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.

No Wonder the Basketball is Flat

Episode #6 of Grandpa Billy Bob's Mooresville History Super Fun Quiz explores where Mooresville High School basketball games were played before the old gymnasium was built (next to the old high school building) in 1920.

Click Video (Above) to Play

The gymnasium was dedicated on December 30, 1920.  It was the first high school gym in Morgan County and was considered state-of-the-art a century ago.  It stood just north of the old Mooresville High School building (completed in 1909), and was across from the original Academy School built by the Mooresville Society of Friends in 1860, which was the first high school in central Indiana.  Both the Academy building and the gymnasium still stand today on the campus of Newby Memorial Elementary School on North Monroe Street (old State Road 267) in Mooresville.  Learn more about the century-old gymnasium from this superb handout by Susan Haynes, communications director for the Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation.

Mooresville High School (1909 Building) with

1920 Gymnasium (circa 1921 photo)

(Click Images to Enlarge)

1920 photo shows the Academy Building (left)

and Mooresville High School (right)

before the gymnasium was constructed

 

Many Mooresville High School basketball teams played home games downtown (you'll have to watch the video above to learn where), including those pictured below (photos courtesy of various Mooresville High School yearbooks and Mooresville Public Library's Indiana Room photo collection).

MHS 1909 Boys' Basketball Team

 

 MHS 1917 Boys' Basketball Team

 MHS 1917 Girls' Basketball Team

 

  MHS 1918 Boys' Basketball Team

You'll notice the basketball is flat when you watch the video.  No wonder--all the hot air is in the host, Grandpa Billy Bob.  (Just kidding.)
  

Grandpa Billy Bob's Mooresville History Quizzes

While Mooresville Public Library was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (mid-March through mid-June, 2020), you could still have some fun with Mooresville (Indiana) history, thanks to the library's Indiana Room historian, known to his adoring fan (namely his grandson) as Grandpa Billy Bob (or "Bebo," as his grandson, now age 2-1/2, might say).  Here's the first in what hopefully will be a series of local history video quizzes, with, we hope, better lighting in future episodes.

Grandpa Billy Bob's Mooresville History Super Fun Quiz #1

(COVID-19 Edition), by Mooresville Public Library

The quiz answer appears in the video's credits near the end.  Or, you could click here.  It's your call.

UPDATE:  Here's another installment!  As if one weren't enough.

Grandpa Billy Bob's Mooresville History Super Fun Quiz #2

(COVID-19 Edition), by Mooresville Public Library

Look for the answer near the end of the video credits, or click here.

ANOTHER UPDATE:  Here's another episode!  As if your life weren't bad enough right now.

Grandpa Billy Bob's Mooresville History Super Fun Quiz #3,

(COVID-19 Edition), by Mooresville Public Library

Answer?  In the video credits, or click here.

STILL ANOTHER UPDATE!  When will this all end?

Grandpa Billy Bob's Mooresville History Super Fun Quiz #4,

(COVID-19 Edition), by Mooresville Public Library

Answer?  In the video credits, or click here.

STILL YET ANOTHER UPDATE!  Can we just surrender already?

Grandpa Billy Bob's Mooresville History Super Fun Quiz #5,

(COVID-19 Edition), by Mooresville Public Library

Answer?  In the video credits, or click here.

George H. Fields (Famous Mooresvillian)

George H. Fields (1921-2014) was a life-long Mooresville resident who became Mooresville High School's first Indiana boys' basketball all-star and, later, he became a standout on Purdue University's men's basketball team (1940-41) before playing through the 1940s semi-professionally for the Indianapolis Pure Oils (1943-45; 1946-47) and professionally with the Indianapolis Kautskys (1945-46) in the National Basketball League (NBL), the precursor to the NBA.

His parents were Herbert Andrew and Georgie (Conduitt) Fields.  George passed on January 22, 2014.  Click here to read George's obituary.  Click the images below to enlarge them.

G. R. Scruggs Dry Goods (Mooresville Moments #12)

Watch this Mooresville Moments local history video (below) to learn about George R. Scruggs' dry goods store, which was located in downtown Mooresville, Indiana at 9-11-13 East Main Street from 1891-1918. We also have a digitized handout and a flashcard available that review the store's history.

