Kin Hubbard and Abe Martin

[1] “Frank Hubbard,” 1870 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com; “Frank M. Hubbard,” 1880 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com; Death Certificate of Frank McKinney Hubbard, Indiana Death Certificates, 1899-2011, Ancestry.com; “Notes of Newspaper Men,” Indianapolis News, October 31, 1891, 8, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Newspaper Artists and Their Work the Public Seldom Sees,” Indianapolis Journal, December 13, 1903, 25, Hoosier State Chronicles; “The Worst of All,” Indianapolis News, September 15, 1904, 14, Newspapers.com; “Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, December 17, 1904, 9, Newspapers.com; “Short Furrows,” Indianapolis News, October 7, 1911, 3, Newspapers.com; “Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin Creator, Dies at His Home,” Indianapolis Star, December 27, 1930, 1-2.

Frank McKinny “Kin” Hubbard was born in Bellefontaine, Ohio on September 1, 1868. A widely published newspaper columnist and author, he was “known to millions of persons who followed the sayings of ‘Abe Martin’ daily in more than three hundred newspapers.” Hubbard also published a lengthier, weekly newspaper piece entitled “Short Furrows.”

The first “Abe Martin” cartoon appeared on September 15, 1904 and the first “Short Furrows” piece ran on October 7, 1911, both in the Indianapolis News. New editions of both of Hubbard’s creations would run in the News until his death in 1930.

[2] “Frank M. Hubbard,” 1880 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com; “Frank Hubbard,” 1900 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com; “Frank Hubbard,” 1910 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com; “Kin Hubbard,” 1920 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com; Marriage Record of Frank McKinney Hubbard and Josephine Jackson, Indiana, U.S., Select Marriage Records, 1748-1993, Ancestry.com; R.L. Polk & Co.’s Indianapolis City Directory, for 1892 (Indianapolis: R.L. Polk and Co., 1892), 447, accessed Archive.org; R. L. Polk & Co.’s Indianapolis City Directory, for 1893 (Indianapolis: R. L. Polk & Co., 1893), 466; R. L. Polk & Co.’s Indianapolis City Directory, for 1894 (Indianapolis: R. L. Polk & Co., 1894), 439; “Notes of Newspaper Men,” Indianapolis News, October 31, 1891, 8, Hoosier State Chronicles; “The Story of the News,” Indianapolis News, December 6, 1894, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; “The City Staff,” Indianapolis News, December 6, 1894, 10, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Personal and Social,” Indianapolis News, October 20, 1896, 7, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Paragraphs of the Day,” Indianapolis News, October 18, 1899, 11, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Local Brevities,” Bellefontaine Republican, January 7, 1899, 3, Newspapers.com; “Personal Notes,” Bellefontaine Republican, October 20, 1899, 3, Newspapers.com; “Personal Notes,” Bellefontaine Republican, November 21, 1899, 3, Newspapers.com;  R.L. Polk & Co.’s Indianapolis City Directory for 1900 (Indianapolis: R.L. Polk and Co., 1900), 548, accessed Archive.org; “Frank Hubbard,” 1900 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com; “Frank Hubbard,” 1900 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com; R.L. Polk & Co.’s Indianapolis City Directory for 1901 (Indianapolis: R.L. Polk and Co., 1901), 548, accessed Archive.org; “In Mr. Stevenson's Memory,” Indianapolis News, May 18, 1901, 3, Newspapers.com;“For the News Writers,” Indianapolis Journal, June 30, 1901, 8, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Amusements,” Indianapolis News, August 21, 1902, 12, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Winner of the News Amateur Photo Contest,” Indianapolis News, September 22, 1902, 14, Hoosier State Chronicles.; “Newspaper Artists and Their Work the Public Seldom Sees,” Indianapolis Journal, December 13, 1903, 25, Hoosier State Chronicles; “The Reader Magazine for April Now Ready,” Indianapolis Journal, March 20, 1904, 10, Hoosier State Chronicles; R.L. Polk & Co.’s Indianapolis City Directory for 1903 (Indianapolis: R.L. Polk and Co., 1903), 579, accessed Archive.org; “Questions and Answers,” Indianapolis News, February 21, 1916, 6, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Little Stories of Daily Life: Sight Seeing,” Indianapolis News, August 4, 1917, 24, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard’s Child Killed in Auto Wreck,” Greencastle Herald, May 31, 1919, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin Creator, Dies at His Home,” Indianapolis Star, December 27, 1930, 1-2.

