Cindy Jacobs’ MVL
Photo: MVL
Author Cindy Jacobs displays her MHS Blue Devil yearbooks, along with her three books Images of America: Around Lake Norman, Images of America: Mooresville, and Legendary Locals of Mooresville. Cindy is due to release a new book for Mooresville’s 150th Birthday celebration in 2023.
We sat with Author and local Historian, Cindy Jacobs and asked her to reflect on her life in Mooresville. She’s so enthusiastic about sharing the history of this town, that we could hardly convince her to talk about herself. She is one of those rare people who understand the value of historical knowledge informing present day decisions. It would be an understatement to say Cindy Jacobs is a treasure and trove, exemplifying what Mooresville has always been about.
When did you know you wanted to become a writer?: “I didn’t! In 1981, I convinced the Tribune to put some emphasis on Lake Norman…We called it The Summer Magazine. There needed to be a history component to it, and so we started with the History of Lake Norman in 1957, then traced it back to 1898. The articles just evolved into how it went from a river to a lake….The more I found out, through research and in talking with people, the more I found out what I didn’t know about where I had lived all my life. And that was a shocking thing! So when the Tribune decided they didn’t want to publish The Summer Magazine anymore, we started Lake Norman Magazine.“
What is it about history?: “I’ve found that everything is attached to everything else. And these personalities…they really come through. Like, when I read the original minutes of the Mooresville Cotton Mills. I went up to Durham because that’s where they are. Well, they’ve never been scanned, so you have to go through each page. Originally I thought I’d just get a few quotes and then come home! But instead, I found I was reading every page. Fifty Two trips to Durham later, I still wasn’t done! But when I picked up those pages I could just hear Samual Lowrance saying, ‘How many bricks can we order?’ And by the way, it was three-hundred-fifty-two-thousand.”
Why do you write about Mooresville’s history in particular?: “Because it’s so important to know it. In my High School history class, we talked about the Great Depression. We discussed the recovery, the WPA and the CCC, and all that. But nobody ever told us that the playground at Park View School was built by the CCC. Nobody ever told us that the WPA sponsored our Library. They never used local examples to illustrate the recovery of the Great Depression.
I stand our local history up against anyplace…and to me, there is no greater story than the development of the Catawba River by Williams States Lee. Yet we never took a school field trip to see Lake Norman being built!”
So, history gives us perspective?: “How can you understand and appreciate…for example, what Kirk Ballard over at the Chamber of Commerce does to bring small businesses together, without first knowing that in 1907, a group of local merchants got together and managed to build the components of this town? They weren’t particularly educated or insightful. They didn’t have any magic tricks, and certainly no ‘Spidey’ vision. But instinctively, as a group and as individuals, they said ‘Hey, we need this! How are we going to do this?’ And they found a way. If you don’t know that, and appreciate that, how will you bring it forward?”
Why is Mooresville interesting?: “What I’ve found in our history is people paying attention. Sure, there have been mistakes and questions like ‘Why did you do that because it didn’t work,’ etc. But decisions were made based on need and thoughtfulness. You clamor for change, because of need. But you build a better mousetrap to fix it. Take the building of the War Memorial for example. The slogan was ‘We Shall Remember’. That was the reason for building it… to remember the sacrifice that this community and its people made during WWII. Whether you were killed or not killed, you still made a sacrifice. The town’s people decided this, not the government. It was led by the Maids and Matrons who said, ‘we need to honor this.’ These were the women who gave their community house to a new organization called the civic planning council for two things: to honor those war sacrifices, and to provide a place for recreation, which would be a lifelong commitment to the town. No different than Samual Lowrance giving his house to use as a hospital. They wanted to create a community resource that would be everlasting. People donated what they could, and It was a community funded thing.”
What’s your hope for the future?: “I wish for leadership that is intuitive, interested, and excited about what we have and the reason we have it. Not everything (and not every moment) is about the future. And it’s not about the past either necessarily. There is a moment in the present that blends both. You have to grasp that, and you have to say, I’m looking for this. It’s here. I recognize it, and now I can move forward. What we need is not to erase and overbuild history… we need to enhance it. You should do something not just because you can, but because you should.”
Cindy Jacobs, what’s your MVL?: “It’s the vibrancy that has been here since Day One. It’s the thoughtfulness of what can be, and ‘how can we do it?’ It’s John Moore in 1856, knowing the train was going to come through anyway, and that it needed to stop here and pick up WM Neel’s fourteen-thousand-dozen eggs and take them somewhere. It’s that he stood up there in Shepherd’s and said, ‘We’ll take it!’ And he gave them a lot for the depot.”
