 To explore and experience the past and present, we invite you to visit the Brown County Chamber of Commerce on West Main Street. Pick up your free Brown County Almanac and Our Brown County magazine, both of which will provide you with current information and directions to the many artistic, retail, lodging, recreation and entertainment establishments in Brown County. Below learn a little about our history and the formation of the Artists Colony.
Go directly to All about art in Brown County.
History
The United States acquired land from the Indians, part of which forms the
southwest section of what is now Brown County, in the 1809 treaty of Fort
Wayne. By the treaty of St. Mary's in 1818, considerably more territory
became the property of the government, and this included Brown County land.
No settler was allowed in the area until the government survey was completed
in 1820.
The first white man known to arrive was a German, Johann Schoonover, who lived for a short time on the creek, later named for him, to trade with the Indians, about 1820. In that same year William Elkins, the first pioneer, built a log cabin and cleared land in what became Johnson Township.
The earliest pioneers came from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. They crossed the Ohio River and traveled north on narrow Indian trails through dense hardwood forest with wagons drawn by oxen. Many made their way to Bloomington, then east to the hilly country, or they reached Jackson County and came north into future Brown County on the Sparks Ferry Road, or west from Columbus in Bartholomew County. Pioneers who had settled on lowland near Columbus came to the hills to escape malaria. Others deliberately chose the hills having lived in mountains before they made the trip to Indiana in search of new land. By 1830 an estimated 150 settlers had arrived; the United States census of 1840 reported 2,364 people.
 By 1828 the Indiana State Legislature had divided the land of present Brown County between Monroe, Jackson, and Bartholomew counties. In 1835 settlers presented a petition to the Legislature requesting a new county. On February 4, 1836, both the House and Senate passed a bill providing for the formation from western Bartholomew, eastern Monroe, and northern Jackson counties of a county to be named Brown in honor of Major General Jacob Brown, a hero of the War of 1812. The county has 320 square miles, 16 miles from east to west and 20 miles north to south.
The first necessity was the election of officers to manage to manage county affairs and to administer justice. Governor Noah Noble commissioned James Dawson as Sheriff and directed him to order an election of necessary officers. On the first Monday of June, 1836, John Floyd was elected Clerk and Recorder; James Taggart and Lewis F. Raper became Associate Judges; Daniel Hedrick, William Jackson and James Davidson County Commissioners.
The three Commissioners in August, 1836, divided the land into the five townships of Jackson, Hamblen, Washington, Johnson and Van Buren. Nashville was chosen as the county seat. Banner C. Brummett was appointed County Agent to lay out Nashville in lots to be sold at auction. It was expected that money form the sale would help pay expenses of the county government. The lots sold very slowly, for pioneers had little money, and funds were very short for a number of years. In 1837 a log courthouse was built and the first log jail. They were built on the same lots on which the present courthouse and log jail stand. Nashville at that time consisted of a cluster of log cabins and 75 people.
The country was very wild in 1836. Bears, panthers and wolves were plentiful. The wolves were so numerous and destructive of livestock that the Commissioners paid $1 for every wolf scalp brought to them.
 Settlers lived a rugged pioneer type of life for many years. Their cabins and small settlements were mere niches in the great forest that covered hills and valleys. The men hunted deer, rabbits, squirrels, wild turkeys, and pigeons for food. As soon as enough land was cleared, they planted corn, potatoes, wheat, hops for yeast, flax and tobacco. Women made quilts, wove wool and flax into cloth, made the family clothes, carried water from a well or a stream, cooked food on open fireplaces, raised the children and nursed them when they were sick.
By the time Nashville was incorporated in 1872, water-powered grist mills and sawmills were scattered over the county. Each village served its own locality with at least one general store, a blacksmith shop, a church and a post office. A doctor, sometimes more than one, lived in almost every village. In 1881 there were 20 doctors in the county, and 37 churches — Methodist, United Brethren, Baptist, Christian, Presbyterian and New Light. Money continued to be scarce and much business was conducted by the barter system. The first schools were built of logs, but by 1872 one-room frame schoolhouses dotted the county; in 1900 there were 73.
People farmed but they depended on forest products for cash. Lumber was taken to Indianapolis, also tan bark cross ties, hoop poles, and barrel staves. The trees were cut recklessly and this led to deep trouble. Since there was not enough farmland on the ridge tops and in the creek bottoms, trees were eliminated on the sides of hills. Wheat and other crops were planted, and erosion began in earnest. By 1900 soil was so completely washed from hillsides and creek bottoms that crops could not be grown. Poverty was widespread and people began to leave the county in droves. Cabins all over the hills and valleys stood empty. In 1890, 10,208 people lived in Brown County. By 1930 only 5, 168 remained. Not until 1980 did the population exceed the 1890 figure.
 The 1900 villages were still the centers of Brown County life. Travel by horseback, wagon or carriage was exceedingly limited due to deeply rutted, rocky roads. There were people in remote areas who never made a trip to Nashville in their entire lives. Many a family's only contact with the outside world was the huckster's weekly visit with his horse and wagon. As a result, the pioneer way of life continued long after other counties had adopted a new pattern of living.
Then came a period of rapid change, and Brown County opened to the world.
In 1905 the Illinois Central Railroad built a line form Indianapolis to Effingham, Illinois. The line ran from Morgantown across the southwest corner of Jackson Township. Helmsburg was the main station. Two trains a day from Indianapolis and two from Effingham, brought freight, mail and passengers. Horse-drawn hacks took people, and wagons transported mail and freight from the station to Nashville. At long last there was an easy and quick way in and out of the county.
