Buckingham Township. Photo by James Short.
Like something out of a cinematic spinetingler, sitting under a stump in Buckingham Township, is a securely-soldered secret nearing its sesquicentennial.
Its contents, according to the Bucks County Herald, include a chronicle of township past – a tin time capsule containing, supposedly, a Lenape axe, arrowheads, local and city newspapers – including one dated July 4, 1876, on the nation’s centennial – almanacs, part of the Charter Oak, a bullet from Gettysburg, Roman coins from 300 A.D., and half-pennies.
According to the newspaper, famer John Baily, in 1867, planted a commemorative white oak tree as the nation approached the Centennial. Neighbors also decided on a time capsule, and thus, buried one 5-feet deep below the tree at Old Durham and Paist roads. The property is now owned by the township.
The report states that the capsule’s existence had lain forgotten for years. Then, author David Jarret to the rescue. He stumbled across the chronicle of the capsule while researching for his 2000 tome, “Tales of a Township: Buckingham, Pennsylvania.”
As Buckingham approaches its 325th anniversary and the United States’ 250th, there is a plan to get a backhoe and dug up the capsule.
Read more about the time capsule and the township’s all-volunteer historic commission here.
