SPANNING A CENTURY The City of DeKalb is observing its sesquicentennial this year. Despite threatening weather that is playing havoc with the World Champion White Sox home opener, the festivities began with a small parade this afternoon.


The Police and Fire Services provided a colorguard.


Members of the sesquicentennial committee dressed up in their 1856 Sunday best.


It can't be a public event without some speechifying, here in front of the library. The one damper on the occasion was the lack of amplification for the speakers.

The main event today was the opening of a time capsule. In 1956, the city's centennial committee named 14 pre-teens "Sesquicentennial Kids" with the duties of putting stuff in the time capsule and returning two score and ten years hence to reopen it.

The time capsule was buried in the library courtyard, secure from nuclear attack.

The capsule was sealed shut and buried in front of the DeKalb Public Library - then called the Haish Library - under 18 inches of concrete. It has been taken out of the ground, but it took city workers four attempts to get it out because it was buried under so much concrete. Trees had to be moved and heavy machinery had to be brought in, Robert Krupp said.

[Publicity chairwoman Kathy] Siebrasse said there's different theories as to why so much concrete was used.

"It was the nuclear age - this is speculation, but they could have been trying to make sure it would be there in 50 years," she said.

She said the items put in the time capsule all survived.

As did all but one of the Sesquicentennial Kids, who was represented by his son and daughter. One of the kids noted that the organizers' expectation in 1956 is that most of the designated youngsters would still be living in DeKalb; the reality is that they returned from all over the States.


The items were for the most part markers of an ordinary life. There will be another time capsule, to be buried in October, and the "Bicentennial Kids" were named at the end of today's gathering.