"Dating" Citizens Bank

Norman Connell

 

(Updated, December, 2024)

Norman Connell (Mooresville High School, Class of 1957) was president and CEO of Citizens Bank from 1975 until his retirement in 2001.   Norman started his career at Citizens Bank in Mooresville, Indiana in 1961 following his discharge from the U.S. Air Force.  He saved some undated, unidentified photos showing Citizens Bank when it was located on the southeast corner of Main and Indiana Streets in downtown Mooresville.  How can we date those pictures?

Knowing when Citizens Bank was at this location is a first step.  According to a Mooresville Public Library (MPL) handout, Citizens Bank occupied 3 East Main Street from 1931 to 1966.    That is a fairly large time range, however.  So our next step is to examine the photos themselves for dating clues.  (Click on the images below to enlarge them.)

(As a quick sidebar:  This structure in the photo below was commonly known as the Bass Building, constructed around 1890 and demolished in 2022 after being destroyed by the April 2020 tornado.)

There's a story behind the clock hanging on the side of the building (above).  We'll talk more about that at the end of this blog post (scroll to the bottom if you want to skip ahead; otherwise, read on).

This exterior shot of Citizens Bank (above) shows late 1950s automobiles, as well as Copeland Appliances, in the background.  The same MPL handout lists Copeland Appliances at 16 South Indiana Street (which appears in the background) from 1956-1974.  (Copeland Appliances was also located at 18-20 South Indiana Street between 1950-1974, but that's further down, out-of-shot.)  So, given these three bits of information, we can safely assume that Mr. Connell's Citizens Bank photos were taken between 1956-1966, the latter date being the last Citizens Bank was situated at the location shown. 

Can we further narrow the time frame?  Let's look at some interior photos of Citizens Bank.

 

See the calendar in the photo above?  It says, Saturday, July 20.  The twentieth of July fell on a Saturday in 1957 and in 1963.  That cinches the date.  These photos were taken on Saturday, July 20, 1957 or 1963.  But there's one factor that suggests 1957 as the correct date, and that is the photographers/developers.

 

How do we know that these photos were all taken at the same time?  They are all printed on the same type of photographic paper and appear to have been taken by the same (or a similar) camera.  More to the point, they were taken and/or developed by the same two photographers/developers, Squires Studio and Awbrey's Photo Service, both of Mooresville during the 1950s.  Their stamps appear on the backs of the photographs (see below).

What did Citizens Bank look like inside on Saturday, July 20, 1957?

Here are some Citizens Bank employees who were working that day.  None of the photos identified the persons shown, but thanks to Norman's wife, Ruth Connell, we were able to identify three of them.  You can contact Mooresville Public Library if you recognize any of the others (the library now has these pictures in its Indiana Room's banking vertical file).

Martha Sellars, maybe

Identifying Miss Sellars would be fairly easy--her name plate appeared in the photo--unless, of course, it's somebody else standing at Miss Sellars' window when this photo was taken.  So we would need another photo of Martha Sellars to compare against this one, if we're to be sure that this is Martha Sellars.  Guess that takes us back to square one.  (I seem to recall that Ruth Connell identified Martha Sellers in this picture, but I may be misremembering.  I think that's how I knew her first name was Martha, so I'm prepared to go with Ruth on this one.)

Thelma (Blaschke) Weddle and Ed Fields

 

  

Always identify the people, places, circumstances and dates of your photographs.  They might be of enormous local historical value, especially for historians and researchers.  If  you're reading this article, wouldn't you like to know those details about these "slices" of living history?

The Exterior Clock's History

In the photo (above), there's a clock hanging from the exterior of the building.  Assuming the photo was taken in 1957, we could surmise that Citizens Bank displayed such a clock at that time.  To confirm whether the clock was there then, we could, of course, compare this picture against others shown in digitized copies of Mooresville High School yearbooks from the 1950s and early 1960s, before the bank moved to its present location (in 1967) on North Indiana Street (across the street from 3 East Main Street, where it was in these photos above).  (Mooresville Public Library's Indiana Room has print copies of these yearbooks, if you'd prefer looking through those.)  One thing's for certain:  the clock was there, and it had been, in fact, since 1931, as shown in the photo (below).

1931 Citizens Bank photograph shows the exterior clock (far right)

on the Bass Building (courtesy of Citizens Bank)

Citizens Bank, which began in 1931, acquired the exterior clock from its predecessor, Farmers State Bank, which went out-of-business in 1930.  We know this because we can see the same clock as shown in advertising from 1917 and from check logos from the 1920s.