Hubbard was known early in his career as a staff newspaper artist. This is mentioned by the Indianapolis News as early as 1891. By 1891, Kin Hubbard was living in Indianapolis and working as an artist for the Indianapolis News. However, he was still a resident of Bellefontaine, Ohio, and returned there to vote. The 1892 Indianapolis City Directory listed Kin Hubbard as an artist of the Indianapolis News renting at 335 N. Pennsylvania Ave.

The Indianapolis directories for 1893 and 1894 list Hubbard as an artist with the Indianapolis News. In 1894, the Indianapolis News reported that Kin Hubbard (and others) had been used as an artist for the paper “from time to time,” but the staff artist was Walter Gallaway. Elsewhere, the same article refers to Hubbard as “the illustrator” on the staff “at the time of Mr. Holliday’s retirement.

By 1896, Hubbard had left the Indianapolis News for the Cincinnati Tribune. And by 1899 he worked for a newspaper in Mansfield, Ohio. By late fall 1899, Hubbard returned to the Indianapolis and was working as an artist for the Indianapolis Sun. The 1900 census of Indianapolis lists Hubbard’s occupation as Artist-Newspaper while living with the Walker family as a lodger. The 1902 city directory only listed him as “artist,” no newspaper. The 1903 city directory does list him as an artist for the Indianapolis News. The 1910 and 1920 Census have Indianapolis as his primary residence; newspapers note that he lived in the Irvington neighborhood. He married his wife, Josephine, on October 12, 1905, according to Indiana marriage records. He had three children—Edwin, Virginia, and Kin, Jr.; sadly, Kin, Jr. died tragically in an automobile accident. He remained with the Sun through 1901, when he joined the Indianapolis News staff full time, a position he would hold until his death in 1930.

[3] “New Book of Sketches,” Indianapolis News, February 25, 1903, 14, Newspapers.com; submitted by applicant; “Hubbard’s Sketch Book,” Indianapolis News, February 28, 1903, 28, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Indianapolis News Forces at the Chicago Convention,” Indianapolis News, June 18, 1904, 1, Newspapers.com; “Interesting Things About Convention,” Richmond Palladium, April 10, 1908, 2, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Indiana Politics by Kin Hubbard,” Greenfield Republican, March 23, 1911, 3, Hoosier State Chronicles; He Knew Charley Fairbanks at the Old Creek Swimming Hole,” Indianapolis News, June 7, 1916, 13, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Election Returns by Signal Code and Telautograph,” Indianapolis News, November 6, 1916, 7, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Verdict of Voters is Awaited by Throng,” Indianapolis News, November 8, 1916, 12, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Want Valentine for Your Soldier Boy?,” Richmond Palladium, January 22, 1918, 5, Hoosier State Chronicles; “A Threadbare Soldier,” Indianapolis News, January 30, 1918, 3, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Hubbard Long Active in General Assembly,” Indianapolis News, December 26, 1930, 11, Newspapers.com.

A theme of Hubbard’s early work revolved around political figures, which gained him some notoriety. By 1903, Hubbard produced a book of his “legislative sketches” of “Senators, Representatives, lobbyists, pages” many of which had been carried by the Indianapolis News. The News sent Hubbard to cover political events for these sketches specifically.

As the Indianapolis News reported on June 18, 1904, during the Republican National Convention in Chicago, “Kin Hubbard, who can caricature people in a way that requires no label for recognition, will show to all their neighbors just how the Indiana men are acting away from home.”

He attended a 1908 political convention in Shelbyville, Indiana and was described as the “caricaturist for the Indianapolis News,” and that he, “could be expected to draw pictures by looking under a man’s chin.”

