Sam Parks at the old log jail in Nashville. Frank M. Hohenberger. The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
Sam Parks
~ by Julia Pearson
Brown County’ s old log jail was an early draw for the“ leaf peepers” that come to the area every fall to view the countryside’ s autumn beauty and the artist colony. Sam Parks, farmer-turned-sheriffturned entrepreneur leased the old jail and converted it to a museum of pioneer curiosities and artifacts. He collected admission fees of a dime from each of the many tourists, amassing $ 1,200 within two years. Frank Hohenberger immortalized Parks sitting on the iron doorsill of the jail, posing with a gun from the displays.
Years earlier, Sam Parks found himself in charge of his family’ s farm when just eighteen. Marrying Ida Hedrick, who would inherit her parents’ farm, Parks set about looking for a livelihood that did not involve labor and plows. He worked as a policeman in nearby Bloomington for several years. This must have been agreeable work because Parks then nominated himself in the Brown County Democratic party primaries for the position of sheriff. He was elected in 1902 and 1904, despite his fondness for whiskey, gambling, and all-around rowdiness. 1906 found him back on the farm and out of public service.
Dillon Bustin’ s If You Don’ t Outdie Me: The Legacy of Brown County( Indiana University Press, 1982), describes the shift in the years following World War I to mechanized farming methods, leaving hundreds of families in hilly areas unable to pay for mortgage and taxes. Farmsteads were abandoned or sold, and longtime families were moving out. Outsiders were moving in, building summer and weekend vacation cottages,
52 Our Brown County • July / August 2018