Morgan County

By Joanne Raetz Stuttgen and Curtis Tomak

Based solely on vintage postcards, this important new book is a unique addition to the small number of works devoted to the history of Morgan County. Captured here in more than 220 commercially produced and personal real-photo postcards is a chronicle of the past 100 years in Martinsville (the county seat), Mooresville, Morgantown, Waverly, and other communities that have been imprinted on the local landscape. This visual record showcases the people, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, recreation sites, and events that shaped Morgan County'including the famous mineral water sanitariums, landmark buildings and bridges, favorite fishing holes and resorts, and disasters such as the 1913 flood of the White River.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: May 23, 2007
• ISBN: 9781439634974

Joanne Raetz Stuttgen

Joanne Raetz Stuttgen is a folklorist and cultural resources specialist active in local history research and historic preservation. Curtis Tomak, an archaeologist with the State of Indiana, is an avid collector of vintage postcards and local memorabilia.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY OF POSTCARDS

This is a book about postcards, but even more, it is a book about the history of Morgan County as illustrated by postcards.

Morgan County was established in 1822 and is located in south-central Indiana, immediately southwest of Indianapolis. It is a rural area of about 409 square miles with a population of approximately 70,000. Martinsville (population about 13,000) is the county seat and the largest town, and Mooresville is the only other sizeable town. There have been numerous towns and communities in Morgan County. Among those shown on present-day maps are Bethany, Brooklyn, Centerton, Eminence, Hall, Lewisville, Little Point, Mahalasville, Martinsville, Monrovia, Mooresville, Morgantown, Paragon, and Waverly. Those are the ones for which we have seen postcards and the ones represented in this book.

Many more postcards are available for Martinsville than for any other Morgan County location. A substantial number are known for Mooresville and Bethany Park, but postcards for other locations occur in noticeably smaller numbers with only a few or no cards known for some places. As a result, this publication could have been heavily weighted toward Martinsville. However, this is a Morgan County book, and since it has a size limit and postcards from other places are less often seen, we emphasized non-Martinsville postcards. However, a nice selection of uncommon Martinsville cards is included, and we hope to feature many more in a later Martinsville postcard book. Over 200 postcards are pictured in this book. Dates given in the picture captions refer to the postmark date with circa dates being an estimate based upon the type of postcard.

Joanne proposed doing this book and invited me to participate. The undertaking greatly benefits from her extensive knowledge of Morgan County history and her research experience. My postcard collection was a starting point for the book. Together we put much effort into locating other postcards and have had good success with that. Those who contributed are listed in the acknowledgments, and we are very grateful to them.

The formal term for the study and collecting of postcards is deltiology, which derives from a Greek word referring to a small writing tablet. Over the years, the terms postcard (post card) and postal card have been used in various ways and contexts. However, in a technical sense postcard has come to mean a privately printed card to which a postage stamp is affixed, whereas postal card refers to a government-printed card that has a preprinted stamp.

Deltiology has become one of the most popular collecting activities in the United States. This is evidenced by the large and continually growing number of postcard collectors, dealers, and organizations such as the Indianapolis Postcard Club. Organized in 1975, it has about 115 members, holds monthly meetings, and now hosts two shows per year where postcards are bought, sold, traded, and exhibited. The volume of postcard business conducted on eBay further attests to the interest in and demand for postcards.

People collect postcards for various reasons. Some collections reflect an interest in a particular topic. Examples are interurban and railroad trains and depots, sports, high schools, Route 66, restaurants, comic cards, occupations, archaeology, politics, parks, postal history, famous people, drugstores, theaters, royalty, holiday and greeting cards, children, advertising, courthouses, and animals.

Many collections are based upon an interest in the history of certain places or events, memories, experiences, associations with people and places, and/or personal and family history. For example, someone may collect just the city of Wabash, anything Morgan County, or a combination of hometown, current place of residence, and father’s hometown. Some places, such as French Lick and West Baden, may be collected just because they are interesting or unusual.

There are many postcards that are so attractive that they are desirable as objects of art. Often cards are sought that have been illustrated by a particular artist with those that are signed (printed signature) being more desirable. Some search for postcards manufactured by a particular company or taken by a specific photographer. For instance, the white-, gray-, and silver-bordered view cards (see page 16, bottom) made by the Wayne Paper Box and Printing Corporation of Fort Wayne during the early 1930s to the late 1940s are a favorite of some collectors. Others, for example, may collect the fine real-photo postcards made by J. Inbody of Elkhart during the 1907 to 1915 time period.

Some people are interested in postal history and collect old postcards because of their cancel marks and postmarks from post offices that no longer exist. The image on the front of the card or the type of card is usually of little or no real importance.

Collections may also focus on certain categories of postcards as exemplified by the following four kinds of cards.

Real-photo postcards are cards that are actual black-and-white photographs printed onto photographic paper having a postcard back (see page 15, top). They are quite popular because of the quality of the image. Although actual photographic postcards of one kind or another have continued to be produced, what are typically thought of as real-photo postcards date from approximately 1900 into the 1920s.

View cards are postcards that basically show scenes or views of such things as towns, buildings, and landscapes (see page 77). This is a standard and popular kind of card. The time span for what are regarded as view cards is from the 1890s to the present.

A multiview postcard is a card that has from 2 to at least 19 separate views on it (see page 81, top). Typically the views are images of individual view cards for a particular place. Examples are multiviews of towns or university buildings. Multiviews are collectible cards with the general time span of vintage examples being from the 1890s into the 1930s.

Pennant postcards are generic postcards that have a picture of a pennant on the front (see page 55, bottom). Often the name of a town is printed on the pennant, and typically the card also has an image of the town, people, or cartoon characters and a witty line or two about the town. They basically date from about 1907 to 1915.

Although there