Photo Provided Steve Brock, left, and Velma Gross install time capsules underneath the New Rumley United Methodist Church altar in Scio. While performing renovations to the church, Brock discovered artifacts dating back to the 1800s.

SCIO — Amid a typical renovation project, church members were met with an unexpected surprise from former church members who attended services nearly 100 years ago.

The original New Rumley United Methodist Church was built in 1878 and had one altar replacement in 1931. Current church members decided to make some improvements to the interior of the church’s sanctuary in November and were met with quite a surprise. While performing the church’s revamping, Steve Brock, church trustee and owner of The Build-All Company, uncovered artifacts dating back to the 1800s.

“We found the newspaper article, we found a hymnal, we found a Bible study pamphlet,” Brock said. “Like I said, a lot of that was destroyed.”

A “Classmates” newspaper article was uncovered that dated from 1931. Brock said he did some research and found the clipping came from a Christian newspaper geared toward youth.

Nearly 20 blocks of wood featuring signatures and dates were also found. The wood blocks were dated Feb. 11, 1931. One of the current church members instantly recognized a few of the names on the blocks, Brock said. Velma Gross, the church’s organist, said her mother and grandmother’s signatures were etched into two of the wood blocks.

“She (Velma’s mother) was just a teenager at the time ( the wood blocks were signed). All the names were associated with (former) church members, but that one was really close. Her (Velma’s) grandmother’s signature is also on there,” Brock said.

The items were “shoved under the floor joists” and left unprotected. One item that was relatively intact was the most unique item found, Brock said.

“The real find was the Bible, a really nice Bible. It was interesting because all the paperwork was kind of destroyed and we finally get to the Bible, and other than it’s age, the pages were untouched. It just blew me away,” he said of the tome dated to 1897.

The uncovered items were found in the altar area underneath the pulpit. A pulpit is a raised platform in a church from where the preacher delivers a sermon. Brock said he discovered from a local pastor that it is an old tradition to strategically place a Bible underneath where the preacher would speak at a podium — that way he is literally standing on the word of God, Brock said.

Thanks to the discovery, the church members decided to create time capsules of their own — three to be exact. Brock said he contemplated what to do with the articles found and decided the best course of action would to be to create a new and old time capsule and replace it under the pulpit where it was originally uncovered.

The contents of each of the three capsules are secured first in zipped plastic bags and then put into a 13-inch by 18-inch wooden box. The first capsule contains the Bible, the second contains the artifacts found and the third contains items from around a dozen church members from this decade.

Brock said the recognition has brought church members from the past, present and possibly even the future closer together.

“Because of this, we’re now more concerned with the history of the church, and we’re trying to pull all the historical documentation we can find and members information together. It’s made us more aware,” Brock said.

The hope is that future church members will one day find the time capsules and bring a little history to the future, just as the discovery has for current members.

“They left those items for us to find, it wasn’t by accident. They wanted the future church (members) to see their names and see the references from that time. They wanted us to see that,” Brock said. “I had to expose it because I knew they wanted us to see it and likewise were passing it on to the future.”