COMMON GROUNDS
COFFEE BAR It’ s like a coffee shop in a living room( with things to amuse you)
Hot, Cold & Frozen Drinks • Selection of Teas Froothies( our fruit smoothies)
Famous for Cheesy Eggs & Toast • Pastries • Quiche
66 N. Van Buren, Nashville( Molly’ s Lane behind the red door) Opens 8:00 am M-Sat; 9:00 am Sun( Closed Wed) 812-988-6449
201 N. Van Buren St. • Nashville, IN
Private Bedroom with King Bed Dining Area and Fully Equipped Kitchenette Living Room with Queen Sofa Sleeper • Private Porch / Balcony Fireplaces and Whirlpool Baths Available
812-988-9000 www. hiddenvalleyinn. net
FREE in-store demos!
Established 2001
Old School Way and Pittman House Lane
( next to the Toy Chest, behind Yesteryear Old Time Photos)
Visit our website for class schedules www. wishfulthinking-in. com • 812-988-7009
Old McDurbin Gold &
Gifts
Customized
• Anklets
• Bracelets
• Necklaces
Watches Sterling Silver Rings
1000’ s of Pendants
50 % OFF JEWELRY
Blue building in Antique Alley S. Jefferson St. • Nashville, IN
42 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2021
LESTER NAGLEY continued from 41 He signed his pieces,“ The Vagabond Artist of Brown County.”
Exhibitions of his work were held in the home of pioneer Brown County farm dealers, Mr. and Mrs. John Kirtz; the community building that is the old log museum in the present-day Pioneer Village; the Hotel Washington; and shows in Greenfield and Terre Haute. One of his paintings was purchased by Indiana Attorney General Omer Stokes.
Nagley worked on his own publicity and was a photographer as well. In 1942 he was elected Justice of the Peace at Trevlac in Jackson Township. He spent fifteen years writing essays that were compiled into a book entitled, Interviewing God.
As a columnist he wrote“ Hoosier Vignettes” for the Greenfield Daily Reporter, and“ On the Liar’ s Bench in Brown County” for the Hancock County Democrat. This spread the news of the tranquil natural beauty awaiting his readers at the end of a car ride to Brown County. It also interested many Indianapolis folk in excursions by the Illinois Central Railroad, completed in 1907, in the special rates to Helmsburg, amplifying the tourist industry of Brown County.
With his Indianapolis connections and people skills, Nagley is credited in 1943 as leading a Sunday art-buying expedition of A. C. B. Shafer of Indianapolis to purchasing the highest number of paintings by an individual in the Brown County Art Colony: several of Nagley’ s own watercolors, a pastel painting done by Henshaw, a spring study and autumn landscape by Bessire, a small oil painting from Bohm, and three paintings from Williams.
Many of his early photographs were displayed in a photo-feature during the Indiana Sesquicentennial in the Indianapolis Star Sunday Magazine entitled“ Do You Remember.” He has the noted distinction of taking the first color photograph in Indiana in April, 1915. He is also credited with taking the first synchronized flash picture of President Woodrow Wilson at Union Station in Indianapolis in 1917. Nagley took the last photograph of James Whitcomb Riley,“ The Children’ s Hour.”
Lester Nagley and his wife, Alvenia, had three children: sons Lester, Jr. and William; and daughter, Betty Lou. When he died in February, 1967, in Community Hospital, Indianapolis, Nagley left behind six grandchildren and one great-grandchild along with his many friends in the Masonic Lodge, Broad Ripple Methodist Church, and the Indianapolis Press Club.•