Photo by Rob Wills, The Northfield News Bob Jarvis, left, who found the bottle, presents it and the original note to Don Denko, Eleanor Murray Denko and Pauline Murray Washburn. On a rainy day in July, Sheldon Murray was nailing the siding onto the shed on his property. It was a large shed, to be used as a milk house. Before he completed the work, he and his wife decided to write a special note. When they finished, they took the note, rolled it up and placed it inside an empty glass milk bottle from Beaulac's Dairy of Randolph. They put the paper cap back on top of the bottle and placed it inside the wall of the shed along with an empty coca-cola bottle. The siding was completed and the bottle remained secure within the walls. The year was 1939.

Recently, Bob Jarvis of Bull Run Road saw that his shed was in bad shape. He said, "one side was all rotted off and it was ready to fall down and was just dangerous. I started a couple of weeks ago, tearing this apart here. I believe it was a milk house. Just an old shack I had my stuff in, some tools and that."

Photo courtesy of Edwin Murray Sheldon and Maidene Murray stand beside their milk delivery truck in 1935. The Murrays had a farm on Bull Run and placed a bottle in the milk house when it was built in 1939. Bob said that he started tearing the shed down and would have never noticed anything unusual except that his dog, Rusty, seemed concerned about one corner.

"This Saturday, I was just ripping it apart and Rusty was just sniffing and scratching away, so, I just started on that corner and there just happened to be this milk bottle there, right up there," he said motioning. "There was an old coca-cola bottle. The other [milk] bottle has a letter in it and has the little paper stopper that was there, original stopper. I haven't looked at it (the note) yet. The wife is driving me crazy."

After keeping the bottle without looking at its contents for some time, Bob and his wife, Patricia, finally decided to open the bottle to see what the note said. The note appeared to be in very good condition, which said: "This bottle placed here on July 17th (Monday) 1939 by Sheldon K. Murray, 26 plus Maidene A. Murray, 25, Edwin S.Murray, 3, Elsie E. Murray, 2 and Eleanor M. Murray, one.

When milk house was being sheathed up. Rained when the sun wasn't shining cold 68."

A search for the Murray family found that Sheldon Murray died in May 1981. Maidene had died on February 26, 2002. More research found that Eleanor had married Donald Denko where the two reside in Barre. It was at her home that Eleanor received a telephone call that a message from her mother and father had been found.

Eleanor quickly called her brothers and sisters. She said that her brother, Edwin, who now lives in Hopewell Junction, New York, was especially excited and began looking through old family photos. Eleanor also said that Elsie is now living in Franklin, Indiana. None of the children knew about the note in the bottle.

Since the message was written, Eleanor said there were three more children born in the family. Pauline and Sandra live in Williamstown, Steven lives in South Barre.

Eleanor said she was quite young when they moved from Bull Run Road. She said, "My father was doing a milk route from Montpelier. My grandfather had a milk farm, City Side Farm. It is still there but it is living quarters, it is on Upper Main Street in Montpelier."

She said they later moved to Moretown from there, then to East Warren at Kline Farm. Eventually they moved to Williamstown in 1950 where his father ended his farming career to drive a truck for Lacillade Lumber Company.

Ed Murray, regarding the bottle, said, "I never heard about this from Dad or Mother. Dad most always, on new cement floors, would draw the year in the cement and often let us kids leave our hand image in the cement. He could have left more bottles with notes without telling us."

Ed also said that when his father was delivering milk with the truck, he would let him ride in the front seat standing on the floor. In the wintertime, he said, his father would saw ice from the pond or lake and store them in sawdust to be used in the icebox in winter and summer.

This past Sunday, Eleanor along with her husband, Don and her sister Pauline visited the home of Bob and Patricia Jarvis. Bob presented to Eleanor and Pauline the bottle along with the note, which he had framed.

Bob also prepared a frame containing a photo of the bottle, a photo of Rusty the dog and a note that said, "This milk bottle was found November 1, 2008 by Robert Jarvis, 61, Patricia Jarvis, 60 and our Beloved Pug Rusty, 6 1/2. The note written long ago has completed a circle back to the family.