Mooresville (Indiana) Local History Treasure Trove

Sunday, March 20, 2016

In the Painter's Shoes (Paul Hadley Paintings), Part Three

Since Paul Hadley did not drive motor vehicles, he often roamed Mooresville and the surrounding countryside on foot in search of landscapes to paint. Consequently, many of his best subjects were drawn within the vicinity of the three Mooresville homes in which he lived for much of his life.

Warren Z. Ayers house (built in 1890)

35 East South Street, Mooresville, Indiana

Residence of Paul Hadley (until 1950)
(2009 photo)

(Click images to enlarge)

Paul Hadley's mother, Ella Hadley, bought the Ayres house in 1907, with title passing to Paul in 1930. This was where Paul lived when he designed the Indiana State Flag in 1916. Paul used a second floor bedroom as his painting studio, which had both north and south windows. Paul and his brother Evan lived there until 1950, when he sold the property to Mr. and Mrs. Horace Adams.

The Ayers house was not the first Mooresville home for Paul Hadley's family, however. The first was on West South Street.

Paul Hadley designed this house at the west end

of South Street in Mooresville for his parents

(constructed in 1902-1903)

On October 14, 1902, Dr. Evan and Ella Hadley, Paul's parents, purchased land at the west end of South Street from Robert and Livisa Scott. Paul designed the house constructed there for his parents. His father died in 1903. On March 9, 1907, the property was sold to Theodore and Margaret Romine, whose daughter, Becky Hardin, was Paul Hadley's biographer, as well as the Morgan County Historian for many years.

Paul Hadley, who was architecturally, as well as artistically, educated, apparently was not a huge fan of his house design:

"Paul Hadley designed his first home in Mooresville which was owned by his parents. He once said he wasn't proud of the house and didn't think it is attractive. Single dormer windows, a central hall, and full length west porch with white columns may have been inspired by a variety of [architecture types], and could be called a Victorian eclectic design. Four outside doors, one on each side [of] the house, provided easy exit to a lawn planted with peonies, oriental poppies, iris, and flowering shrubs. [. . .] About 1926 the house was moved north to 320 Lockerbie Street, and the west side was turned east to face the street. The large white columns were replaced with ornamental iron." [Hardin, Becky (1976). The Indiana State Flag, Its Designer (Biography of Paul Hadley with Anthology of his Paintings), p. 7. Mooresville, Indiana : B. Hardin.]

The last house in Mooresville in which Paul Hadley resided was located at 23 East Washington Street, where he and brother Evan lived until 1956. It was close to the Indianapolis-Vincennes bus line, which Paul rode regularly.

Paul Hadley's last Mooresville home

23 East Washington Street

(1950-1956)

Each of these houses was proximately located to many interesting places that Paul Hadley would immortalize on canvas. In our last installment, we visited the site of Margaret Colee's home, where Paul painted a watercolor of her pump house. This was roughly ten blocks from his house at 35 East South Street. About two blocks due south of Colee's residence was another of Hadley's watercolor subjects, the Matthew Comer house, which once stood near the corner of South Madison and East South Streets, across from Old Town Park. As was typical of Hadley watercolors, there is a delicate simplicity in the portrayal, making an everyday scene vibrant and beautiful.

Tree in Front of Matthew Comer House

by Paul Hadley

Matthew Comer, who owned a saw and planing mill and lumber yard on East High Street, moved to Mooresville with his family in 1865 following his Civil War service. In 1871 he constructed his home at 218 East South Street (near the corner with Madison Street). The structure stood for 125 years until it was demolished in 1996.

Matthew Comer house (built 1871)

218 East South Street (along Madison Street)

(Note front porch, which was added sometime after

Paul Hadley painted his watercolor)

Notes on back of undated photo of Matthew Comer house

indicating some of the subsequent ownership

218 East South Street (at Madison Street) as it appeared in 2009

There was some controversy concerning the razing of the Matthew Comer house in 1996, as noted in the local newspaper.

