The town of Nashville, located in Brown County, Indiana, dates to the 1836 organization of the county when it was named the county seat. Originally known as Jacksonburg, in honor of President Andrew Jackson, the town’s name was changed to Nashville for the city close to Jackson’s home. Today, this small community remains the political center of the county as well as a popular tourist area, visited by thousands every year.
Brown County's picturesque landscape was a gift of the Ice Age. A glacier (that covered most of what would become the northern United States), flattened most of Indiana, but stopped just over the Brown County line. This created the contour of the hills and valleys and the atmospheric "blue haze" that have inspired so many artists and visitors.

In the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne, the United States Government acquired part of the land that was to become Brown County from the Native Americans. Considerably more land was acquired by the Treaty of St. Mary's in 1818. Pioneers on ox-drawn wagons from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas set out to settle the region. They followed narrow Indian trails through the dense Indiana wilderness. By 1830, an estimated 150 settlers had arrived. Brown County was officially allocated in 1836 and named after Major General Jacob Brown, a hero in the war of 1812. In 1840, the United States Census reported a growth to 2,364 people.

Settlers lived a rugged pioneer 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, flax and tobacco. Women made quilts, wove wool and flax into cloth, made family clothes, cooked food on open fireplaces and raised children.

Several unique qualities of Brown County have kept this small town from expanding the way others in surrounding counties did. Technological advances brought about by the Industrial Revolution largely missed Brown County. A railroad did not arrive in the county until 1905, and only then passed through the northwest portion of the county, bypassing Nashville entirely.

After widespread logging and deforestation, as well as poor farming practices, soil erosion caused the land to lose its value. Many of the county’s farmers (who comprised a large part of the population), were hard-pressed to pay taxes as they were barely able to make a living from the land. By the early twentieth century, the county’s population drastically decreased as people moved to more economically viable areas.

By the turn of the century, several artists had visited Brown County as a source of inspiration for their landscape paintings. Initially, their numbers were limited because of the county’s isolation. The artists boarded a train from Indianapolis to Morgantown, north of Brown County, then continued south to Nashville, usually on foot.

With the arrival of the railroad in Helmsburg, came the opening of new hotels. As more artists discovered the picturesque and quaint landscapes of Brown County, an increasing number of artists arrived, setting up summer studios. In the first decade of the 1900’s, T.C. Steele built his home and studio, which would become known as "House of the Singing Winds", home near Belmont. By the mid 1920’s, artists Adolph Schultz, Will Vawter, V. J. Cariani, Marie Goth, C. Curry Bohm, Dale Bessire, and many others had moved to Nashville and the Brown County Art Gallery opened its doors to the public. The artists who came were highly trained and exhibited works in the Hoosier Salon, Chicago Art Institute and other organizations nationwide. They started organizing exhibits, and as word spread back to Indianapolis and Chicago, tourists began arriving in Nashville to visit the artist studios and galleries. The Art Colony would grow to rival Santa Fe and Carmel.

During the 1920’s, the federal government began purchasing land destined to become part of the state park system. The state park, combined with the arrival of tourists visiting the growing artist colony in Nashville, led to increased reliance on tourism as a major source of revenue for the county.

(from Brown County Interim report: Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory, the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau website, the Dorothy B. Bailey 1975 Historical Society document)