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Tramp Starr
The Old Hickory Restaurant and Bar in Nashville.
~by Julia Pearson
William Carl Wilson, known as Tramp Starr, was a wordsmith extraordinaire. His love of ordinary homelife merged with his talent for language as a broadcaster, public speaker, columnist, book author, humorist, philosopher, and poet.
William Carl Wilson was born in Clarks Hill, Indiana, Tippecanoe County, on September 22, 1885, to Charles Dudley Wilson and Mary Jane Weaver Wilson. He grew up with siblings Mabel Adelaide, Vivian Joan, Charles Lindley, and Mary Jane.
In his early adult years, Carl Wilson sought adventure beyond Indiana’s borders and went out west, where he perfected his horsemanship as a stunt rider, worked as a cowhand in the wheat fields and railroads, and like his Methodist circuitriding father, he preached. Under the name of Tug Wilson, he boxed in the middle and light-heavy weight divisions.
His roots called him back to Indiana, where he met and fell in love with Marjorie Mitchell of Worthington, who was 16 years old. The couple eloped, tying the marital knot in Kansas. For most of his life, Wilson called Moores Hill, in Dearborn County, Indiana home. He and Marjorie had four daughters—Betty, Linda, Joan, and Patsy; and a son, Dudley. Another son, Robert, died during the 1918 flu epidemic.
In 1921, Wilson started self-publishing a series of pamphlets called The Tramp Starr Magazine. Using meter and rhyme, he celebrated the richness of the countryside and domestic life. With a growing readership, he had columns featured in the Indianapolis Star. He was a regular contributor to Farm Life, a magazine boasting a million subscribers. His column was titled “Chimes and Chuckles from Curly Shingles Farm,” and consisted of a poem and several paragraphs of anecdotes, theories, and humorous reflections.
Wilson began reading his poems on R.F.D. Radio Hour in 1930. It was broadcast from Cincinnati, Ohio on station WLW. His work was very well received by listeners, and fan mail came from as far away as West Virginia and Montana. He also broadcast from station WKRC in Cincinnati and WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana, plus stations in Chicago and Louisville.
His first book, My Indiana Farm, appeared around 1930, and is a compilation of anecdotes and reflections on farming and natural life. It was followed by publication of books Radio Rhymes in 1933, and Pop. 359 in 1941. Pop. 359 reflects the local color of Wilson’s hometown, Moores Hill, with humor and heart. Jokes and Jingles from Curly Shingles is a collection of his previously published columns. Some of his classic jokes:
“Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field!”
“Why did the farmer bury all his money? To make his soil rich!”
“Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts!”
And some of Tramp Starr gems from a golden age of jingles:
“When the rooster crows at the break of dawn, / The farmer’s day has just begun./ With a hoe and plow, he works the land, / Making sure the crops grow grand.”
“In the barn, the cows do moo,/ The farmer’s work is never through./ With hay to stack and fields to tend, / His day begins and never ends.”
For 25 years Wilson was a regular in the Indianapolis Star, Sunday edition, and changed the title of his column to “Jokes and Jingles From Curly Shingles Farm, Moores Hill, Indiana.” Along with his published columns and poetry, he also received fees for speaking engagements at conferences, seminars, commencements, and meetings around the state.
In the early 1940s, Wilson and his wife moved to Brown County, buying the former home of Ival McDonald located just west of Nashville, calling it “Curly Shingles, Jr.” They purchased Dinty Moore’s Restaurant in the former Charlie Genolin house. Local legend persisted it was won in a card game, but in actuality, the details of a sale were negotiated during a game. They renamed and ran it as the Old Hickory Restaurant and Bar.
Wilson continued writing until his death just three years later, falling to a massive heart attack at the Old Hickory in 1946.
He was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Nashville. The granite memorial records both his pen name, Tramp Starr, and his given name, William Carl Wilson.
Marjorie moved to a house next door to the Old Hickory and continued as proprietor and operator for more than 30 years. Old Hickory Restaurant and Bar was in the building where Out of the Ordinary is now on Van Buren Street, and was a restaurant of Andy Rogers known as the Ordinary before that.
William Carl Wilson’s collection of original poetry and column manuscripts—composed by Wilson on a manual typewriter and with his own handwritten edits—plus correspondence, clippings, scrapbooks, and other materials, are preserved at the Lilly Library in Bloomington. The caned chair, where he sat at his writing table, is on display at the Brown County History Center in Nashville. Thanks to the generosity of his family, these cultural and literary treasures are preserved. Two grandsons, Michael Kummerer and Tom Birdsong, and their families, continue to call Brown County home.