1917 advertisement from the Mooresville High School yearbook

Counter checks (1920s), with clock shown above entrance

The clock first appeared on the Farmers State Bank building in 1904, when it underwent a major renovation.  You can see the clock hanging above the entrance in this photo (below).

1904 Photo from a Farmers State Bank brochure

(Enlarged below)

You can tell it's the same clock (or, at least, the same exterior casing that holds the clock) if you compare the 1957 Citizens Bank photo with the 1904 Farmers State Bank photo and 1917 advertisement.

When Citizens Bank vacated the Bass Building to move across the street in 1967, the clock apparently didn't accompany them.  At least it doesn't appear in this photo below.

Citizens Bank advertisement photo (1967)

courtesy of Mooresville High School's yearbook,

Wagon Trails

Where did the clock end up, you may wonder?  I certainly did.  Then, one day, I noticed something incredible.  There's a clock atop a post on the south side of West Main Street, next to a parking lot (and a drive-through bank teller building), which is across from Mooresville Public Library's old Carnegie building, which is now used by Citizens Bank (plot point!).

Clock on the South Side of West Main Street

Downtown Mooresville, Indiana

Three photos (above) courtesy of Google Maps (October 2024)

The clock face is approximately the same size as the one shown in the Citizens Bank/Farmers State Bank exterior hanging frame.  What caught my attention was the clock face.  Look carefully at the numbers, especially seven.  Do you see the odd curve at the bottom of the seven?  There's a strong resemblance between the clock face number styles!  Compare the photos (below) and see what you think.

West Main Street Clock

(photo by William R. Buckley)

(December 18, 2024)

Enlargements of the 1957 photo of the exterior clock face

on the Citizens Bank building

Admittedly, it's not a perfect match between clock face number styles shown in the 1957 and 2024 photos, but their similarity is striking, and given the approximate equality in sizes of the clock faces themselves, we might surmise that the clock face currently displayed on West Main Street is the same clock, or, at least, a similarly styled clock, as the one that was once attached to Citizens Bank and, possibly, Farmers State Bank.  It's an intriguing supposition.

But that's not all we have to go by.  A few years ago, during a downtown historic walking tour I gave for patrons of Mooresville Public Library, one woman saw the clock and said that her father, who had once worked at Citizens Bank, had told her that the clock on West Main Street was the same as the hanging clock from pre-1967 Citizens Bank.  Unfortunately, we have misplaced her name, but we think she may have been Norman Connell's daughter (see photo at the beginning of this blog post).  How's that for circling around to where we started?

Farmers State Bank

Dr. Steve Nelson, an academic colleague at the University of Great Falls (Montana), was fond of positing, "Why reinvent the wheel?" whenever faced with repetitious tasks. Sound advice, this is. (Writing like Yoda in Star Wars, I am.)  So I link one of our website handouts.

Therein lies the tale of the Farmers State Bank, once a pivotal commercial landmark of Mooresville, Indiana, but, alas, this fine institution succumbed to the Great Depression. The building still stands, fortunately, at the heart of downtown--the Main and Indiana Street intersection. This is arguably the highest ground upon which the town is situated. Founder Samuel Moore, as noted Mooresville historian Wanda Potts (1921-2012) said, had the supreme good sense to plat the town on high ground to avoid flooding from nearby White Lick Creek.

(Click images to enlarge.)

Farmers Bank of Mooresville at 2 West Main Street (on the northwest corner of  the  intersection  of  Main  and  Indiana  Streets),  as  it  appeared  during  the  1880s  until  1904,  when  the  building  was  removed.    Its  replacement,  which  still  stands  today,  is  shown  in  Figure  2.    Notice  the  wooden  “guards”  around  the  tree  trunks  to  protect  the  tree bark from hungry horses.

1917 advertisement from the Mooresville High School yearbook

Counter checks (1920s)

More from Wanda later. She was the Indiana Room librarian at Mooresville Public Library (1966-2002) and was the greatest living authority on our local history. She knew everything about this community's history, and what she didn't know, never happened. (If it happened, she remembered. It was amazing, really.) You wouldn't be reading this blog right now (assuming, of course, that you're here, reading it) if it weren't for her dedication to preserving Mooresville's past.  Learn more about Wanda from this 2012 blog post and her obituary.

