Black History Month: Spotlight on Hoosier Bicyclist Major Taylor

Check out our earlier blog about Major Taylor, world champion Hoosier bicyclist. Our book trailer below gives a brief summary of one of his biographies.

Pioneers: Westward Bound, and Closer to Home

Horace Greeley (1811-1872), New York Tribune editor, is often credited with coining the phrase, "Go West, young man," since he included it in an 1865 editorial. The phrase actually originated with John B. L. Soule, who used it in his 1851 editorial in the Terre Haute (Indiana) Express. The correct phrase is, "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."

Throughout the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of pioneers travelled westward across the American plains and mountains. Many followed the Oregon Trail and the Sante Fe Trail, among others, and these journeys were long, brutal, and rugged. Our book trailer below features a popular children's book that recounts some of the adventures along the Oregon Trail.

Pioneer Cat, by William H. Hooks & Charles Robinson

(MPL Book Trailer #90)

Closer to home and a few decades earlier than the "Oregon Trailers," there were pioneers who left the eastern American states across the Appalachian mountains to settle in Morgan County, Indiana. Many came from North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. They sought the inexpensive lands promised by the federal government--lands surveyed according to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787--and the further prospects of independence, wealth, and personal freedoms.

Those early Morgan County and Mooresville, Indiana pioneer days are recounted in several books, including:

• The Pioneers of Morgan County: Memoirs of Noah J. Major. (S. Cline, ed. & comp.) Indianapolis: Edward J. Hecker, 1915; republished by the Morgan County History & Genealogy Association (2006).

• Fogleman, Margaret W. Early Mooresville: Centennial Souvenir, 1824-1924 (1924) (digital copy available)

• Matthews, John. Ye Early Pioneers (1875), reprinted in Fogleman, op. cit. (digital copy available)

• Hadley, Almira Harvey. A Brief History of Mooresville and Vicinity (1918) (digital copy available)

Each of these titles is available at Mooresville Public Library through the Evergreen Indiana library consortium.

Modern Hoosiers can hardly imagine what it must have been like for these hardy folks to settle this territory, with its unbroken forests that stretched literally from Ohio to Illinois. Using hand tools and the strength of humans, livestock, and horses, they cleared the trees and cultivated the soil. My own family's settlers told of cut-down trees large enough for a team of oxen or horses AND wagon to stand upon a single stump. Can you imagine majestic oaks or sycamores, some nearly a thousand years old, with circumferences so large that a classroom full of children could hold hands and barely encircle the trunks? Those were true pioneers, and, thanks to them, we live today in places they settled and towns they founded. It would truly be a privilege to shake their hands and express our gratitude. This is why I sometimes visit the old town and county cemeteries and sit in quiet contemplation, silently expressing my thanks to the spirit of these people from whom some of us are descended.

Pioneer Cat, by William H. Hooks & Charles Robinson (Illustrator)

Speaking of pioneers, as we are about to, our book trailer for Pioneer Cat (below) features an instrumental version of the folk song Old Settlers, music written by Daniel E. Buckley, MPL composer.

Morgan County, Indiana Historical Resources, Part #1

Middle-aged patrons who visit the MPL Indiana Room to research county history frequently say that they couldn't have cared less about the subject when they were younger, but now that they have reached their forties, fifties, or sixties, their curiosity about their county history has blossomed. So they arrive, looking for introductions.

An excellent starter resource for Morgan County, Indiana history is Morgan County (2007), one of Arcadia Publishing's Postcard History Series, written by Joanne Raetz Stuttgen and Curtis Tomak. This book is a collection of historical postcards and photographs from roughly the last 125 years. It is divided into geographical sections, each focusing upon a Morgan County community or area for which these images have survived. The visual history is enjoyable and provides a smooth introduction to life as it was once lived in this part of central Indiana. Copies are readily available from online booksellers or various Hoosier public libraries (see bottom of next paragraph).

 

Another fine compilation of historical anecdotes for Morgan County, Indiana is Morgan County Scrapbook, volumes I-II (1985; reprinted, 1996), edited and compiled by Becky Hardin, who was the county historian at the time of publication. The first volume is a collection of historical snapshots for various communities in the county, examining primarily business and cultural history, with prominent persons highlighted. Each geographically defined section features short articles that include reproduced newspaper clippings and photographs along with commentary. Volume two concentrates upon schools and churches. There is a substantial amount of county history available in this set, and anyone interested in researching the subject should be sure to peruse these resources, which are available at Mooresville Public Library, Morgan County Public Library, Plainfield-Guilford Twp. Public Library, Greenwood Public Library, and the Indiana State Library (among libraries in the Evergreen Indiana integrated library system). Copies may be purchased from the Morgan County History & Genealogy Association.

