Inside a Time Capsule

Mooresville High School has announced a date on which the 1959 time capsule will be opened. The ceremony will take place at the regularly scheduled school board meeting on Tuesday, July 9, 2013, at 6:30 p.m., at the Mooresville Schools Education Center, 11 West Carlisle Street, in Mooresville.

Mooresville High School Time Capsule (1959)
(Click Image to Enlarge)

What do you think will be found inside the time capsule?  Make your best guesses in our comments section.

Snapshots of Hendricks County History

 Plainfield, by Reann Poray

Images of America Series

Arcadia Publishing, 2012

ISBN-13:  9780738594484

ISBN-10:  0738594482

 

Reann Poray presents another wonderful "Images of America" book by Arcadia Publishing. As a librarian/historian at Plainfield-Guilford Twp. Public Library, Reann intimately knows Plainfield's (and Hendricks County's) history, and this book presents delightful images with insightful captions that will inform and entertain. Reann's expertise in local history shines through each page. It is a pleasure to peruse.  It is available to check-out in our online catalog, if you have an Evergreen Indiana library card.

Hendricks County, by Phyllis West Parsons & Gail M. Tharp

Images of America Series

Arcadia Publishing, 2013 

ISBN-10: 0738598976 

ISBN-13: 978-0738598970

 

Did you know that Hendricks County, Indiana is the only county in the U.S. that bears the name?  This and many other historical tidbits are expressed through rare photos and detailed captions.  Phyllis West Parsons and Gail M. Tharp have assembled an impressive and extensive segment of Hendricks County history that will fire readers' recollections and invite families to share their memories and experiences along with the photos.  The book is also available to check-out to cardholders in our Evergreen Indiana online catalog.

Researching Your Ancestry, Thanks to Our Friends

The Friends of the Library (FOL) have generously underwritten MPL's annual subscription to Ancestry Library Edition (ALE), an online genealogical database that is essential to any serious family historian.

Patrons may access ALE on the MPL campus, either using our wireless connectivity, our computer lab, or the public PC in the Indiana Room.  Thanks, FOL, for supporting this crucial database subscription.  Our genealogy patrons (and library staff) truly appreciate it.

Genealogy Rubs Off On You

Proving that genealogy "rubs off on you," Miss Meg displayed our teen patrons' tombstone rubbings from our recent cemetery visit.  Click the images to enlarge.
 

Captured Time from 1959

While renovating Mooresville High School (MHS) this month, construction workers discovered a time capsule encased within the cornerstone of the building, which was dedicated on November 29, 1959.  The cornerstone had been covered up since 1986 by another addition to the structure.  It had apparently been forgotten, as school personnel were pleasantly surprised at the discovery but could find no official record describing the time capsule's contents.  If you look closely at the dedication program cover, you'll see where the cornerstone (and time capsule) were to be placed during the dedication ceremonies.

Click images to enlarge

Cornerstone location at Mooresville High School

(Before it was placed, with time capsule inside, on November 29, 1959)

 Article about the MHS Dedication from the front page of the

Mooresville Times, Dec. 3, 1959

The time capsule, a welded-shut copper box, contains "records," according to an article about the dedication ceremony from the Mooresville Times (Thursday, Dec. 3, 1959, p. 1).  These were presumably school records and probably also artifacts from the time (some possibilities include, e.g., a 1959 MHS yearbook, Wagon Trails; local newspapers; popular souvenirs from local businesses, churches, or organizations; school documents pertaining to the building's construction; the dedication ceremony pamphlet; and other historical items).  But this is purely speculative; the only way to know for certain is to open the copper box.  No mean feat, that.  Those welds are pretty solid.  Time capsules are intended to survive for centuries.

 Sunco workers (L to R) Zach Green, Tyler Shorter, and Keegan Foltz
discovered (and uncovered) the cornerstone & time capsule

MCSC officials have contacted the Indiana State Archives to determine how best to open the sealed copper box without damaging its contents. 

The historical investigation has been spearheaded by Susan Haynes, chief communications officer for the Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation (MCSC) and herself an MHS alumnus.  She has been sifting school archives and the vertical files from Mooresville Public Library (MPL) to determine what may be hidden inside the time capsule.  She has also requested public input from persons who lived in town (or attended MHS) in 1959 (or thereabouts) who might be able to provide some insights from personal memories or contemporaneous documents.  If you have any information, or if you'd like to read updates about the time capsule, please visit the MHS Facebook page or the MCSC website.

2013 Old Settlers Picnic Festival & Parade

This year's Old Settlers Picnic/Festival is slated for August 4-5-6, 2013.  The Old Settlers Parade launches the festivities on Sunday, August 4, through downtown Mooresville, Indiana to Pioneer Park.  The parade begins at 2 p.m. at Mooresville High School.

Here are a couple photos of the MPL float from last year's parade (click images to enlarge).

The Library's 2013 parade float features MPL Bookworms Redefined as its theme.  Here's a sneak peek:

The festival is open from 5 p.m. until 11 p.m.

We've got lots of other photos from past Old Settlers.  Here are a few from previous blog posts:

• 2011 Library Booth
• 2012 Library Float
• 2012 Library Booth
• Our candidate for Grand Marshall
• Our recommendation for official town song

Rubbing Family History

Yesterday Miss Meg, MPL teen/adult programming coordinator, held a hands-on genealogy program for teens at Old Cemetery (i.e., the old Methodist Episcopal [M.E.] Church Cemetery) on West Washington Street near downtown Mooresville, Indiana, about which we've previously blogged.  Participants rubbed tombstones to preserve a record of persons buried there.  Miss Meg took some photos of the event.  Click the images to enlarge.

 Hannibal Bray's grave

(Not the movie character)

(son of John S. & Margaret Bray)

(died 8/11/1854; age 10 mo., 4 days)

Grave of Washington L. Conduitt (6/1/1825-8/27/1861)

(born in Trimble County, Kentucky)

Samuel & Eliza Moore's son-in-law
(Samuel Moore founded the Town of Mooresville, Indiana)

 Cemeteries are silent repositories of family history

 William A. Rooker's grave marker

(died 8/15/1849; age 30 yrs., 6 mo., 9 days)

(One of many that have been damaged)

 

Grave of Mary M. Conduitt
(1/15/1831-10/13/1853)
(daughter of Samuel & Eliza Moore)
(wife of Washington Conduitt)

Tombstone rubbing is one way to preserve the information chiseled on grave markers, but it can be destructive to the stones if done improperly or haphazardly.  An alternative is digital photography.  Editing a cemetery marker using Photoshop (or some other graphics software) can bring out details difficult to discern with the naked eye, particularly if the image is inverted (i.e., a negative image) or sharpened with other filtering options.

Photo Inversion (Negative)

brings out clearer details from tombstone

Everyone enjoyed investigating and learning to preserve burial information for one's genealogical researches.  Cemeteries tell many stories, if one quietly and respectfully listens.