Photo by Samantha Davis. A time capsule at The Church of St. Clotilde in Green Valley dated July 31, 1955, was found earlier this month containing historical letters and a financial booklet.

GREEN VALLEY — Exactly seven decades ago to the day on July 31, 1955, members of The Church of St. Clotilde in Green Valley hid away a time capsule in a cornerstone placed into the building of the church. Forward 70 years later to now July 2025, the capsule has been discovered and opened, revealing a timeline of history.

Longtime member of St. Clotilde Matt Weverka of Marshall was working on the Green Valley church building with removing the bell and statue, as the building had been sold, when he discovered something peculiar in the bricking.

“As we were out in front taking the statue out, I noticed the cornerstone was under the brick on the corner of the church, so we dug it out of there … My son and I were out here working one day, and there was just a little corner down here of something black. I was like, ‘Let’s stand it up, maybe it’ s just a filler strip or something,'” Weverka said. “We started working on it, and it was a little black canister … I couldn’t believe it.”

Weverka then called Father Steve Verhelst of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, and the two opened it together at Weverka’s property, who lives near St. Clotilde as a contractor and is helping with the building construction.

Upon getting the capsule out of the cornerstone, the two came to find an envelope that read, “Corner Stone Laying, July 31, 1955.”

In the envelope contained a letter with a history listing of the Parish of St. Clotilde in Green Valley, and a document of the church’s pastors over the years. Also found in the capsule was a unique booklet of a financial statement for the year of 1954, detailing all expenditures along with statistics of the 1954 baptisms, donations, deaths, communion and confirmation.

“They did a really nice job of listing the history up to that point of the church … They even go all the way back to 1898 when they was a Presbyterian Church,” Weverka said.

Verhelst noted that he has come across a few time capsules with other church closings over his time, but this one in particular was different.

“Usually parishes would put in like the weekend bulletin from a particular time period, and then they usually include a parish census of the people that were members of the time of the building of that church,” Verhelst said. “When Matt and I opened it, we found that they had included (a) brief history of the parish back when the land was purchased … It gave a brief history. Then along with that, it gave that particular year’s finance report.”

The church installed the cornerstone in 1955 with the year and “St. Clotilde” carved into it, with the capsule in the middle of the concrete.

Noted on the letter of the history timeline, “In 1898, a Presbyterian Church was built in Green Valley to serve the Presbyterians in the locality.”

On May 7, 1913, the next date listed after 1898, the letter reads, “About 28 families belonging to the Holy Redeemer parish in Marshall desired a parish of their own and a church closer to their homes when their sole transportation was by means of horse and buggy. They purchased the Presbyterian Church and two acres of land … The first Mass was said there in the Fall of 1913 … On Oct. 1, 1914, the Church of St. Clotilde received its first resident pastor in the person of Rev. George VanderVelden.”

A couple paragraphs deeper as the years went on, a note from July 1, 1952, said the parish of St. Clotilde continued to grow, so a parish in Cottonwood was started to help families spread and continue worship.

“On Jan. 16, 1955, (six months before the installation of the capsule), the pastor, Rev. Richard C. Zwicky, announced to the parish of St Clotilde that this spring, work would begin on a new church,” the letter reads.

The letter was joined with a list of 13 pastors St. Clotilde had up to 1955, beginning with VanderVelden in 1914 and ending with Zwicky who began in 1952.

The financial statement, labeled “Jan. 1, 1954 to Dec. 31, 1954,” opens to showcase what the church’s revenue and expenses looked like that year.

A lengthy list of receipts and a starting balance to begin the year showed a total revenue of $25,443.34 for 1954, and $5,475.53 in expenditures.

Specifics in the expense list for that time included a pastor’s salary of $1,200, light, water and telephone bills for $337.51 and church maintenance of $26.06.

“One of the fun things in here … It lists every parishioner and what they gave,” Verhelst said. “There was a pew rent, so every family had to pay a rental fee for the pew that they sat in.”

The booklet continued on to list church members by name and their costs. In the back named the 17 baptisms that occurred in 1954, along with four deaths.

“We didn’t actually notice (the capsule) until we were all done,” Weverka said. “It was in there so long that all the staples (in the booklet) were rusted.”

Weverka initially found the capsule earlier in the month, and opened it with Verhelst last Thursday.

Verhelst said that the time capsule and its belongings will be held in an archive with other historical findings from over the years at Holy Redeemer.

St. Clotilde has been partnered with different area Catholic churches over its history.

Mass stopped being held at St. Clotilde’s of Green Valley a few years ago, and was sold in April of this year. Marshall’s Holy Redeemer had become a caretaker of the parish, along with other members joining surrounding churches like St. Mary’s in Cottonwood.

The church bell and statue that was at the Green Valley church will be placed at the St. Clotilde Cemetery.

The history letter was concluded with a prayer typed at the bottom, wishing for a healthy crop season.

“Almighty God’s reward to the good people of Green Valley is already evident in giving them, to date, some of the best crops they have had in years,” the letter read. “Our prayer today, as we lay the cornerstone … is that God will bless us very soon with the necessary rain to finish out a wonderful corn crop.”