The next generations had decisions to make— stay or leave. The ones that stayed continued the ways of their parents and grandparents. They hunted and foraged, and farmed the ridge tops and hillsides. They raised animals, spun wool, wove cloth, and made do. They were a proud and independent people.
Famous artists first discovered the county back at the turn of the twentieth century, drawn here by the natural beauty of the land. For the most part, they tended to cluster in and around Nashville, and ignored the natives.
In the general mix of the artists were a couple of newspaper fellers who wound up defining Brown County.
One was a cartoonist and quipster name Kin Hubbard. Hubbard gave the world a view of the county and its citizens through the eyes of a character he named Abe Martin in syndicated cartoons that were a weekly feature of the Indianapolis News and other papers across the country.
The other was a columnist for the Indianapolis Star who left the big city for a simpler existence as a nature photographer.
Hohenberger was a newspaper man by trade and a photographer by vocation. He came to Brown County to practice nature photography but developed a sideline taking portraits of the local folks. He led a rather conflicted existence being from the big city and bringing in a bias against what he considered to be a rustic and backward ways of the locals. This he displayed in a column he wrote for the Indianapolis Star entitled,“ Down in the Hills o’ Brown County.”
His column generated considerable animus among the general population so that, while he was somewhat tolerated in Brown County, Hohenberger was never really accepted. But what he did do was to memorialize a fair number of people who embody the character of the county. His portraits of Grandma Barnes and her husband“ Wash” show the pride and determination of people who got a living from the earth.
He documented the“ Liars Bench” and the old log jail. He took pictures of the brothers, Chris and Felix Brummett who look like they stepped right out of an Abe Martin cartoon panel. Their grandfather George and his brother Banner Brummett were the founders of Nashville. He captured images of Aunt Molly Lucas, the Bohall family of basket weaving fame and many more. It is in those very pictures that the character of the county is revealed.
Frank Hohenberger continued to document the character of the people and the land of Brown County from 1917 until his death in1962. You can see quite a few of his pictures on the lower level of the Brown County library and while you’ re there, you can check out a book by Dillon Bustin, entitled, If You Don’ t Outdie Me. It has pictures by Hohenberger and stories of the people who are examples of the character of Brown County. •
Women’ s boutique, kids and teen clothing, men’ s clothing, and household items
Selling gently used items to benefit Brown County. Accepting clothing and household item donations.
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Open ALWAYS on Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00 to 5:00( weather permitting)
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South Van Buren in Nashville( near stoplight, behind Subway)( 812) 988-6003
March / April 2020 • Our Brown County 53