During the 1916 election, Hubbard drew caricatures in real-time as election returns came in. These were displayed by “telautograph” prints in front of the Indianapolis News building. The News reported that “the crowd laughed at the caricatures produced on the screen by Spin Williams and Kin Hubbard, of the art staff of the News.”

To raise funds for the American Fund for French Wounded during World War I, Kin Hubbard drew cartoons and wrote captions for “wartime valentines.” He worked on this project with fellow News cartoonist Gaar Williams, author George Ade, and writer William Herschell.

[4] “Press Artists’ League Exhibition is Open.” Indianapolis News, November 13, 1902, 14, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Gamblers as Critics at Press Art Exhibit,” Indianapolis News, November 14, 1902, 18, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Elks Minstrel Show, Indianapolis Journal, February 15, 1903, 20, Newspapers.com; “New Book of Sketches,” Indianapolis News, February 25, 1903, 14, Newspapers.com; “Hubbard’s Sketch Book,” Indianapolis News, February 28, 1903, 28, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Newspaper Artists and Their Work the Public Seldom Sees,” Indianapolis Journal, December 13, 1903, 25, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Indianapolis News Forces at the Chicago Convention,” Indianapolis News, June 18, 1904, 1, Newspapers.com; “Through the Microscope,” Indianapolis News, August 6, 1904, 6, Newspapers.com; “Interesting Things About Convention,” Richmond Palladium, April 10, 1908, 2, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Indiana Politics by Kin Hubbard,” Greenfield Republican, March 23, 1911, 3, Hoosier State Chronicles; “‘The Ohio Lady’ Sets Effete East Against Middle West,” Indianapolis News, January 22, 1916, 14, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Serge de Diaghileff Ballet Russe Arrives for Three Performances,” Indianapolis News, March 9 1916, 13, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Shakespeare Tercentenary in Indianapolis,” Indianapolis News, April 15, 1916, 14, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Election Returns by Signal Code and Telautograph,” Indianapolis News, November 6, 1916, 7, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Verdict of Voters is Awaited by Throng,” Indianapolis News, November 8, 1916, 12, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Hubbard’s Caricatures of Men Behind the War Chest Drive,” Indianapolis News, May 15, 1918, 3, Hoosier State Chronicles.

Hubbard’s reputation as a skilled artist in capturing people in caricature and already well-established by the turn of the century, having previously worked in newspapers in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Mansfield, Ohio, and in Indianapolis.

In 1902, his caricature of Indiana Senator (and future Vice President) Charles Fairbanks was described by the Indianapolis News as a “gem.” He also did a caricature of author Booth Tarkington that year, as reported by the News, which would reappear in the paper’s January 22, 1916 issue.

In 1903, the Indianapolis Journal described Hubbard in one of their articles as a “caricaturist” and a “promoter of publicity.” Also in 1903, Hubbard published a book of caricatures depicting members of the Sixty-third session of the Indiana General Assembly. Eight years later, in 1911, he published another book of caricatures with commentaries titled Indiana Politics.

Hubbard also published caricatures in the News well after the success of Abe Martin. Two such appeared in 1916. The first caricatured the Russian ballet on its visit to Indianapolis and the second commemorated the tercentenary of William Shakespeare and the Indianapolis theatre scene.

During World War I, Hubbard drew caricatures of the key figures of the “Indianapolis war chest,” members of the community tasked with procuring funds for the war effort. These were published in the Indianapolis News.

