A flyer advertising and annoucing the order of exercises for the cornerstone ceremony.
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Timeline
2:00 p.m.: Missouri Grand Lodge marched from the Hall of Twilight Lodge, A.F. and A.M., to the hospital building. The cornerstone would be laid by Dr. C. H. Briggs, Grand Master.
2:30 p.m.: Address given by Dr. Victor C. Vaughn in the University Chapel. Grand Lodge then returned to the lodge room.
6:00 p.m.: Christian Church hosted a dinner for Twilight Lodge, visiting masons, and other invited guests.
8:00 p.m.: Addresses given by Dr. C. H. Briggs and other grand officers in the Masonic Hall.
Twilight Lodge's resolution that was placed in the time capsule during the ceremony.
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The cornerstone laying ceremony took place to start construction on December 19th, 1899. The procession from the Twilight Lodge to the new building site was led by the University of Missouri Cadet Band and the entire Cadet Battalion. The corner stone was laid by Rev. Corona Hibbard Briggs, Masonic Grand Master. In the stone, a time capsule was placed with materials that related to the founding of the building and the local community. After the ceremonial actions from the Twilight Lodge, Dr. Victor C. Vaughn, dean of the Department of Medicine at the University of Michigan and Missouri native, gave an address about the building. Afterwards, construction began immediately.
This clipping from a St. Louis newspaper describes a similar ceremony that took place at the Washington memorial. The ceremony for the Parker Memorial Hospital took inspiration from this event and followed a similar format.
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Newspapers
The local newspapers that were placed in the time capsule provided a glimpse into local life in Columbia at the time of the erection of Parker Memorial Hospital. These newspapers included issues of the Missouri Statesman, the Columbia Hornet, the Columbia Missouri Herald, and the M.S.U. Independent. Unsurprisingly, Columbia was in the midst of the Christmas holiday season as food and gift advertisements litter the pages. Each of these newspapers contain local and national news updates about the community or local people of prominence, short stories, advertisements, and other miscellaneous writings common to a newspaper. At the time, many newspapers had reported on the cornerstone ceremony as it was seen as a big event in Columbia. Newspapers, especially the M.S.U. Independent, would continue to track the progress of Parker Memorial Hospital for months after the initial ceremony.
The Columbia Daily Hornet, one of the newspapers placed inside of the time capsule.
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Furthermore, from the newspapers that were found in the time capsule, a newspaper clipping from an unidentified St. Louis newspaper was found. It describes a similar masonry procession ceremony that had taken place at the Washington Memorial prior to the one at Parker Memorial Hospital. As was noted in the Twilight Lodge's Resolution, the local lodge had taken inspiration from this event and followed a similar format in Columbia.