& Home Garden Tour

June 27 & 28, 2015

HOMES & GARDENS

Tickets: $12.00

Available in Advance or Day of Tour at Touring Locations

Saturday 10am to 5pm

Sunday Noon to 5pm

Sponsored by the Jennings County Historical Society

812.346.8989

and

and Town Country

Locations on Tour

Karen & John Branham’s Vernon Tea House

Ben Thompson’s Sweet Apple Cabin

Judy & Steve Malone’s Home & Garden

Karen & Virgil Meeker’s Home & Garden

Vernon Baptist Church

Vernon Presbyterian Church

Stephanie & Josh Shaw’s “The Smith Vawter House” & Garden

Victorian Railroad Office

Barb Cooley’s Garden

Karen and John Branham Vernon Tea House 225 East Jackson Vernon, IN The Federal style, two-story clapboard historic home was built in the mid 1800s. Karen’s great grandfather, Calvin O’Hair, received the home from Almira Hinchman in 1992 for $1.00. Upon his passing in 1925, O’Hair left the property to his daughter, Almeda O’Hair Welker (Karen’s grandmother). Alneda owned the home until her passing in 1966. The home was passed down to Alneda’s three children. Karen’s mother, Bernadine Boggs, bought out her brother’s and sister’s part in the home. Bernadine and her husband lived in the home until 1979 when it was left to Karen and her 8 brothers and sisters. In 2012 Karen and John purchased the property and have lovingly restored the interior, planted gardens around the yard and recently opened the Vernon Tea Room. This historic home stands to tell the story of how Karen’s dream of opening a tea room not only came true but the local landmark is thriving with guests who are awed by the beauty of the renovation when they visit for tea and lunch. Dessert and tea will also be available at Tea House.

Ben Thompson

Sweet Apple Cabin

Hwy 7

Vernon, IN 47282

Home and Gardens - “Sweet Apple Cabin” is one of the oldest houses in Vernon. A log building expert consulted by a previous owner has placed its construction before 1796. The cabin was restored by Mary Hulse in 1973 and named Sweet Apple Cabin. Today , the cabin is owned by Ben Thompson, a local musician and lifelong Jennings County resident.. Ben purchased the cabin in 2013 from Bonnie Boggs who operated her seamstress business there for several years. The cabin is made of the original beech logs with poplar floors in most areas. The kitchen addition was added prior to 1905. The stone fireplace in the living room was rebuilt in 1973 when the home was restored. The new kitchen floor, bathroom and wooden deck were added by a previous owner to make the property handicap accessible. The upstairs consists of two bedrooms with original flooring. The property includes the cabin, a small wooden garage at the alley and the lawn and garden in between. The shady garden and lawn are bordered by a split rail fence.

Plantings are random and include bleeding heart, bluebells, French hollyhocks, roses, fern, hosta, tiger lilies, English Ivy, periwinkle, peony, bee balm and various others. Maple, box elder, elm, mulberry, pine and cherry provide abundant shade.

Judy and Steve Malone

110 South Poplar Street

Vernon, IN 47282

Home and Gardens - The mantra of the home is,

“Good friends and a good rain always welcome!”

The Rev. Steve and Judy Malone consider their

home and garden to be a sanctuary to people and

wildlife. The many gardens are filled with hostas

and ferns, and many other assorted plants. The

home is one of the oldest houses in the unique town

of Vernon, Indiana. The earliest portion of the home was built in 1840 with additions in 1862.

During the Civil War the home was the church and meeting place of a group of Presbyterians. In

1996, the Malones added a log structure that had been the family home of the Cooley family of Jen-

nings County.. Judy and a friend, Kay Brown, painted murals of historical Vernon sites in one of the

bedrooms. The home is furnished exclusively with antiques and family artifacts and will be open to

Garden Tour guests. A display of art by the late Dalton Bolser, a Vernon artist, will be on display in

the home.

The gardens, gates and fences were added around 2004. An original railroad watchman’s shack

from the B&O railroad which sat in North Vernon houses Steve’s railroad museum. Steve was a

telegraph operator for the B&O railroad in the 1970s.

Judy and Steve’s warm and cozy garden has been expanded to encompass the entire lawn. Lush

hosta beds interlaced with ferns can be found in nooks and crannies around their historic home. A

French protégée, a key-hole brick lined perennial bed, moon gates, a pergola covered with mature

wisteria and many yard buildings and fun, mature gardens are dotted throughout.

