2024 UPDATE: Here's another video commemorating Mooresville's bicentennial.
Mooresville Moments 30, by Mooresville Public Library
Mooresville, Indiana Bicentennial (1824-2024)
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);
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)
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
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
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").
March is Women's History Month, so we are featuring relevant books (as well as audiobooks and movies) on our display "rounder" in the library's grand hall, across from the circulation and adult information desks. Any of the items displayed may be checked-out using your Evergreen Indiana library card.
Here are a few photos from last Friday's (June 3, 2016) book signing with Sammy L. Davis, Mooresville High School graduate (class of 1966) and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Click the images to enlarge.
Dixie Davis & Sammy L. Davis
L to R: Dixie Davis, Susan Haynes, David Reddick, Diane Huerkamp, and Sammy L. Davis
Dixie and Sammy Davis have each written books that are available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog. Click here and here.
In the photo above, Susan Haynes is the communications director for Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation, which hosted Sammy Davis' speech last Friday evening at his alma mater, Mooresville High School. David Reddick is Morgan County bicentennial celebration chairperson, and Diane Huerkamp is MPL executive director.
Looking for Indiana authors to read? The Indiana Center for the Book has created a Literary Map of 200 Hoosier writers for the state’s bicentennial. It’s a great resource for book clubs or teachers.
Long-time residents may well remember June 19, 1985, when President Ronald Reagan visited Mooresville, Indiana. The Mooresville Chamber of Commerce published a commemorative book about the event, which we have digitized and you may read online. Just click the following link below:
President Reagan’s Visit (June 19, 1985): A Commemorative Remembrance (1985). Mooresville, IN: Chamber of Commerce, Mooresville, Indiana.
