Ghostly Hoosier Haunts (Video Series)

 

If you like real ghost stories and paranormal phenomena, watch our new video series, "Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, by Cauli Le Chat" now showing on the MPL YouTube Channel.  Learn more from our brochure.

Here are the videos uploaded so far:

Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, Episode One

Shelf Doll

(Click Above to Play)

 

Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, Episode Two

Pioneer Spirit

(Click Above to Play)

 

 

Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, Episode Three

Haunting at Sycamore Lake

(Click Above to Play)

 

 Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, Episode Four

Library Haunting, Part One

(Click Above to Play)

 

 Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, Episode Five

Library Haunting, Part Two

(Click Above to Play)

 

Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, Episode Six

Library Haunting, Part Three

(Click Above to Play)

 

Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, Episode Seven

Taking a Stepp into the Unknown

(Click Above to Play)

 

James Whitcomb Riley's Mooresville Connections

James Whitcomb Riley, sign painter (ca. 1872)

(Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Public Library Riley Collection)

Although famous Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) grew up in Greenfield, Indiana, in Spring 1874 he moved to Mooresville to live with his aunt and uncle, Jim and Ann Marine, while he worked as a sign painter in a shop located at 25 South Indiana Street downtown.  The building is known as the Perce Building (for owner Dr. B. H. Perce, who had it constructed around 1865).  Our video (below), this slideshow, and this blog post, elaborate.

In addition to sign painting, Riley wrote articles and humorous quips for the local newspaper, the Mooresville Enterprise, as well as for other Morgan County newspapers.  When trade was slack, Riley would slip around the block to hang out with local photographer and Civil War veteran Jarvis P. Calvert at his art and photographer studio on East Harrison Street.

James Whitcomb Riley (ca. 1874)

(Photo possibly taken by J. P. Calvert)

(Image courtesy of James Whitcomb Riley Old Home Society)

Amos Rusie (Famous Mooresvillian)

Mooresville native Amos Wilson Rusie (1871-1942), “the Hoosier Thunderbolt,” pitched for the New York Giants between 1890-1900 and the Cincinnati Reds in 1901.  He held many major league pitching records and was considered the fastest pitcher in professional baseball. For more about Rusie, watch the videos below; read this article from Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History (1989); take a look at our “flash from your past” flashcard; or visit the MPL Indiana Room, to learn more about this all-star pitcher.

Amos Rusie N.Y. Giants Baseball Card (1890’s)

Amos Wilson Rusie:  The Hoosier Thunderbolt
(Mooresville Moments #20)
by Mooresville Public Library

Amos Rusie:  The Hoosier Thunderbolt, by Pete Cava

(MPL Program Video, April 2, 2016)

Original Indiana State Flag on Tour

As part of Indiana's bicentennial celebration, the Indiana State Banner that was originally displayed at the Indiana statehouse during the 1920s is currently on display at Mooresville Public Library.  The original flag will be "on tour" across the state throughout the rest of the celebration.

The Indiana State Banner was designed in 1916 by Mooresville's own Paul Hadley; was adopted by the Indiana General Assembly in 1917; and was renamed the Indiana State Flag in 1955.  Click here to learn the meaning of its symbols.

Click the photos below to enlarge.  The display is situated with our Paul Hadley watercolor painting collection in the grand hall, next to the elevator and the vending machine area.

This flag is shown below in a famous photograph (circa 1923) of Paul Hadley and one of his art students crafting it specifically for the Indiana statehouse to display.

(Photo and caption courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society)

(click to enlarge)

Learn more about Paul Hadley and the Indiana State Flag by visiting our Famous Mooresvillians and local history links blog posts (scroll down until you reach the Paul Hadley sections).

Indiana State Banner presentation to

U.S. Postmaster General Harry S. New,

October 11, 1924

(Image courtesy of  the Library of Congress)

See also Poletika, Nicole.  "'A Permanent Emblem of Its Own:'  The Indiana State Flag & Its Designer."   Indiana History Blog, January 11, 2017.  Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library.  (Click here to access the blog article.)

Amos Rusie Program on Video

In case you missed last Saturday's library program by baseball expert Pete Cava about Mooresville native Amos Rusie, "the Hoosier Thunderbolt," a hall of fame pitcher who played during the 1890s for the New York Giants, we've got it on video.

Amos Rusie:  The Hoosier Thunderbolt, by Pete Cava

(Saturday, April 2, 2016) (MPL Program Video)

Q & A session by Pete Cava & David Reddick

about Amos Rusie, "the Hoosier Thunderbolt"

(Saturday, April 2, 2016) (MPL Program Video)

Teresa Harris, MPL adult program coordinator & youth services librarian,

plays "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" before the Amos Rusie program

(Saturday, April 2, 2016) (MPL Program Video)

Amos Wilson Rusie:  The Hoosier Thunderbolt
(Mooresville Moments #20)
by Mooresville Public Library