Family Unravels Revolutionary War Monument Mystery

BOSTON -- A stonemason's family is helping to unravel the mystery of a time capsule found entombed in a Revolutionary War monument in Quincy, according to the Patriot Ledger.

Earlier this week, a masonry reconstruction team found a metal box inside the 114-year-old Abigail Adams Cairn inside a brick-lined chamber.

The monument was built in 1896 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the spot where the future first lady and 7-year-old John Quincy Adams watched the Battle of Bunker Hill and the burning of Charlestown.

A Michigan family said that among other things in the still-to-be-opened box is a piece of parchment with dignitaries' names signed in ox blood. A barbecued ox was the meal served when the cairn was dedicated.

George Hallisey, of Ironwood, Mich., contacted the newspaper and said his great-grandfather, John J. Stanton, built the cairn 112 years ago.

The capsule was brought to the historical society at the Adams Academy, where members will determine the best way to open it. The cairn, at Franklin Street and Viden Road, will be taken apart stone by stone to be repaired and put back together again.

The cairn cost the Daughter's of the American $200 in 1896 to build, and the work now being done will cost the city about $500,000, according to the mayor's office.