Mary Ann Brame, left, and Lynn Hulan examine a document just pulled from a cornerstone during a Feb. 24 ceremony. (T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Click to enlarge]

The items removed Feb. 24 from the 1914 cornerstone of Turner College are in such delicate condition that representatives of Woodfork Chapel AME Church have not been able to handle or review them.

They have been sent to the Tennessee Library and Archives for preservation, according to Woodfork Chapel member Mary Ann Brame. Eventually, the church would like to publish a book with images from the discovered paperwork.

Various publications, course catalogs and even a blank check were found in the cornerstone during a formal opening ceremony held in observance of Black History Month. The building in which the cornerstone had been placed collapsed last summer and had to be torn down; Musgrave Pencil Company, which had owned the site, donated the cornerstone to Woodfork Chapel, which had a close relationship with the school during its time here in Shelbyville.

Turner Normal and Industrial Institute was established in 1882 and played a key role in educating the area's African-American students for decades before relocating to Memphis in 1935. It was founded by the African Methodist Episcopal denomination and had a close relationship with Woodfork Chapel AME church through those years; many presidents of the college also served as ministers at Woodfork Chapel, according to Brame's remarks during the ceremony.

The building from which the cornerstone came was actually constructed as a girls' dormitory for Turner Normal School in 1912 but its cornerstone was defective and had to be replaced two years later, the same year when the school's name was changed to Turner College.

The first item removed from the cornerstone was an 1848 issue of the newspaper The Independent. Other items included:

* A list of contributors to the building project.

* A July 1914 issue of The Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP.

* A blank check from the school's account at Farmer's Bank of Shelbyville.

* A 1910 newspaper clipping about the college.

* A June 1906 commencement program.

* A Bible.

* A 1914 issue of the Women's Missionary Reporter.

* Two different course catalogs for the school.