The Historical Journey Never Ends

Indiana Room at Mooresville Public Library

Just Before the Dedication of the New Addition

(January 26, 2006)

(Last updated:  January 9, 2025).

In March, 2010, during a meeting at Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library, one of my colleagues, Suzanne Walker, who was then the library's youth services director, was discussing a social media initiative with the library's executive director, Diane Huerkamp, and me.  The library had already launched its YouTube channel; we could add Facebook, Twitter, and something called "Blogger," whatever that was, which featured "blogs," whatever they were.  Suzanne envisioned expanding the library's "global footprint" through its use of social media.  We could disseminate our messages far and wide to many more people than merely those who entered through the library's doors.

Suzanne already used Blogger to recommend children's and teen books to read and, along with other staff, was about to create new blogs focusing upon the library's youth services programs.  Blogs could also be used for adult services content.  She suggested I write a blog about the history of Mooresville, Indiana.

Would people read a local history blog, I wondered?  With an Internet already overloaded with trivial, over-personalized content, could an audience be attracted discussing the past of a town with fewer than 15,000 residents?  I doubted it, but I was game to try.

So, on April 3, 2010, I "published" my first "post" to this "blog."  Re-reading it now, the tone reminds me of a standup comic whose tired old material is bombing but who doesn't want to surrender the stage in humiliating defeat.  Of course, I was just starting this journey, so I didn't know exactly where I was going or how I planned to get there.  Maybe I should cut my former self some slack.

Thirteen years later, I've reached the end of my library career.  I've written a few hundred blog posts here, as well as over a thousand elsewhere (on four other blogs, two of which are long gone from the web, but two of which are still around here and here).  As of January, 2025, I've reached over 400,000 views with this local history blog; I reached another million views on my other blogs, and over 2.77 million views on the library's YouTube channel.  Suzanne's social media initiative was a success beyond our wildest expectations.

As my retirement date approaches (May 6, 2023), I look back fondly upon the historical tales we've shared here.  Looking back is what historians do; since I've been portraying one at the library for the past 16 years, I wanted to stay in character until my last day, when I will close the library's Indiana Room (and, as manager-in-charge, the library) for what will be my final time.

This blog will remain online until such time as Google (or whoever will control the Blogger site) decides otherwise.  Links to PDFs will remain active until Mooresville Public Library updates to new website servers.  This blog has been a rewarding experience that, with any luck, was somewhat informative and, perhaps, mildly entertaining.  I'm grateful for the support I've received from the library board and the library's executive director (Diane Huerkamp, who retired at the end of December, 2024).  Not many employers would have tolerated my spending endless hours turning out this tripe.  They always had encouraging words for my efforts.  I appreciate that.

There's much local history to be found on these blog posts.  If you've enjoyed it, thank one of my predecessors, Wanda Potts (MPL Indiana Room librarian, 1966-2002, and assistant director from the 1970s to the 1990s) for creating and maintaining the historical collections from which I've drawn everything.  Also thank Bonita Marley (MPL executive director 1961-1984), who preserved all the local history filed before Wanda came aboard (and handed it over to Wanda to preserve thereafter).  Myrtle Keller (MPL staffer & assistant director during the 1960s and 1970s) also contributed to the library's historical collections, as did each of the library directors and staff before Mrs. Marley.  My immediate predecessor, Marylou Smith, also deserves kudos for her fine work preserving Mooresville's past.  None of the material I've presented here (or elsewhere) regarding local history would have been possible without their tremendous efforts to organize and safeguard it.  All I did was type and upload some images.

Finally, thank YOU for reading about Mooresville's past.  Local history collections are diminishing in public libraries these days, so having an interested audience has helped Mooresville Public Library continue its mission to protect the past for the future to explore.  I hope the library's Indiana Room resources will be around for many years to come.  History continues forward, so there will always be something new and fresh to discover.  The historical journey never ends.

North Side of West Main Street, Then and Now

The Visit Morgan County, Indiana website's Mooresville page has a photo (probably taken in 2022) that reminds us of a similar view captured on film roughly 60 years ago.

Photo courtesy of Visit Morgan County, Indiana website (ca. 2022)

(Click Images to Enlarge)

The pedestrian shown in the picture above is walking east along the north side of West Main Street in downtown Mooresville.  Compare it with this photo taken in the early 1960s, with the pedestrian walking in the opposite direction at about the same spot.

North Side of West Main Street, Downtown Mooresville (Early 1960s)

Rewind another 40 years or so to see how the north side of West Main Street appeared then.

North Side of West Main Street (July 18, 1920)

(Photo by Manley Brown)

Inexplicably, the writer of the above photo's caption stated that it captured the view "west on Indiana Street," which is impossible, because Indiana Street runs north and south through downtown Mooresville.  The view, however, IS west, but the street shown is West Main Street, looking across the intersection of Indiana Street in the center of downtown.

