By David Taylor
Managing Editor
Just a few feet from the foot of the pin oak tree at the corner of Runneburg Road and Pecan Street in Crosby, the Crosby Historical Society gathered last Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, with community members and three classes of kindergarten students to memorialize the 2023 bicentennial celebration with the burial of a time capsule.
Work began on the time capsule committee over a year ago.
“The original plan was to bury the time capsule during the bicentennial week but we wanted to wait until the next editions of the newspaper came out so we could include those and the bicentennial buttons in the time capsule,” said Randy Kubin, who chaired the time capsule committee for the Crosby Historical Society.
Exhausted following the celebration, time got away from them, and the holidays were upon them quickly and they decided to wait until after the first of the year. The new year brought inclement weather with it and finally a short, dry spell made way for the celebration on Thursday, Feb. 1.
The time capsule is placed near the Crosby Area Museum of History facing Pecan Street near two markers honoring deceased superintendents Dr. H. L. Barber and Kenton Langston Pate, Sr. There is also another time capsule placed by the elementary school students led by Principal Jane Eaton in 1986. Students were learning about timelines and time capsules at the time. That marker is set to be open in 2036.
Kubin’s own family migrated from Lipa in the Czech Republic to Crosby around 1900 and was happy to chair the committee placing the marker.
“My grandmother had a brother in America serving as a priest in Webster, Massachusetts,” he said, “and he encouraged them to come to America.”
They didn’t like the weather and eventually moved to Crosby where they bought 150 acres, some of which Kubin lives on now.
After welcoming the participants, Kubin called on Crosby ISD Superintendent Paula Patterson.
“I love that our kindergarteners are here. My hope is that all of them are still here in 50 years and come back and bring their own grandchildren here and talk about how they sat around the tree here as they put the time capsule into the ground,” said Crosby ISD Superintendent Paula Patterson.
Committee members Jody Fuchs, Mark Moreau and Kubin worked on digging and creating the hole for the time capsule a couple of months earlier. They were joined by member Pam Blaha. A large PVC pipe for holding the capsule, donated by Billy Bostick of Pioneer Plumbing, was inserted with a cap to screw on that would seal the 20-inch capsule.
Kubin asked for a volunteer from the students, and he was assisted by 6-year-old Elliot Sutterfield from Pamela Broussard’s kindergarten class.
“I want to talk to you,” Davenport said to the children. “You are our future. In 50 years, you will be 55 years old. Some of you will still live in Crosby and you will come to this site for a celebration to unearth this time capsule and show off the contents to your friends and another generation.”
Then Davenport, a retired teacher from Crosby, gave the children a homework assignment.
“Each one of you will receive a bicentennial celebration button to wear home. I want you to tell your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle or whomever is at home with you today that you attended a time capsule celebration and I’ll be here in 50 years to see this time capsule opened.”
Then she taught the students the word bicentennial.
“In 50 years, you’ll have to say a much harder word, and it’s semi-quincentennial,” she said.
The historical items chosen by the committee and community to place into the capsule were a United States flag; Crosby Bicentennial Celebration button; a Covid test; Texas Legislative Handbook; New Testament Bible; iPhone 10; a list of the Crosby Historical Society board members; a flyer from the Time Capsule ceremony itself; a list of the Crosby Bicentennial Celebration committee members; a program from the Crosby High School Commencement Ceremony and list of seniors from the Class of 2023; a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America; a 2023 Jovita Idar D mint worth $1.29; a list of the Crosby ISD board of trustees, district administration, principals, and assistant principals; 2023 coins including quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies; a photo of the Bicentennial Quilt, “Stars Over Crosby” pieced by the Crosby “Stitchin’ Sisters” and quilted by Kathy Bryant, and a list of a the ladies who worked on the quilt for the Crosby Bicentennial Celebration; a menu from Charming Café; and a Bicentennial Edition of the Star-Courier Newspaper and four other papers leading up to and following the Crosby Bicentennial Celebration.
The time capsule was donated by Kubin, and the marker was given by Bella Dion, managing partner of Sterling-White Funeral Home and Cemetery.
“It’s amazing to live in a community like this who has such rich history and to have community members that are interested in chronicling that history is important,” Patterson said.