Karen and Virgil Meeker

E. Washington St.

Vernon, IN

This “hall and parlor” style home was built

in 1868. The earliest owner of this property

was Rachel Toler. She sold it in 1839 to John

and Ruth Vawter. From that point the house

was owned by a member of the Vawter

family until 1915. Aramantha “Mattie”

Vawter West Spencer acquired the house

shortly after the death of her first husband,

James West. He was a cousin to the author Jessamyn West who wrote the book “Friendly

Persuasion.” We are unsure of who actually built the house. We do know that it was originally a

two room structure.

Karen’s grandparents, Ollie and Irene Hazelwood, bought the house on November 4, 1967. Since

that time, it has bene remodeled. The Hazelwoods had Harmon Construction do the remodeling

to bring it up-to-date for that time period. The Meekers purchased the house because it was the

house her grandparents lived in, and it just didn’t seem right to have anyone else living there.

Virgil and Karen have been hard at work painting, putting in hardwood floor, changing the

wiring, etc. Today, it is a three bedroom, two bath home.

The garden area across the alley was purchased in 2005. There are approximately 16 different

kinds of plants/flowers around the house and on the hillside. Plantings include impatiens,

delphinium, geraniums, salvia, peonies, daylilies, irises, stratosphere and coreopsis. There are

plans to enlarge the hillside garden to the mulberry tree

in the near future.

Vernon Baptist Church

155 East Washington Street

Vernon, IN

On April 27, 1816, before Indiana became a state, the Vernon

Baptist Church was formed by seven persons. Having settled 20

miles from their church near Madison, they agreed to “associate

ourselves together as a regular orderly Baptist Church of Jesus

Christ.” For the next eight years they met in their homes and

under shade trees.

In 1824 the church received by donation their current site. It is

the highest point in Vernon, overlooking the town and the

Muscatatuck valley.

They built their first meeting house here. It was a lot, low

24-foot square brick building with a four-sided roof, the apex of

which was surrounded by a small belfry. Exterior doors were on

the north, east, and west sides. The rope of the bell hung in the center of the church where the aisles

crossed. The church was illuminated by tallow “dips” in small tin sconces hung upon the wooden

pillars. Two huge fireplaces flanked the pulpit. This pulpit was described as “a high round box

affair with a door to shut and keep the preacher in.”

By the end of 1823 the church has received 180 members, but in the next 16 years the church gave

up enough members to form four new churches, leaving 53. During the following five years the

membership climbed back to 168. In 1844, 67 letters of dismissal were granted to members from the

Zion neighborhood who decided there were enough of them to form their own church closer to

home.

The old VBC minutes reveal a hardiness in the baptism candidates. Immediately after the service,

men and women alike were taken to the Muscatatuck River. If the river was frozen, church boys

were sent ahead to break away the ice.

The square building was razed in 1871 and the present one built. While without a home, the church

met in the courthouse. In December 1871 the Plain Dealer reported the church had purchased a new

800 lbs. steel bell for their edifice. The two-story education fellowship wing was added in 1975. The

Family Life Center was finished in 2001.

In 1816 founding members prayed that Vernon and the church would grow-together and bring

forth honor and glory to the name of God. Today it is still the Church’s prayer to honor and glorify

His name.

Vernon Presbyterian Church

69 Washington Street

Vernon, IN

The earliest records of the Presbyterian Church date back

to May of 1825. It was at this time the first members came

together to form the Church.

There is very little of the first few years in the life of the

church, where the services were held, or what difficulties

and blessings they experienced.

In 1837 the Church building was constructed in the white

frame building format that reflected the Greek Revival

Style. It was topped with a three-tiered cupola and con-

sisted of two entry doors in the front. In an article dated January 9th, 1903 read “In 1837 the present

church building was erected: it has undergone few changes in the long period of it’s existence and a

wanderer coming back to sit again in the narrow straight-backed seats, and seeing the unchanged

pulpit and pillars..” The mention of the pillars also was made in Alice Bundy’s “Glimpse of Pioneer

Life in Jennings County.”

