THRILLER THURSDAY - Brown Murder Mystery (Part Two)

One of Brown Counties UNSOLVED MYSTERIES:
Lee and Lourena Brown Murder Mystery (written by Rhonda Dunn)
Part Two:


Lee and Lourena Brown Coroner’s Inquest

     At an inquest a report is made by a coroner who examined the body and questioned witnesses to the event. There might also be witness statements from those that found the body, witnessed the person’s death, or was a witness to part of the day’s events involving the death. The report below was made by Joshua Bond the current presiding coroner for Brown County at that time. His report is based on his findings on the death of Lee and Lourena Brown.

      “According to the evidence obtained from Chester Bunge, I find that Lourena Brown was wounded by pistol shot and that she was standing in the kitchen as he left the house and according to the position in which her body was found I could not determine whether she went to the basement or fell through the burning floor to the basement. I could not determine whether she died of pistol shot or fire.”

     The two doctors that were present at the scene of the fire was Dr. M. T. VanDement and Dr. M. G. “Pat” Murphy. Their descriptions go into pretty graphic detail about the conditions of the bodies and how they determined the sex of each person found.

     When the bodies were taken back out of their graves for a second autopsy in Indianapolis the findings were different from the first two doctors’ findings. The Brown County Coroner and the two local doctor’s stood by their initial findings that the two bodies were that of Lee and Lourena Brown and that Paul Brown’s body was not found.

Chester Bunge made a statement about his experience at the scene of the crime.

Also Frank L. Crews made a statement about his part in the events of that day.
      “On Dec. 15th, 1930 about 12 o’clock noon our telephone rang . . . It was Mrs. Lee Brown calling and she asked, Is this Frank? and I answered yes. She then said, Come over here as quick as you can . . . I met Chester Bunge who had been working at Brown’s. He told me that Paul Brown had shot him twice and had also shot his father and mother. I took Chester home and telephoned Dr. Murphy, the sheriff and my nearest neighbor, Dan Allender. Before we got to the Brown’s house we saw the smoke coming from Paul Brown’s workshop.”


80 years later the final outcome remains a "Brown County Unsolved Mystery".


 (Article written by Rhonda Dunn, and appeared in the Brown County Genealogical Society Newsletter, Fall 2010.  Rhonda has written several local articles that have been later published by Indiana Genealogical Society publications.)

THRILLER THURSDAY - Brown Murder Mystery (Part One)

One of Brown Counties UNSOLVED MYSTERIES:
Lee and Lourena Brown Murder Mystery (written by Rhonda Dunn)
Part One:

     Marion Lee Brown was the son of Michael T. Brown and Mary Veach and was born in Marion Co., West Virginia. His parents had moved to Indiana when he was three. On April 21, 1889 he married Lourena Baughman, the daughter of Jacob Baughman and Elizabeth J. Snider. Lee and Lourena had children: Rolland, Olive, Mary, Maudelle, Mark, Beryl, Glenn, and Paul Brown. Mark died as an infant. Glenn lost his life in France during World War I. For 40 years the couple worked to make their home and orchard on Lanam Ridge the best in the county. Their children had the best opportunities for education and advanced well in their lives. Lee was even featured in the “Biographical Record of Bartholomew and Brown Counties” 1904 as a highly esteemed citizen in his community.

     The day of Dec. 15, 1930 ended all that. Chester Bunge was working for Lee helping to cut wood. Somehow the day turned to a bad end when their son, Paul went in a rage and shot both his parents and shot Chester. Chester was able to get away from Paul and ran into Frank Crews. With help they returned to the Brown home and found it all in flames.

     In the rubble of the burned out home 2 bodies were found. Two doctors, were called to examine the remains, Dr. M. T. VanDement and Dr. Pat Murphy who had been Lourena’s physician. Of the two examined one was ascertained to be Lee Brown. The other was a little harder to tell the identity but was believed to be a female and Lourena upon careful examination of the remains.

     Paul was nowhere to be found. It was thought that Paul had left the area and had headed north toward the railroad to jump a train because the family dog was seen coming from that direction 3 hours later by a neighbor, Mrs. O. E. Hammer.

     Another thought had occurred that Paul might have gone out in the country and committed suicide so a search was conducted by Sheriff Fremont Weddle to look for him. Paul’s brother, Rolland accompanied them hoping to find his brother. He or his body was nowhere to be found.

