Showing posts with label moore. Show all posts

Friday, February 10, 2023

Mooresville Bicentennial Promo Trailer

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);

Complete PDF

and

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

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

A Century of Shoe Repair in Mooresville

For nearly a century, downtown Mooresville had a shoe repair shop at 13 North Indiana Street (then, later, at 25 West Main Street), beginning in the early 1900s. In 1941, Ernie Marsh sold the business to John and Jennie Moore, who operated until 1948, when they sold to Leland and Orda Connell. In 1972, the Connells sold to Ralph Reed, which opened as Dickey’s Shoe Repair (Joseph Dickey, manager) in January 1973. In January, 1979, former Mooresville Times co-publisher John Anderson bought the shop from Dickey. John and Shirley Anderson operated as S & J Boot Shop, moving to 25 West Main Street in 1982. The Andersons (along with daughter Carol) retired in December 1998, closing a century of local shoe repair.

The photo above (ca. 1910) shows the I.O.O.F. (Odd Fellows) Building on the northeast corner of Main and Indiana Streets in downtown Mooresville. Pleas (Pleasant) Mills operated his dry good store on the first floor, but if you went to the left (out of shot) beyond the "selz shoes" sign, you would have seen the shoe repair shop at 13 North Indiana Street.

The following newspaper clippings were used to compile the brief history (above). Click on the images to enlarge them.

SOURCES:

Hillenburg, Amy, “S&J Boot Has Retirement Sale,” Mooresville-Decatur Times, December 2, 1998

Undated Photo (probably circa 1985), S & J Boot Shop at 25 West Main Street.

“Getting the Boot,” Indianapolis News, November 18, 1985.

“S & J Boot Shop Doing Shoe Prescriptions From Doctors,” Mooresville Times, April 4, 1984.

“Boot Shop To Move Soon,” Mooresville Times, 1982.

“Johnie Anderson Retires From Times, Purchases Shoe Shop,” Mooresville Times, February 22, 1979.

“Dickey’s Shoe Repair Advertisement,” Mooresville Times, January 4, 1973.

“Appreciation Advertisement,” Mooresville Times, April 13, 1972.

“Shoe Repair Shop Here Over 50 Years,” Mooresville Times, April 8, 1965.

Thursday, April 9, 2020

A Message "From" Samuel Moore (1799-1889) to the Citizens of Mooresville, Indiana (April 9, 2020)

After a tornado devastated downtown Mooresville, Indiana on April 8, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, Mooresville Public Library prepared this message of hope and encouragement "from" Samuel Moore (1799-1889), town founder.

Click Above to Play Video

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Founder Stone Back Where It Belongs

Sometime in late December, 2019, Mooresville's "Founder Stone" was returned to its rightful place on the northeast corner of Indiana and Main Streets downtown. The stone had stood at this location from its placement in 1924 until 2017.

Mooresville-Decatur Times
Tuesday, December 31, 2019, page A1
Click Image Above to Enlarge, or
Click Here to See PDF

The Founder Stone was removed in 2017 during construction of Mooresville's Bicentennial Park, which had been the site of Paul Hadley Memorial Park, and, before that, of the I.O.O.F. building, and, before that, of town founder Samuel Moore's general store, built in 1824. The Founder Stone was stored in the Mooresville Street Department's facilities until January, 2018, when it was relocated further northeast on what had once been Samuel Moore's residential lot, but was (in 2018) part of the northeast corner of Bicentennial Park, next to Citizens Bank's parking lot.

The Founder Stone's original (and, now restored) position is historically more appropriate, since it commemorates Samuel Moore's general store, the first wood-frame structure in Mooresville. The building survived the Great Fire of 1842, which destroyed all of Mooresville except Samuel Moore's home and business, and the structure was replaced in 1869 by the first I.O.O.F. brick-and-masonry building. The stone once again sits in front of what once had been Samuel Moore's foundational business in the heart of town.

If you have not visited Bicentennial Park and seen the Founder Stone, drop by one day when the weather is nice. You will be standing at the very root of Mooresville's history.

Friday, May 17, 2019

Mooresville's Great Fire of 1842 (Mooresville Moments #16)

Learn about the Great Fire of 1842 that consumed nearly all of Mooresville, Indiana, and the amazing acts of generosity that assured the town's resurrection.

Mooresville's Great Fire of 1842

(Mooresville Moments #16)

by Mooresville Public Library

The fire occurred on Tuesday night, November 22, 1842. According to the New York Tribune, the blaze began in the home of James G. Slocum, in which an unidentified woman and three unidentified children were sleeping, and all four tragically died in the inferno. Slocum was apparently away at the time.

