of the Flood Control Act of 1944 and the Army Corps of Engineers, the entire town of Elkinsville was condemned, purchased, and destroyed so Lake Monroe could be built. The stories of the 19 displaced families are told in: Elkinsville, Indiana: The Town That Was, edited by Robert Cross and Oliver and Nancy Deckard.
The beginnings of many a home library is Dillon Bustin’ s If You Don’ t Outdie Me: The Legacy of Brown County. Bustin spent many Sunday suppers at the Nashville House when he was a child— standing on the counter to see Frank Hohenberger’ s photographs up close while his family had their special meal together. Years later, he pored over archival boxes of the Hohenberger collection at Indiana University’ s Lilly Library. If You Don’ t Outdie Me is the fruit of his studying the photographs and diary of Hohenberger.
The inspiration for the rustic characters you see depicted on Brown County signs and in the state park lodge comes from the literary gold of Frank McKinney“ Kin” Hubbard. Hubbard’ s character, Abe Martin, first appeared in the Indianapolis News in1904 with sayings about Brown County folks. The syndicated cartoon strips starring Abe Martin and his neighbors were compiled into 25 annual editions of Abe Martin’ s Brown County Almanack, along with many other books. In 1984, David S. Hawes put together a book called The Best of Kin Hubbard with musings about Hubbard’ s life and career in addition to some of Abe’ s best sayings. A paperback version was published in 1995.
Written in 1938 for younger readers is Abigail, by Portia Sperry and Lois Donaldson. Frontier Indiana is experienced by a young girl named Susan Calvin along with the ragdoll made by her grandmother and named Abigail.
Bean counters, i-dotters, and t-crossers in the population will want to read the facsimile of County of Brown, Indiana: Historical and Biographical 1884, by Weston Arthur Goodspeed, which is reprinted by the Brown County Historical Society and available at the Brown County History Center.
These books can be found at the public library, bookstores, antique malls, online, estate sales, and all the various attics with other vintage treasures. Happy collecting! •
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Sept./ Oct. 2023 • Our Brown County 37