Almost everyone who has heard of Greensburg/Decatur County has heard of the famed mulberry tree growing out of our historic courthouse. But how did it get there? Did someone plant it? And who takes care of it? How does it survive? And what does this symbol mean for the community?
In this episode, we answer all of these questions and more by taking a deeper look into the history of the courthouse (and a possible ghost legend) with the expertise of Rick Nobbe, Bill Smith, Janet Chadwell, and Pat Smith. We also visit with Philip Deiwert from Decatur County Tourism and have a chat with Don Storie from Stories Restaurant about their famous breaded tenderloins and homemade pies. Hear music from the Greensburg Community High School Concert Band and listen to Vanessa Martin tell us what the Greensburg Decatur County Library is up to. Last we interview Kathy Lincourt and Cleo Dunkin from Tree County Players to see how they put their vision for community theater into action.
Andrew:
Welcome to Beyond The Tree Tower, a monthly podcast telling stories from Decatur County, Indiana. I'm your host, Andrew. We're listening to the Greensburg Community High School Concert Band. They are performing Pacifica under the direction of Jeff Moppin.
Andrew:
On this first episode of the podcast, there is a lot of ground to cover. First, you can't go beyond the tree tower without starting at the tree tower itself, so that's where we'll go in this episode.
Rick Nobbe:
That tree actually grows through the roof, so there's a physical hole in our roof.
Andrew:
Then we'll keep it on the square and hear a bit of the backstory on Storie's Restaurant.
Don Storie:
The breaded tenderloin sandwich we started serving up here years ago.
Andrew:
And we'll hear a little about our local theater group, Tree County Players.
Cleo Dunkin:
Our dream was always to have a place of our own, and now we have it.
Andrew:
And there is much, much more Beyond The Tree Tower... With Beyond The Tree Tower, Stories from Decatur County, Indiana, we hope to show off many of the unique features, stories, and people that make Decatur County a great place to live or visit. We believe that there are a wide range of compelling stories to be told right here in Decatur County, but we know that there is no separating Greensburg and Decatur County from the tree tower. So, let's get to it.
Pat Smith:
I'll never forget when I first came here in December of 1958.
Andrew:
This is local historian Pat Smith.
Pat Smith:
My husband pointed it out to me. We lived way over on Wilder Street, but since it was winter, that I could see it just barely. He said, "See, there's the courthouse tower, and it's got the tree on it."
Andrew:
Everyone who has lived in or visited Greensburg has been involved in some version of that exchange. "There's the courthouse. There's the tree growing out of it."
Pat Smith:
And I thought, "What in the world would you want a tree on courthouse tower for?" But on the other hand, it has worked out very well for Greensburg.
Andrew:
It's the single most visible and easily identifiable landmark in the County.
Bill Smith:
Tree on the courthouse tower-
Pat Smith:
Yeah, tree on the-
Speaker 7:
Of the tree.
Speaker 8:
Tree on the courthouse tower.
Andrew:
Aside from the spectacle of the tree growing from the tower, it also happens to be the seat of County government. Probably the most historically relevant building in the County, and it might be haunted.
Andrew:
I spoke with one of the people responsible for the building.
Rick Nobbe:
Rick Nobbe, County Commissioner.
Andrew:
The County Commissioners have a wide range of duties, maintaining roads, buildings, facilities, and grounds all over the County, including the Decatur County courthouse, and of course, the tree growing from the courthouse tower.
Rick Nobbe:
Well, for me as a commissioner, and I think I speak for my other two counterparts as commissioners, all three of us likely throw an eye up to the tree every time we go through town. We just want to make sure that the tree is healthy.
Andrew:
Rick understands the importance of the tree tower. It's often the way people are first introduced to Decatur County.
Rick Nobbe:
I think it's reasonable that, as people go through Decatur County, they might get off the interstate and take a drive in and just look at the tree and go around the square and go on about their day. But they do want to take note of it.
