Mooresville Bicentennial Promo Trailer

2024 UPDATE:  Here's another video commemorating Mooresville's bicentennial.

Mooresville Moments 30, by Mooresville Public Library

Mooresville, Indiana Bicentennial (1824-2024)

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Mooresville, Indiana celebrates the bicentennial of its founding in 2024 (having been established in 1824 by Samuel Moore), and Mooresville Public Library has a promo trailer for the event.  Click the video (below) to watch.

Mooresville (Indiana) Bicentennial Promo Trailer,

by Mooresville Public Library

 

There are also a couple of books (just published in January, 2023) celebrating the town's bicentennial:

• A children's book written by Cauli Le Chat, MPL feline roving reporter (digitized version available below; print copy available for checkout at Mooresville Public Library; paperback and Kindle editions available to buy from Amazon);
•  Complete PDF
  

and

• A grown-up's book written by some author you've never heard of (digitized version available below; print copy available for checkout at Mooresville Public Library)
  
• PDF Part One
• PDF Part Two
• PDF Part Three
• PDF Part Four
• PDF Part Five
• PDF Part Six
• PDF Part Seven

Watch our book trailers (below) to learn more about these two books.  (Click the boxes below to play videos.)

 

 

MPL Book Trailer #865
 

MPL Book Trailer #869

 

The Mooresville200 group is planning a big bicentennial celebration during 2024.  It should be great fun!  The library created a couple of promo trailers for Mooresville200 (click players below to watch the videos).

Mooresville200 Promo Trailer 1, by Mooresville Public Library

Mooresville200 Promo Trailer 2, by Mooresville Public Library

Mooresville's Bicentennial Book: a History for Kids

HEY, KIDS!  Learn about the history of Mooresville, Indiana from Cauli Le Chat, feline roving reporter at Mooresville Public Library.  Click the book cover (below), or click here, to read a digital copy (in PDF format).  Just in time for Mooresville's bicentennial celebration (1824-2024)!

NOTE FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS:  If your child(ren) (or the children you teach) attend elementary school grades 3 or 4, then this book will be particularly interesting to them, because they will be studying Indiana history in those grades.  Younger and older readers might enjoy the book, too.  Try reading it aloud to your preschoolers and early grade schoolers.

 

For those who prefer print books to digital, Mooresville Public Library has paper copies available to checkout, if you have an Evergreen Indiana library card. Visit the library's Indiana Room to pick-up a copy (Call Number I 977.251 CAU). See the Evergreen Indiana online catalog for details.

If you have an Amazon Kindle reader, a Kindle edition is available to buy from Amazon for $1.99. Paperback editions may also be purchased from Amazon for $6.50 plus shipping and handling.

 Here's a book trailer (below) that briefly describes what to expect:

A Bicentennial Celebration (Mooresville, Indiana),

by Cauli Le Chat (MPL Book Trailer 865)

(Click Video Above to Watch) 

 

Morgan County "History Buff"alo Returns

 You can't celebrate Morgan County's Bicentennial (1822-2022) without Brutus.

 MPL's Ms. Catherine with Brutus (August 12, 2022)

(CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE)

 

Brutus, the official Morgan County (Indiana) Bicentennial Bison, is visiting Mooresville Public Library (MPL) during the month of August, 2022.  Get to know the big fella.  We have a bunch of photos.

 "Whoa, Big Fella!"

MPL Executive Director Diane Huerkamp & Morgan County Historian Don Adams coax Brutus to graze in the Grand Hall Directors' Alcove

 

Say, Brutus, did you make that carpet stain?  Bad bison!

   Heading East & West Across the Hoosier Plains

Let's take a peek at those signs, shall we?

What's Brutus' neck tag say?

 

More close-ups?  Sure!

"How ya doin' out there?"

"Wouldn't mind some grass or hay.  Just saying."

 

There's one more REALLY IMPORTANT sign:

 

Does Brutus look familiar?  If you happened to drop by the Library during the 2016 Indiana Bicentennial celebration, you might have seen Brutus wearing different colored fur.  We blogged about his 2016 visit (click here), and Cauli Le Chat, MPL feline roving reporter (2010-2019), also talked about it (click here).

Brutus in 2016 during the Indiana Bicentennial Celebration

Brutus welcomes photo ops, so stop by and take some "selfies" with Morgan County's official Bicentennial Bison.  Just don't climb on or touch him.  He's a friendly dude, but we don't want to get him riled up.  Stampedes we don't need inside the Library.

Morgan County Bicentennial (2022)

2022 is the Morgan County bicentennial. To celebrate, Mooresville Public Library's Indiana Room invites patrons to checkout books about Morgan County (and Mooresville) history using their Evergreen Indiana (E.I.) cards.  These items may be found in the E.I. catalog, along with many others (some of which are reference only).  All of the display items, as well as numerous others, may be checked-out.  (Click photos below to enlarge.)

 

The Return of the Native (Founder Stone)

Mooresville's "Founder Stone" has returned downtown to Bicentennial Park, as reported in today's edition of the Mooresville-Decatur Times.

Mooresville Bicentennial Park & the

new location of the "Founder Stone"

(January 27, 2018 photos by the author)

(click photos to enlarge)

According to Times reporter Anthony Woodside, the founder stone has been placed at the back of the park closer to Citizens Bank's parking lot.  Originally, the stone (and affixed plaque) were situated on the northeast corner of Indiana and Main Streets closer to the intersection.

The "Founder Stone" at its original location

Northeast corner of Indiana & Main Streets

Downtown Mooresville

(October 29, 2007 photo by the author)

As we mentioned in a previous blog post, the stone and plaque were removed last year during construction of Bicentennial Park and had been stored in the town's highway department garage.