"Comer Home Fate Looks Bleak,"

Mooresville-Decatur Times, October 30, 1996, p. 14B.

Matthew Comer (and subsequently his son, Stewart Comer) operated the saw mill and lumber company for decades by the railroad tracks crossing East High Street at South Madison Street. The business was diagonal to Margaret Colee's property, which was another of Paul Hadley's painting subjects. Comer & Scearce later became Haltom-Scearce Lumber Company, which was sold in 1950 and became Newcomer Lumber & Supply Company.

Comer & Scearce Company (1902)

Corner of East High & South Madison Streets

Mooresville, Indiana

Next time, we'll consider the location of another Paul Hadley watercolor on loan to (and on display at) the library.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

In the Painter's Shoes (Paul Hadley Paintings), Part Two

We continue with our exploration of probable locations for watercolors painted by long-time Mooresville, Indiana resident Paul Hadley, designer of the Indiana State Flag.

As we previously blogged, an anonymous patron loaned several Paul Hadley paintings to the library, which are now on display. Exactly where were these paintings made? That takes a bit of exploring, both on the Internet and closer to home.

Margaret Colee's Pump House by Paul Hadley
(Click Images to Enlarge)

Hadley showed this painting at the 1939 Indiana State Fair, so it was probably painted around this time [Perry, Rachel Berenson. “Paul Hadley: Artist and Designer of the Indiana Flag.” Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History 15:1 (Indiana Historical Society, Winter 2003): 20-29].

Hadley's biographer, long-time Morgan County (Indiana) Historian Becky Hardin, detailed the history surrounding this painting:

"Although Paul Hadley never duplicated a painting, he often painted in the same location under different conditions of light and atmosphere. This picture of Margaret Colee's pump house depicts a gray cabin, pink peach tree, and a bright blue sky. Like most of his paintings it does not show a figure of animal or human being, but the tub, rainwater barrel, and copper bucket are necessary equipment for 'woman's work.' Owen (Tudy) Prescott, grandson of Mrs. Colee, says she hung milk and butter down in the well to keep [them] cool, and he thinks one of her uncles may have stored his 'home brew' there to keep it cool. (Mooresville was a local option town before prohibition.) Prescott saw this picture in Lieber's window and tried to buy it but it was the property of Dr. Norris who moved to [the] Mooresville community to retire. He had gone to Spain and lived with a family there to learn how to make frames and framed this one. When Dr. Norris died his niece, Mrs. McMillin, gave the painting to the Prescotts. He [Hadley] did a[nother] painting of this pump house with a gray sky which was purchased by John Herron Art Museum in October 1939 for its permanent collection." [Hardin, Becky (1976). The Indiana State Flag, Its Designer (Biography of Paul Hadley with Anthology of his Paintings), p. 37. Mooresville, Indiana : B. Hardin.]

Grave Marker of Margaret Elizabeth Colee

Mooresville (Indiana) Cemetery

(Photo courtesy of Find-a-Grave)

(Note Death Year Discrepancy)

Margaret Elizabeth Colee (née Spoon) (1859-1951) is buried in section 7 of Mooresville Cemetery, but her grave marker lists her year of death as 1952. However, mortuary records from Harvey Funeral Home, which operated on South Indiana Street in Mooresville (and handled Colee's funeral arrangements), clearly state that Colee died of bronchial pneumonia on March 21, 1951, at the home of her son, O. W. Colee, in Terre Haute, Indiana, and that her services were held at Harvey Funeral Home on March 23, 1951. This is confirmed by the newspaper obituary from the Mooresville Times, March 22, 1951 (front page).

Margaret Colee's Obituary

Mooresville Times, March 22, 1951, p. 1, col. 3

Front Page of the Mooresville Times, March 22, 1951

(Colee obituary is in column three near the bottom)

Enlarged Masthead of the Mooresville Times,

March 22, 1951

But let's return to the question of location: Where did Margaret Colee live when Hadley painted her pump house? According to the 1940 U.S. Census, Margaret Colee rented an unnumbered house on East High Street in Mooresville. The 1940 Mooresville City Directory confirms this, indicating that she was a "housekeeper" by occupation. She had lived there for many years. Upon closer inspection, the 1940 Census stated that her house was situated between 204 and 222 East High Street.

