Williamson Hamblen, first violin maker in Brown County (1910). photos courtesy of Brown County Historical Society/ Rhonda Dunn
T
he centers of Brown County life at the turn of the last century were the villages and crossroads that were webbed together with deeply rutted muddy roads. Travel and material goods were limited to what could be carried by horseback, busker wagon, or carriage. The pioneer way of life continued after other counties adopted new ways, with folks “makin’ do or doin’ without.” But the early 1900s brought rapid changes. In 1905, the Illinois Central Railroad built a line from Indianapolis to Effingham, Illinois with the line running through Morgantown and across the southwest corner of Jackson Township. With Helmsburg as the main station; a daily schedule of two train runs from Indianapolis and two from Effingham brought mail and freight, as well as passengers eager to take in the unspoiled landscape and country air. The colony of fine artists rooted itself in Brown County and then blossomed at this time. Cars first appeared in Nashville in 1913, and better roads soon followed. Hard-surfaced State Road 135 north from Nashville to Morgantown was built. State Road 46 connecting to Bloomington was vastly improved and brought many curious Indiana
46 Our Brown County March/April 2021
University students to the county. In the Tool Room of Nashville’s Pioneer Village is a display case containing a homemade musical instrument that was fashioned from a cigar box. It was created by Louis Henderson of Brown County a bit more than a century ago. The curator for the Brown County Historical Society’s collections, Barbara Livesey, notes that the collection catalog has it listed as a banjo, but that Louis himself played it with a bow. She concludes: “Therefore, it’s an oddshaped fiddle.” It is another example of early Brown Countians “makin’ do or doin’ without.” Being true to their Appalachian forebears, they would not do without music. An outstanding player and maker of violins/fiddles was Williamson Hamblen. He was born in Lee County, Virginia on October 3, 1846, and moved to Brown County with his parents in 1857. Since the age of 6, he taught himself to play the violin. Though his formal schooling was thin at best, his musical ability was widely-known, and he was sought after to play at events. When he was 37 years old, Hamblen began making violins. Shortly before his death he built the instrument he considered his masterpiece. Fife and drum corps were part of the musical heritage of Brown County, performing for political campaigns and parades. Newspaper records have cornet bands organized in
