in time

MARBLEHEAD – Temperance activity, pledge drives and socialism were among the issues on the minds of Marbleheaders when they filled a time capsule destined for the cornerstone of the 1,000-member Marblehead YMCA on Pleasant Street in 1910.Historical Commission Chairman Chris Johnson and Meegan O’Neil, executive director of the Lynch Van Otterloo YMCA, took turns holding up about two dozen items when the capsule was opened at Wednesday night’s selectmen’s meeting.O’Neil laughed as she noted that the 1910 YMCA pledge form asked for donations of 50 cents to $10, the gym fund asked for donations of $200 and the "Y" also sought support with a cake and candy sale, not the "healthy diet" that the YMCA espouses todayThe Ladies Auxiliary Temperance Union sponsored a musical performance.A local man named B.H. Blaney wrote a letter predicting that by the time the capsule was opened in 100 years Marblehead would be run by Socialists, "where they provide for all and not the profit of a few." Blaney claimed there were already 60 Socialists in Marblehead, but declined to name them.There was money in the capsule as well – an Indian head penny, a Lincoln cent and a dime. Other artifacts included a clay marble about an inch in diameter and a "high-grade leather (watch) fob from the Town of Marblehead," with a picture of a dog named Jed.O’Neil, who took the box and its contents with her, had plans for two of the items: a program for the laying of the cornerstone will probably go to the YMCA archives and a 1910 postcard depicting the King Hooper Mansion could wind up in the town museum.The newspapers and their headlines brought the most chuckles from the audience of 20, which also included Phil Gloudemans and Paul Guertin from the YMCA. The Boston Post included a story about a lawyer who eloped with his partner’s wife. The Boston Daily Globe headline was about a girl sought in Roxbury. The Lynn Item featured a Peabody police chief clearing up the mystery of a woman whose body was found "in the pastures." The Salem News proclaimed the discovery of "A Cure for the Common Cold" and the Marblehead Messenger heralded the arrival of a carload of fancy native onions.Somehow it all fit into a copper box, grey with age, four inches deep and soldered shut.The box was placed in a vise under the Spirit of ’76 and Local Inspector Chris Butler of the building commissioner’s office, brother of town archivist Wayne Butler, worked on it for 15 minutes with a variety of tools before it yielded up its secrets.Butler went to the YMCA site when the building was razed a month ago and obtained the cornerstone as an historical relic for the archives, a last surviving piece of the old YMCA, which moved to Leggs Hill Road two years ago and became the Lynch-Van Otterloo YMCA. The capsule was found inside it.Wayne Butler credited the building’s new owners, George Wattendorf and his son, George Wattendorf Jr., and Roscoe Kidder, head of the demolition firm, for their generosity.