Excerpt from the 1940 U.S. Census for

Mooresville, Morgan County, Indiana

Listing Margaret E. Colee living between

204 and 222 East High Street

The house no longer stands, but we can confirm its location by comparing existing structures' addresses.

Westerly view from 222 (parking lot) to 218 East High Street

(red brick house), Mooresville, Indiana (March, 2016)

Easterly view from what would have been

204 (tan building) to 218 East High Street

(red brick house), Mooresville, Indiana (March, 2016)

From left to right: (1) what would have been approximately

204 (tan building); (2) 218 (red brick house); and

(3) 222 East High Street (Edward Jones building),

Mooresville, Indiana (March, 2016)

Edward Jones Building

222 East High Street

Mooresville, Indiana

(March, 2016)

Margaret Colee's house was probably to the right of the red brick house at 218 East High Street, approximately where the white garage now stands. The pump house Hadley painted would have been located at the back of the lot.

Hadley was most helpful when he named this painting using the resident's name. Margaret Colee rented a house there for decades, and so it was fairly easy to locate in the historical record.

Next time, we'll search for another location from a Paul Hadley painting, which will take us about one block south of Margaret Colee's home to the house of Matthew Comer.

Friday, March 18, 2016

In the Painter's Shoes (Paul Hadley Paintings), Part One

In 2014, my colleague, Cauli Le Chat, retired MPL feline roving reporter, blogged about some of the locations painted by Paul Hadley, artist and designer of the Indiana State Flag. The library owns several Hadley watercolors, and now an anonymous patron has loaned several more Hadleys to MPL to display as part of the state flag's centennial, as well as the Indiana bicentennial celebration. (We've prepared two brochures--here and there--showcasing the paintings.) We thought it would be fun to explore the places Hadley painted in the loaned watercolors. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Madison, Indiana and the Ohio River (ca. 1931)

by Paul Hadley

(Click Images to Enlarge)

In 1931 Paul Hadley exhibited this and other of his southern Indiana paintings at a one-man show. We can compare the scene to a modern view of Madison.

Aerial View of Downtown Madison, Indiana

(Photo by Harvey Oliver)

Hadley was lower (obviously, since he was standing on the ground painting, rather than flying over, the town) and closer to Madison, but you can see certain similarities between distinctive structures (e.g., church steeple, Jefferson County courthouse) that appear in both the modern photo and the Hadley painting.

More importantly, we know that Hadley had been visiting Madison, among other locations in southern Indiana and Kentucky, when he was assembling the landscape watercolors that he exhibited in his 1931 show.

Maysfield [sic], Kentucky (ca. 1931)

by Paul Hadley

(From the Estate of Helen Cook)

Another watercolor Hadley included in his 1931 show was this street scene from Mayfield, Kentucky (titled "Maysfield, Kentucky" [sic]). In her biography of Paul Hadley, long-time Morgan County Historian Becky Hardin (1908-1995) wrote:

“The Maysfield, Kentucky painting shows gray buildings, set even with the walk, and a large flowering shrub with yellow blossoms in the center. Mr. Hadley asked Mr. [Claire] Cook a question about business. When Cook said there was no charge for this information, Hadley brought several paintings and told him to select the one he liked.” [Hardin, Becky (1976). The Indiana State Flag, Its Designer (Biography of Paul Hadley with Anthology of his Paintings), p. 30. Mooresville, Indiana : B. Hardin.]

The only difficulty is that there is no Maysfield in Kentucky. There is, however, a Mayfield, Kentucky (in Graves County), as well as a Maysville, Kentucky (in Mason County). We're guessing that Hadley might have accidentally added the S to Mayfield, or it could have been an error by his biographer, Becky Hardin. (But see further below about Maysville being a possible location.)