The time capsule’s opening was the kickoff event for this year’s tricentennial celebration of Old Abington, which once included Rockland and Whitman until the 1870s split. Many who turned out Sunday had grandparents who probably enjoyed the weeklong bicentennial bash in 1912.
“Between 1912 and the separation of the three towns, there was just 37 years, so everybody born before that split had a strong sense of nostalgia,’’ said Doug Ulwick, president of the Historical Society of Old Abington, who made a presentation Sunday titled “Abington at 200, the Old Town’s Last Hurrah.’’
Ulwick said the old town had essentially functioned as three individual communities long before its formal split, each with its own churches and schools. “Different sections of town developed their own identities,’’ he said. “In 1874, Rockland said, ‘We’re out of here,’ and a few years later, Whitman followed.’’
But in 1912, all three communities once again united with considerable enthusiasm to plan the 200th anniversary of the original Abington.
“They had 20 committees to plan the event,’’ Ulwick said. “They even had a Committee of Badges and a Bell-Ringing Committee. The scrapbook shows interest in this went beyond the town and the state. There’s even a New York Times article about it.’’
The 200th celebration ran for a full week in June. Classes were suspended in all three towns, and public transportation was free of charge.
“We are told 25,000 attended the events,’’ Ulwick said. President William Howard Taft was invited but declined, saying he could not leave Washington while Congress was in session, according to his letter, preserved in a scrapbook.