Manley Brown's 1920 perspective was repeated in this advertisement from the 1964 Mooresville High School yearbook, Wagon Trails.

The 1959 Mooresville High School Wagon Trails shows the north side of West Main Street in a gatefold shot.

Interestingly, in Mooresville Public Library's Indiana Room collections, there are many more photos of the north side of West Main Street than the south side.  There are about an even number of pictures showing the north and south sides of East Main Street, with comparatively fewer photos showing North or South Indiana Streets.  Perhaps aiming the camera northward was easier to capture better light, since the sun would have been behind the photographers for much of the year.

Learn some of the history of the north side of West Main Street from this digitized handout, courtesy of Mooresville Public Library's Indiana Room.

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)
  
• PDF Part One
• PDF Part Two
• PDF Part Three
• PDF Part Four
• PDF Part Five
• PDF Part Six
• PDF Part Seven

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

Mooresville's Bicentennial Book: a History for Kids

HEY, KIDS!  Learn about the history of Mooresville, Indiana from Cauli Le Chat, feline roving reporter at Mooresville Public Library.  Click the book cover (below), or click here, to read a digital copy (in PDF format).  Just in time for Mooresville's bicentennial celebration (1824-2024)!

NOTE FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS:  If your child(ren) (or the children you teach) attend elementary school grades 3 or 4, then this book will be particularly interesting to them, because they will be studying Indiana history in those grades.  Younger and older readers might enjoy the book, too.  Try reading it aloud to your preschoolers and early grade schoolers.

 

For those who prefer print books to digital, Mooresville Public Library has paper copies available to checkout, if you have an Evergreen Indiana library card. Visit the library's Indiana Room to pick-up a copy (Call Number I 977.251 CAU). See the Evergreen Indiana online catalog for details.

If you have an Amazon Kindle reader, a Kindle edition is available to buy from Amazon for $1.99. Paperback editions may also be purchased from Amazon for $6.50 plus shipping and handling.

 Here's a book trailer (below) that briefly describes what to expect:

A Bicentennial Celebration (Mooresville, Indiana),

by Cauli Le Chat (MPL Book Trailer 865)

(Click Video Above to Watch) 

 

Walnut Grove School

Until 1971, grade school students living in southern Madison Township (Morgan County, Indiana) attended Walnut Grove School, which was located on North Kitchen Road about a half-mile north of the Five Points intersection on State Road 144.  (Madison Township grade schoolers living further north attended North Madison Elementary School on East Hadley Road.)

Cover of Commemorative Booklet, Walnut Grove Memories (1971),

showing Walnut Grove School

 

Map from Walnut Grove Memories (1971)

 

Late 1970s photo of Walnut Grove Building

(courtesy of Becky Hardin, Morgan County Historian [1980s])
 

Walnut Grove was built in the Fall of 1921.  The first principal was C. L. Fix.  The general contractor was Jake Mann, who also constructed many buildings in and around Mooresville, including several downtown that still stand today.

On April 24, 1971, current and former students, faculty, staff, and their families held a reunion at the school.  A commemorative booklet was printed, which provides a detailed history of the school.  You may read a digitized copy online.

Noel Plunkett's Library Video (May/June 1987)

Those familiar with the history of Mooresville Public Library (MPL) know that construction of the "new" library building began in June, 1987.  The library is fortunate to have a VHS videotape recording made in May/June 1987 by Noel Plunkett, which shows the "old" library Carnegie building located at 32 West Main Street in downtown Mooresville, Indiana, as well as the construction site for the "new" library, which I call the 1988 building.

What good is a VHS cassette, you may well ask.  Who has videocassette recorders (VCRs) anymore?  Thankfully, there are wonderful gadgets that can convert videotapes into DVDs or digital recordings, and the library has such a gizmo.  Yesterday, I converted the videotape to DVD and digital formats.  Then, I took the raw video/audio and made a quick edit using Wondershare Filmora software.  Here's the result:

Mooresville Public Library, May/June 1987 Video, by Noel Plunkett

(Click Above to Play Video)

 

Mr. Plunkett's video begins by showing the front exterior of the MPL Carnegie building, then moves to selected interior shots.  Three MPL employees were captured on videotape:  MPL Director Sharon Beatrice, MPL Assistant Director/Indiana Room Librarian Wanda Potts, and MPL Staffer Mattie Deaton.  Then, Mr. Plunkett moves a few blocks west to 220 West Harrison Street, where construction began (in June, 1987) on the 1988 building.  Several unidentified construction workers appear in the video.  Mr. Plunkett provides a couple of voice-overs during the recording, in which he states the date of videography at the construction site.

