Clifton Wheeler (1883-1953) was born in Hadley, Hendricks County,
Indiana, in 1883. While in the fourth grade, his family moved to
Mooresville when his father, Alonzo L. Wheeler,
purchased the Banner Flour Mill on East High Street (at the railroad
tracks, where the car wash is located today). The Wheeler family lived
in the house on the southwest corner of the intersection of Indiana and
High Streets.
Clifton Wheeler (Photo Courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society)
Rose and Alonzo L. Wheeler when they lived on Lockerbie Street in Mooresville
Banner Mills on East High Street, Mooresville (Built in 1868)
Wheeler House, 7 West High Street, Mooresville, Indiana
(Built 1895; Renovated 1915) (2008 Photo)
Banner Mills Advertisement (Mooresville Times, January 28, 1910)
In a letter (1945) to the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette
(Indiana), Clifton Wheeler wrote, “When I finished high school I was
reluctantly allowed to come to Indianapolis to William Forsyth’s studio
for a year. Forsyth and my doctor aunt, who lived in New York, assured
my parents that I would not necessarily be a tramp if I studied art and
at last they sadly agreed that I might go to New York for a year to art
school.”
The ArtSmart Indiana website
states, “Wheeler had studied under Forsyth at the Herron Art Institute.
He then studied with William Merritt Chase in New York City and went to
Europe twice to study. Around 1911 he returned to Indiana with his
wife, and they built a home and studio in Irvington, an eastside
Indianapolis neighborhood where Forsyth and other artists also lived. He
became an instructor at the Herron Art Institute, in charge of the
antique class. . . . Wheeler had no special technique or subject, but
his decorative work was well known, and he had murals all over the
country. His murals at the Indianapolis Circle Theatre and City Hospital
([later] Wishard) are among his best work. His landscape
paintings—especially his snow scenes—are held in high regard.”
Self-Portrait (Undated) by Clifton Wheeler
The Road Through the Woods (1924) by Clifton Wheeler
Paul Hadley, another Mooresville artist who also taught at
Herron Art Institute, considered Clifton Wheeler to be the best of the
Hoosier Group school of artists.
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)
In case you missed atomic veteran William Cornwell's presentation, The Bomb and What You Might Not Have Known About It, you may watch it on video (below).
The BOMB and What You Might Not Have Known About It by William Cornwell
(LIVE RECORDING) The BOMB and What You Might Not Have Known About It by William Cornwell
Q & A Session (Live Recording) to The BOMB and What You Might Not Have Known About It by William Cornwell
Longtime patrons of Mooresville Public Library know Bill Cornwell as one of our superlative volunteers (and building manager emeritus), whose inventive repairs and innovations have saved Morgan County (and, specifically, Brown Township) taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. Anyone who enjoys the library owes Mr. Cornwell a huge debt of gratitude for all of his important contributions throughout the years.
Between October 1880 and May 1881, William Gregory Harrison, who lived in Jefferson Township, Morgan County, Indiana, wrote a daily journal detailing farm life in the area. A digitized version is now available online. It is a fascinating look at Morgan County life in the late 19th century, told in the vernacular of the day. Teaching notes are included for Indiana studies/history teachers. Click here (or the logo below) to learn more.
.JPG)
.JPG)
