FAMOUS MOORESVILLIANS
Click the names below to learn more about these famous Mooresvillians. Also visit Mooresville Public Library's website.
Monday, December 3, 2018
James Whitcomb Riley's Mooresville Connections
James Whitcomb Riley, sign painter (ca. 1872)
(Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Public Library Riley Collection)
Although famous Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) grew up in Greenfield, Indiana, in Spring 1874 he moved to Mooresville to live with his aunt and uncle, Jim and Ann Marine, while he worked as a sign painter in a shop located at 25 South Indiana Street downtown. The building is known as the Perce Building (for owner Dr. B. H. Perce, who had it constructed around 1865). Our video (below), this slideshow, and this blog post, elaborate.
In addition to sign painting, Riley wrote articles and humorous quips for the local newspaper, the Mooresville Enterprise, as well as for other Morgan County newspapers. When trade was slack, Riley would slip around the block to hang out with local photographer and Civil War veteran Jarvis P. Calvert at his art and photographer studio on East Harrison Street.
James Whitcomb Riley (ca. 1874)
(Photo possibly taken by J. P. Calvert)
(Image courtesy of James Whitcomb Riley Old Home Society)
Arthur C. Newby (Famous Mooresvillian)
Arthur C. Newby (1865-1933) was born and raised near Monrovia, Indiana, but owned land in Mooresville that became an important part of local education here (see below). Newby was an early bicycle and automobile manufacturer and co-founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He moved to Indianapolis in 1881 seeking employment and was a middle manager for the firm of Nordyke & Marmon. In the 1890s, Newby co-founded the Zig-Zag Cycling Club, and, along with Charles E. Test and Edward Fletcher, he established the Indianapolis Chain & Stamping Company, which later became the Diamond Chain Company. By the end of the 1890s, Newby’s business was supplying roughly 60 percent of American-made bicycle chains. From 1894 to 1899, Newby was also associated with Hay & Willits Manufacturing Company, which made Outing bicycles, a popular brand.
Arthur C. Newby (1865-1933) (see obituaries here)
In 1898 Newby teamed with James A. Allison and Carl G. Fisher to construct the Newby Oval, a bicycle racing track near 30th Street and Central Avenue in Indianapolis. This trio later founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909. By the turn of the 20th century, Newby focused upon automobile manufacture, co-founding the National Motor Vehicle Company, which built electric and gasoline-powered automobiles.
Newby Elementary School under construction (April, 1936)
(Photo courtesy of the Mooresville High School Alumni Association)
Dedication Program for William & Milton Newby Memorial Elementary School
(March 30, 1937)
“In 1920, Arthur C. Newby gave a 140 acre farm (located west of Mooresville near Bingham and Greencastle Roads), together with considerable other property, to the Mooresville School Association. His wishes were that they be sold and proceeds used toward the creation of a new school with the stipulation that it be named in memory of his uncles, William and Milton Newby. Mooresville’s existing elementary school, the Academy Building which originally housed MHS [Mooresville High School], was filling more and more each year. The William and Milton Newby Memorial Elementary School was decided upon and plans were drawn in 1935. Construction began in January 1936. The cost was approximately $93,000. The architectural style was Georgian Colonial. The new building included ten classrooms, a recreation room, cafeteria and kitchen, four dressing rooms, the principal’s office, a suite for first aid, music and art supervisor’s office, teachers’ rest rooms, a workshop for the custodians and a large storage room were also included in the plan. The school grounds covered about eight acres of picturesque rolling and wooded lot.” [Quoted from Susan Haynes (2016). William and Milton Newby Memorial Elementary School. Mooresville, Indiana: Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation.]
There's also a video about Arthur Newby (below).
There's also a video about Arthur Newby (below).
Arthur C. Newby, Mooresville's Quiet Philanthropist
(Mooresville Moments #19)
Ruth Ellen Comer (Famous Mooresvillian)
Sammy Lee Davis (Famous Mooresvillian)
Sammy Lee Davis moved to Waverly, Indiana from California following his junior year to attend Mooresville High School (graduated MHS Class of 1966). After enlisting in the U.S. Army, he distinguished himself in combat service in Vietnam and, on November 19, 1968, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson (see the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Monday, November 25, 1968, pp. 1611-12, 1614). Davis has an autobiography available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog.
Click book cover (above) to go to our online catalog
Sergeant Sammy L. Davis, Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient (1968)
President Lyndon Baines Johnson (far right) awards the Congressional Medal of Honor to (L to R): Gary G. Wetzel, Dwight H. Johnson, Sammy L. Davis, James Allen Taylor, and Angelo J. Liteky (November 19, 1968)
Amos Rusie (Famous Mooresvillian)
Mooresville native Amos Wilson Rusie (1871-1942), “the Hoosier Thunderbolt,” pitched for the New York Giants between 1890-1900 and the Cincinnati Reds in 1901. He held many major league pitching records and was considered the fastest pitcher in professional baseball. For more about Rusie, watch the videos below; read this article from Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History (1989); take a look at our “flash from your past” flashcard; or visit the MPL Indiana Room, to learn more about this all-star pitcher.