[5] “The Indianapolis News Forces at the Chicago Convention,” Indianapolis News, June 18, 1904, 1, Newspapers.com; “The Worst of All,” Indianapolis News, September 15, 1904, 14, Newspapers.com; “One Year Anyhow,” Indianapolis News, November 11, 1904, 24, Newspapers.com; “Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, December 17, 1904, 9, Newspapers.com; “Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, December 19, 1904, 18, Newspapers.com; “Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, February 4, 1905, 24, Newspapers.com; “Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, February 21, 1905, 16, Newspapers.com; “Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, February 22, 1905, 16, Newspapers.com; “‘Abe Martin’ Here,” Knightstown Journal, May 12, 1905, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Laughs Over Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, December 16, 1907, 18, Newspapers.com; “George Ade Spreads Fame of Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, April 22, 1910, 28, Newspapers.com; Indianapolis News, April 22, 1910, 28, Newspapers.com; George Ade, “Abe Martin of Brown County,” American Magazine, May, 1910, 46-50; “Hubbard Pleased Large Audience,” Richmond Palladium, March 16, 1911, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard’s Chuckle Jaw of Abe Martin Preserves,” Indianapolis News, November 30, 1918, 24, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Abe Martin: On the War and Other Things,” Indianapolis News, December 2, 1918, 8, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, December 18, 1918, 24, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Short Furrows,” South Bend News-Times, July 27, 1919, 19, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Every Sunday in Okmulgee Daily Democrat…,” Okmulgee Daily Democrat, December 22, 1920, 5, Newspapers.com; “Abe Martin Touches Every Phase of Life,” Richmond Palladium, December 18, 1922, 8 Hoosier State Chronicles; “Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, June 10, 1925, 36, Newspapers.com; “G. Carleton Guy,” Indianapolis Times, October 30, 1926, 7, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Short Furrows,” June 7, 1930, 8, Indianapolis News, 8, Newspapers.com; “Short Furrows,” December 13, 1930, 8, Indianapolis News, 8, Newspapers.com; “Abe Martin,” December 23, 1930, 28, Indianapolis News, 8, Newspapers.com; “Kin Hubbard, Humorist, is Dead,” Greencastle Herald, December 26, 1930, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin Creator, Dies at His Home,” Indianapolis Star, December 27, 1930, 1-2, Newspapers.com; “Brown County Park Dedication Recalls Abe Martin Moving Day,” Indianapolis News, May 18, 1932, 1, Newspapers.com.

The character of Abe Martin was born out of two trips that Hubbard made across Indiana during the 1904 presidential election. Hubbard had excess material from the trips and added a character, Abe, then ran those quips under the character. The first known cartoon of Abe Martin appeared in the Indianapolis News on September 15, 1904, with a much different design than Hubbard used subsequently. This version depicted Abe Martin as much stouter, without a coat, and a shorter beard. He later mentions the character without showing him in a November 11, 1904 cartoon for the News.

The first known publication of the Abe Martin character featuring his iconic design, with striped or plaid pants, old overcoat, hat, beard, slumped shoulders, and smoking a pipe, appeared in the December 17, 1904 issue of the Indianapolis News. He would appear almost daily in the News, withHubbard doing little to alter his character’s appearance, for the next 26 years. By the time of Hubbard’s death in 1930, his cartoons were syndicated in over 300 newspapers, according to the Greencastle Herald and the Indianapolis Star. Examples of syndication include “Short Furrows,” which ran in the South Bend News-Times in Indiana as well as the Okmulgee Daily Democrat in Oklahoma.

Abe Martin “moved” to Brown County in the February 4, 1905 edition of the News, with the character quipping, “By cracky, it’s sum travelin’ ter git ter Brown County.” Other characters that populated the cartoon included the livery boy Tiry Buff, Stew Nugent A. E. F., Elmer Swill, and Joe Kite.

The Abe Martin character was not without controversy, as one cartoon from 1905 used a racial slur and a 1918 advertisement for an Abe Martin book depicted a character in blackface.