Andrew:
And when people take note of it, questions arise. Did somebody plant it up there? What kind of tree is it?
Rick Nobbe:
I don't think anybody has ever actually went up there and physically planted a tree. I think we rely on mother nature for that and the birds. We have had several trees that have sprouted up there on top of the tower. The particular tree that we have now is a Mulberry tree. When we did our courthouse maintenance project, I believe the arborist had indicated it was currently about 50 years old. Should be there for a good while yet.
Andrew:
How does it stay up? There are the roots down in the building, and how does it get water?
Rick Nobbe:
That tree actually grows through the roof, so there's a physical hole in our roof at the top. However, if you go to the very top of the courthouse, it was built in such a way that there's an interior roof structure on the interior of the tower. So, over the years, silt and stuff like that has developed up in that space, and so that's where the roots actually grow from the tree, is in that silt and soil. The old joke was that it's watered by the springs in the courthouse clock, when in fact, it actually there's water that runs through the limestone and through that small hole up there that the tree is actually growing in, and that's where it grows.
Andrew:
How long has the tree been up there?
Bill Smith:
The tree on the courthouse tower was noticed in 1870.
Andrew:
That's local historian Bill Smith.
Bill Smith:
And in 1879, they actually acknowledged that there was a tree growing there, and there has been a continuous tree growing on that courthouse from that date until the present time.
Andrew:
He seemed uniquely qualified to give some historical perspective about the Decatur County courthouse.
Bill Smith:
I've been an attorney here in Greensburg since 1973, and in the last 20 years, I've been involved in doing research and developing the history of Greensburg and Decatur County, particularly through research of the public records, which are kept at the Decatur County courthouse.
Andrew:
Chatting with Bill quickly establishes how much history the courthouse saw before the first tree sprouted in 1870.
Bill Smith:
When Decatur County was created by the Indiana legislature in 1821, the legislator appointed three County Commissioners to select a County seat of government. And Thomas Hendricks, and a fellow by the name of John Walker, contributed land that would become the center of Greensburg. In that plot of those acres, there was a town square, or a center square. The home of Thomas Hendricks was used as the courthouse in Greensburg until 1827, when a log building was built in the town square or town center. It was a replaced in 1854 by a brick structure. They found a need to remodel it a few years later, and that is the core building that still stands.
Andrew:
He talks about the significant trials at the courthouse.
Bill Smith:
Probably the most significant was in 1848/1849, was the prosecution of Luther Donnelle for assisting a fugitive slave. He was convicted, but that appeal was taken to the Indiana Supreme Court and the conviction was overturned. There is now a historical marker at the courthouse marking that event.
Andrew:
In addition to the Donnelle v. State historical marker, the courthouse also has a historical marker for itself. The marker tells us that, "In July 1863, it became a temporary armory while troops bivouacked on the lawn. The Treasurer's office held provisions to feed 10 regimens. The seventh regimental band had played weekly on the square before being militarized. The building was placed on the register of historic places in 1973." But there's no denying that since the tree started growing, it has been the prominent feature of the Decatur County courthouse.
Bill Smith:
There's several different generations of that tree. And at one point in time, the tree was diseased and dying, but at that time, another tree grew up from the roots. And it's interesting that the tree stays and continues to live there in all kinds of weather. And in the 1950s during a drought, they were so worried about the tree dying that the Greensburg Fire Department was actually called out and sprayed water on it to make sure that it was watered during the drought. However, in recent years, other than trimming the tree, we've made no special effort towards its maintenance or preservation. Gene Chandler was a painter. House... well, all sorts of painting, and every three or four years he would climb up as far as he could get and then use a rope to pull himself up and use a Bosun's chair and would swing all the way around the tree, 360 degrees, trimming off the limbs.
Andrew:
These days things are a bit more official. Here's Rick Nobbe again.
