Following Paul Hadley's Footsteps, Part Quatre

UPDATED MARCH 29, 2016:  We've added some aerial images and maps to better locate where Simon Moon's cabin was situated.  Our thanks to MPL trustee Steve Saucerman for working all this out for us.

My minions and "Flat" Cauli embarked upon another adventure following in the footsteps of Paul Hadley (1880-1971), designer of the Indiana State Flag, artist, teacher, curator, and longtime Mooresville, Indiana resident.  It was really hot, humid, and, periodically, raining, so I stayed home.  As boss kitty, I can do that.  Just ask Tober, another famous library boss feline.

At either Hadley's 1931 or 1924 art exhibitions at Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, at which he taught during the period, Hadley's watercolor, "Simon Moon's Cabin," was displayed.  It was donated to Mooresville Public Library, where it hangs today in our Paul Hadley gallery.

"Simon Moon's Cabin," by Paul Hadley

(click photos to bigify)

Scowl-Face's photo leaves something to be desired, so here's a clearer image of the painting (borrowed from page 28 of this magazine article: 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]), pp. 20-29 (click here to find links to the full article.)

(Image courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society)

Since Hadley did not drive motor vehicles, his friends drove him around to various places where he could paint landscapes and structures.  Carl Harris, whose estate donated this (and another) Hadley painting to MPL, was one of Hadley's neighborly "chauffeurs."

Simon Moon (1786-1879) was a Quaker (Society of Friends) who, during the 1830's, settled land in Morgan County, Indiana (first in Gregg Township, then in Brown Township). He lived near Long Ridge, a few miles southwest of Mooresville.  "Our" Simon Moon (or, if you like, the "Bethel" Simon Moon) is often mistaken for a relative, also named Simon Moon (1784-1835), who, on May 6, 1834, founded the town (now city) of Westfield, Indiana (in Hamilton County, north of Indianapolis), along with fellow Friends Asa Bales (Mooresville's first postmaster in 1826) and Ambrose Osborne.  All had relocated to Indiana from North Carolina.  We know that the "Westfield" Simon Moon was married to Hannah (Stout) Moon (1789-1844), and both are buried in the Old Friends Cemetery Park in Westfield, while the "Bethel" Simon Moon and his wife, Lydia Moon, are both buried in the Bethel Friends cemetery (see grave markers below).  This has confused historians for many years, since the "Westfield" Simon Moon had once lived with Asa Bales in Mooresville before moving to Hamilton County.

 

The "Bethel" Simon Moon's fourth great-grandson, Richard L. Moon, has written a short book explaining the differences between him (i.e., the "Bethel" Simon Moon) and the "Westfield" Simon Moon.  Richard's book presents the evidence persuasively and compellingly, showing land ownership, deeds, maps, Friends meeting records, family trees, and other documentation that clearly indicate two separate individuals who happened to share the same name.

Inset showing "S. Moon's" land immediately

west of the Bethel Friends church

(from W.W. Richie's 1875 Map of Morgan County, Indiana)

(courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Simon Moon's cabin sat atop a hill immediately west of the Bethel Friends Meeting, founded in 1842.  The church and cemetery are still located there. Simon Moon, along with his wife, Lydia Harvey Moon (1798-1878), daughter Elmima Moon Lindley (1827-1859), and other family (daughter-in-law, grandchild), are buried in the back row of Bethel Cemetery. Most of the Moon's children, however, are buried in other Morgan County cemeteries.  Simon and Lydia share the same grave stone.

 Bethel Friends Meeting & Cemetery

(a few miles southwest of Mooresville)

The Lady With the Red Hair and "Flat" Cauli

posing at Bethel Friends Meeting

Simon Moon's grave marker (August, 2014)
on the back of Lydia Moon's grave stone

Close-up of Lydia Moon's grave marker (July 2014)
(Simon's is on the other side)

The Moon burial plots sit along an ancient fence row at the back of the cemetery, all hidden beneath weeds and brush, and we were unable to reach all of them.

Elmima Moon Lindley's grave marker (July 2014)

But let's get back to Paul Hadley's painting of Simon Moon's cabin. Looking west of the church beyond the old section of the cemetery, which rests behind the building, there stands heavy underbrush and woods.  From this vantage you can't really see the hill upon which Simon Moon's cabin once stood.

Looking west toward the Bethel Friends Meeting & Cemetery

(note heavy brush & woods behind)

Here's where Richie's 1875 map really helps us orient the Moon land and cabin, which is clearly marked almost due west of the Bethel Friends church.

Cabin location indicated on Simon Moon's land

(red line orients cabin with Bethel Friends church)

(note crook in road as shown in Hadley's painting)

(from W.W. Richie's 1875 Map of Morgan County, Indiana)

(courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Modern aerial photos place the cabin along North Bunker Hill Road.  The streetview from 2013 shows the hill upon which Simon Moon's cabin once stood, although Paul Hadley was standing further away (and downhill) when he painted his watercolor.

Aerial view orienting Simon Moon's cabin

with the Bethel Friends Meeting

(image courtesy of Google Maps, 2016)

 Close-up of aerial view (above)
(image courtesy of Google Maps, 2016)

Location of Simon Moon's cabin
(photo by Steve Saucerman, March, 2016)
(note slight swale in front of hill, as shown
in Paul Hadley's painting)

Google streetview from N. Bunker Hill Road

(looking South) also shows knoll

upon which Simon Moon's cabin once stood

(courtesy of Google Maps, Sept. 2013)

Paul Hadley's painting (again)

Simon Moon's cabin was torn down well over half a century ago.  In her history of the Bethel Friends Meeting (1958), Dela Lindley stated:

• "Simon Moon was one of the outstanding Quakers in his day, being a farmer, tanner, shoe cobbler, herb doctor, and was believed by some to be a conductor for the 'Underground Railroad.'"

