Cat's Eye View @ MPL: genealogy

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Mooresville's Founding Feline

Nearly a year ago, Scowl-Face gave a program (motto: At least there was cake served) at the library about Mooresville, Indiana's founder, Samuel Moore, and his wife, Eliza Worthington Moore. He's also blogged about the couple. We have a ton of stuff about them on our website.

"Narration" of Samuel Moore at the Old Settlers Picnic (1885),

by Mooresville Public Library

Those who attended Scowl-Face's program will back moi up here ("booorrring!"), so I thought you might be interested in learning more about Mooresville's founding feline, who happened to be an ancestor of yours truly. His name was Hippolyte, who was Samuel Moore's cat.

Hippolyte (1817-1828) travelled with the Moore family from North Carolina when they migrated to Indiana (in 1819), and (in 1822) Hippolyte accompanied Samuel Moore when he moved to Brown Township in Morgan County. Mooresville was founded in 1824.

We have no artist renderings of Hippolyte, but we do have a reenactor photo showing my feline pioneer ancestor.

Reenactor photo of Hippolyte, my feline pioneer ancestor, as Hippolyte may have looked on the Moore family's northern migration to and within Indiana (1819-1822)

Hippolyte was a "mouser" who had earned a reputation for clearing rodents from Samuel Moore's trading post and storage cabins where he kept perishable supplies, dry goods, and assorted items for sale to the public. The trading post was situated atop a hill approximately where today's V.F.W. Post #1111 now stands on South Indiana Street, a few hundred feet east of White Lick Creek. Moore's storage cabins were also nearby this location.

VFW Post #1111

411 South Indiana Street

Mooresville, IN 46158

(visit their Facebook page)

In 1824, when Samuel built his wood-frame general store in downtown Mooresville (on the northeast corner of Main and Indiana Streets), Hippolyte took up service there. Rattermeeses (sometimes also spelled rattermeeces) go where the food is, so there's always a need for good feline hunters to keep edible merchandise safe for folks to buy.

As a proud descendant of Hippolyte, I am another in a long line of pioneer kitties who have called Mooresville home. (Take a peek at my feline genealogy to learn more about my family history.) Our town's humans should hold a parade in our honor sometime. At least we deserve a float in the annual Old Settlers' parade. Just saying.

Your (Retired) Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

Monday, February 29, 2016

My Retirement Travels, Part Trois

Since my retirement as MPL feline roving reporter last year, I've been world-travelling. We've already talked about my visits to Montana (in search of relatives) and Peru. Next on my itinerary was Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, France, birthplace of my ancestor, Cyrano Le Chat (1924-1937), about whom I blogged previously. As always, click the photos to bigify.

Moi sitting next to the statue of

Jacques Tati (as Monsieur Hulot)

(from Tati's film comedy, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday [1953])

(sculpture by Emmanuel Debarre) (erected in 1999)

at La Plage de M Hulot ("Monsieur Hulot's Beach)

Saint-Marc-sur-Mer is a seaside resort located six kilometres (3.7 miles) west of the center of the town of Saint-Nazaire. I was able to locate Cyrano's birthplace in Saint-Marc-sur-Mer. The house has been heavily renovated but was originally built around 1920.

Birthplace of Cyrano Le Chat

Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, France

(House constructed circa 1920)

Cyrano was a superb "mouser," as humans call cats adept at catching rattermeeces (sometimes also spelled rattermeeses), so, in 1926, Cyrano became ship's cat first class aboard the French passenger liner, S.S. Île de France, which was built in Saint-Nazaire and was the first post-World War I French vessel to exceed 40,000 tons.

S.S. Île de France (1926)

Cyrano disembarked in New York City to requisition canned tuna-in-oil for his feline shipmates when he was abducted by a sixteen-year-old American girl from Brooklyn, Clarice Monsanto, who was at the docks awaiting her grandparents' arrival on another ship. Clarice assumed Cyrano was a stray who needed a home. So, like it or not, he had one, in which he eventually settled down.

I wandered the beach and resort, in which we had a very nice room. My tour minions were able to capture some decent photos, but not including moi. What's up with that?