Simon Moon's Cabin (Following Paul Hadley's Footsteps)

In July and August, 2014 my little band of local history explorers embarked upon another adventure following in the footsteps of Paul Hadley (1880-1971), designer of the Indiana State Flag, artist, teacher, curator, and longtime Mooresville, Indiana resident.  It was really hot, humid, and, periodically, raining.  That slowed us a bit but didn't stop us.

At either Hadley's 1931 or 1924 art exhibitions at Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, at which he taught during the period, Hadley's watercolor, "Simon Moon's Cabin," was displayed.  It was donated to Mooresville Public Library, where it hangs today in its Paul Hadley gallery.

"Simon Moon's Cabin," by Paul Hadley

(click photos to enlarge)

Here's a clearer image of the painting (borrowed from page 28 of this magazine article: Perry, Rachel Berenson. "Paul Hadley: Artist and Designer of the Indiana Flag." Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History 15(1) [Indiana Historical Society, Winter 2003]), pp. 20-29 (click here to find links to the full article.)

(Image courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society)

Since Hadley did not drive motor vehicles, his friends drove him around to various places where he could paint landscapes and structures.  Carl Harris, whose estate donated this (and another) Hadley painting to MPL, was one of Hadley's neighborly "chauffeurs."

Simon Moon (1786-1879) was a Quaker (Society of Friends) who, during the 1830's, settled land in Morgan County, Indiana (first in Gregg Township, then in Brown Township). He lived near Long Ridge, a few miles southwest of Mooresville.  "Our" Simon Moon (call him the "Bethel" Simon Moon) is often mistaken for a relative, also named Simon Moon (1784-1835), who, on May 6, 1834, founded the town (now city) of Westfield, Indiana (in Hamilton County, north of Indianapolis), along with fellow Friends Asa Bales (Mooresville's first postmaster in 1826) and Ambrose Osborne.  All had relocated to Indiana from North Carolina.  We know that the "Westfield" Simon Moon was married to Hannah (Stout) Moon (1789-1844), and both are buried in the Old Friends Cemetery Park in Westfield, while the "Bethel" Simon Moon and his wife, Lydia Moon, are both buried in the Bethel Friends cemetery (see grave markers below).  This has confused historians for many years, since the "Westfield" Simon Moon had once lived with Asa Bales in Mooresville before moving to Hamilton County.

 

The "Bethel" Simon Moon's fourth great-grandson, Richard L. Moon, has written a short book explaining the differences between him (i.e., the "Bethel" Simon Moon) and the "Westfield" Simon Moon.  Richard's book presents the evidence persuasively and compellingly, showing land ownership, deeds, maps, Friends meeting records, family trees, and other documentation that clearly indicate two separate individuals who happened to share the same name.

Inset showing "S. Moon's" land immediately

west of the Bethel Friends church

(from W.W. Richie's 1875 Map of Morgan County, Indiana)

(courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Simon Moon's cabin sat atop a hill immediately west of the Bethel Friends Meeting, founded in 1842.  The church and cemetery are still located there. Simon Moon, along with his wife, Lydia Harvey Moon (1798-1878), daughter Elmima Moon Lindley (1827-1859), and other family (daughter-in-law, grandchild), are buried in the back row of Bethel Cemetery. Most of the Moon's children, however, are buried in other Morgan County cemeteries.  Simon and Lydia share the same grave stone.

 Bethel Friends Meeting & Cemetery

(a few miles southwest of Mooresville)

Greenwood Public Library's Technical Services Director, Janet Buckley,

and "Flat" Cauli Le Chat posing at Bethel Friends Meeting

Simon Moon's grave marker (August, 2014)
on the back of Lydia Moon's grave stone

Close-up of Lydia Moon's grave marker (July 2014)
(Simon's is on the other side)

The Moon burial plots sit along an ancient fence row at the back of the cemetery, all hidden beneath weeds and brush, and we were unable to reach all of them.

Elmima Moon Lindley's grave marker (July 2014)

But let's get back to Paul Hadley's painting of Simon Moon's cabin. Looking west of the church beyond the old section of the cemetery, which rests behind the building, there stands heavy underbrush and woods.  From this vantage you can't really see the hill upon which Simon Moon's cabin once stood.

Looking west toward the Bethel Friends Meeting & Cemetery

(note heavy brush & woods behind)

Here's where Richie's 1875 map really helps us orient the Moon land and cabin, which is clearly marked almost due west of the Bethel Friends church.

Cabin location indicated on Simon Moon's land

(red line orients cabin with Bethel Friends church)

(note crook in road as shown in Hadley's painting)

(from W.W. Richie's 1875 Map of Morgan County, Indiana)

(courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Modern aerial photos place the cabin along North Bunker Hill Road.  The street view from 2013 shows the hill upon which Simon Moon's cabin once stood, although Paul Hadley was standing further away (and downhill) when he painted his watercolor.