Amos Rusie N.Y. Giants Baseball Card (1890’s)
Amos Wilson Rusie: The Hoosier Thunderbolt
(Mooresville Moments #20)
by Mooresville Public Library
(Mooresville Moments #20)
by Mooresville Public Library
Amos Rusie: The Hoosier Thunderbolt, by Pete Cava
(MPL Program Video, April 2, 2016)
Frank Inn (Famous Mooresvillian)
Camby native Frank Inn (born Elias Franklin Freeman) (1916-2002) grew up on the Charles Mendenhall farm near Mooresville (the farm was in Guilford Township, Hendricks County). His parents operated E. A. Freeman Florist shop in Mooresville for many years. During the 1950s until circa 1964, the florist shop was located at 42, 46, 60 & 62 East Washington Street (customers and suppliers often used Lincoln Lane for pickups and deliveries). From circa 1964 through the early 1980s, the florist shop was situated at State Road 67 Bypass and South Park Drive.
Frank Inn was best known as an animal trainer for Hollywood movies (such as Benji, The Thin Man series, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and television programs (such as the 1960’s sitcoms The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction). For Green Acres, Inn trained Arnold the Pig (character name: Arnold Ziffel). Arnold came from Jim Clem’s farm (see image below) on Johnson Road just outside Mooresville.
Inn won 40 PATSY (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year) Awards for the animals he trained for movies and television. The International Association of Canine Professions (IACP) honored Inn as its first Hall of Fame inductee. (See Inn's online biography.)
Frank Inn with Green Acres star, Arnold the Pig
(Morgan County Plat Map, Brown Township, 1962-1964)
Inn’s book about Benji is available to check-out from our Evergreen Indiana catalog. Visit the MPL Indiana Room, or read this brief biography, to learn more about the man and his talented animals.
Frank Inn & Benji
On May 7, 2016, the library presented a program celebrating the 100th anniversary of Frank Inn’s birth. We captured the program on video (below). Frank Inn was portrayed by David Reddick, chair of the Morgan County Indiana Bicentennial Celebration.
George H. Fields (Famous Mooresvillian)
George H. Fields (1921-2014) was a life-long Mooresville resident who became Mooresville High School's first Indiana boys' basketball all-star and, later, he became a standout on Purdue University's men's basketball team (1940-41) before playing through the 1940s semi-professionally for the Indianapolis Pure Oils (1943-45; 1946-47) and professionally with the Indianapolis Kautskys (1945-46) in the National Basketball League (NBL), the precursor to the NBA.
His parents were Herbert Andrew and Georgie (Conduitt) Fields. George passed on January 22, 2014. Click here to read George's obituary. Click the images below to enlarge them.
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Calvert's Civil War Memoir
Jarvis P. Calvert
In 1886, Mooresville photographer and publisher Jarvis P. Calvert (1842-1917) published his Civil War memoir, A Private Soldier's Recollections of the War of the Rebellion (Mooresville, IN : J. P. Calvert, 1886). Calvert served in Company I of the 63rd Regiment of the Indiana Volunteers. (Click the images to enlarge them.)
Calvert gave Mooresville Public Library (MPL) a copy of his book for its adult collection soon after the library's Carnegie building opened in 1916.
As far as I know, this is the only copy of this book in the world, so MPL keeps it well under lock-and-key. That's the reason the library digitized the book and made it available as an eBook (PDF format) through its Evergreen Indiana online catalog. Calvert presents much of his recollections in a matter-of-fact manner, relating some harrowing moments stoically. In fact, stoicism was Calvert's watchword; his entire memoir is filled with a calm, cool, collected representation of the transpired events. Perhaps the lapse of 20 years between his war service and publication allowed him to distance himself somewhat from the horrors, as well as the monotony, of military engagement (and the endless waiting in-between battles). Calvert provides an insider's view of what it was like to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War, and his contribution to personal accounts of the war adds to our understanding of the hardships and sacrifices endured.
Calvert photograph (circa 1885) from atop the steeple of the
M.E. Church, looking north along Indiana Street
Calvert's photograph of Mooresville High School (1914),
which stood next to the Academy Building
Calvert's advertisements from the 1911 and 1917
Mooresville High School yearbooks
After the Civil War, Calvert became a successful photographer and newspaper publisher (his Mooresville Midget was published for several years, competing with the Mooresville Guide [later, Mooresville Times]). He had an art and photography studio next to his home of East Harrison Street, just east of the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church, for whom he served as choir director for 40 years. He was a friend and colleague of famed Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), who used to hang-out at Calvert's studio discussing art and photography when Riley wasn't busy working as a sign painter in a downtown Mooresville shop.
The Perce Building (Mooresville Moments #4)
where James Whitcomb Riley worked in a paint shop
Calvert's studio and residence (circa 1910) on East Harrison Street
(a block south of downtown Mooresville)
Calvert's home on East Harrison Street (circa 1880)
Snapshots around Calvert's home on East Harrison Street (circa 1910)
taken by his son, P. H. Calvert
taken by his son, P. H. Calvert
To learn more about J. P. Calvert and his life and times, please see the following:
- Calvert's obituary in our Legacy Links obituary database, including a newspaper obituary (under "obituary file," click "view image"), as well as a biographical sketch of Calvert by Charles Blanchard (1884) (under "other file," click "view image").
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