A sealed box was placed inside the cornerstone, and the box’s contents included: • Records of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church and society • A list of the subscribers who contributed to the building of the church • The Emancipation Proclamation • William Buckingham’s proclamation for the annual fast, April 1864. • Newspaper accounts of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination • Inaugural address of Andrew Johnson with proclamation declaring a national fast in May • The names of the architect and the building committee • Photographs of the church edifice, Lincoln, Buckingham, and several of the oldest clergymen now living in Hartford • Fractional currency • Papers of the day • The Independent containing Henry Ward Beecher’s address at Fort Sumter |
