I'm guessing your column has datetime type. The Time class represents from 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC until some time in 2038 while the Date class represents dates (no time component) from "very long ago" to "a long time from now". You probably need to represent them in the database as :date.
$ irb irb(main):001:0> require 'date' => true irb(main):002:0> "18921101000000".to_date NoMethodError: undefined method `to_date' for "18921101000000":String from (irb):2 from /opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/date/format.rb:37 irb(main):003:0> Date.parse("18921101000000") => #<Date: 4824807/2,0,2299161> irb(main):004:0> _.to_s => "1892-11-01"
-Rob
Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com