Rick Nobbe:
Really try to look after to the tree as much as we can. It's a little bit difficult to get to, of course, and it takes a little bit of money to do that. We're about to embark on a trimming and another checkup of the tree in the next two to three months going into fall.
Andrew:
All that history Bill Smith was talking about, it affects Rick's job overseeing the courthouse, as well.
Rick Nobbe:
Just the structure of the building. There's a lot of limestone, a lot of brick, mortar. It's really a nice old building, and we do everything we can to maintain its older appearance, its history. If anybody comes in the courthouse, they'll notice we've not updated woodwork. We've got examples of how the building was used back years and years ago. We try to maintain that. All the while, trying to provide up to date infrastructure so we can do business on a daily basis.
Andrew:
To get a better sense of how this history and functionality come together, I met with another person who is a bit of an expert on the courthouse.
Janet Chadwell:
Janet Chadwell, Decatur County Auditor.
Andrew:
She has a little bit of relevant work experience.
Janet Chadwell:
Almost 31 years. I was Deputy Assessor, I was Auditor, I've been Deputy Auditor, I've been Clerk, and I'm back down to Auditor.
Andrew:
Janet agreed to give me a tour of the courthouse, the quirks of doing daily business in a 165-year-old building were on full display, including, apparently, dealing with a ghost.
Janet Chadwell:
Christie, her seat of her chair was soaking wet yesterday, and she doesn't know how it happened. The scarecrow that was up on top of the safe was on the floor this morning. And I've been in here, when I was Auditor the first term, and you felt somebody walked by, you sense that, and it just raises the hairs on your neck. And there's other people that... Well, older ones have passed on, but-
Speaker 10:
Our calculators will just all of a sudden start adding themselves every now and then.
Janet Chadwell:
Some kids will ask, when I take him on school tours, and I say it's a friendly ghost, he's like Casper. Because they've heard parents, whoever talking, grandparents, so they always ask and I say, "He's friendly ghost. Don't know where he's at." When I was in the Clerk's Office, we were having the coroner's inquest book microfilmed, and so we had to proof it when it came back and so one of my deputies... and she found this.
Andrew:
She hands over a photocopy of a document.
Janet Chadwell:
And we knew that there had been a gentleman that had died in the courthouse, but the old legend had always said he had come out of court and jumped the rail down the stairs. But when we found this, he had been a person that kind of helped around the courthouse as a janitor type person, and they found him at the bottom of the stairs one morning. And we assumed he went down to put coal or whatever they were burning in the furnace at that time, because we used to call him Courtney, but now we call him John.
Andrew:
Immediately after telling a ghost story and showing me a creepy 124-year-old document about a guy dying in the basement, Janet leads us to the basement.
Janet Chadwell:
I guess I left the light on. Okay. This is usually where I bring the school kids because I like to impress upon them the arches are the strongest architectural structure they have.
Andrew:
The basement of the courthouse is filled with fascinating old records covered in tarps in case of fire or flood. Some of these are bound volumes a foot and a half tall from as far back as 1840.
Janet Chadwell:
The recorders, they had mortgage records.
Andrew:
Oh my goodness. That is amazing.
Janet Chadwell:
Oh, you're looking at the mortgage records. So, when a financial institution, you take a mortgage out, they have to take it to the Recorder's Office to record it because it's an official lien against a property.
Andrew:
And these are just like massive bound books of mortgage records-
Janet Chadwell:
Yes.
Andrew:
... leading back to 1889?
Janet Chadwell:
Yes. And they're handwritten. I would take them out, but they're pretty brittle.
Andrew:
Yeah.
Andrew:
Janet continues the tour through the basement of the new part of the building.
Janet Chadwell:
This is our election cage, so everything is locked up. We have a Republican key and we have a Democratic key.
Andrew:
And upstairs through the offices conducting business.
Janet Chadwell:
This one used to be Circuit Court. It used to have lowered ceilings, dark paneling, but when they decided to remodel, and they took all that away, this is what I found. But this is what amazes us is because we found that eagle behind the paneling
Andrew:
Before we finally climb up to the roof at the base of the tower.