In 1915 it was extensively remodeled adding a Sunday school, changing the front entrance from two

doors to one. The pillars still remain and an entrance has been built around them. Other possible

modern features were added such as electric lights, new windows and a metal ceiling. The next

major renovation to follow was the addition of the basement in 1954. Throughout the years repairs

and renovations have been made to keep the building in good condition and to preserve it’s long

standing history.

This long standing church, much like the pillars contained within, stands as a testament to the

longevity and history of the city of Vernon. It preserves history for the generations to come who will

worship and enter in through the entry way of the sanctuary.

Josh and Stephanie Shaw 220 North State Highway 3 Vernon, IN

The Smith Vawter home was built in

1840 with additions added near the

turn of the century. Colonel Smith

Vawter was the son of John Vawter

who was given the land of Vernon.

The house is more recently known for

being the home of Arthur Sears who

owned the Vernon Summer Furniture

Company (known locally as the

Swing Factory) where the mold shop now stands. Mr. Sears put the house on the Fall Home Tour

in 1968 to highlight the “modern” furnishings he put in such as wall-to-wall shag carpeting of

various colors, tapestry drapes, Ethan Allen furniture and underlet metal kitchen cabinets.

(Only the cabinets still remain.)

Josh purchased the home in May 2003, and with the help of many, was able to restore some of the

historic identity of the home. Much of the house and yard had been neglected for years. The

Shaw’s first focused on updating the exterior of the house. Some of the white paint was removed

to achieve the current look. The balcony was reinforced and all the woodwork and shutters were

repaired and painted. As for the interior, Josh and Stephanie have worked through room-by-room

replacing the carpeting with hickory wood floors. Josh designed patters for the floors in both the

front rooms. Most paintings hung in the home are by local Vernon artist Dalton Bolser, including

one painted in the 1960s of the house itself. In 2013, the Shaws replaced the sagging concrete patio

in the back with one that includes a wood railing and pergola overlooking the Muscatatuck River.

Stephanie has enjoyed improving the landscape a little bit each year since 2012. Once the old

concrete sidewalk was removed, slab limestone was laid down creating a large garden reaching

across the front of the house. Peonies were transplanted from the side yard and other heirloom

perennials are added each year. After the back porch was completed, a shade garden full of

hostas, bleeding hearts, and Solomon’s seal was planted under the maple tree. The enclosed

garden on the west side of the patio was changed from a vegetable garden last summer in order to

develop a butterfly garden.

Victorian Railroad Office 134 E. Brown Street Vernon, IN The society moved a badly deteriorated, but salvageable, 1880s pattern home from North Vernon

to Vernon for restoration and preservation. The tiny house is only 17’x17’ and the smallest

Victorian home in the state of Indiana. During the late 1880s and early 1900s, Eldo Hicks and his

four sons operated their engineering business out of the little house. Now, after thousands of

volunteer hours and in-kind services, donations from local business, individuals, grants and

support from Indiana Historic Landmarks the project is completed.

134 E. Brown Street Vernon, IN

Jennings County Master Gardeners designed and planted expansive gardens and landscaping

around the Victorian structure and throughout the back yard of the society’s property. Gardens

include rock walls that were once a part of the foundation of the one-room house and

old-fashioned plantings of ferns, hostas and other flowering plants. Barb and Ralph Cooley

along with other Master Gardeners spent hundreds of volunteer hours pruning, planting,

mulching and tenderly caring for the gardens. Barb has since passed away. The historical society

has placed a garden rock with her name engraved among the gardens at the museum. Shaw

Monuments donated the stone and engraving.

Barb Cooley’s Garden

The Historical Society is a 501(c)3 non profit organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of

Jennings County’s rich heritage. The society sponsors 4 major festivals annually that bring over 25,000 visitors

to Jennings County. The Home & Garden Tour is a fundraiser for the society’s preservation efforts.

A huge thank you to our local businesses, individuals, and organizations for sponsoring this event!

This brochure printed as a courtesy of SIHO Insurance Services

Jennings Co. Historical Society

134 E. Brown St.

P. O. Box 335

Vernon, IN 47282

812-346-8989

www.jenningscohs.org

Don’t miss our Upcoming Events!

October 2015

9th-10th - Friday and Saturday - Hector's Haunted Happenings and Mystery Dinner

24th - Hector's Haunted Costume Dance