Time capsule connects some in Elizabethtown with loved ones they never got to meet

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's been said, we are not makers of history, we are made by it.

It's Don Holton and his crew's job to preserve it.

"That's basically what my company does is we try to restore these historical buildings," Holton said.

The crew from Ohio based Durable Restoration Company is working on the building in downtown E-town that houses the Chamber of Commerce. It's been standing since 1906.

"The fire department was here at one time, the police department was here at one time," explained E'town Mayor Jeff Gregory.

City Hall was there, too, until the early 90s, and the building was in need of some TLC. Holton and his colleagues made the past their present and got to work.

"We were removing some deteriorated brick," Holton explained.

It was Labor Day weekend when he reached into the wall and felt a jar.

"Like most old buildings, I thought 'oh dear it's something creepy crawly," explained Hardin County Chamber of Commerce President & CEO, Margy Poorman.

It was a time capsule of sorts with newspapers, checks, and a signature from a mayor from over a hundred years ago, hiding in the building's wall for just as long.

"We were just amazed, floored, and delighted," Poorman explained.

"It's really interesting to find something from 1906," Holton added.

Although that was a while ago, the people in the paper are no strangers.

"It says here: HY Davis and his wife have been visiting friends in Indiana," Gregory read allowed from the paper.

He was reading about his great-grandpa, HY Davis.

"HY stands for Hardin Young, and my middle name Hardin, so Jeffrey Hardin, so I'm the namesake for that," he explained.

Neither the mayor nor several other family members ever got to meet him.

"He passed away when my dad was in his middle to late teens," his grandson, also named HY Davis, said. "I always wish that I had gotten to know him somehow."

So you can understand what a blurb about a trip across the Ohio River means to them.

"I was pretty proud to see that," said Gregory.

Now, there are plans for a permanent home on the wall at the building, instead of in it.

"For it to come to light after all this time is very special," said Poorman.

Enthusiasm about the past in an age where the focus is often on the future.