 

Wanda Potts & Mattie Deaton appeared in this photo

of MPL Carnegie's last day (January, 1988)

L to R:  Director Pat Vahey, Asst. Dir. Wanda Potts,

Staffers Mattie Deaton, Theresa Lucas, and Sandy Lefler

 

MPL Director Sharon Beatrice (1984-1987)

Indianapolis News, Monday, June 15, 1987

 

The original video quality was low-resolution, and the audio was captured by a condenser microphone on the camera, so it is difficult to hear.  Retail camcorders from the mid-1980s filmed in analog, so the recording appears fuzzy on modern digital video players.  The quality, however, was standard for the retail market of the mid-1980s.

Mr. Plunkett's video is an invaluable historical account that captured the look and feel of the library (and construction site and its surroundings) from the time period.  Captured, too, were images (and faint voices) of some of the library staff from way back then.  For those who lived in and around Mooresville during the 1980s (and who frequented the library), it will bring back fond memories, as well as revealing what the library's current site looked like as construction began.  Sadly, such historical artifacts are often discarded, damaged, or otherwise lost as the years pass.  We are grateful that Mr. Plunkett donated a copy of his videocassette to the library, and that library staff had the foresight to preserve it.

 

The Decorinator's Living Legacy

We at Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library (MPL) were shocked earlier this week to learn that our long-time volunteer, Beth Hensley, had passed over (see her obituary online).  Just the previous week, she had dropped by the library to help with assorted projects.  It's heartbreaking to think that she's now gone.

 "Beth on Tuesdays" volunteering at Mooresville Public Library (2011)

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

"Beth-in-the-Box" at MPL (ca. 2005-2006)

 

Beth had volunteered weekly at the library (mostly on Tuesdays--hence, her nickname, "Beth on Tuesdays") since the late 1980s (either 1987 or 1988, depending upon who you were asking), but her ties with MPL reach back to 1953, when she began teaching at Mooresville High School (1953-1955).  She taught English and was the school librarian.

 Beth's faculty photo from the 1955

Mooresville High School Yearbook, Wagon Trails

 

Beth with her student library staff and her faculty photo

 from the 1954 Mooresville High School Yearbook, Wagon Trails

 

Between those yearbooks (specifically, on June 13, 1954), Beth married Mooresville native Maurice Hensley (1927-2017), who was longtime postmaster at the Mooresville post office, among the many businesses he and Beth operated together in town.  Their Jack & Jill Shop, a children's clothing store, flourished in downtown Mooresville (in the Farmers State Bank building) from the mid-1950s through the early 1960s.  The couple also owned and operated Hensley Coal & Oil Service from the mid-1950s through the 1970s.

 

 Hensley business advertisements from the 1956

Mooresville High School Yearbook, Wagon Trails

 

 

 

Beth standing outside the site of the Hensley's

Jack & Jill Shop (December 7, 2021)

 

Since 1953, Beth worked closely with Mooresville Public Library, as she wanted her lessons at the high school to support, and be supported by, the library's programs and resources.  When she retired from teaching, she continued working with the library in her spare time to support its activities.  Beth volunteered for dozens of MPL staffers, and she was also a member of the library's board of trustees during the 1980s.  Her devotion to the library spanned a lifetime.

Beth's contributions as a library volunteer were legendary.  She was honored in 2019 by the Indiana Library Federation for her efforts to enhance library service to the community.

Beth receiving the 2019 ILF Library Champion award

 

As a volunteer, Beth was supremely creative.  For decades she designed a multitude of displays, decorations, arts and crafts, and youth program materials.  Today, almost anywhere you're standing at the library, if you turn in any direction, you will see something that Beth created.  Her ingenuity was amazing.  She could construct anything from cardboard and construction paper.  Give her scissors, glue, string, wire, pens, markers, and a few other odds and ends, and she could make everything beautiful and interesting.  There isn't room for all the photos of her creations, but you may see many of them on our Cat's Eye View @ MPL blog.  The blog's author, Cauli Le Chat, who served as MPL feline roving reporter from 2010-2019, called Beth The Decorinator because she was all-powerful in crafting and artsy stuff.

I cannot overemphasize the significance of Beth's arts and crafts work to the library and its staff and patrons.  It is a joy to see kids' and caregivers' faces light up when they see one of Beth's "crawl-through" creations at the MPL youth services entrance, or a book-themed display atop bookshelves or in display cabinets.  Beth's backdrops for our adult programs (often featuring noted authors or speakers) were jaw-dropping; her attention to detail and cleverness in composition were stunning to behold.  (Here's just one example; there are many, many more.)