     Lee and Lourena’s bodies were so badly burned they were buried together in a double casket in a single grave. It was decided in March of the following year to have the bodies exhumed to have further testing done and were taken to Indianapolis. At the second autopsy it was determined that the 2 bodies were male and thought that it was Lee and Paul that had burned up in the fire. If that is so then what had happened to Lourena? This fueled all sorts of theories of what had really happened. With the mystery still open 80 years later it is doubtful it will ever be solved.

A single stone in Lanam Ridge Cemetery lists all three:
Marion Lee Brown
1862 - 1930
Lourena Brown
1864 - 1930
Paul Brown
1901 - 1930

SEE PART 2 of this story for the report of the Coroner's Inquest.

 (Article written by Rhonda Dunn, and appeared in the Brown County Genealogical Society Newsletter, Fall 2010.  Rhonda has written several local articles that have been later published by Indiana Genealogical Society publications.)

Indiana Genealogical Society - Annual Meeting

Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Conference

Spent the last few days attending the IGS Society Management Seminar, County Genealogist Roundtable, and Annual Meeting. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 15

Friday morning found us at the Hancock County Library in Greenfield for the IGS Society Management Seminar.  Interesting topics for the day included a presentation by Jim Corridan, the Indiana State Archivist; and an introduction to www.IndianaMemory.IN.gov – a digital archive of the Indiana State Library. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

Saturday’s events were held at the Sterrett Center at Fort Benjamin Harrison.  Once used as the enlisted men’s club, this historic building has been repurposed into a meeting and reception hall.  The speaker for this year’s event was Diane VanSkiver Gagel from Ohio.  Ms. Gagel presented very engaging presentations on Historic Military Records, Roles of Women in the Civil War, and Writing Family Narratives.

One of my favorite things about conferences is meeting new people, and this conference was a gold-mine of interesting people.

Harold Henderson, of northern Indiana, is someone I met online through the Pro-Gen Study Group, and it was a pleasure to meet Harold in person; as well as Andrea Ackerman, another Pro-Gen Study Group member.

Tina Lyons, a fellow Geneablogger who I spotted because she was wearing her Geneablogger pin, writes the blog GenWishList.blogspot.com -an interesting combination of family history, project updates, and genealogy time management techniques.  I really appreciate her ideas on listing your genealogical research goals on a monthly basis, as a way of keeping on track.  Tina was also elected Vice President of the Indiana Genealogical Society for the next year.  Congratulations to my fellow Geneablogger!

Lastly, on Friday I became acquainted with a rather quiet gentleman who was sitting with the rest of us ‘techno-genealogists’ (we were the ones with laptops in the back of the room) he only introduced himself as Michael, a member of IGS, who lived in Utah, and worked at Family Search.  WELL, on Saturday, Michael introduce himself again, and handed me his business card..."Mr. Michael Hall, the Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer at Family Search".  Interesting turn of events, but a very pleasant gentleman who was just as interested in my new experiences blogging, as I was in his professional pursuits.

Overall, an extremely informative weekend, lots of notes and  many new ideas!

End of an Era: Margaret Rebekah "Becky" Brown Martz, Pioneer in Early Brown County pottery.

Margaret Rebekah "Becky" Brown Martz, 96

SEPT. 14, 1914 — APRIL. 4, 2011
Wife, Mother, Artist and Poet 

END OF AN ERA:  Karl and Becky Martz, were early potters in Brown County, Indiana in the mid 1930's.  The Martz Pottery, along with the Griffin Pottery, and the Brown County Pottery were early pioneers in the Brown County Pottery movement.  Her passing represents the closing chapter in the history of the early pottery pioneers and artists in Brown County.

