Crooked Billet Time Capsule Unearthed

September 24, 2018

HORSHAM,PA

On September 21, 2018 a piece of history was brought back into the light. Conservator Adam Jenkins carefully revealed the contents of a mysterious box found underneath the revolutionary war monument at Crooked Billet elementary school.  Mr. Jenkins, Hatboro-Horsham administrators as well as historians David Shannon and Tim Schultz were present to help solve the mystery of this buried treasure.

After 45 minutes of chiseling away the lid of the box, Mr. Jenkins pried the box open and revealed its contents. What they found was a piece of Hatboro history in the form of a time capsule.

The time capsule is from the 1967, 1968. The capsule wasn’t just filled with Crooked Billet artifacts, community momentos also filled the box. Items found were: local newspapers,  church bulletins, magazines, yellow pages, hand written letters, pictures, post cards, commemorative plates, tiles, and coins.

The items were in relatively good condition. Some of the items were damp but, the next step will be to have the items sent to a paper conservator.

Two hand written letters were discovered.  One from the mayor of Hatboro at the time, and another from a 14 year old coin collector. Three rolls of coins were found along with a dollar coin. The student who wrote the letter was, Jim Davidson.  He wanted his coins to be passed along to another student coin collector.

Kelli Sendel, the Crooked Billet Principal, was happy to be part of the reveal saying how they might be able to include some of the pieces into the school’s new rotunda and history wall.

The one big mystery left unknown is a missing time capsule from the 1860’s. Hatboro Historians believed the 1860’s box was opened and put into the 1960’s box. With that idea of that being untrue, now the next piece is to find out what happened to the 1860’s capsule. The 1860 box was moved from the base of the monument when the monument moved from York road to Crooked Billet Elementary school.