2017 Old Settlers Festival Library Booth

Visit the library's booth at the Old Settlers Festival (August 6-7-8, 2017) in Mooresville's Pioneer Park.  Pick-up lots of free goodies and sign-up for free tickets to the Indiana State Fair.

Click Photos to Enlarge

2017 Old Settlers Parade Library Float

In case you missed it on Sunday afternoon (August 6), here's the library's float in the 2017 Old Settlers Parade.  Click the photos to enlarge.

2017 Mooresville Old Settlers Festival

This year's Old Settlers Festival will be held August 6-8, 2017 at Pioneer Park, which is located at 1101 Indianapolis Road in Mooresville, Indiana. Mooresville Public Library (MPL) will have a table in the non-profit organizations tent area.

As always, click the images to enlarge.

Old Settlers Festival

(Photo courtesy of Visit Morgan County Indiana)

The festival opens with the Old Settlers Parade through downtown Mooresville. The route begins at Mooresville High School and runs south along North Indiana Street, then turns east onto East Main Street to Samuel Moore Parkway.  MPL will have a float in the parade again this year (click here to see our previous floats).

2016 MPL Old Settlers Parade Float

Learn more about the history of the Old Settlers Picnic from our previous blog post and the following video.

History of Old Settlers Picnic (1870-Present),

by Mooresville Public Library

(MPL Treasure Trove Video #6)

Drop by our table, if you have a chance.

1919 Mooresville's "Ford Gals"

Heading to Old Settlers

Myrtle Keller (1895-1997), shown at the steering wheel in the 1919 photo above, served at various times as clerk, assistant librarian, and circulation director at Mooresville Public Library during the 1960s and 1970s, and she was on the library board of trustees during the 1980s. We've blogged about her many times before.

Watching the Old Settlers Parade (1970s)

(Allison's Amoco is in the background)

along South Indiana Street just north

of the High Street intersection

Mooresville High School Band performing in

the Old Settlers Parade (1970s)

Old Settlers rocking chair winners (for being

the oldest Mooresville residents) (1970)

The Library's 2005 Addition Construction Project

In case you missed it 12 years ago, here's a video of construction of the library's 2005 addition, which was dedicated on January 27, 2006, exactly 90 years after the MPL's Carnegie building was dedicated.

MPL Dedication, January 27, 2006 Video,

by Mooresville Public Library

 

Thanks to Beth Hensley, MPL volunteer extraordinaire (whom we call "The Decorinator"), and her late husband, Maurice Hensley, for donating an original DVD released at the 2006 dedication ceremony, which is now part of our permanent Indiana Room reference collection.

Sanborn Maps Available Online

The Library of Congress continues to digitize its Sanborn fire insurance maps for various communities across America.  These maps begin in the 1800s onward to (more or less) the present day.  They are invaluable to local history researchers, because they identify locations of local businesses and houses at various times in a town's history.

Browse the LOC Sanborn maps online, and for additional Indiana-specific Sanborn maps, visit the Indiana Spatial Data Portal.

If you're interested in Sanborn maps specifically for Mooresville, Indiana, we have CD-ROM discs (with PDF files of the maps) available to checkout from Mooresville Public Library's Evergreen Indiana catalog.  Digitized versions are also available on MPL's website.