Farmers State Bank

Dr. Steve Nelson, an academic colleague at the University of Great Falls (Montana), was fond of positing, "Why reinvent the wheel?" whenever faced with repetitious tasks. Sound advice, this is. (Writing like Yoda in Star Wars, I am.)  So I link one of our website handouts.

Therein lies the tale of the Farmers State Bank, once a pivotal commercial landmark of Mooresville, Indiana, but, alas, this fine institution succumbed to the Great Depression. The building still stands, fortunately, at the heart of downtown--the Main and Indiana Street intersection. This is arguably the highest ground upon which the town is situated. Founder Samuel Moore, as noted Mooresville historian Wanda Potts (1921-2012) said, had the supreme good sense to plat the town on high ground to avoid flooding from nearby White Lick Creek.

(Click images to enlarge.)

Farmers Bank of Mooresville at 2 West Main Street (on the northwest corner of  the  intersection  of  Main  and  Indiana  Streets),  as  it  appeared  during  the  1880s  until  1904,  when  the  building  was  removed.    Its  replacement,  which  still  stands  today,  is  shown  in  Figure  2.    Notice  the  wooden  “guards”  around  the  tree  trunks  to  protect  the  tree bark from hungry horses.

1917 advertisement from the Mooresville High School yearbook

Counter checks (1920s)

More from Wanda later. She was the Indiana Room librarian at Mooresville Public Library (1966-2002) and was the greatest living authority on our local history. She knew everything about this community's history, and what she didn't know, never happened. (If it happened, she remembered. It was amazing, really.) You wouldn't be reading this blog right now (assuming, of course, that you're here, reading it) if it weren't for her dedication to preserving Mooresville's past.  Learn more about Wanda from this 2012 blog post and her obituary.