Buzz King addressing the crowd during the Hohenberger historical marker dedication last year. photo by Jeff Tryon
Down in the Hills o’ Brown County
~ by Frank Hohenberger excerpts from December 21, 1924
BUZZ KING continued from 43 He was a friend and correspondent of famed artist T. C. Steele and a friend of legendary Indiana University Chancellor Herman B Wells. Wells saw that Hohengerger’ s huge collection of historical photographs came to reside at the university’ s Lilly Library— some available to view online.
“ I wish we had been closer, I really do. I saw him, but I did not hang out with him. I’ m not sure he wanted me to. I was little.” King said.“ We regret things we didn’ t do …. That’ s part of being people.
“ When I was 10 or 12, Carey Cloud invited me up to his studio to help make Cracker Jack toys,” King recalled.“ And I turned him down. To this day, I wish I’ d done that. But then, it was probably Saturday, I had a lot of things going on.”
You can gain an appreciation for Hohenberger’ s early photographs of Brown County by visiting the new Hohenberger Bar at the Nashville House, or from a booth at the Hobnob Corner Restaurant, both at the intersection by the county courthouse.•
Stay safe and here’ s to a great reemergence.
IS
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48 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2020
It’ s been a long time since we had a real, oldfashioned Christmas in these hills. The weatherman doesn’ t supply us with the old-time quota of snow during the holidays he used to, and— well, doggone it, things don’ t seem just right. The time was when there were as many sleighs operating on the hills from November until March as there are automobiles flitting to and fro in Brown County any time of the year. The boy that was any kind of a carpenter at all, put in his spare time nailing together some kind of a frame that would hold two snugly and cozily, and the expense of courting a girl was nothing to speak of as compared with the prices of today.
In the backlots of some Nashville homes you can still see relics of the“ cutter” days and if you have time to stop and inquire about who made them, etc., you are opening up a conversation that is going to terminate with:“ Won’ t you come in for supper?” At this season of the year, when folks are gathered’ round the old fireplace to toast their shins and enjoy the apples brought up from the cellar, reminiscences are in order almost any time.
A Nashville woman was regretting very much the slipping away of old-time customs.
“ Why,” she said,“ I remember as though it were only a few years ago when we had large Christmas trees in front of the Courthouse. These were brought from Pine Bluff, and if there was enough snow on the ground— a very common thing— they were merely dragged in. And what a time we had doing the decorating! I want to tell you that we didn’ t skimp on hanging presents, either. Seems like everybody had a gift on those trees. Yes, branches bending way down. We had programs of dialogues, pieces and songs in the upstairs room of the Courthouse, and money for the local schools was raised by selling chances on a doll or a photograph album. Then we’ d wind up with a‘ most-popular-girl’ contest and you can bet the money began to jingle at a merry clip. Best of all, we had splendid order and everyone seemed to enter into the spirit of the day. •
Hohenberger’ s column appeared weekly in the Indianapolis Star newspaper from 1923 to 1932 and 1936 to 1954.