Kerry Jones of Edwardsburg is looking forward to opening a time capsule found in the church he owns next month. (Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK)

Kerry Jones of Edwardsburg found himself with a moral quandary.

He discovered in the cornerstone of his home, the former Edwardsburg Methodist Church, a time capsule.

His dilemma was what to do with the capsule. Should he open it and sell its contents? Should he sell it and put the money back into the church? Should he donate it to the current members of the Methodist Church, donate it to the Edwardsburg History Museum or put it back where he found it and brick it back up?

The time capsule dates back to 1892 when the church held its dedication.

Jones bought the church in 1997 and has lived there ever since with his wife Cathy Bazata. Both work and live in the former church building — Kerry has a machine shop in the basement and Cathy works as an occupational therapist.

After thinking about it, Jones decided to let the public have a say in what happens to the 120-year-old capsule.

He went to social media and the top two responses were to donate it to the current congregation (27 percent), donate it to the local history museum (25 percent), sell it and do what he wanted with the money (15 percent) and brick it back up (13 percent).

“I knew the time capsule was there in the cornerstone because that is what most old churches did,” he said. “So I always wondered what was in there. It came to a head because we are looking to move. I did not want to move without finding out what was in there and then what do I do with it once I find out.

“Initially I thought I was going to take the time capsule and auction it off on Ebay and take the funds and put it back into the church to kind of help pay for some of the repairs. It has taken a lot of money to keep this place up.”

When he had some masonry work done, he decided it was time to open up the cornerstone and see if the capsule was there.

“When they poured the front porch they kind of poured it a little bit over the cornerstone so they had to chisel away to expose it,” Jones said. “So I haven’t opened the cornerstone yet.”

He had someone come in with a metal detector to see if something was inside the cornerstone, and found out there in fact was.

Jones took the 60 replies and because it was an even split, he decided to give it to the congregation with the stipulation that they put it on display at the museum.

“Then what I would like them to do is come up with an assessed value for my charitable donation,” he said. “It kind of satisfies all the responses.”

Jones said that they are looking at the beginning of October as the opening date for the capsule.

He said that he hopes to have a date finalized shortly.

“I will have it pulled out of the cornerstone and then we will have a community event for the opening,” Jones said.