      Becky Brown began her life in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1914, the daughter of a talented and hard-working father who was a bricklayer, bank manager and Red Cross assessor in various states. By the late 1920s she and her family were living in Bloomington, Indiana, where she went to high school, graduated valedictorian and met her future husband, Karl Martz (shown in photo with Becky, 1979). Her mother died in 1930, when Becky was 16. In 1935, after two years at IU, she dropped out of college and married Karl. Their union lasted 62 years until Karl’s death in 1997.
     Karl was determined to be a potter, and at first they lived in a series of romantic but rustic cabins in Brown County. In 1936 they founded the Karl Martz Pottery. Before long Becky began learning ceramic skills from her husband, initially creating small vases and buttons for tourists. She also served as an Artist’s Representative at the Brown County Art Gallery in Nashville. Her two sons were born in 1940 and 1942. Shortly after her second son arrived, the tourist traffic dried up due to wartime gas rationing, and Karl found a job in industrial research in Chicago. They lived in Jane Addams’ Hull House, where Becky raised the boys and ran the Hull House library. Her spare moments found her frequenting museums and galleries. 
     They returned to southern Indiana two years later when Karl was hired to create the ceramics program in the IU art department, later to become the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts. In 1949, they began building a house designed by Karl in Brown County. It would house both the family and the Martz Pottery. Around this time, Becky’s work began taking on its own character, often quite different from Karl’s, and in the early 1950s she began creating whimsical animal sculptures in ceramics, possessed of great charm and presence.
     From 1951 through 1981, her works were exhibited in seventeen juried regional Indiana shows and in galleries, including four shows at the John Herron/Indianapolis Art Museum. In 1952, Karl took a semester’s sabbatical in New York City, and the family moved there with him, providing Becky an opportunity to frequent some of the world’s great museums and galleries.
     In 1961, Becky and her family moved their residence and studio to Bloomington. In 1969, Becky completed her A.B. in English at IU, the same year her son Eric completed his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins. She brought her cap and gown to his graduation in Maryland so they could be photographed together in their academic regalia. It’s unclear who was proudest of whom. In 1961-62, and again in 1971-72, Becky accompanied Karl on sabbaticals in Japan, where she worked in the Daisei Pottery, a traditional Mingei (folk art) family pottery in Mashiko. From 1970-1975, she was a full partner in The Gallery, located in Bloomington and founded by Rosemary Fraser. 
     From 1985-1991, her ability to work with clay hampered by arthritis, she served as a docent in the Indiana University Art Museum and returned to her first love, writing, producing a series of poems of depth and power, two of which were published in The Studio Potter and the newsletter of the IU Art Museum.
     Becky loved life and took in all it had to offer, overcoming difficulties with gritty determination and taking advantage of whatever opportunities came her way as a woman in her time. She was creative, loving and caring, loyal to family and friends, hard working and was constantly learning and developing her diverse talents. She was a superb wife and mother and an inspiring role model for her sons as well as for the next generation of female artists.
     In 2004, she left her beloved Bloomington, Indiana, full of friends, achievements and memories, and moved to Massachusetts to be close to her son Eric. She passed away April 4, 2011, after a long decline with dementia, donating her body to medical science in accordance with her lifelong wishes.
     She is survived by her son Eric and his wife Phyllis (Amherst, Massachusetts), son Brian and his wife Dee (Stevens Point, Wisconsin), her sister-in-law Betty Brown (Albuquerque, New Mexico), five grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild. She was preceded in death by her brother Edward. Becky’s life, ceramics, and poetry are represented at the website MartzPots.Org.

For a wonderful history of the life and art of Karl & Becky Martz, please go to their website:
www.MartzPots.org 

Indiana Genealogical Society - County Genealogist

Appointment to County Genealogist

by the Indiana Genealogical Society

I am excited to announce that I have been appointed the Indiana Genealogical Society’s County Genealogist for Brown County, Indiana.  It is one of those bittersweet events in my life, that I wish I could share with my mother, and grandmother’s who were so nurturing in sharing with me their passion for our family’s history. 

So what does a ‘County Genealogist’ do?  Well, primarily I am the local liaison between the local genealogical and historical society’s and the Indiana Genealogical Society.  In addition to fielding research requests for family l information, I work to promote genealogical interests in Brown County, and seek to preserve and protect Brown County and Indiana family history records.

I am generally available on Tuesday’s at the Brown County Public Library, if you need research assistance.  Or if you have a question about your family genealogy, email me the details, and I will see what I can find.   dlynbid@gmail.com

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Week 8 - County Resources

COUNTY LEVEL RESOURCES:

Sometimes the records you are seeking, simply are not available on the internet.  Then what?  Where do you go to find that information?  Most county public libraries have Local History Specialists, either on staff, or they have a list of local people to contact.  So, ask your librarians!

County Historical Society's usually have archivists and county historians that can help you locate information.
Contact local Historical Societies!

County Genealogical Society's also have researchers, local family history specialists, county genealogists, etc., that can help research your family history questions.
Contact local genealogy societies!