Our Town
A History of Monrovia, Indiana
by
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Preface My family moved to Monrovia from Indianapolis in the fall of 1977. I was part of Monrovia’s first kindergarten program in 1980 and attended Monrovia for my entire education. During grade school I participated in the youth sports programs and remember attending the first Monrovia Festival in 1984. I played football in high school and graduated in 1993. I realized the profound and lasting impact that the Monrovia school system and community had on me as a student and feel this was a strong reason I decided to come back to Monrovia to teach. After graduating high school, I attended IUPUI and later earned my bachelor of science in education from Indiana University in 1998 while working part-time at FedEx at the Indianapolis hub. I taught one year at Eminence before starting my tenure at Monrovia, which has now lasted for over twenty-five years. During my time at Monrovia, I’ve coached, sponsored clubs, and earned my masters of arts in education from the University of Indianapolis, in 2003, while also teaching various history-focused classes—from middle school social studies to high school Advanced Placement United States History. This book is a part of the continuing Local History Project started by Monrovia High School’s Advanced Placement United States History students in the fall of 2015. The purpose of the book was to compile, organize, and contribute to the existing research and to summarize the work into a chronological narrative. The scope of the book extends from the founding of Monrovia through May of 2024. However, the appendices include events from the 2024–2025 school year, excluding spring sports. The start date for this project was September 11, 2023, and the focus of the project was centered on research during the first semester of the school year. The winter break was used to organize the research and the actual writing for the project started on January 6. The rough draft was completed May 23, 2024, and revisions and editing were completed by May of 2025.. Sources The early history of Monrovia leans very heavily on several sources, the most significant being The Monrovia Sesquicentennial History Book. The book was largely the work of Virginia Jett and is a remarkable accomplishment with a wealth of information. Included in the sesquicentennial book is the first History of Monrovia, which was originally written in 1934 by Lena Henley. This work was a souvenir of the centennial celebration in the summer of 1934. Other works on Monrovia and Morgan County include The People’s Guide: A Business, Political and Religious Directory of Morgan County Indiana, written in 1874; and Counties of Morgan, Monroe and Brown by Charles Blanchard, written in 1884. Both of these sources give an overview of the history of Morgan County and then detail townships and selected towns. The Pioneers of Morgan County, written in 1915 by Noah Major, has a great overview of the history of the county, specifically economic and political issues. Finally, the Morgan County Scrapbook Volumes I and II, edited by Becky Hardin in the 1990s, are great resources for the county, townships, and towns. The volumes are very informative regarding the township schools and early churches and are cited heavily in this work. As the work progressed, the emphasis of the research and writing will shift and focus on the school. I strongly feel that the success of the town and school are related and that, in a small community, the school is the linchpin that binds us together. The research for this project became more focused on school yearbooks and on athletic and academic archived records. The first school yearbook was published in 1923 and includes a historical summary of school programs and the school itself. Yearbooks exist for the following years: 1923‒1926, 1928, and 1942‒1945, and there has been a consistent school annual from 1947 onward. Some of the yearbooks are excellent sources of information, and were consistent in reporting annual awards and accomplishments. Most of the school yearbooks, as well as other historical programs and scrapbooks, have been scanned and are posted on the Monrovia History website. The scanning was done by graduate Sam Allen, who is attending Earlham as of 2024, and high school librarian Jennifer Armour. Future scanning and updating of the Monrovia History website will be done by Aubrie Pierson, Keeley Nees, and Megan Gudaitis. Additional research from the local newspapers was used to fill in gaps throughout this book. This was done through a subscription to Newspaper.com, which allows searches to be done through thousands of newspapers from all states and time periods. Other online tools that yielded great results were Google Books and HathiTrust searches. Omissions and Errors An attempt was made to write the history of Monrovia as accurately and fairly as possible by covering in a chronological order the developments, changes, and successes of the town as well as the people and organizations. Decisions had to be made regarding which topics to include to ensure a readable narrative. Some topics were omitted due to lack of content and some were omitted due to the difficulty of connecting the subject to the larger narrative. After all, it is impossible to cover everything, and sometimes less is more.
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About the Book
Penned by a historian who lived most of his life in and around the town he loves, Our Town is a thorough [page number]-page historical record of Monrovia, Indiana. Following the first History of Monrovia, penned by Lena Henley in 1934 for the town’s centennial, and local historian Virginia Jett’s Monrovia Sesquicentennial History Book, compiled in 1984, historian Steve Reeder’s Our Town is Monrovia’s bicentennial record. Compiled by Reeder through research and the Local History Project he organized beginning in 2015 to bolster the community and to preserve and recognize its history, this book is largely a record for the community by the community. From the earliest documentation of its settlers in 1608 to its founding in 1834 and transformation in the two hundred years since, this record breaks down the community as a whole, the service of hundreds of veterans, biographical accounts of local legends like Branch McCracken, and much more. For ease of navigation, readers may refer to the nine appendices of compiled data, the thorough index, and over 600 footnote citations, making this book a proven resource for community members, historians, and genealogists alike. The only constant theme in history is change. In this book, walk through the town of Monrovia and see how it changed and grew during more than 200 years of community, service, and achievement, proving this little town has had a big impact on history.
About the Author
Steve Reeder graduated from Monrovia in 1993. Reeder attended IUPUI and received his bachelor’s degree in education in 1998. Mr. Reeder has taught for twenty-seven years—the last twenty-six at Monrovia High School. Steve and his wife, Whitney, have been married for twenty years. They enjoy traveling, watching college football, and playing with their Australian Shepherd, Summitt.