Janet Chadwell:
...earlier to see if we could go up?
Speaker 10:
You sure can. Help yourself. And at least it's not really steamy hot.
Andrew:
First up a ladder into the clockworks.
Janet Chadwell:
There's the contraption that actually runs the clock on the tower. Unfortunately, we haven't improved on it, so one of the commissioners will come up here and he'll have his cell phone, he'll have somebody on the ground telling him because he moves those hands.
Andrew:
And then, we emerge onto the roof.
Janet Chadwell:
So, that's as close as I can get to it because the next several levels, they have a very heavy cover, and it's a ladder that you're just out in air.
Andrew:
The sky was a rich September blue as we stood on top of the courthouse chatting, seeing the activity on the four sides of the square below. As Bill Smith says...
Bill Smith:
It is a square, and many businesses are located on all four sides of the courthouse. So, as a center of Greensburg, it is also a center of commerce where many people meet, many events are held there in the summer. We routinely have a farmer's market along the south side. Frequently, the streets are closed along the courthouse and the square for parades and other significant events.
Andrew:
And it's hard not to think that the tree tower as an identifiable symbol and rallying point plays a role in Greensburg keeping its downtown thriving. I spoke to some Decatur County citizens around the square about the tree.
Citizen 1:
I think it's a source of identity for people who are from Decatur County because you're right, people do... What's in Decatur County? Well, we have a tree in our courthouse. And I think it's just as a form of identity of where we come from.
Citizen 2:
Yeah, you see it everywhere. Like businesses or like Tree City, stuff like that. So, this is definitely like an identity for us.
Citizen 3:
Growth. I think it definitely means growth. I think it means a community comes together, and they support this and they're proud of it. It just represents growth for Decatur County, I think.
Andrew:
And I even got to show somebody the tree for the first time.
Andrew:
Either direction. It's behind that first tower there.
Citizen 4:
Behind that first tower?
Andrew:
Yeah. So, if you walk...
Citizen 4:
Oh!
Andrew:
Just keep coming his way.
Citizen 4:
Oh, yeah! That's neat. Oh, yeah. That is super cool. I like it.
Andrew:
Whether you're viewing the tree for the first time or the 1000th, it is super cool. It's a symbol of identity and growth that stands 110 feet above the people and the stories that make up Decatur County.
Andrew:
The Decatur County courthouse is located in downtown Greensburg on the square at the intersections of Main, Broadway, Washington, and Franklin streets. There continued to be thriving businesses on all four sides of the square, and in just a moment we'll hear from one of those when we sit down with Don at Storie's. But first, let's walk half a block north on the square and check in with Phillip Deiwert at Decatur County Tourism.
Phillip Deiwert :
Yeah. So, this is the Decatur County Visitor Center.
Andrew:
The Visitor Center is just finishing up a remodel, and he showed me around while I ask him about what tourism does and how they managed to get it done.
Phillip Deiwert :
This is kind of a showcase for our community. When somebody comes in, and to me, it should be the kind of place where somebody wants to spend time, do some research, talk to people, talk to me, talk to Erica or our marketing director, pick up flyers, pick up information about the County, about the communities, things to do, sites to see, restaurants to go to. You'll get advice, get input from people who live here.
Phillip Deiwert :
In 1996 the Decatur County County Council enacted a 5% innkeeper tax and on any overnight guests in the County. What our mission is is to reinvest that money the best way we can, using the best judgment we can, doing things that are going to make Decatur County the kind of place that people want to come visit. And hopefully, eventually, some of those people that come to visit are going to turn into people who want to live here. Some of those people that want to live here are going to work here. And it's just, to me, it is cyclical.