Mooresville, Indiana Local History Links

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VINTAGE MHS YEARBOOKS (DIGITAL PHOTOS)

Click the links below to see vintage Mooresville High School (MHS) yearbook digital photos, courtesy of the Mooresville High School Alumni Association Facebook page.

• 1909 Senior Annual
• 1911 'Levenite
• 1914 The Argos
• 1917 The '17 Packet
• 1920 The Cauldron
• 1923 White Lick Review
• 1925 White Lick Review
• 1930 Arch Wisdom

To see digitized MHS yearbooks from 1946-2017, please visit the Mooresville Public Library website.

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MEMORIES OF MOORESVILLE (VIDEO)

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).

Memories of Mooresville (2011)

by Andrew Marine Video Productions

(courtesy of the Mooresville Alumni YouTube channel)

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TAKE THE DOWNTOWN TOUR

Take our "virtual" walking tour (click link below) of historic downtown Mooresville, Indiana.  Then, using this handout, walk the self-guided route yourself.

• "Virtual" Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Mooresville, Indiana
• "Virtual" Walking Tour (Video)
  
• Self-Guided Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Mooresville, Indiana
• Handout
  

 

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FAMOUS MOORESVILLIANS

Do you recognize these famous folks who hailed from Mooresville, Indiana? Find out here.

 

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This Month's Library News (a Century Ago)

As part of our 100th anniversary celebration during 2012, we will be looking back a century to see what library news was breaking in Mooresville, Indiana.

The proverbial ball was rolling in January, 1912, as concerned citizens were circulating petitions for signature demonstrating public support for construction of a new public library in Mooresville.  This public push began in October, 1911.  The Friends Aid Society met at the home of Mrs. George Carter to campaign for a new facility. On December 12, 1911, a meeting was held at F. E. Carlisle's furniture store with representatives of local organizations, including the Likely Literary Club, Bay View Club, several churches, the Board of Education, and the school superintendent, A. C. Payne. Carrie E. Scott, librarian and a representative of the Public Library Commission, presided. Enthusiastic support prompted a public meeting on December 18, 1911 at the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church, which is now the Mooresville Town Government Center. Jacob Dunn, president of the Public Library Commission, and library board members from Plainfield and Martinsville encouraged Mooresville's efforts to reestablish its library.  By January, 1912, efforts were well under way to garner public support in town and surrounding Brown Township in Morgan County.

Apparently, public officials were confident that a new public library would be built, because local carpenters (and undertakers) Rusie & Son mailed this postcard (below) to Orleans Cabinet Company on September 19, 1911, requesting delivery of a table order for the library.  These tables were initially used in the library's temporary quarters (1913-1915) and were subsequently moved to the completed library during its construction in 1915.  One of the original tables now resides in the MPL Indiana Room.

Postcard dated 9/19/1911 from Rusie & Son to Orleans Cabinet Company

requesting delivery of library tables

(postcard courtesy of Ron Moon)

(Click images to enlarge)

Want to see what a hundred-year-old-plus library table looks like?  Drop by the MPL Indiana Room, or click the photos below.

 
As for the library's temporary quarters:  On April 18, 1913, the library leased space for a reading room in the Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Building, which was where 8 East Main Street would be today.  (2017 UPDATE:  Mooresville Bicentennial Park is now situated at this location.) This was the temporary quarters for the library until the new building was completed.

I.O.O.F. (Odd Fellows) Building

(Photo taken 7/18/1920 by Manley Brown)

Why did Rusie & Son order the library tables so early?  Mooresville's Hovey Institute and Workmen's Library (1855-ca. 1885) had leased rooms in the old Holman Johnson Building (at 9 West Main Street) during the 1870s-1880s, and although this was a subscription library that was disbanded circa 1885, the space was probably still used in 1911 to store library furniture, shelving, etc., when the building was owned by F. E. Carlisle, undertaker and furniture maker, who operated at the location from 1895 to 1948.

F. E. Carlisle owned the "new" Holman Johnson Building (built in 1895)

where library tables purchased in 1911 were probably stored.  The building is just to the left of Pace Thompson, who stood in front of his dry goods store
(not too far from the horse and buggy).  Ignore the white arrow at the top,
which points to Pace Thompson's building (ca. 1910 photo by J. P. Calvert)

1912 view of West Main Street (looking west from the intersection

with Indiana Street) in downtown Mooresville, Indiana.