 

If you live (or have ever lived, or plan to live) in Morgan County, Indiana, you will find that it has a rich, extensive, and interesting history spanning two centuries. Beneath the surface of everyday life, there is much from the past awaiting your discovery and exploration.

Precipitated Spirit Paintings, the Bangs Sisters, & Camp Chesterfield, Indiana

Psychic mediumship has become a more socially acceptable topic, at least for the popular media. Books, television programs, movies, and web sites devote considerable attention to the subject. Although scientific materialism, which discounts survival of bodily death, and so-called "mainstream" religions continue to disparage psychic phenomena, millions of people entertain at least a casual interest in the subject. Much of this criticism has been directed toward spiritualism, which became a religious movement over 150 years ago and has endured critics, many professing "the truth" of alternative faiths. Religions have a long history of sniping at one another, and, unfortunately, so does science, which itself can become a religion (commonly called scientism, which is a belief in certain scientific viewpoints as a matter of faith rather than veridical evidence). True science, of course, openly and objectively considers the facts based upon experiment and careful observation of data, regardless of preconceptions or prevalent theories.

Today is not unlike a century ago, when millions actively believed in survival of bodily death and communication with the departed. Then, as now, these pursuits were ridiculed by establishment science, with its reductionist, materialistic interpretation of life and death. Unlike today, however, the press of yesteryear brutally attacked those inquiring into psychic phenomena. Only the most courageous scientists and investigators publicly studied the matter and published their results.

Two organizations that attracted some of the last two centuries' brightest minds were the British Society for Psychical Research and its American counterpart. Some of the most brilliant scientists of the period--Alfred Russel Wallace, Oliver Lodge, William Crookes, William Barrett, Camille Flammarion, Charles Richet, Cesare Lombroso, Gustave Geley, and William James, to name just a few of the intellectual cream-of-the-crop--investigated paranormal activities for decades, carefully scrutinizing the evidence, remaining skeptical but open-minded (for the most part), until, finally, after (it bears repeating) decades of intensive research, they were ultimately convinced of the reality and genuineness of the phenomena. Many academics, such as Frederic W. H. Myers, Richard Hodgson, and James Hyslop, as well as prominent authors, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Hamlin Garland, and Maurice Maeterlinck, and other professionals, such as Vice-Admiral W. Usborne Moore, the Rev. William Stainton Moses, and the Rev. Charles L. Tweedale, devoted enormous time and energy to psychical research. They, too, reached favorable conclusions regarding the truth and authenticity of certain of the paranormal phenomena they encountered. Along the way, these researchers and many others also discovered fraud and were prompt to discredit charlatans; but all were equally prompt to admit that they had witnessed bona fide paranormal phenomena. This pioneering exploration of psychical science has been all but forgotten today, but anyone interested may easily ferret reprints of the fascinating original publications.

 

 Four Books About Precipitated Spirit Portraits

(MPL Book Trailer #355)

(Click Above to Play Video)

One expression of mediumistic power is the spontaneous production of paintings attributed to spirit forces. The Bangs sisters of Chicago were carefully studied by Vice-Admiral W. Usborne Moore, and he received convincing proof, under ideal test conditions, that portraits of deceased persons could be rapidly painted by "spirit forces" in the sisters' presence. Usborne Moore, who began his study totally skeptical, stated in his book, Glimpses of the Next State (London : Watts & Co., 1911), that fraud or collusion could be absolutely excluded as an explanation for the Bangs sisters' precipitated portraits, given his stringent precautions in place during the creation of the artwork.

The sisters' paintings were created at many places, including a Hoosier religious community, Camp Chesterfield (Chesterfield, Indiana), which is located in Madison County and appears on the National Register of Historic Places. Many Bangs precipitated spirit portraits are displayed there. A few of the paintings may be seen in The Bangs Sisters and Their Precipitated Spirit Portraits, originally compiled and written by Irene Swann (Chesterfield, Ind. : Hett Memorial Art Gallery & Museum, 1969, rev. 1991), a copy of which is available online, as well as in the Evergreen Indiana online catalog. These paintings are well-crafted, tasteful representations of deceased persons, some of whom allegedly were the impetus behind the artwork.

To learn the mechanics of precipitated spirit painting, you should read Usborne Moore's book, or Precipitated Spirit Paintings, by Ron Nagy (Lakeville, Minn. : Galde Press, 2006). The color images included in Swann's and Nagy's books are striking and intriguing. Readers may decide for themselves as to the likely origins of the art, but it remains another of those interesting paranormal mysteries that are, if nothing else, fun to examine.