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Photo by Jim Craven Jacque Sundstrand, library/archives coordinator at Southern Oregon Historical Society, sorts through documents found in the time capsule at Ashland's new Masonic Temple Thursday. The capsule was found in the old temple and contains items dating to 1879. 1879 Ashland capsule held seeds, gloves, wool By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- Donning soft white gloves, Southern Oregon Historical Society librarian Jacque Sundstrand reached into an 1879 time capsule Thursday and pulled out history: seeds from Ashland's agrarian past, buckskin gloves made in the city's glove factory, and wool samples from an Ashland mill. "Generally, a time capsule is something people want to be ... reflective of what their life was up to at that time," Sundstrand said. "This is what was near and dear to those people." The time capsule, a volleyball-sized metal soldered box, was found last month as workers were jackhammering the floor of the old Masonic lodge in the plaza. Allan Sandler and Ed Bemis are renovating the structure after building the Masons a new lodge at the north end of town. The plaza building will become a restaurant and shops with a public easement through the middle creating a walkway to the Calle Guanajuato. The worker who hit the box simply tossed it into the trash bin, but another worker dug it back up. The sealed metal had been sliced open by the power of the jackhammer, and just inside the gap was a letter detailing the 34 items contained within. Nothing else was touched until Sundstrand could carefully pull out the rest of the contents Thursday, Sandler said. The box had been originally placed in the cornerstone of the Masonic building when it was rebuilt after the 1879 fire, said Vince Claflin, who serves as historian for the Ashland Masonic Lodge. It was opened once in the 1950s during a remodel, but most of the items were replaced and sealed away again. A letter in the box, though, admonished those who didn't return all the items from the original time capsule. A horseshoe and some coins were missing, the letter stated. Sometime between 1879 and the first time the capsule was opened, a jar of jelly exploded in the metal container, staining some of the items. Water and mildew built up inside over the years, damaging other items such as newspapers and a guide to modern dentistry. Some of the pieces of history that survived well included a lava rock collected from Wizard Island in the middle of Crater Lake in 1869 by David Linn, one of the early settlers. Another was a bottle of "essence of Jamaican Ginger" meant to cure sick headaches, indigestion and cholera, among other illnesses. There also were many Masonic documents, newspapers and coins from as far back as 1793. A gold dollar was among the change. "It's like Christmas," Sandler said. Sandler hopes to build a museum display case in the walkway of his new building to exhibit the find and other items such as costumes and hats discovered during renovation. Mitch Klaich, master of the Ashland Masonic Lodge, said the Ashland Masons placed a new time capsule into the structure of their lodge when it was completed in the spring, including some new 1999 quarters, drug awareness information, and a copy of the lodge's charter. At the time, though, they had no idea a time capsule was located in their old lodge. "We are carrying on the tradition," Klaich said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA