How the Past Inspires Us (High School Edition)

Being a local historian (sort of) at Mooresville Public Library, I am often asked to unlock one of our glass storage cabinets to allow patrons to peruse yearbooks from Mooresville High School.  We began digitizing these yearbooks a couple of months ago (thanks to OCI Digital Imaging Service), and some are now available to view online (see this blog post).  Even when we have completed the project, I anticipate that patrons will still visit the MPL Indiana Room to request the bound paper versions of these yearbooks.  I hope so.  Holding the past in your hands can be thrilling.

From 1946 onward, the MHS yearbook has been called Wagon Trails, in line with the school's nickname (Pioneers).  One day I happened to be looking through the 1976 edition of Wagon Trails (from the year my wife graduated from MHS) and stumbled across the speech team (pages 98-99).  I was a member of a speech and debate team when I attended a different high school (also graduating in 1976), so I stopped for a quick look.  I discovered something inspiring.

 From Wagon Trails, page 99

Mooresville High School Yearbook

(Click Images to Enlarge)

  

This was meaningful to me because I attended the same state speech tournament as Greg 45 years ago around this time (Saturday, March 20, 1976, if memory serves), in my case representing another school (Lafayette-Jefferson).  I never met him, but his performance is inspirational for someone interested in high school public speaking competitions.  To reach the IHSFA (Indiana High School Forensic Association) state speech tourney, Greg would have had to have placed among the top five in his speaking event in the super-tough west Indianapolis regional meet, which included powerful Ben Davis High School, the largest high school speech team in Indiana at the time.

I don't know in which speaking category Greg participated--maybe it was Radio, or perhaps Boy's Extemporaneous (my event), Impromptu, Dramatic Interpretation, Original Oratory (I really have no idea--just guessing)--but reaching state finals was no easy chore.  It took an enormous amount of practicing and competing in weekly tournaments at high schools across the state to prepare for the "big game."

Here's where Greg's example could be inspiring.  If I were an MHS student participating in speech contests today, knowing that a previous alumnus had excelled--especially if I were competing in the same event(s) as that alumnus--could encourage me to work a little extra.  Maybe I, too, could make it to state finals, like Greg did.

As it happens, when I attended Lafayette-Jefferson, I was deeply inspired by my predecessors who won state championships or NFL (National Forensic League) district tournaments to qualify for the NFL National Tournament.  Legendary speech and debate coach James F. Hawker--my coach--had had dozens of students win top state and district honors and attend Nationals.  His two national speech team championships (1964-1965) and eight consecutive  years of state speech team championships (1958-1965) was an amazing run.  (Imagine your high school basketball team winning the state tourney eight years running.)  I studied what my predecessors had accomplished, knew all their names and dates of participation, and idolized their achievements.  Perhaps I, too, could be among them?  Well, at least that was the dream.

So I practiced every day after school throughout my time at Lafayette-Jeff, inspired by past glories.  I didn't have to look to the past only--many of my teammates became state and district champions and attended Nationals, my older brother Alfred among them--so inspiration was close at hand.  But it was the "old" former students from the "glory days" who most captured my imagination.

Of course, inspirations from the past can come from many different aspects of life, not just high school contests.  But the high school example is poignant.  Don't we all remember watching our school's sports teams play?  Haven't we all walked past high school trophy cases filled to the brim with past fulfillments?  Does your high school have its "wall of fame" with the names of honored past performers?  For those of us involved in non-athletic extracurricular activities, we followed the achievements of our schools' bands, orchestras, choirs--even our newspapers, yearbooks, art clubs, and business teams (DECA and ICT, although I can't now remember what the acronyms stood for--distributive education?)--as they competed with students from other Hoosier schools.  Americans love achievements--especially championships--so there was lots of inspiration available.  Our classmates (and particularly those who came before) accomplished great things.  Maybe we could, too.

Drop by the MPL Indiana Room and look in our glass display cases at Mooresville High School's state finalist girls' basketball team from 1978, or its regional champion boys' basketball team from 1944.  (The boys won regionals in 1977, too, but there's only so much room in our display cases.  Sorry.)  As you look at their faces, can you feel their excitement?  Those are just two examples of many others available to see in MHS yearbooks.   And that's just one sport among many.  Then there are the non-athletic groups.  What about the MHS orchestra's state championship in 2011?  If you're interested in something, those who preceded you can inspire you to greatness.

The past can encourage the future.  It worked for Greg Haught.  Greg's example (and countless others) can work for today's students, whose achievements may spur tomorrow's youngsters.

Martinsville Reporter

Friday, June 4, 1976, page 3

 

(I was a political science major at Indiana University-Bloomington at the same time Greg was.  Small world, although not small enough--I never met him down there, either.  But the example is worth noting--winning scholarships is no easy feat.  Take note, all you kids out there.  That extra hard work will pay off.)

Digitized Mooresville (Indiana) High School Yearbooks

Click the links below to see digitized vintage Mooresville High School (MHS) yearbooks, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons:

• 1909 Senior Annual
• 1911 ‘Levenite
• 1914 The Argos
• 1917 The ’17 Packet
• 1920 The Cauldron
• 1923 White Lick Review
• 1925 White Lick Review
• 1930 Arch Wisdom

The Wikimedia scans are of the images that appear in the yearbooks, with original text from the yearbooks extracted from the original scans and typed out (like ordinary text) for easier reading.

These yearbooks were also digitally scanned (showing the entire pages as they originally appeared in print) and stored on the Mooresville High School Alumni Association Facebook page, but access might be restricted to their authorized FB group members.  You can check those links, too, to see if you can access them (click below):

MHS Alumni Association Facebook Page Links to Digitized Yearbooks:

• 1909 Senior Annual
• 1911 ‘Levenite
• 1914 The Argos
• 1917 The ’17 Packet
• 1920 The Cauldron
• 1923 White Lick Review
• 1925 White Lick Review
• 1930 Arch Wisdom

More recent digitized MHS yearbooks, called Wagon Trails, are also available (click links below), courtesy of OCI Digital Imaging Service and Mooresville Public Library.  (NOTE:  For yearbooks 1950 or later, to search for a name or word within a yearbook, you should download it and open it using Firefox, Google Chrome, Adobe Acrobat, SumatraPDF, or another PDF reader software; then use the “find” search function to look for the desired name or word, and it should take you to the place(s) in the yearbook where those terms are found.)

 

Click here to see the digitized yearbooks on the Mooresville Public Library website.

Mooresville High School Gymnasium Dedication (1920)

Mooresville High School's gymnasium was dedicated 100 years ago today (on December 31, 1920), when the MHS boys basketball team played against Center Grove, and the Monrovia girls basketball team played against Center Grove.

Learn more about the century-old gymnasium from this superb handout by Susan Haynes, communications director for the Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation.  We have another blog post that explains where MHS basketball games were played before the gymnasium was built.

Martinsville Daily Reporter, Friday, December 31, 1920, page 4

Click the image below to read an article about the gymnasium in the Indianapolis News, January 1, 1921, page 13.

Click (Above) to Enlarge

In the Painter's Shoes (Paul Hadley Paintings), Part Two

We continue with our exploration of probable locations for watercolors painted by long-time Mooresville, Indiana resident Paul Hadley, designer of the Indiana State Flag.

As we previously blogged, an anonymous patron loaned several Paul Hadley paintings to the library, which are now on display.  Exactly where were these paintings made?  That takes a bit of exploring, both on the Internet and closer to home.

Margaret Colee's Pump House by Paul Hadley
(Click Images to Enlarge)

Hadley showed this painting at the 1939 Indiana State Fair, so it was probably painted around this time [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): 20-29].

Hadley's biographer, long-time Morgan County (Indiana) Historian Becky Hardin, detailed the history surrounding this painting:

• "Although Paul Hadley never duplicated a painting, he often painted in the same location under different conditions of light and atmosphere. This picture of Margaret Colee's pump house depicts a gray cabin, pink peach tree, and a bright blue sky.  Like most of his paintings it does not show a figure of animal or human being, but the tub, rainwater barrel, and copper bucket are necessary equipment for 'woman's work.' Owen (Tudy) Prescott, grandson of Mrs. Colee, says she hung milk and butter down in the well to keep [them] cool, and he thinks one of her uncles may have stored his 'home brew' there to keep it cool.  (Mooresville was a local option town before prohibition.) Prescott saw this picture in Lieber's window and tried to buy it but it was the property of Dr. Norris who moved to [the] Mooresville community to retire.  He had gone to Spain and lived with a family there to learn how to make frames and framed this one.  When Dr. Norris died his niece, Mrs. McMillin, gave the painting to the Prescotts.  He [Hadley] did a[nother] painting of this pump house with a gray sky which was purchased by John Herron Art Museum in October 1939 for its permanent collection."  [Hardin, Becky (1976). The Indiana State Flag, Its Designer (Biography of Paul Hadley with Anthology of his Paintings), p. 37. Mooresville, Indiana : B. Hardin.]

Grave Marker of Margaret Elizabeth Colee

Mooresville (Indiana) Cemetery

(Photo courtesy of Find-a-Grave)

(Note Death Year Discrepancy)

Margaret Elizabeth Colee (née Spoon) (1859-1951) is buried in section 7 of Mooresville Cemetery, but her grave marker lists her year of death as 1952. However, mortuary records from Harvey Funeral Home, which operated on South Indiana Street in Mooresville (and handled Colee's funeral arrangements), clearly state that Colee died of bronchial pneumonia on March 21, 1951, at the home of her son, O. W. Colee, in Terre Haute, Indiana, and that her services were held at Harvey Funeral Home on March 23, 1951.  This is confirmed by the newspaper obituary from the Mooresville Times, March 22, 1951 (front page).

Margaret Colee's Obituary

Mooresville Times, March 22, 1951, p. 1, col. 3

Front Page of the Mooresville Times, March 22, 1951

(Colee obituary is in column three near the bottom)

Enlarged Masthead of the Mooresville Times,

March 22, 1951

But let's return to the question of location:  Where did Margaret Colee live when Hadley painted her pump house?  According to the 1940 U.S. Census, Margaret Colee rented an unnumbered house on East High Street in Mooresville.  The 1940 Mooresville City Directory confirms this, indicating that she was a "housekeeper" by occupation.  She had lived there for many years.  Upon closer inspection, the 1940 Census stated that her house was situated between 204 and 222 East High Street.

Excerpt from the 1940 U.S. Census for

Mooresville, Morgan County, Indiana

Listing Margaret E. Colee living between

204 and 222 East High Street

The house no longer stands, but we can confirm its location by comparing existing structures' addresses.

 Westerly view from 222 (parking lot) to 218 East High Street

(red brick house), Mooresville, Indiana (March, 2016)

 Easterly view from what would have been

204 (tan building) to 218 East High Street

(red brick house), Mooresville, Indiana (March, 2016)

 From left to right:  (1) what would have been approximately

204 (tan building); (2) 218 (red brick house); and

(3) 222 East High Street (Edward Jones building),

Mooresville, Indiana (March, 2016)

Edward Jones Building

222 East High Street

Mooresville, Indiana

 (March, 2016)

Margaret Colee's house was probably to the right of the red brick house at 218 East High Street, approximately where the white garage now stands.  The pump house Hadley painted would have been located at the back of the lot.

Hadley was most helpful when he named this painting using the resident's name. Margaret Colee rented a house there for decades, and so it was fairly easy to locate in the historical record.

Next time, we'll search for another location from a Paul Hadley painting, which will take us about one block south of Margaret Colee's home to the house of Matthew Comer.

Digitized Mooresville High School Vintage Yearbooks

Thanks to the Mooresville High School Alumni Association, we now have digitized copies of vintage Mooresville High School (MHS) yearbooks available online. Click the image below to visit our local history links page to find links to the yearbooks.

MHS Digitized Yearbooks Available Online

If your family hails from around these parts, maybe you'll see your great-grandparents (or other relatives) in these photos.

Early MHS yearbooks were not called Wagon Trails, as they have been known since 1946. Titles included Senior Annual (1909), 'Levenite (1911), The Argos (1914), The '17 Packet (1917), The Cauldron (1920), White Lick Review (1923, 1925), and Arch Wisdom (1930).

Many thanks to the MHS Alumni Association for preserving these invaluable historical resources.