[6] J. E. Horton, “Through the Microscope,” Indianapolis News, August 6, 1904, 6, Newspapers.com; “James Whitcomb Riley Discusses Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, May 12, 1906, 14, Newspapers.com; “An ‘Abe Martin’ Primer,” Richmond Palladium, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin of Brown County, Indiana (Indianapolis: Indianapolis News), 1906; “Abe has New Book,” Hammond Times, November 28, 1908, 4, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Abe Martin’s 1910 Almanack Fresh, Spicy Hoosier Humor,” Richmond Palladium, November 15, 1909, 2, Hoosier State Chronicles; “George Ade Spreads Fame of Abe Martin,” Indianapolis News, April 22, 1910, 28, Newspapers.com; “George Ade, “Abe Martin of Brown County,” American Magazine, May, 1910, 46-50; “Kin Hubbard has New Book,” Richmond Palladium, December 4, 1910, 4, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard’s New ‘Abe Martin’ Book,” Richmond Palladium, December 1, 1913, 6, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Merry Xmas, Woodrow,” South Bend News-Times, December 23, 1913, 7, Hoosier State Chronicles; “ ‘Abe Martin’s Primer’ Delights Lovers of Quaint Hoosier Humor,” Richmond Palladium, December 12, 1914, 8, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard Lends Joy to Christmas,” Terre Haute Daily Tribune, December 22, 1915, 10, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Abe Martin Again,” Indianapolis News, December 15, 1916, 17, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Abe’s Christmas Book in His Best Style,” Richmond Palladium, December 15, 1919, 2, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Abe Martin’s in Town Agin,” Indianapolis News, December 4, 1920, 7, Hoosier State Chronicles; “New Books by Indianapolis Authors,” Indianapolis News, October 21, 1926, 14, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin Creator, Dies at His Home,” Indianapolis Star, December 27, 1930, 1-2; “Will Rogers, Dazed by Death of Hubbard, Pays High Tribute,” Indianapolis News, December 27, 1930, 5, Newspapers.com; Ray Boomhower, “A Dapper Dan with the Soul of an Imp,” Traces of Indiana History and Midwestern History, Fall 1993, 38-45, indianahistory.org.

Hubbard was well regarded by noted Hoosier authors, including Meredith Nicholson, George Ade, and James Whitcomb Riley. Nationally known humorist Will Rogers also lauded his work, writing of Hubbard, “he was at the top for real downright humor.” Riley and Nicolson wrote introductions and tributes to Abe Martin in Hubbard’s first book produced on the character in 1906.

Hubbard published annual compendiums of Abe Martin cartoons and aphorisms through the publishing house of the Indianapolis News starting in 1906. Meredith Nicholson wrote of Hubbard in the introduction to the first collection of Abe Martin cartoons, “It is, therefore, with a clear conscience that I give this symphony in gingham my hearty endorsement; and if the author of it should be arrested for arson or safe-blowing at any time when I myself am at large, I solemnly promise to be one of ten thousand men to put up a dime apiece to bail him out.”

James Whitcomb Riley, in the same volume, wrote of Hubbard in a poem. One stanza of his praise is below:

The artist, previous hit Kin Hubbard , 's so keerless

He draws Abe 'most eyeless and earless;

But he's never yit pictured him cheerless

Er with fun 'at he tries to conceal

Whuther onto the fence er clean over

A-rootin' up ragweed er clover,

Skeert stiff at some "Rambler" er "Rover"

Er new fangled automobeel.

J. E. Horton also penned a lauding poem to Hubbard in the August 6, 1904 edition of the Indianapolis News, wherein he wrote, “W’en I pick up that air paper; Smiles jist run all ‘round my face; I have seen some other picters; But them there juist wins th’ race.”

Author George Ade wrote of Hubbard in 1910, “He has an abiding popularity in the Hoosier State for the reason that he deals in truth, maintains a kindly mood and never hesitates to go after make-believes and shams with a good stout hickory.”

One of Kin Hubbard’s annual Abe Martin compendiums made it all the way to the White House. For Christmas in 1913, Vice President Thomas Marshall, himself a Hoosier, gifted President Woodrow Wilson Hubbard’s Back Country Folks. As the South Bend News-Times wrote, Marshall dedicated the book with the inscription: “To the president of the United States from his only vice.”

The quote of Will Rogers comes from the December 27, 1930 issue of the Indianapolis News, after the death of Hubbard. He also said, “he’d forgotten more humor than all the rest of ‘em probably will ever know.”

