the cash-carrying customers were tourists on the weekends, so they had time on their hands.
After spring planting and before fall harvesting, area farmers also sought companionship to fill the time. Pits for horseshoes were dug along the southwest edge of the courthouse square, which naturally invited the benches to be carried to this corner location for spectators. Horseshoe matches lasting from morning till dark turned into a marathon event that went on for nearly a decade, weather permitting. It’ s said that one bench was literally used to pieces and a second bench that had acquired a wobbly leg was just propped against a tree for support.
In Dillon Bustin’ s book, If You Don’ t Outdie Me( a record of the legacy of Frank Hohenberger’ s photographs of Brown County and his diary) we learn that the courthouse bench was the focal point of local loafers, and this amused the out-oftown visitors.
In 1929, the on-going horseshoe contests greatly occupied the attention of Nashville’ s menfolk. It’ s said that wives of the guilty men beat the bench to pieces under cover of a dark Halloween night, leaving the mangled remains to be found the next morning. News spread through the local community, but the greater Indiana audience didn’ t find out till it appeared on January 5, 1930 in Hohenberger’ s Indianapolis Star column,“ Down in th’ Hills O’ Brown County”.
Frank Hohenberger’ s iconic photo of the Liar’ s Bench.
They read:“ The morning after Halloween a group of mournful looking men gazed at the remains of the liars’ bench in Main Street. Scott Hamblen summed up the loss:‘ It’ s worse’ n bad. It’ s th’ ruination uv th’ town.’”
Men began meeting in the back room of the Ford garage that winter. The horseshoe games were not resurrected with the arrival of spring. Merchants collected funds to replace the bench and even had“ Liars’ Bench” painted on its backrest. It was placed in the same location in the courthouse yard, but no one— local or tourist— would sit on the new bench for some time.
The destruction of the Liars’ Bench that Halloween over a century ago has achieved legendary status that continues to this day. •
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Sept./ Oct. 2017 • Our Brown County 25