The New York Tribune, Friday, December 16, 1842, page 2

(Click images to enlarge)

The New York Tribune article was repeated verbatim in several newspapers, including the following:

The Schenectady (N.Y.) Cabinet, Tuesday, December 20, 1842, page 2

The Boston (MA) Trumpet and Universalist Magazine, Saturday, December 24, 1842, page 3

The Montpelier (VT) Watchman, Friday, December 23, 1842, page 3

The New York Spectator, Wednesday, December 28, 1842, page 46

The identification of Slocum's residence as the start of the conflagration is an amazingly precise detail for a New York City newspaper to relate about a small Indiana village, especially when one considers the following:

Mooresville historian Clara S. Richardson stated that the 1842 fire was "of unknown origin," and she does not mention the Slocums nor any deaths from the fire (page 24 of A Brief History of Mooresville, Indiana, 1824-1974. [1974]. Mooresville, IN: Dickinson Publishing Company--available online here);

No one named Slocum (or with variant spellings, such as Slocumb or Slocom) is buried in any cemeteries in Morgan County, Indiana;

No one named Slocum (or with variant spellings, such as Slocumb or Slocom) was listed as living in Mooresville or Morgan County, Indiana, in the 1840 Federal Census, although a James Slocumb was shown to reside in Monroe County, Indiana in the 1840 and 1850 Federal Censuses and was extensively discussed (spelled as both Slocumb and Slocum) in Charles Blanchard's 1884 historical and biographical sketches of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown Counties (available online here).

No one named Slocum (or with variant spellings, such as Slocumb or Slocom) was mentioned in Almira Harvey Hadley's A Brief History of Mooresville and Vicinity (1918) (available online here) or in Margaret W. Fogleman's Early Mooresville (1884) (available online here) or in John Matthews' Ye Early Pioneers (1875) (available online here) or in The Pioneers of Morgan County: Memoirs of Noah J. Major (1915) (available to checkout from Mooresville Public Library).

So, did the 1842 fire start in James Slocum's home and kill four people? There is no local evidence to support the New York Tribune's claim, but it can't be completely ruled out. The deceased woman and children could have had a different surname (or surnames) than Slocum, and they might have been visiting from another community (to which their remains could have been returned and interred). Thus, looking for Slocums in the county cemeteries or federal censuses would not have identified the fire victims, if they were not named Slocum or came from out-of-town. Nonetheless, the absence of James G. Slocum from the local historical record and U.S. censuses weighs against the Tribune's account, as does the paper's failure to identify the victims.

Let's quote from Clara Richardson's Mooresville history:

"In 1842 a fire of unknown origin hit Mooresville. Before the fire, there were eleven stores and houses in this wooded area; next morning only the Moore Store and house were left. Trees were cut, burned, houses and shops were deliberately torn apart to try to check the blaze on both sides of the street. Work to construct new homes and stores started immediately, so the story goes." (Page 24 of A Brief History of Mooresville, Indiana, 1824-1974. [1974]. Mooresville, IN: Dickinson Publishing Company--available online here).

Quoting from Margaret W. Fogleman's Early Mooresville:

"About 1842 Mooresville was visited by the greatest fire it has ever known. Beginning with Pa's [Samuel Moore's] store there were ten houses and shops before the fire. Next morning there was Pa's store and our house left. The Dr's [doctor's] shop at the west and a dwelling house at the east were torn down to check the fire." (Early Mooresville [1884] [available online here]). Margaret Fogleman was the daughter of town founder Samuel Moore (and his wife, Eliza Moore).

I'm inclined to give the local sources greater credence than the New York Tribune's account. Perhaps Horace Greeley's reporters enlivened the tale to make for more interesting reading. Clearly, the eastern newspapers that reprinted the story didn't check the facts further.

During December 1842 news of the Mooresville catastrophe was related in several papers across the United States as well as one in England (click images below to enlarge).

The Bristol (England) Mercury & Daily Post, Saturday, 31 December 1842, page 4

The Philadelphia (PA) Saturday Courier, December 17, 1842, page 3,

reprinting the Iowa mistake from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (see below)

The Brooklyn (N.Y.) Daily Eagle, Monday, December 12, 1842, page 2,

which incorrectly placed Mooresville in Iowa

The Charleston (S.C.) Mercury, Tuesday, December 13, 1842, page 2,

reprinting the Iowa mistake from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (see above)

The New York Tribune, Thursday, December 15, 1842, page 1

The Niles National Register, St. Louis, Missouri, Saturday, December 17, 1842, page 16

Some of the accounts quoted the original story that appeared in the Indiana State Sentinel, November 29, 1842, without adjusting for the time delay in printing. For instance, the New York Tribune on December 15, 1842, incorrectly stated that the fire took place "Tuesday night of last week," which would have been December 6, two weeks after it happened. This mistake was repeated in the Charleston (S.C.) Mercury, The Philadelphia (PA) Saturday Courier, and the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Daily Eagle. The Niles National Register was only a week off (reporting November 29 as the fire date, when it was actually the Tuesday before, November 22).

Indiana State Sentinel, November 29, 1842

The fire consumed nearly all of the town, sparing only Samuel Moore's general store and residence on the northeast corner of Main and Indiana Streets in downtown Mooresville. Moore supplied lumber and labor free-of-charge to help citizens rebuild their homes and businesses.

Monday, December 3, 2018