Room at Roselon (Following Paul Hadley's Footsteps)

Another Paul Hadley painting on display at Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library is "Room at Roselon," donated to MPL by Helen and Claire Cook.

 

Click photos to enlarge

According to Becky Hardin (1908-1995), long-time Morgan County Historian:

• "This painting of the living room at Roselon [was] owned by Mr. and Mrs. Claire Cook.  She [Helen Cook] thinks it is one of the best he [Paul Hadley] ever did.  The deep dark wood of the recessed window, and the melodeon have unusual depth.  The ladder back chair and portrait of Lincoln are an interesting bit of Americana, and the rug was typical of pioneer days."

[Excerpted from Hardin, Becky, The Indiana State Flag: Its Designer (Biography of Paul Hadley with Anthology of his Paintings), p. 22 (1976).  Click here to find links to read a digital copy of this fine biography.]

Helen Cook was herself an artist--many of her paintings are on display at the Library, as you can see from two videos (see postscript to this blog post below)--and she taught art in the Mooresville elementary schools for many years.

Roselon sounds like one of those huge estates where rich people live.  Well, the folks who lived there were well-to-do.  If you've lived around Mooresville for as long as I have, you'd know about the Wheeler family.  We found this newspaper article from The Indianapolis Sunday Star, December 6, 1931, on the Internet (click images to enlarge):

Check out the right side of that picture (above) and compare it to Hadley's painting.  Same room!

Here's the rest of the article, which we divided into three images so you could see the print (read the left column all the way down, then return to the top for the right column):

Exterior of Roselon (round inset photo)

Roselon was the country home of Alonzo L. Wheeler (1853-1939) and Rose Swain Wheeler (1869-1955).  Clearly, Roselon was named after Mrs. Wheeler.  A. L. Wheeler, as he was invariably known, owned Banner Mills on East High Street in Mooresville.

Banner Mills (built in 1868) (photo circa 1870's)

 Banner Mills (remodeled) (photo circa 1890's)

Advertisement for Banner Mills
(Mooresville Times, January 28, 1910)

The house that became Roselon was constructed in 1829-1830 by James Lindley and a mason, Samuel Harriman (or Harrison).  The Wheelers bought the property in 1900. The land was originally purchased by Elias Hadley, who received the federal land patent on March 10, 1827. Hadley sold the land two years later (1829) to Lindley, who fired the brick for the house from a nearby clay pit.

 Elias Hadley land patent (3/10/1827)

Section 34 of Township 14 North, Range 1 East

(2nd PM Meridian), Morgan County, Indiana

[Maps from Boyd, Gregory A.  Family Maps of Morgan County, Indiana

(deluxe ed., 2010).  Norman, OK: Arphax Publishing Co.]

Where's that on a modern map?

 

Modern maps courtesy of the Morgan County

Economic Development Corporation

Time to make another road trip to see what the place looks like today.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find anywhere to safely pull off Keller Hill Road at the exact spot where Elias Hadley's/James Lindley's/the Wheeler's land was situated.  The closest we could come was Jessup Way, about a quarter mile east of the property.  Still, as the 1931 Indianapolis Sunday Star article stated, "Since no public road leads to it [Roselon], there is peace and quiet for the many nature lovers who visit it as guests of the family and there are many birds, which make it their home place."  Not wanting to trespass across anyone's land, we took photos of the nearby hills, which resemble those crossing what was once the Roselon estate.

Wooded hills north of Keller Hill Road
across from Jessup Way

Paul Hadley was a good friend of the Wheelers, particularly Clifton Wheeler (1883-1953), Alonzo & Rose's son, with whom Hadley worked at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis during the 1920's and early 1930's. Hadley considered Clifton Wheeler to be the best "Hoosier Group" artist in Indiana.  Several of Wheeler's paintings are displayed at the Library, as our videos (in the postscript, at the bottom of this blog post, below) show.

The Wheeler family also owed a "town home" on the southwest corner of the intersection of South Indiana and High Streets near downtown Mooresville, which was a few blocks from Banner Mills.

A. L. Wheeler house at 7 West High Street in Mooresville

(constructed circa 1895; renovated circa 1915)

(2009 photo)

Clifton Wheeler painted landscapes to decorate some of the walls of the family's High Street home.  We think these may still be seen there today.

A. L. and Rose Wheeler also built and owned another home at 330 Lockerbie Street (at the west end of South Street) on the western edge of Mooresville.  Here's a holiday photo they took, which, unfortunately, was undated, but was probably taken during the 1920s.

 

Let's reprise Hadley's Roselon painting, so you don't have to scroll up so far.

Roselon was a beautiful home, and Paul Hadley wonderfully captured the living room's essence, warmth, and charm.

"Not Necessarily a Tramp Studying Art"

Clifton Wheeler (1883-1953) was born in Hadley, Hendricks County, Indiana, in 1883.  While in the fourth grade, his family moved to Mooresville when his father, Alonzo L. Wheeler, purchased the Banner Flour Mill on East High Street (at the railroad tracks, where the car wash is located today).  The Wheeler family lived in the house on the southwest corner of the intersection of Indiana and High Streets.

 

Clifton Wheeler (Photo Courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society)

 

 

Rose and Alonzo L. Wheeler when they lived on Lockerbie Street in Mooresville

 

Banner Mills on East High Street, Mooresville (Built in 1868)

 

Wheeler House, 7 West High Street, Mooresville, Indiana

(Built 1895; Renovated 1915) (2008 Photo)

Banner Mills Advertisement (Mooresville Times, January 28, 1910)

 

In a letter (1945) to the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette (Indiana), Clifton Wheeler wrote, “When I finished high school I was reluctantly allowed to come to Indianapolis to William Forsyth’s studio for a year. Forsyth and my doctor aunt, who lived in New York, assured my parents that I would not necessarily be a tramp if I studied art and at last they sadly agreed that I might go to New York for a year to art school.”

The ArtSmart Indiana website states, “Wheeler had studied under Forsyth at the Herron Art Institute. He then studied with William Merritt Chase in New York City and went to Europe twice to study. Around 1911 he returned to Indiana with his wife, and they built a home and studio in Irvington, an eastside Indianapolis neighborhood where Forsyth and other artists also lived. He became an instructor at the Herron Art Institute, in charge of the antique class. . . .  Wheeler had no special technique or subject, but his decorative work was well known, and he had murals all over the country. His murals at the Indianapolis Circle Theatre and City Hospital ([later] Wishard) are among his best work. His landscape paintings—especially his snow scenes—are held in high regard.”

 

Self-Portrait (Undated) by Clifton Wheeler

The Road Through the Woods (1924) by Clifton Wheeler

 

Paul Hadley, another Mooresville artist who also taught at Herron Art Institute, considered Clifton Wheeler to be the best of the Hoosier Group school of artists.

To see more Clifton Wheeler paintings and drawings, visit the ArtSmart Indiana website or see these search results.