Beth's 2016 Igloo Tunnel (climb-through)

in front of MPL Youth Services entrance

Beth sitting in a rocking chair (above) and with

author Philip Gulley (below) at a 2009 library program

Beth loved working with the library's staff--most often, with the youth services department--to develop arts and crafts for various programs, events, displays, or just to promote items available to checkout.  For example, kids loved her beds and sleeping bags (made from surplus cardboard and fabric) for the overnight stuffed animal sleepovers.

Beth's cardboard beds and fabric sleeping bags

for the library's 2011 Teddy Bear Sleepover

Apart from her artistic talents, Beth was an encyclopedia of local knowledge.  She knew practically everyone in town, and she could recite familial relationships (and places families lived) off the top of her head.  More times than I can count, she filled-in missing details about Mooresville history that had stumped my best research efforts.  What's more, Beth valued the community's local history and the ways the library strove to preserve it.  For example, for decades Beth clipped obituaries from the Mooresville and Martinsville newspapers to place on file (and, more recently, to digitize and upload to our online database, Legacy Links).  She made sure that those important pieces of historical and genealogical information were retained.

Beth also had an amazing memory for academic information.  She could still recite poems she memorized decades before while attending high school or college (Indiana State Teacher's College, now Indiana State University), and she was an enthusiastic supporter of reading for all ages.

While Beth appreciated the practical value of technologies in libraries, she firmly believed that it was important for people to know how to function without the benefit of computerized gadgets.  "They still need to know what they can accomplish with just pencil and paper," Beth once said.  "The old ways of doing things can still be useful."

As part of her funeral planning, Beth arranged that memorial contributions could be made to Mooresville Public Library.  That was so like her--always thinking of how best she, and others, could help the library serve the community.  I can't imagine what we will do without her.  But, everyday, whenever we are assisting patrons, MPL staffers will reflect for a moment and ask, "What would Beth have done to make this better?"  Better was Beth's byword.  It will be her lasting legacy to us. We're honored to have known, and worked with, her, and we trust that all who come after will enjoy her creativity on display throughout the library.  "The Decorinator" was truly an inspiration to us all.

 

POSTSCRIPT:  Here are some photos of Beth Hensley's creations (and a display honoring Beth) that you may now see in the library's grand hall.

 

 

History Cyber Sleuths (New Video Series)

Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library has a new video series called History Cyber Sleuths, in which library staff attempt to uncover historical details about undated or unidentified artifacts (photographs, documents, diaries, paintings, drawings, maps, objects, etc.) that have been brought to their attention.  This brochure elaborates.

Here are the first four episodes (click below to play videos):

History Cyber Sleuths, Episode One

"History in 'Plane' Sight"

by Mooresville Public Library

 

 History Cyber Sleuths, Episode Two

"Founder Portraits Found"

by Mooresville Public Library

 

History Cyber Sleuths, Episode Three

"Mooresville's Musical Aloha"

by Mooresville Public Library

 

 

History Cyber Sleuths, Episode Four

"James Hill, Emma Torr, and the Indiana Y.P.R.C."

by Mooresville Public Library

 

Can the library's history cyber sleuths solve these mysteries?  You'll have to watch to find out.

Bass Building Demolition

We've previously blogged about the George W. Bass Building, which was irreparably damaged by a tornado on April 8, 2020.  While walking through downtown Mooresville over my lunch break, I noticed that the structure is in the process of being demolished.

Bass Building Demolition Under Way (September 22, 2022)

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

(Photos by William R. Buckley)

 

It has been two-and-a-half years since the building collapsed, and although Mooresville citizens are undoubtedly pleased that the ruins are finally being removed, we are also saddened that another piece of local history is being carted away.  Since the structure couldn't be salvaged, however, removal was the only sensible recourse.

We've heard on the town grapevine that a parking lot will be constructed on the Bass site.  While that's beneficial for downtown businesses and customers, it seems a rather pedestrian use of the land.  But nobody asked my opinion, so I'll just sit quietly in an out-of-the-way corner someplace.

You can read all of our previous blog posts about the Bass Building here.

Farewell, Bass Building.  You gave us 130 years of wonderful history.  George W. Bass, wherever you are, would be proud of that.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 29, 2022:   A week after taking the photos above, I returned downtown to shoot some additional photos showing the progress of the demolition.  The concrete structure in the middle of the rubble was the Citizens Bank vault when the bank was located here (1931-1966).  Click the images to enlarge.

UPDATE OCTOBER 15, 2022:  The Bass Building is gone.  These photos (below) were taken on Friday, October 14, 2022.  Since it appears that grass seed has been planted (note straw covering), perhaps the land will now be used as a tiny park space, rather than as a parking lot as rumors previously reported.  An outdoor eating area would be nice.