EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part one of an interview by Dick Reed in 1974. This interview first appeared in the Brown County Democrat on Wednesday, July 10, 1974.

Jack Woods, as everyone knew him, who looks a young dapper 75, turned 90 on Saturday, June 15, and actively took part in a two-day celebration without any aftereffects.

The first of two parties were held at the Nashville House. It was attended by 17 relatives including Jack’s brothers, Bill and E. G. Woods.

Bill was born and raised at Nashville and went to Beech Grove, where he worked for many years at the railroad car shops before retiring and moving back to the village.

E. G. was also born in 1899 in Nashville. He went West when he was 17 or 18 years of age to truck in the oil fields. He is now a retired restaurant owner and makes his home in Casper, Wyoming. E. G. “Woody” never came back to Indiana. He died April 25, 1981 in Casper, Wyoming at the age of 81.

Herma Chafin Ogle, who was 93 when she died this year, was a cousin of Jack’s. Another cousin is Ruth Bright of Nashville. She was a member of the birthday party. So, of course, was Jack’s only child Wilma with whom Jack lives in their cottage on South Johnson Street, and who — to quote Jack — looks after him “like a mother hen.” Others at the party on Saturday were Mason and Tillie Reddick, Ralph and Mabel Burkholder, Eva May, Dorothy Jane Rischer of Indianapolis, Lowell Young of Indianapolis and my nephew Larry Woods of Nashville.

The following day, Sunday, 35 neighbors of Jack and Wilma gathered in Jack’s honor at Fred King’s. Jack was “overwhelmed and didn’t know what to say.” He was deluged with letters, cards and flowers and presented with a “Golden Liar’s Bench” award in the form of a card designed by C. Carey Cloud and signed by all those present at the neighborhood party.

Jack, as you may have heard, was one of four Brown County natives in the famous Liar’s Bench photo by Frank Hohenberger, taken back in the 1920s.

Jack is caring for the potted plants he received and means to build at least two porch boxes to put them in. Yes, he’ll make them himself in his garage workshop where a hobby is turning out birdhouses and bird feeder stations.

He works entirely with hand tools because “if I used any power tools it would worry Wilma.” Wilma, who is single, worked 13 years at the bank in Nashville before she helped Andy Rogers form the savings and loan association, which was set up 11 years ago where Les Rudd’s nut shop is now. She still works for the association, now headquartered in the new Federal building.

Her mother was the former Lena Calvin, sister of Dennis and Duward Calvin, whom Jack and Martha Arlena Calvin were married Nov. 24, 1905. “Lena,” says Jack, “was the sweetest girl who ever lived.” She died Jan. 11, 1958. She would have been 88 years old this October.

Jack was born June 15, 1888, on what was then known as the Ben Hobbs farm, less than two miles southeast of Nashville. His full name is Jackson Woods, same as his grandfather. No middle name nor initial.

His father, William Woods, was born in Nashville on Dec. 23, 1857 and died at age 78 in 1936. His mother was the former Sarah Followell who came here as a girl form Tennessee. She died at the old Hobbs place when Jack was 5-and-a-half years old. Jack was taken to be raised by his paternal grandmother in Nashville.

Their home was where the candle shop is now, across the street from the Nashville Christian Church to which Jack belongs. Grandfather Jackson Woods, whose folks came from North Carolina, died and was buried at Macon, Georgia, shortly after his release as a Union prisoner from Libby prison in Atlanta. He was a captain in the 82nd Indiana regiment, where he served with the father of Ralph Yoder and the grandfather of Earl Bond.

Jack says his great-grandmother was a member of the William S. Roberts family and came to Brown County Indiana in 1836, when she was 6 years old. She died in 1914.

When Jack began his education in Nashville there were three grade schools in the village. No. 1 is now a dwelling at the corner of Johnson and West Main streets. Number two was near the western edge of town. Number three, which Jack attended through the eighth grade, was at the east end of the present municipal parking lot downtown.

Jack worked at most of the stores in Nashville at one time or another including the groceries and for James L. Tilton then later for Richard L. Coffey in what became the Star Store.

After Jack married, he had a harness and shoe repair shop in the old hardware building, between Jerry’s Drive-in and the Nashville House, as long as harnesses were made by hand.

To be continued.

Submitted by Pauline Hoover, Brown County Historical Society