[vii] Death Certificate of Frank McKinney Hubbard, Indiana Death Certificates, 1899-2011, Ancestry.com; “Kin Hubbard Dies Suddenly Early Friday,” Greencastle Daily Banner, December 26, 1930, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard, Humorist, is Dead,” Greencastle Herald, December 26, 1930, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin Creator, Dies of Heart Disease at Home,” Indianapolis News, December 26, 1930, 1, Newspapers.com; “Short Furrows,” Indianapolis News, December 26, 1930, 11, Newspapers.com; “Kin’s Death is Loss to All—Booth Tarkington,” Indianapolis News, December 26, 1930, 11, Newspapers.com; Meredith Nicholson, “‘True Friend’ Tribute Paid Kin Hubbard,” Indianapolis Times, December 26, 1930, 2, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin Creator, Dies at His Home,” Indianapolis Star, December 27, 1930, 1-2, Newspapers.com; “Kin Hubbard Laid in Last Resting Place,” Indianapolis Times, December 29, 1930, 1, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Name of Kin Hubbard Added to Ohio’s Journalism Hall of Fame,” Indianapolis News, October 28, 1939, 7, Newspapers.com; “Holliday, Hubbard in Hall of Fame,” Indianapolis News, June 10, 1967, 13, Newspapers.com; Kerry L. Hubartt, “Frank McKinny (Kin) Hubbard Biography,” Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, accessed November 14, 2022, https://ijhf.org/members/1967/frank-mckinny-hubbard.

Kin Hubbard died on December 26, 1930 at the age of 62, from heart disease. His final “Short Furrows” article was published that day by the Indianapolis News, in tribute his untimely passing.

Hoosier author Booth Tarkington said of Hubbard’s death, “the news of his death will bring a sharp sense of loss, not only to us, his old friends and neighbors here in Indiana, but to the thousands and thousands of his friends everywhere, who never saw him.” Meredith Nicholson, who wrote the introduction to Hubbard’s first book of Abe Martin cartoons, wrote in the Indianapolis Times, “We have had in Indiana no clearer case of genius than that presented in Kin Hubbard. It will be said of him a thousand times that his humor was unique; and this is the only fitting word for his peculiar ‘slant,’ his ability to shoot at folly on the wing.”

His funeral took place on December 29, 1930, many in attendance, including George Ade, John T. McCutcheon, Will Rogers, Meredith Nicholson. He was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.

He was posthumously inducted into the Ohio Journalism Hall of Fame in 1939 and the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1967.

[8] “Indiana to Pay Tribute to Kin Hubbard with Brown County Nature-Memorial; Cottages Names for His Characters to Occupy Ridge Dedicated in His Honor,” Indianapolis News, February 27, 1932, 1, Newspapers.com; “Rush Work on Camp,” Indianapolis Times, March 5, 1932, 12, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Abe Martin Lodge to Be Community Center,” Franklin Evening Star, March 16, 1932, 7, Newspapers.com; “Brown County Park Dedication Recalls Abe Martin Moving Day,” Indianapolis News, May 18, 1932, 1, Newspapers.com; “Kin Hubbard Honored at State Park Dedication,” Greencastle Daily Banner, May 23, 1932, 2, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Dedicate Park Cabin System,” Indianapolis Times, May 23, 1932, 12, Hoosier State Chronicles; “Lauds Kin Hubbard Philosophy as Brown County Park Opens,” Indianapolis News, May 23, 1932, 11; Dedicate Park Cabin System,” Indianapolis Times, May 23, 1932, 12, Hoosier State Chronicles.

After development of Brown County State Park and completion of the park’s lodge in 1932, the lodge was named for Hubbard’s most famous character, Abe Martin, as a tribute to Hubbard and the inspiration he drew from Brown County and its culture. The lodge complex was placed atop Kin Hubbard Ridge, named to memorialize the author.

Plans to name aspects of Brown County State Park gained mention as early as February 27, 1932, in the Indianapolis News. By March, “rush work” on the Abe Martin Lodge was underway, according to the Indianapolis Times. Construction was completed later that month, as reported by the Franklin Evening Star. On May 23, 1932, the grand opening of Abe Martin Lodge and Kin Hubbard Ridge happened at Brown County State Park. As the Greencastle Daily Banner wrote, “several hundred persons from widely scattered sections of Indiana, with several from other states, attended dedication exercises here Sunday for Brown County State Park.” “Each cabin,” in the new facilities, “bears the name of one of the Abe Martin characters, and the large community house, located at the center of the cabin group, houses the Little Gem restaurant,” noted the Indianapolis Times.

Keywords

Arts & Culture; Newspaper & Media