Editor’s note: Each year, the Brown County Democrat celebrates some aspect of Brown County history in our Founders Day section. This year we’re writing about residents who are about 80 or older, who have incredible stories to share and who define “Brown County character” in some way or another. If you have a suggestion for a person to feature in the next Founders Day issue, send it to [email protected] or call us at 812-988-2221.
Jim and Ann Callahan’s home is quietly nestled in the hills, an idyllic Brown County scene. Majestic trees tower over the structure and a deep ravine with a flowing creek sits behind their home.
When you walk through the front door, you’re greeted by artifacts and souvenirs from around the world.
Their home is a sort of gallery and museum, featuring items displayed from all the places they’ve visited, which Jim said was about half of the countries in the world.
The couple has lived in Brown County for about 30 years.
The Callahans were both born and raised in Frankfort in northwestern Indiana. Both of Ann’s parents were farmers in the area and Jim’s were laborers. Jim and Ann met in 1951 in high school when he was 16 and she was 17. By 18 and 19, the couple had married.
Both attended university at the same time, Ann graduating from college seven months pregnant with their firstborn, Kevin. Their daughter Maureen was born five years later.
Jim had originally started school to train as a veterinarian, but Ann’s father swayed him to enter the world of agriculture.
“He said I could make more money working for him than as a vet,” he said. “It wasn’t true.”
“He wanted me to stay on the farm,” Ann said.
They stayed on the farm for nearly 10 years before Jim got a job with Del Monte Foods. In those days, Jim said, people ate a lot of canned food and Del Monte was “the biggest food company in the world” when he was there. The couple was moved around by the company, from Wisconsin, to Illinois and Florida. Promotions accompanied the moves.
In the early 1990s, the Callahans wondered if they might extend their career overseas. With pineapple plants in the Philippines and Kenya and another plant in Mexico, they decided going south of the U.S. was ideal, bringing them closer to home and family.
After about a year of tumultuous business in Mexico City, they found themselves looking for a place to settle down and retire.
They had items stored in Laredo, Texas, central Mexico and Sycamore, Illinois when they came back to the states. They were given a month to remove items from storage in Mexico. Their home search accelerated.
Ann’s mother was still in Frankfort and their daughter was in Indianapolis. They knew they wanted to be nearer to family, but also live among the trees, they said.
“We had decided Bloomington,” Jim said. “We wanted a lot of trees. Every place they took us had one tree in the yard.”
Then they found a cabin in Brown County, previously owned by Fred Lorenz, owner of Gnaw Bone Camp. The Callahan’s bought it, repairing woodpecker holes, clearing flying squirrels and black snakes out of the attic and planting an extensive garden out front.
Once they were settled in their home, they found their place in the Brown County community and all it had to offer.
“We’ve always had lots of things to do in Brown County,” Jim said.
‘Do all you can do’
The Callahans had come to Brown County in 1991 as Presbyterians, they said, but there was no church of that denomination at the time. They decided to try something else and got involved with the Nashville United Methodist Church.
Jim got involved with stewardship and Ann with the day care. The church had plans to build a new church on Old State Road 46 due to the deteriorating condition of the church on Jefferson Street. Jim was head of the church council when the new pastor, Mary Cartwright, assigned him to getting the church built or restored.
After consulting builders, the group was determined to restore the old building where it currently sits.
The Callahans’ involvement has spanned across the county in the three decades they’ve lived here. They worked with Suzanne Gaudin to found the Brown County Literacy Coalition with literacy being a cause close to the couple’s heart.
They visited Head Start on Hornettown Road and encountered children who were having difficulty reading. When they read one-on-one with them, they were told that there weren’t any books at the little ones’ homes. They then found out that many parents were illiterate, they said.
Through studies, they found that 30 percent of adults in Brown County were illiterate.
“We went and got the material from the basement of the old library and started the coalition,” Jim said. They worked with Gaudin to start the coalition, found a board and make it what it is today.
Jim and Ann got involved with the Lions Club. Jim received the Melvin Jones award one year. Ann became involved with Brown County League of Women Voters.
Jim was instrumental in the conception of the Brown County Community Foundation. Dale Newkirk started the foundation and recruited Jim and John Rudd around the same time.
Jim remembers interviewing candidates for the first board and selecting individuals. He also was the one who got the first donor account.
“I was ‘asset development,’ they called it,” he said. “We had no assets.” The first donor contract for the foundation was signed at Hardee’s (now McDonald’s), Jim said.
Ann fed donors and was a helper to Jim and local causes. “I did a lot of stuff underneath the world,” she said.
The biggest thing they’ve done, Jim said, is facilitate the development and planning of the Brown County History Center’s building on Gould Street.
Fred Lorenz was a charter member of the historical society and got the Callahans involved in the group, Jim said.
“We hadn’t even moved in yet and we were in the Brown County Historical Society,” he said. Jim and Ann have done “everything imaginable” with the group. Both served as president, vice president, groundskeeper, tour guides and hosts.
Towards the end of their stint with the historical society, they had the job of “asset development and long range planning.”
“We already knew the building wasn’t too good,” he said of the former history center location on State Road 135 North. “We sat around and said, ‘Why wouldn’t we move and connect all those old buildings downtown? Why wouldn’t we consider consolidating?’”
Jim and Ann were appointed chiefs to the project. They went to the owners of the hardware store on Gould Street. Jim negotiated with owners and bought the properties.
“We got that whole thing bought up and started,” Jim said. “We dreamed the whole thing up. It was built and there it is.”
When they weren’t serving the community locally, the Callahans were often traveling to the far ends of the world.
Myanmar, Russia, India, Papua New Guinea — you name the place, the Callahans have likely set foot on the soil.
“I always said, ‘See all you can see, do all you can do, be all you can be,’” Jim said. “In the image of being a good human, in the image of God.”
“Learn all you can learn, too. We always did everything we could in our spare time to stimulate our minds and learn some more,” he continued.
The couple has tried every sport. They even played golf for years despite their distaste of it, but at least they socialized, they said.
“We tried everything we had money to try,” Jim said.
They’ve always had lots of hobbies, such as reading, collecting things, art, taxidermy and travel.
Brown County has been their home for some time, keeping them drawn in with the broad range of people, local art and culture.
“We’ve just enjoyed living here,” Ann said. “I think it’s a kind of paradise.”
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Jim
Age: 86
Place of birth: Frankfort, Indiana
Children: Kevin (passed in 2017) and Maureen
Occupations: Retired Del Monte Foods
Hobbies: Traveling, collecting, reading, art, taxidermy
Ann
Age: 87
Place of birth: Frankfort, Indiana
Children: Kevin (passed in 2017) and Maureen
Occupations: Wife and homemaker
Hobbies: Traveling, collecting, reading, art, serving in day-care
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