2016 Old Settlers Festival & Parade

The 2016 Old Settlers festival in Mooresville, Indiana will be held on August 7-8-9 at Pioneer Park on Indianapolis Road.

Come see the library's float in the Old Settlers parade (Sunday, August 7 at 2 pm through downtown Mooresville), then join the fun afterwards at Pioneer Park when the Old Settlers festival gets underway (August 7-8-9). Visit the library's table there and get lots of free interesting materials.

Here are a few photos from our previous Old Settlers parade floats.  Click the photos below to enlarge.  The floats (from top to bottom) appeared in the 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010 Old Settlers parades.

Original Indiana State Flag on Tour

As part of Indiana's bicentennial celebration, the Indiana State Banner that was originally displayed at the Indiana statehouse during the 1920s is currently on display at Mooresville Public Library.  The original flag will be "on tour" across the state throughout the rest of the celebration.

The Indiana State Banner was designed in 1916 by Mooresville's own Paul Hadley; was adopted by the Indiana General Assembly in 1917; and was renamed the Indiana State Flag in 1955.  Click here to learn the meaning of its symbols.

Click the photos below to enlarge.  The display is situated with our Paul Hadley watercolor painting collection in the grand hall, next to the elevator and the vending machine area.

This flag is shown below in a famous photograph (circa 1923) of Paul Hadley and one of his art students crafting it specifically for the Indiana statehouse to display.

(Photo and caption courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society)

(click to enlarge)

Learn more about Paul Hadley and the Indiana State Flag by visiting our Famous Mooresvillians and local history links blog posts (scroll down until you reach the Paul Hadley sections).

Indiana State Banner presentation to

U.S. Postmaster General Harry S. New,

October 11, 1924

(Image courtesy of  the Library of Congress)

See also Poletika, Nicole.  "'A Permanent Emblem of Its Own:'  The Indiana State Flag & Its Designer."   Indiana History Blog, January 11, 2017.  Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library.  (Click here to access the blog article.)

Come Closer to Paranormal Terror

Local author Aldo Gonzalez has written an autobiographical book about his house haunting experience.  Our book trailer elaborates.

MPL Book Trailer #307
The Feeders at Night
by Aldo Gonzalez

The book will soon be available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog.  Copies may be purchased from Amazon.com and the author's Facebook page.

Photos From Sammy Davis Book Signing

Here are a few photos from last Friday's (June 3, 2016) book signing with Sammy L. Davis, Mooresville High School graduate (class of 1966) and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Click the images to enlarge.

  Dixie Davis & Sammy L. Davis

L to R:  Dixie Davis, Susan Haynes, David Reddick, Diane Huerkamp, and Sammy L. Davis

Dixie and Sammy Davis have each written books that are available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog.  Click here and here.

In the photo above, Susan Haynes is the communications director for Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation, which hosted Sammy Davis' speech last Friday evening at his alma mater, Mooresville High School.  David Reddick is Morgan County bicentennial celebration chairperson, and Diane Huerkamp is MPL executive director.

Meet Sammy Lee Davis at MPL

Meet Mooresville High School graduate (class of 1966) and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sammy Lee Davis on Friday, June 3, 2016 from 2-4 p.m. in the MPL Community Room.

Sammy L. Davis in Vietnam (circa 1967)

Sammy L. Davis in Vietnam (circa 1967)

Sammy L. Davis (right) in Vietnam (circa 1967)

Sammy L. Davis receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor

from President Lyndon B. Johnson (1968)