The new library would be built on the right,

where the second stand of trees is visible

In the photo above, the word bank was traced in ink on the sign above the entrance to Farmers State Bank.  To see additional photos of downtown Mooresville during this time period, click here and here and here.  For yet more history about downtown, just browse this blog's archives.

In January and February, 1912, officials of the town government began searching for prospective sites for the new library.  Stay tuned to learn some of the surprising possible locations that were initially selected, and the resultant public furor that shaped the final decisions.

McCracken Hotel & Restaurant (1912)

Here's a teaser:  The eventual library locale was directly across from this popular restaurant.

Want to take a walking tour of downtown Mooresville? Probably not in January, but here's some information, anyway. Watch our local history trailer, too. Too busy to take the downtown walking tour? We have a virtual alternative.

Flash From Your Past (Historical Flashcard Series)

FLASH FROM YOUR PAST

Here's a "flash from your past," if you're a long-time Mooresville resident.  We present our local history flashcard series, featuring old photographs in and around Mooresville and northern Morgan County, Indiana.  Just click the links below to see each flashcard.

• Flashcard #1:  Farmers State Bank
• Flashcard #2:  Mooresville's First Police Car
• Flashcard #3:  Day Grocery
• Flashcard #4:  Covered Bridge on the Old Waverly Road
• Flashcard #5:  Mooresville Sanatarium (i.e., Sanitarium)
• Flashcard #6:  Sam Wade
• Flashcard #7:  Dr. William L. Thompson, M.D. (see this blog post for the flashcard)
• Flashcard #8:  Banner Flour Mill
• Flashcard #9:  Bolton Sorghum Factory
• Flashcard #10:  Comer & Scearce Lumber Company
• Flashcard #11:  Indiana Brass & Iron Bed Factory
• Flashcard #12:  McCracken House (Restaurant & Hotel)
• Flashcard #13:  Allison Grocery
• Flashcard #14:  Northside of West Main Street (1960s)
• Flashcard #15:  Pure Oil Gasoline Station
• Flashcard #16:  Henry Conduitt House (later Comer Sanitarium & Kendrick Hospital)
• Flashcard #17:  Burch Grocery
• Flashcard #18:  Scruggs Dry Goods Store
• Flashcard #19:  Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church
• Flashcard #20:  Mooresville Public Library
• Flashcard #21:  Samuel Moore & Eliza Moore
• Flashcard #22A:  "Old" Town Park
• Flashcard #22:  Old Settlers Picnic #1:  Origins
• Flashcard #23:  Old Settlers Picnic #2 (Rocking Chair Competition)
• Flashcard #24:  Old Settlers Picnic #3:  Parade
• Flashcard #25:  Indiana State Flag (& Paul Hadley)
• Flashcard #26:  Amos Rusie, "the Hoosier Thunderbolt" (all-star professional baseball pitcher)
• Flashcard #27:  Mooresville Town Banner (Flag)
• Flashcard #28:  Mooresville Academy School
• Flashcard #29:  Old Mooresville High School
• Flashcard #30:  I.O.O.F. (Odd Fellows) Building
• Flashcard #31:  First Christian Church
• Flashcard #32:  Fall Creek Furniture Company
• Flashcard #33:  Mooresville Friends Church
• Waverly Flashcard #1:  Waverly School #1
• Waverly Flashcard #2:  Waverly School #2

The Decorinator's Living Legacy

We at Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library (MPL) were shocked earlier this week to learn that our long-time volunteer, Beth Hensley, had passed over (see her obituary online).  Just the previous week, she had dropped by the library to help with assorted projects.  It's heartbreaking to think that she's now gone.

 "Beth on Tuesdays" volunteering at Mooresville Public Library (2011)

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

"Beth-in-the-Box" at MPL (ca. 2005-2006)

 

Beth had volunteered weekly at the library (mostly on Tuesdays--hence, her nickname, "Beth on Tuesdays") since the late 1980s (either 1987 or 1988, depending upon who you were asking), but her ties with MPL reach back to 1953, when she began teaching at Mooresville High School (1953-1955).  She taught English and was the school librarian.

 Beth's faculty photo from the 1955

Mooresville High School Yearbook, Wagon Trails

 

Beth with her student library staff and her faculty photo

 from the 1954 Mooresville High School Yearbook, Wagon Trails

 

Between those yearbooks (specifically, on June 13, 1954), Beth married Mooresville native Maurice Hensley (1927-2017), who was longtime postmaster at the Mooresville post office, among the many businesses he and Beth operated together in town.  Their Jack & Jill Shop, a children's clothing store, flourished in downtown Mooresville (in the Farmers State Bank building) from the mid-1950s through the early 1960s.  The couple also owned and operated Hensley Coal & Oil Service from the mid-1950s through the 1970s.

