Brown County
Character ~by Mark Blackwell
“Character is the basis of happiness.” —George Santayana (the same guy who said, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”)
T
he American Heritage College Dictionary says that character “is a combination of qualities or features that distinguishes one person, group or thing from another.” In short, character is what makes people or things special. So, what is it that makes Brown County special? I reckon that you could start with the topography of the county. If it weren’t for the hills of Brown County, Indiana could save a lot of ink on its topo maps. It would show up as a big old, flat, boot-shaped corn field. The hills make it special. Brown County still has more than its share of unpaved roads and it has creeks, many of which crossed the unpaved roads and had to be forded. In dry times some of the creeks would be used like rough roads or paths. Horses and high wheeled wagons of the 19th century and the Models Ts of the early 20th century
52 Our Brown County • March/April 2020
had little trouble navigating the stream beds. In fact, right into the 1960s, adventurous hippies in vintage Volkswagens could make their way up dry creeks without too much trouble—unless one came across a tree fall blocking the way. And Brown County has trees—lots of them— and it used to have lots and lots of trees. It has 15,776 acres of protected forest in Brown County State Park. Yellowwood State Forest encompasses 23,326 acres of timber and if that isn’t enough, 202,000 acres of trees are claimed by the Hoosier National Forest. All of these forests have unpaved hiking trails with creeks crossing them. We have hills, and creeks, and trees, and trails that all make Brown County special but there is something else that really adds to the recipe—its people. The people who settled here were of a different breed. I think they were a little tougher and a little more independent than the average Hoosier. They came into the territory from the south and the east where things were getting a little more crowded and civilized. Some folks settled in this rugged, hilly terrain probably because it reminded them of the Appalachians where they emigrated from. Those people had an idea of what they were up against and brought the knowledge, talent, and techniques to work a living out of this kind of terrain. Others came to get away from more civilized parts of the country. They came to try themselves against a hard landscape. Brown County settlers weren’t looking for an easy path to riches. They were the kind of folks who earned their way in the world. Folks got up in the morning and never had to ask where their food came from or who built their dwelling. While they may not have had a lot of things, what they had was theirs and they were proud of it.
