Cat's Eye View @ MPL: More of My Feline Genealogy

Click Genealogy Chart to Bigify

On my paternal grandmother's side of my feline family tree, we begin tracing backwards to my Grammy, Sweet Pea Kitty, whose parents were Sugarfoot and Tweetie Pie.? That's as many boxes as this blank genealogical chart has available, but we may continue into the past, if you can imagine box pairs extending backwards along the Sweet Pea Kitty line.? Sort of like nested boxes, only they don't fit inside one another (although I bet they could, if you pushed them a bit).

Sugarfoot's parents were Tiger Paws and Maw Kettlecat.? Then there is a gap in the names along my feline genealogical record--not unusual for us cats, unfortunately--but we have strong evidence that, despite not knowing their names, several generations of this line of my family all lived within a five square mile area?that straddles Brown and Madison Townships (Morgan County) a few miles east of Mooresville, Indiana, along what was then known as the Waverly Road (and is now State Road 144).? The closest community "marker" to?my "Sweet Pea" ancestral stomping grounds?is Five Points, and the Rooker Trace, an ancient settlers' path between Mooresville and Waverly, ran close by.

Early settlers in the area in which many of my

"Sweet Pea" ancestral line worked and lived

from 1829 through the 1890s

(Click to Bigify)

(from Boyd, Gregory A.? Family Maps of Morgan County, Indiana,

Deluxe Edition (Arphax Publ., 2005), pp. 108, 110

Our historical records indicate that, in approximately 1819,?the Pennington family settled along the southeast side of what?are now known as Pennington and Orchard Roads, but Boyd's maps show this land settled by John Pool in 1825.? My feline ancestors lived and worked on the farms that had been originally settled by? Jesse S. Rooker (1825),?the Carpenters (Michael C., John, and Daniel, 1829-1835), Thomas Gregory (1834), and Carlton Grisham (1826).? My "Sweet Pea" lineage ancestors lived in this area for?over half a century.? One of these relatives moved to downtown Mooresville in 1877 (more about that, right now, in fact).

In 1877, Jesse S. Rooker's son, Samuel Moore Rooker, who was the first baby born in Mooresville, constructed his home (to replace one that had burned down) along West Harrison Street near downtown (everything was near downtown in those days).? The house still stands at its original location.? In 1877, "Captain" Rooker, as he was known from his Civil War service, had taken Abooksigun (Algonquin for wildcat) (1872-1881), a descendant of Queen Rebekah, one of his father's cats (see more below), from the family farm (near Five Points) to his newly rebuilt?house in town.??Several of my "Sweet Pea" ancestry line (from 1877 to the present) have lived in the West Mooresville area.? It's where I call home,?much of the time.? I also frequently visit my feline pioneers' "near Five Points" settlements.

Samuel Moore Rooker's new house (1877) with Abooksigun,
his loyal kitty, standing just inside the gate (not visible in this photo)

(from Morgan County Scrapbook, Vol. I [B. Hardin, ed., 1985], p. 285)

Rooker House (2009), formerly owned by

Samuel Moore Rooker's granddaughter,

Helen York Cook & her husband, Claire Cook

Abooksigun's ancestor,?Queen Rebekah (1826-1840),?was given in 1829 to Jesse S. Rooker as a gift from Samuel Moore, founder of Mooresville, Indiana.??Queen Rebekah was a female "mouser" who had earned a reputation for clearing rodents from grain storage buildings.??Her grandfather, 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.? Hippolyte, then, could be considered a "founding feline" of my hometown.

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)

Who said feline genealogy was any easier than it is for people?

Proud to Have Pioneer Roots,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Genealogical News Beat

P.S.? My Library's book trailer for Pioneer Cat (1988), by William H. Hooks and Charles Robinson (illustrator), includes the coonskin capped feline photo above.? The book is available in our online Evergreen Indiana catalog. P.P.S.? Family legend says that Hippolyte was an all-grey kitty, like the pioneer cat above.? This reminded moi of "Grey Sky Eyes," by Carbon Leaf, from the group's debut album, Indian Summer (2004).

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