 

 Hensley business advertisements from the 1956

Mooresville High School Yearbook, Wagon Trails

 

 

 

Beth standing outside the site of the Hensley's

Jack & Jill Shop (December 7, 2021)

 

Since 1953, Beth worked closely with Mooresville Public Library, as she wanted her lessons at the high school to support, and be supported by, the library's programs and resources.  When she retired from teaching, she continued working with the library in her spare time to support its activities.  Beth volunteered for dozens of MPL staffers, and she was also a member of the library's board of trustees during the 1980s.  Her devotion to the library spanned a lifetime.

Beth's contributions as a library volunteer were legendary.  She was honored in 2019 by the Indiana Library Federation for her efforts to enhance library service to the community.

Beth receiving the 2019 ILF Library Champion award

 

As a volunteer, Beth was supremely creative.  For decades she designed a multitude of displays, decorations, arts and crafts, and youth program materials.  Today, almost anywhere you're standing at the library, if you turn in any direction, you will see something that Beth created.  Her ingenuity was amazing.  She could construct anything from cardboard and construction paper.  Give her scissors, glue, string, wire, pens, markers, and a few other odds and ends, and she could make everything beautiful and interesting.  There isn't room for all the photos of her creations, but you may see many of them on our Cat's Eye View @ MPL blog.  The blog's author, Cauli Le Chat, who served as MPL feline roving reporter from 2010-2019, called Beth The Decorinator because she was all-powerful in crafting and artsy stuff.

I cannot overemphasize the significance of Beth's arts and crafts work to the library and its staff and patrons.  It is a joy to see kids' and caregivers' faces light up when they see one of Beth's "crawl-through" creations at the MPL youth services entrance, or a book-themed display atop bookshelves or in display cabinets.  Beth's backdrops for our adult programs (often featuring noted authors or speakers) were jaw-dropping; her attention to detail and cleverness in composition were stunning to behold.  (Here's just one example; there are many, many more.)

Beth's 2016 Igloo Tunnel (climb-through)

in front of MPL Youth Services entrance

Beth sitting in a rocking chair (above) and with

author Philip Gulley (below) at a 2009 library program

Beth loved working with the library's staff--most often, with the youth services department--to develop arts and crafts for various programs, events, displays, or just to promote items available to checkout.  For example, kids loved her beds and sleeping bags (made from surplus cardboard and fabric) for the overnight stuffed animal sleepovers.

Beth's cardboard beds and fabric sleeping bags

for the library's 2011 Teddy Bear Sleepover

Apart from her artistic talents, Beth was an encyclopedia of local knowledge.  She knew practically everyone in town, and she could recite familial relationships (and places families lived) off the top of her head.  More times than I can count, she filled-in missing details about Mooresville history that had stumped my best research efforts.  What's more, Beth valued the community's local history and the ways the library strove to preserve it.  For example, for decades Beth clipped obituaries from the Mooresville and Martinsville newspapers to place on file (and, more recently, to digitize and upload to our online database, Legacy Links).  She made sure that those important pieces of historical and genealogical information were retained.

Beth also had an amazing memory for academic information.  She could still recite poems she memorized decades before while attending high school or college (Indiana State Teacher's College, now Indiana State University), and she was an enthusiastic supporter of reading for all ages.

While Beth appreciated the practical value of technologies in libraries, she firmly believed that it was important for people to know how to function without the benefit of computerized gadgets.  "They still need to know what they can accomplish with just pencil and paper," Beth once said.  "The old ways of doing things can still be useful."

As part of her funeral planning, Beth arranged that memorial contributions could be made to Mooresville Public Library.  That was so like her--always thinking of how best she, and others, could help the library serve the community.  I can't imagine what we will do without her.  But, everyday, whenever we are assisting patrons, MPL staffers will reflect for a moment and ask, "What would Beth have done to make this better?"  Better was Beth's byword.  It will be her lasting legacy to us. We're honored to have known, and worked with, her, and we trust that all who come after will enjoy her creativity on display throughout the library.  "The Decorinator" was truly an inspiration to us all.

 

POSTSCRIPT:  Here are some photos of Beth Hensley's creations (and a display honoring Beth) that you may now see in the library's grand hall.