A 150-year-old house was being restored in a small town outside of Peoria when a construction worker found a message left in a bottle between the walls of the kitchen.
Written by a 14-year-old girl in 1975, a video of the note went viral on TikTok and created a mini interest-storm around the life of the woman, now 61.
In the town of Green Valley, a carpenter named Dakota Mohn was working in a house damaged by a fire. When he was pulling off the walls in the front living room he saw writing that said, “Note 9/29/1975” with arrows pointing to a small notch in the wood.
Inside was a message in a bottle—lost, but not at sea.
Signed by Stephanie Herron, this young woman, one of railroad lineman Earnest Herron’s five daughters, would move on to New York City where she took the name of her husband Poit, had five children of her own, and taught inner city kids.
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“I was shocked, absolutely shocked, when I heard about the note,” Stephanie Poit told the PJ Star.
“Honestly, I forgot all about it. Life goes on, years go by… I can’t believe how much this has struck people. I’ve gotten notes from people who remember me as a kid growing up in Green Valley. It was a good place to grow up.”
It went like this: To whoever finds this:
Today is Sept. 29, 1975. My name is Stephanie Herron. I live here with my mother, father (Earnest), Becky and Valerie.
Gerald Ford is president. Mrs. Lay is our neighbor. Mom is pregnant and the baby is due any day now. As far as we know, this house was made in 1872. We are remodeling the house.
The Illinois Central Railroad is on the west side of the house. We have lived here for 8 years.
My dad works the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. Green Valley has about 650 people. I am 14, Val is 16 and Becky is 12.
I hope you have lots of happiness in this house.
Steph
PS: My mother’s name is Rose Herron. She is a registered nurse. She works at Hopedale Nursing home. She was born in Nebraska.
She is a very good mother.
Talking with the Star, Poit explains that time capsules were all the rage in 1975. She and her family moved into the house, built in 1872, which at the time sat next to a frequented railroad.
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Already 100 years old when they moved in, the family was constantly making additions, including enclosing a porch into a kitchen/living room where Dakota pulled the time capsule from.
Mohn, who on his Facebook wall described the note as the coolest thing he’s found, is working with the house’s new owner to build a shadow box into the wall where the note was found, and that he and the owner would leave notes of their own for another carpenter to find 40 years from now.
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