Mooresville Moments #12

Scruggs Dry Goods Store,

by Mooresville Public Library

A Privy Pit Treasury

Mooresville resident Martin Van Zant kindly emailed the following photograph showing a medicine bottle that native Mooresvillian William L. Thompson, M.D. (1866-1932), prescribed to a patient in the early 20th century.

Click all photos to enlarge

As the label reveals, Doctor Thompson prescribed a remedy for gastrointestinal distress ("Two teaspoonfuls [in] water every two hours until bowels are qu[iet]" is our best guess).  Perhaps the patient was experiencing severe G.I. distress due to chronic constipation, and the prescription was meant to address that.  Conversely, the patient may have had the opposite difficulty, and perhaps the bottle's contents were an anti-diarrheal or anti-gas treatment.  In any event, we hope the patient found relief from his or her ailment.

Although Mr. Van Zant discovered this particular bottle in a shop, he said that, as an avid antique bottle collector, he has found many bottles (and other items) in the pits of old outhouses.  He is an expert on the subject and has an extensive collection.

Before indoor plumbing and municipal trash collection, it was common for Americans to dispose of all manner of household objects in their outdoor toilets.  Glass bottles were often discarded in this fashion.  When one pit filled with waste products (both organic and manufactured), poorer people usually filled it in and dug another privy hole, while more affluent folks simply paid to have the pits scooped.  Items that sank below the dredging level would remain to be later discovered.

A typical outhouse (ca. 1920)

Plates found in an excavated privy pit

Cross-section reveals buried treasures at the bottom of a privy pit

Collectors of rare household objects, such as pioneer bottles, cups, dishes, utensils, tools, and other historically curious objects search outhouse pits or other trash repositories as carefully as archaeologists excavate living and working areas in buried structures.  There is a veritable treasury of antique household items awaiting discovery at the bottom of pioneers' outdoor toilets.

Outhouses in Mooresville (ca. 1880)

A Mooresville Academy and DePauw University graduate, William Lee Thompson earned his medical doctorate in 1889 from Indiana Central Medical College. Dr. Thompson practiced medicine in Mooresville for over 43 years. He drove an average of 100 miles a day to make house calls and delivered over 3,000 babies.

Dr. William L. Thompson, M.D.  (1866-1932)
(Flashcard courtesy of Mooresville Public library)

Dr. William L. Thompson, M.D. (1920)

(Photo by Manley Brown)

Mooresville Moments #28

William Lee Thompson, M.D.

by Mooresville Public Library

(Click Above to Play Video)

Mooresville Public Library has a few of Doctor Thompson's medical treatises and an amputation surgical kit (complete with various bone saws, probes, and blood-soaked tourniquet) he probably acquired during his medical school or residency days (see photos below).

Dr. Thompson's obituary record is in the library's digitized Legacy Links database.

Dr. Valentine Magenheimer (left) and Dr. William L. Thompson (right) pose (ca. 1909) outside their offices (at 31 South Indiana Street in downtown Mooresville) in (or next to) the automobiles they used to make house calls in Mooresville and the surrounding area.  (Photo by J. P. Calvert)

Advertisement from the 1917 Mooresville High School yearbook,

The '17 Packet

Dr. Thompson served on the Mooresville School Board
(from the 1909 Mooresville High School Senior Annual [yearbook])

From the Mooresville Times, April 18, 1974, page 17

William L. Thompson's obituary

(Mooresville Times, February 18, 1932)

Indianapolis News (undated, ca. December 10, 1920)

Image credits:

• "Dr. W. L. Thompson's Medicine Bottle" © 2018 by Martin Van Zant.
• "Outhouse" © 2018 by Getty Images.
• "Privy Pit Excavation" © 2007 by Digger Odell Publications.
• "Privy Pit Cross-Section" © 2015 by the University of Iowa.
• "Mooresville From Atop the M.E. Church Steeple" (ca. 1880) by J. P. Calvert © 2008 by Mooresville Public Library Indiana Room Collection.
• "Doctors Magenheimer & Thompson's Cars" (ca. 1909) by J. P. Calvert © 2008 by Mooresville Public Library Indiana Room Collection.
• "Doctor Thompson's Car" (ca. 1920) by Manley Brown © 2008 by Mooresville Public Library Indiana Room Collection.
• Newspaper clippings courtesy of Mooresville Public Library Indiana Room Collection.
• Digital scans of 1909 & 1917 Mooresville High School yearbooks © 2015 by Mooresville High School Alumni Association.

Images reprinted by permission.