"When the cabin was destroyed," wrote longtime Morgan County historian Becky Hardin, "Mrs. Lindley said there were two closed spaces [that] were discovered on either side of the fireplace large enough to hold two people. The only entrance was from the attic.  It is thought this may have been a place to hide runaway slaves, or as they were described, at that time, 'Men of Color.'"  [Hardin, Becky, The Indiana State Flag: Its Designer (Biography of Paul Hadley with Anthology of his Paintings), p. 15 (1976). Click here to find links to read a digital copy of this fine biography.]

When you're next visiting the Library, take a look at this and all of our other Paul Hadley paintings.  History in watercolor.  Pretty neat, I'd venture.

2016 Update:  Many thanks to MPL trustee Steve Saucerman for determining the location of Simon Moon's cabin based upon a comparative analysis of modern topographical maps and Richie's 1875 map.  Here's a photo of Steve on the MPL Carnegie Library's last day (January 1988).

Steve Saucerman (left) checked out items on MPL Carnegie's last day

(January, 1988), assisted by MPL Director Pat Vahey (middle)

and MPL Staffer Theresa Lucas (right)

Your Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

Cows Falling Out of the Skies!

Look out!  Cows are falling out of the skies!

Today Greenwood Public Library presented the second annual Great Cow Drop in the football field next to the library.  There were lots of fun activities, and several vendors displayed their wares and services.  Click the photos to bigify.

 The Lady With the Red Hair

sold her baskets to raise money

for the Friends of GPL

 Cow Wagon Rides

 Part of the Great Cow Parade

The Parade Begins!

 Giant Cow with a message

we kitties can get behind

 Parade ends and cow rides begin

Wave to your favorite cow

 Cow photo ops

 GPL Children's Department

doing custom face-painting

Pretty cool!

 GPL Children's Department

freestyle drawing & crafting table

 Surfing Simulator

 Bubble-making

 Bounce House

 Cornhole competition

Follow the bouncing ball!

Helicopter drops the cows

from an incredible height!

 Safe landings (even without a parachute)

What an amazing stunt!

 None the worse for wear, I'd venture

Ready for more fun

The Great Cow Drop was a tremendous success, with many lucky patrons winning donated prizes.  Everybody had a lot of fun, and proceeds helped support Greenwood Public Library.

Your Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

Following Paul Hadley's Footsteps, Part Trois

Once again, we're walking in the footsteps (pawsteps, for moi) of longtime Mooresville resident Paul Hadley (1880-1971), who designed the Indiana State Flag and was a well-known impressionist watercolor artist who taught students at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis.  If you'd like to catch our earlier installments in this series, click here.  Here, too.

Earlier today, my minions, one of my many "Flat" Caulis, and I visited the Brooklyn Bridge.

Not That One!

Let's begin by showing Paul Hadley's painting of the covered bridge that once stood in Brooklyn, Indiana, which is displayed at Mooresville Public Library.  Click the photos to bigify.

 Taken with Scowl-Face's Kodak digital camera

 Taken with the library's Canon digital camera

Compare painting with this 1911 photo of
the Brooklyn mill, dam, & covered bridge
[courtesy of Stuttgen, Joanne Raetz & Tomak, Curtis.
Morgan County (Postcard History Series) (2007).
Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, p. 87]

Hadley painted the bridge (well, more precisely, his painting OF the bridge) nearly a century ago--but probably after Brooklyn Mill was demolished in 1924 (see photo above).  The covered bridge is no longer there (neither are the dam or mill), but now there's a concrete bridge (constructed in 1948) in approximately the same spot crossing White Lick Creek at Brooklyn's edge.  You can tell by the terrain that this was the correct bridge location--plus we know the road leading into (and out of) town historically crossed the river hereabouts on the way to Brooklyn cemetery (further southward).  Plus we have that 1911 photo above (and historical caption), which pretty well nails the thing down tight.

Brooklyn Bridge Today

 The Lady With the Red Hair & "Flat" Cauli

standing upstream of the modern bridge

looking downstream (south)

along White Lick Creek

Observant readers will have noted that Hadley must have been standing downstream of the covered bridge near the eastern bank of White Lick Creek (looking north at the west end of the covered bridge). He was probably painting approximately where that fisher dude is standing in our above photo (look left beneath the bridge).  Hadley might possibly have stood in the river's shallow waters to capture the perspective.

Upstream (north) view of White Lick Creek

(the modern bridge is behind photographer)

Watch out for traffic across the bridge!

Daredevil Moi with "Flat" Cauli & the Lady With the Red Hair

The concrete bridge is certainly utilitarian, but it lacks the grace of its wooden ancestor Hadley so elegantly captured in his watercolor painting. White Lick Creek, too, looked more charming with those rocks and that little waterfall.

When I first saw Hadley's painting at my Library, I mistakenly thought it was the red covered bridge that, a century ago, spanned the East Fork of White Lick Creek on the Waverly Road (now State Road 144) at Mooresville's outskirts.  Upon closer inspection, however, it's obviously not that bridge in Hadley's painting.  See what you think.

Brooklyn's covered bridge was quite charming.  I'm glad we know its beauty, thanks to Paul Hadley.

Your Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

P.S.  Neil Diamond reflected upon his childhood days growing up in Brooklyn, New York (the other Brooklyn) in his song, "Brooklyn Roads" (1968).