Aerial view orienting Simon Moon's cabin

with the Bethel Friends Meeting

(image courtesy of Google Maps, 2016)

 Close-up of aerial view (above)
(image courtesy of Google Maps, 2016)

Location of Simon Moon's cabin
(photo by Steve Saucerman, March, 2016)
(note slight swale in front of hill, as shown
in Paul Hadley's painting)

Google street view from N. Bunker Hill Road

(looking South) also shows knoll

upon which Simon Moon's cabin once stood

(courtesy of Google Maps, Sept. 2013)

Paul Hadley's painting (again)

Simon Moon's cabin was torn down well over half a century ago.  In her history of the Bethel Friends Meeting (1958), Dela Lindley stated:

• "Simon Moon was one of the outstanding Quakers in his day, being a farmer, tanner, shoe cobbler, herb doctor, and was believed by some to be a conductor for the 'Underground Railroad.'"

"When the cabin was destroyed," wrote longtime Morgan County historian Becky Hardin, "Mrs. Lindley said there were two closed spaces [that] were discovered on either side of the fireplace large enough to hold two people. The only entrance was from the attic.  It is thought this may have been a place to hide runaway slaves, or as they were described, at that time, 'Men of Color.'"  [Hardin, Becky, The Indiana State Flag: Its Designer (Biography of Paul Hadley with Anthology of his Paintings), p. 15 (1976). Click here to find links to read a digital copy of this fine biography.]

When you're next visiting the Library, take a look at this and all of the other Paul Hadley paintings.  History in watercolor.

2016 Update:  Many thanks to MPL trustee Steve Saucerman for determining the location of Simon Moon's cabin based upon a comparative analysis of modern topographical maps and Richie's 1875 map.  Here's a photo of Steve on the MPL Carnegie Library's last day (January 1988).

Steve Saucerman (left) checked out items on MPL Carnegie's last day

(January, 1988), assisted by MPL Director Pat Vahey (middle)

and MPL Staffer Theresa Lucas (right)

Rev. Dr. Frank Claude Huston (Mooresville Moments #8)

Meet Rev. Dr. Frank Claude Huston, world-renowned composer and singer, who served as pastor of Mooresville First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) from 1934 to 1937.

Click (Above) to Play Video

We also have a digitized handout about Dr. Huston, as well as a slideshow and an entry on our "Famous Mooresvillians" web page.  Learn more about the First Christian Church from this historical "flashcard," as well as the church's published history, available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog.

Burial Map to Mooresville's Old M.E. Cemetery

Thanks to Mooresville sexton Ed Bucker, the Indiana Room at Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library has a burial map for the Old Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Cemetery on West Washington Street. A spreadsheet accompanying the map lists burial plots of many of the town's earliest pioneers and settlers.  (Click the photos below to enlarge.)

Old Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Cemetery,

also known as Old Mooresville Cemetery,

on West Washington Street 

Old M.E. Cemetery was established in 1829

Painting of the first Mooresville M.E. Church (built in 1839)

(on West Washington Street, in front of the cemetery)

Photograph of the first Mooresville M.E. Church

(from Hadley, Almira Harvey.  A Brief History of Mooresville and Vicinity [1918])

(Click here to see a digital copy of the entire book)

The photos below show where to find the cemetery burial map.  To the left of the map (in a yellow binder) is the spreadsheet listing the names of those buried there, as noted on the map.

Although these materials do not circulate, they may be examined in the library's Indiana Room.

There are several online resources available to search burial records of the Old M.E. Cemetery.  These include:

• The Morgan County History & Genealogy Association website; and
• The Find-a-Grave website.

The MCH&GA website also lists other Morgan County cemetery burial records, among other historical and genealogical information.

Besides the Bucker burial map mentioned above, the MPL Indiana Room has several print materials that list burials in Old M.E. Cemetery.  These include:

• Cemetery records compiled by the Mooresville, Indiana White Lick Chapter of the D.A.R. (Mrs. Olin D. Keith and Mr. and Mrs. Carl C. Cowen, compilers) (click here for a library catalog entry--library call number I REF 929.5 DAR).  Other Morgan County cemetery records may be found in these reference books and related materials, all under the library call number I REF 929.5;
• Local History vertical files (under specific cemetery names).  These files are kept in locked drawers in the MPL Indiana Room.  Please ask library staff for assistance.

A digitized library handout provides these details about the Old M.E. Cemetery:

• "Samuel and Eliza Moore donated the land on West Washington Street for use as a cemetery, now known as 'Old Cemetery,' and to serve as the site of the first M.E. Church (built in 1839). Martha J. Worthington, Eliza Moore’s first cousin, became the first person buried in Old Cemetery in Mooresville. She died at age 21 on May 15, 1829."

The source for the above-quoted paragraph was page 76 of A Brief History of Mooresville, Indiana, 1824-1974, by Clara S. Richardson (1974).  Read a digitized copy of the entire book here.  The relevant page is reprinted below (click image to enlarge).

Page 76 of Clara Richardson's book

Besides these materials, there are some other online discussions about the Old M.E. Cemetery, both from this blog (click here and here and here) and the library's digitized handouts (click here).

Visit the MPL Indiana Room for more local history resources, or click here to find a quick summary of online links available.  The MPL website also has a variety of web pages devoted to local history.