Visit the library's Indiana Room to pickup your "Flat" Cauli Le Chat, and then travel to your favorite Morgan County, Indiana destination, where you could take a "selfie" with "Flat" Cauli (showing your destination, too)--something like the photo below.
This Could Be Your (and "Flat" Cauli's) Travel Selfie
After taking your "selfie," you could upload it to social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), using the following hashtags:
#morgancountytraveler
#MPLrovingreporter
Now you're an official MPL roving reporter! Sorry, you have to provide your own hat.
There are written instructions available in the library's Indiana Room, or just click the image below to enlarge.
Click Image to Enlarge
Your travel adventure awaits! Morgan County excitement beckons!
Watch the library's promo trailer below (for fun):
Morgan County (Indiana) Travel Adventure 2020,
by Mooresville Public Library
P.S. Don't forget to return "Flat" Cauli to the MPL Indiana Room so others may join the fun.
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.
Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library has a variety of historical and genealogical resources available to assist in your research. Please visit the MPL Indiana Room/Genealogy Web Page to learn more.
Did you know Mooresville, Indiana had its own movie mogul? Longtime Mooresville business owner Leon Adler (1906-1986) produced and distributed educational motion pictures for nearly a quarter century.
Adler purchased the National Motion Pictures Company in 1931, producing and distributing industrial and educational films until he sold the business in 1954 to Institutional Cinema Services of New York. Adler maintained offices in the Holliday Building in Indianapolis but probably also corresponded from his Mooresville residence or business addresses.
Figure 1: Leon Adler wrote this letter to the DuPont Company offering film distribution services from the National Motion Pictures Company, Adler's film production/distribution business. Letter courtesy of the Hagley Museum & Library (Wilmington, Delaware) and Martin Louis Johnson, Assistant Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The National Motion Pictures Company specialized in educational and industrial films. One offering was the 1939 short film, Told By a Tooth, which promoted dental hygiene. The movie is available to watch from the Prelinger Archives, although the digitized copy was derived from somewhat degraded film stock. There were splices and edits made to the original copy (for example, the end credits have been removed), and the recording is darker than it would have been when originally made and shown.
Told By a Tooth (1939)
Produced by Leon Adler's National Motion Pictures Company
Adler used Mooresville and Morgan County talent and locations to appear in his movies. Longtime Mooresville resident Barbara Ann Nevins (Barlow) was about seven years old when she appeared in Told By a Tooth (1939), as well as in Why Willy Was Willing to Wash (ca. 1940) and another Adler film (sorry--don't know the title). She was paid, as were the other actors and actresses appearing in the features, in free merchandise from Adler's Mooresville department store. In Told By a Tooth, the scene in which a girl purchases a toothbrush was shot in Adler's Department store at 10 West Main Street in downtown Mooresville. Barbara Barlow mentioned that, many years later, her children saw the films when they were attending school and were "mortified" that their mother appeared in the movies. Apparently, she had never mentioned to them that she was a "movie star." Parents embarrass their kids in so many ways.
Barbara Ann Nevins (about age 7) in Told by a Tooth (1939) and Barbara in 2024
Adler also used famous Hollywood personnel to produce his movies, such as Academy Award-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby (father of musician David Crosby), as mentioned in an Indianapolis Star article.
Figure 2: Floyd Crosby came from Hollywood to Mooresville to film two health and education movies for Leon Adler in 1935. (The Indianapolis Star, Wednesday, May 1, 1935, page 11.)
Figure 3: Leon Adler presented an NMPC film about George Washington at Noblesville High School in 1932. The movie was sponsored by the National Bicentennial Commission. (The Noblesville [Indiana] Ledger, Wednesday, March 9, 1932, page 3.)
Figure 4: Mr. and Mrs. Leon Adler entertained friends with a preview of a new NMPC movie filmed in the Martinsville area. (Martinsville [Indiana] Reporter-Times, Thursday, October 27, 1938, page 5.)
Besides producing and distributing movies, Adler was a successful Morgan County business owner. In 1933, Adler purchased Ad Sellars' dry goods store and operated Adler's Department Store at 10 West Main Street in downtown Mooresville until 1967, when he closed both his Mooresville and Martinsville stores.
Figure 5: Leon Adler's department store was featured by the Mooresville Chamber of Commerce, which he helped establish in the 1950s, in an article appearing in the June 10, 1965 edition of the Mooresville Times (clipping courtesy of Mooresville Public Library).
Figure 6. An advertisement for Adler's Department Store in the September 1964 issues of the Mooresville Times (clipping courtesy of Mooresville Public Library).
The Adler family lived in Mooresville from 1933-1955, but they also had a residence in Indianapolis and were active in several charities and organizations. Adler served as president of the Mooresville Chamber of Commerce and the Mooresville Lions Club, and he served on the board of Mooresville's Citizens Bank. He helped establish the Mooresville Development Commission and was instrumental in constructing new homes west of Newby Elementary School in Mooresville, which were vital in easing a housing shortage as the town's population steadily grew during the 1960s and 1970s.
Adler's pursuits often had a national, even international, reach. He was a member of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation and Labor Zionists of America and served as chairman of the Southeastern Indiana Jewish Welfare Federation. In 1963 the State of Israel issued Adler a prestigious award for meritorious service. He supported organized labor, civil rights, and Zionism, speaking and writing about these and other subjects. He also promoted oratorical contests to encourage improvement in public speaking skills.
In January, 1959, Adler was selected Mooresvillian of the Year for 1958, an honor bestowed annually by the Mooresville Chamber of Commerce in recognition of local civic leaders whose efforts enhanced the Mooresville community. Adler was extremely popular with townspeople. "If Leon Adler said he would do something, it was as good as done," reflected longtime Mooresville resident Beth Hensley, who owned and operated a "Jack and Jill" children's clothing store near Adler's department store in downtown Mooresville during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Figure 7. Leon Adler was selected the 1958 Mooresvillian of the Year (Mooresville Times, January 15, 1959) (image courtesy of Mooresville Public Library). Several of Adler's obituaries incorrectly stated that he received this award in 1954.
Figure 8. Leon Adler's senior picture from The Arsenal Cannon, 1923 Indianapolis Arsenal Technical High School Yearbook (courtesy of Ancestry Library Edition).
Born in Shelbyville, Indiana in 1906, Adler graduated from Indianapolis Arsenal Technical High School in 1923. Adler passed away at St. Vincent Hospital in 1986 at the age of 80 years. Learn more about him from Mooresville Public Library's digitized vertical files, as well as from these obituaries below.
Figures 9 & 10. Leon Adler's obituaries from the Jewish Post, July 16 & 23, 1986.
We've prepared a local history video featuring Leon Adler (click below to watch). We also have this slideshow.
The Wikimedia scans are of the images that appear in the yearbooks, with original text from the yearbooks extracted from the original scans and typed out (like ordinary text) for easier reading.
These yearbooks were also digitally scanned (showing the entire pages as they originally appeared in print) and stored on the Mooresville High School Alumni Association Facebook page, but access might be restricted to their authorized FB group members. You can check those links, too, to see if you can access them (click below):
The Mooresville High School Alumni Association has uploaded the complete video, Memories of Mooresville (2011), to YouTube. Click the player (below) to watch the entire video, or visit Mooresville Public Library to checkout a physical copy on DVD (learn more from this blog post).
Take our "virtual" walking tour (click link below) of historic downtown Mooresville, Indiana. Then, using this handout, walk the self-guided route yourself.