The first cars appeared in Nashville in 1913 and 1914. Their use was strictly limited because of the very bad roads, but by necessity as the number of cars increased, county roads were gradually improved. By 1935 State Road 135 North from Nashville to Morgantown had been built and in that year was hard-surfaced. State Road 46 between Bloomington and Nashville was worked on extensively until it was considered one of the best gravel roads in the state. Some years later it was hard-surfaced. Access to the county had become adequate for cars and trucks.
 A colony of superb artists was drawn to Brown County. In 1907 T.C. Steele
built a home near Belmont, and Adolph Shulz came to Nashville. Will Vawter,
V.J. Cariani, Marie Goth, C.Curry Bohm, Dale Bessire and many others also
moved to Nashville; and in that small village of 323 people the Brown County
Art Gallery opened its doors to the public in 1926. In 1954 a larger gallery
was built on East Main Street, and an Art Guild established a gallery in
the old Minor House on Van Buren Street.
The Brown County State Park opened in 1931 offering many advantages: a lodge, cabins for rent, picnic area, a swimming pool, and miles of trails. And at present there is Yellowwood State Forest, the Hoosier National Forest, Lake Monroe and Lake Lemon.
These changes and additions have brought tourists literally by the millions to Brown County. Scores of shops have opened to entice tourist trade. Restaurants and motels cater to tourist needs.
And Brown County has become a recognized and valued retirement center.
At present there are 232 productive farms. The erosion that drove people out of the county has been almost entirely eliminated. Improved farming methods and reforestation have solved the problems with the help of government agencies, such as the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service.
During the Centennial celebration of the founding of Brown County in 1936, when for the first time oxcarts were no longer a familiar sight, it was generally agreed that the county had come out of the wilderness. Certainly there has never been a return to the former isolation.
All about art in Brown County
 In 1866, the Indiana State Gazetteer lists among the residents of Brown County along with lawyers, blacksmiths, carpenters, grocers and physicians; one artist, Harvey Heckman. Records tell us that perhaps the first traveling artist to sketch in the Brown County area was William McKendree Snyder, born in Liberty, Indiana. Snyder lived and worked in Madison, and is perhaps best known for his precise rendering of Beech trees and woodland scenes. Wisconsin Artist, Adolph Shulz discovered this idyllic landscape on a walking tour in 1906, and returned home to share this adventure with fellow artists and students. But until the Illinois Central Railroad was opened to include Helmsburg in its route, Brown County was virtually inaccessible. Hills were thickly wooded, and roads were dirt; deeply rutted and impassible except on horseback. T.C. Steele arrived by train from Indianapolis in 1907 with his future wife Selma to create a permanent summer residence here, named 'The House of the Singing Winds' in the hills above Belmont valley. The unspoiled beauty, tranquility, as well as the candor of local residents in turn inspired the likes of Gus Baumann, color woodblock artist; Will Vawter, illustrator of many of James Whitcomb Riley's poems; photographer Frank Hohenberger; and philosophical cartoonist Kin Hubbard to visit Brown County. They established, along with Carl and Genevieve Graf, V.J. Cariana, Marie Goth, L.O. Griffith, Lucie Hartrath, Ada and Adolph Shulz and others, the first major summer art colony in the Midwest.
Excited by the prospect of few distractions and a 'plein air' painting, artists continued to travel to Peaceful Valley, and to settle here for the summer and fall months, or to take up permanent residence. In 1926, the Brown County Art Association was established with Carl Graf as its first president. The next twenty years saw many changes in the artistic flavor of the county. New craftsmen appeared on the scene; pottery makers, woodcarvers, musicians, weavers, as well as a whole new generation of artists charmed by the beautiful landscapes of trees and hills and the plethora of scenes to paint and enjoy. These were the years of the next generation of Brown County artists: C. Curry Bohm, Dale Bessire, E.K. Williams, Anthony Buchta, Leota Loop, Georges LaChance, and potter Karl Martz. In 1954, two art alliances were formed, one keeping the original name of the Brown County Art Association, and the other becoming the Brown County Art Guild. Both organizations are still active; promoting the work of Indiana living artists while still maintaining the heritage of their predecessors by exhibitions of their permanent collections of the art of the first Brown County Art Colony.
The present
 If T.C. Steele visited Brown County today he could still enjoy the lush bucolic landscape and find inspiration for his canvases. He might come to Nashville, take a carriage ride, browse through an art gallery or two to find one of his, or a fellow artist's work, and then perhaps take a break for wine-tasting, comparing our local wines with those of the German Rhines or Mosels. Back in the carriage or riding the 'Nashville Express' train, Mr. Steele might make his way to the shop of a crafts person to admire his skill, and then have a leisurely dinner at one of Nashville's charming restaurants (the meal including, of course, Brown County's fried biscuits and apple butter). He could next partake of an evening's entertainment in the form of a play or musical production.
T.C. Steele is no longer around to enjoy his beloved 'Peaceful Valley,' but luckily you are! We invite you to Explore and Experience the wealth of arts available in Brown County today!
Brown County Chamber of Commerce | 812-988-0234
Monday, Thursday, Friday 8:45am - 10:45am, Tuesday 9:00am - 1:00pm
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