Workers find 90-proof time capsule

As time capsules go, this one is top-shelf.

Workers taking down a 100-plus-year-old ceiling in the City Mills buildings for renovations came across an old bottle with a rolled-up note inside.

The type-written letter is faded by time (and maybe whisky fumes) on the fancy letterhead of the City Mills Company.

The letter, dated March 3, 1914, is from the employees of the mill to whomever might one day discover it.

“The ceiling to our new office is being put on today, March 3, 1914. As a memento, we are writing this and putting it in an Old Ripy bottle (Old Ripy being the official beverage). No doubt when this is found, most of us will have passed away and a new force will be in our places. At any rate, we extend our BEST WISHES.”

Eleven names are typed below the short note, led off by company president George Pearce.

Pearce’s granddaughter, Katharine Triplitt, still lives in Columbus and remembers visiting her grandfather at the mill as a young girl along with her sisters.

“He was a real sweet, kind person,” Triplitt recalls. “We were all fascinated by that mill.”

In case you’re wondering, Old Ripy was a good bourbon of the day, thought by some to be an ancestor of today’s Wild Turkey, which is also a very good bourbon. I’m told.

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Workers find 90-proof time capsule."