The founder stone (and plaque) were originally placed downtown as part of Mooresville's centennial celebration (in 1924).  The project was directed by Samuel Moore's granddaughter, Mary Ida Fogleman, to celebrate the town's founding and her grandfather's first wood-frame business built on the site in 1824.

Samuel Moore's Plat of Mooresville

(1824, recorded February 21, 1825)

There has been some talk around town (with which I personally agree) that the stone should have been returned closer to the front of the property, where it had originally sat for decades. That precise location is most historically accurate, since Moore's business building was situated at the front of the lot.  A commemorative marker should be placed as close to the actual historical site as possible to correctly document what the marker is memorializing.  In any event, that's where the town (and Miss Ida) intended the founder stone to rest when they placed it in 1924.

At least the stone's new location is on land Moore owned.  Samuel Moore originally owned all of the land upon which Bicentennial Park (and Citizens Bank) stand--in fact, he owned all the land originally platted for the town in 1824.

Originally, the stone and plaque were placed close to the intersection because pedestrian traffic would best see it at the front of the lot.  Putting it in the rear area of Bicentennial Park is probably intended to encourage folks to saunter through the park and leisurely absorb the historical components.  History is best absorbed at a strolls-pace.  Whether or not people will actually do the walking and see the stone and plaque--that's another thing altogether.  When it was in front, it was easily visible to both walkers and drivers from the Main/Indiana Street intersection.  So front clearly reaches a larger audience.

I'm pleased to see the "Founder Stone" return to its native turf, even if the new location is not historically ideal.  Local historical markers are essential reminders of a community's past accomplishments.  That history offers current residents a common heritage, which has a unifying effect upon townspeople.  Regardless of our diversity (and that diversity should be honored, too), we share in common the town's past stories.  We should be proud of them, because we're living our own historical tales here right now, which future residents will look back upon with (hopefully) approval (or at least bemused curiosity).  We are a direct continuation of Mooresville's collective historical experience.  As the town's bicentennial approaches (2024), Bicentennial Park (and the founder stone) remind us that our community's greatness is measured by what has been, what is now, and what will be.

Mooresville's Bicentennial Park: A Historical Perspective

Folks driving through downtown Mooresville have likely noticed the new Bicentennial Park located on the northeast corner of Main and Indiana Streets.

Mooresville Bicentennial Park (complete with traffic noise)

(December 5, 2017 video by the author)

(click video to play--it's in focus, really)

I've been asked a few times to explain the meaning of the sculpture.  I'm no art critic, but I'll have a go at interpretation.

Mooresville Bicentennial Park Sculpture

(December 5, 2017 photo by the author)

(Click pictures to enlarge)

The sculpture represents the flames atop the torch on the Indiana State Flag.

Indiana State Flag

(designed by Paul Hadley in 1916; adopted in 1917)

The town's motto is "Home of the [Indiana] State Flag," because Paul Hadley designed the flag, and spent much of his life, here.  So the sculpture commemorates that event.

From a historical perspective, the torch flame sculpture represents more than just the flag.  It symbolizes the eternal flame of human hope and progress, as demonstrated through one's hometown.  Mooresville's pioneers laid down roots here because they saw the potential of a bright, shining future, filled with prosperity, community spirit, social diversity, and the pursuit of happiness.  That future has been transpiring since 1824, and it continues to blossom, as the torch is passed from generation to generation of Mooresvillians.  The sculpture is an invitation to everyone living and working here to keep building upon what our forebearers created and established.  After all, future generations will look back upon us as part of their history, and we want to shine on brightly to them, as our predecessors shone.  We may now be facing 21st century challenges, but our pioneering spirit is the same as those who came before.

Bicentennial Park incorporates other aspects of Mooresville history, as we discussed previously in this blog.

Historical commemorations like Bicentennial Park are important because we need a sense of continuity, of belonging to something bigger than ourselves.  Each person who calls Mooresville home, whether in a residential or a business sense, contributes another brick in our historical edifice, which grows progressively taller and more majestic.  Bicentennial Park honors all of us by showing that the light of Mooresville cannot be extinguished--not by hard times or environmental disasters--so long as we are willing to make a stand to support our community.

Downtown Mooresville's New Bicentennial Park

Mooresville's new Bicentennial Park is now substantially completed and open to the public.  The park is downtown on the northeast corner of Main and Indiana Streets, where Samuel Moore's general store was situated (built in 1824), and where the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) buildings were located (the first was built in 1869, replacing Moore's wood-frame/brick structure; the second in 1881).  The I.O.O.F. capstone (dated 1859) has been incorporated into the new park (see photo below).  (As always, click the images to enlarge them.)  The capstone commemorated the founding of I.O.O.F. Morgan Lodge #211 in 1859, NOT the date the first building was constructed, but the capstone was incorporated into the structure in 1869 when the first building was erected.

The park's sculpture reminds us of the flames atop the torch shown on the Indiana State Flag.

Alongside the American and Indiana flags flying in the park is Mooresville's official town banner, designed in 1974 as part of the town's sesquicentennial celebration by Bonita Marley (1906-2002), director of Mooresville Public Library (1961-1984).

  

The state historical marker commemorating Paul Hadley and the Indiana State Flag was relocated a few feet north of its original location.

 

Landscaping and final touches will be completed in Spring 2018, according to an article in the Mooresville-Decatur Times, Saturday, December 2, 2017, pages A1-A6.

New street lights, brick sidewalks, and signage surround downtown on Main and Indiana Streets, as can be seen in the photos above and below.