About 100 people attended the 100th anniversary cornerstone rededication ceremony of the Greene County Courthouse on Sunday.

Officers and members of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Iowa and the Morningstar Masonic Lodge of Jefferson conducted the ceremony. Grand Master Arthur Crandon presided over the program and lead several rituals such as the three “tools” of the masons to lay a cornerstone of a building with the stone being square, level and plum.

The masons also read off a list of the contents of the time capsule that is still buried under the original cornerstone on the northeast corner of the courthouse. Some of those items included copies of local newspapers from 1916 like the Jefferson Bee, Jefferson Freelance, Grand Junction Globe, Rippey Booster and the Scranton Journal. There were also various coins, the County’s financial report from 1915, prize winning ear of corn and a horseshoe and several others. The instructions were that the time capsule could only be opened when the courthouse is no longer in use.

Courthouse 100 Committee Chair Don Van Gilder gave a historical background about the County’s three courthouses. The first one was a wooden structure built in 1856. Fourteen years later, a brick courthouse was then built. Finally, a bond referendum was passed to build the current courthouse 45 years later. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio why they wanted to involve the masons for their rededication ceremony.

“The original cornerstone laying was conducted by the masons in 1916. We just decided to do a re-enactment once we found out that they had a rededication ritual. So we’re following in the original steps.”

The day ended was a presentation at the museum with the building’s architect Brooks Borg and Skiles or Proundfoot and Bird, which is what the firm was known as in 1916.

Van Gilder said the committee’s next big celebration will be the 100th anniversary of the completion of the courthouse in October of 2017. Pictures from the event can be found below.