Phillip Deiwert :
What I think is one of the neatest things that's going on in Greensburg Decatur County right now is the stellar group that the Mayor has kind of assembled. Kind of come out of that with a very clear vision of what the community wants, what the community needs. We have a list of projects that we're kind of trying to go through and accomplish one by one. When I go to other communities, talk to other tourism directors from other counties, they're blown away that we are able to, every other week, it's our Tourism Director, our Main Street Director, our EDC Economic Development Director, the Chamber Director, the Director of the Community Foundation and the Mayor, we all get together, we talk about what the progress that we've made, we keep each other accountable. We're able to kind of communicate, figure out who can do what, who can help with what part of what project, and that's how we're getting some of this stuff done. It's been a really exciting time to be in Decatur County.
Andrew:
We'll hear more from Phillip at Tourism on future episodes of Beyond the Tree Tower, but for now it's time to head over to the south side of the square and take a seat at Stories Restaurant.
Don Storie:
My name's Don Storie, and I'm co-owner of Storie's Restaurant Incorporated.
Andrew:
There's no restaurant more synonymous with Greensburg than Storie's, so I sat down with Don to get a sense of how Storie's as we know it came to be.
Don Storie:
It had been a restaurant from the late '50s. My parents bought the restaurant off of Mrs. Keeler in 1976, and my brother Chuck and I came up the following year, so we've been here since 1977. My parents had owned three other restaurants before this one. Came into town and bought a little concrete block building and called it The Highway Cafe. Had it a couple of years and then bought a Buel's Restaurant, which was, in the past, it was Trackside, but it was Storie's when they bought it after Buel's for six years. But my brother and I were too young to be involved in any of them other than stocking shelves and mopping floors and stuff like that.
Customer 1:
I don't know, 10, 15 years.
Andrew:
Do you have a favorite menu item?
Customer 1:
I actually liked the chicken salad sandwich.
Don Storie:
My mother's recipes, her and her mother, or my grandmother's recipes, were in a book, and my mother was a really good cook and she's the one that kind of led us all into the restaurant business. And we've tried to follow her recipe.
Waitress:
Okay. Baked tenderloin and dressing and breaded chicken tenders with potatoes, peas, carrots.
Andrew:
You can't really talk about Storie's without talking about breaded pork Tenderloin and pie. I got the backstories on both menu items.
Bill Smith:
Well, the breaded tenderloin sandwich we started serving up here years ago. There was a guy named Tom Phillips that used to live here in Greensburg and had owned some places of business here in town, but he owned a restaurant over in Columbus at one time. And he used to go to a place called The Columbus Bar once in a while and have a beer, and he'd eat a tenderloin there and they were famous for their tenderloins. And when he got, he sold his own restaurant in Columbus, he came back to Greensburg, and he wasn't going back into the business at that time so he came up and showed my dad and my brother and I how they made the Tenderloin at The Columbus Bar. And we just kind of took off of that and changed the breading on it a little bit and made it our own. And that was probably back in, I got to stop and think, probably mid '80s, I'd say, when we started serving that tenderloin. Has become kind of our niche up here. The tenderloin and the pies are kind of what we're noted for.
Customer 2:
Absolutely the butterscotch pie. It's to die for. My two favorites, the breaded tenderloin and the butterscotch pie.
Bill Smith:
My mom hired a lady to bake pies, and she had been here for 16 years, Wanda Heat, and she did a great job. And I never thought we'd ever find anybody half as good as her, but we've added a few other pie bakers over the years, and probably 20 years ago, my sister-in-law, Jane. I was in a pitch and needed a pie baker, and she said she'd do it until we could find somebody. And after a few weeks, I quit looking.
Andrew:
As good as the food is, there's something undeniably quintessential, something almost necessary about Storie's. I think Don sums it up well.
Don Storie:
The tree's the first thing a lot of people ask about on this... And we're right on the square. In fact, where we're siting now, we can look right out the window and see it. So, we thought that would be the opportune thing to put on the menu. It'd be a story about the tree and a story about the history of Greensburg. And so, yeah, whenever people go out of town or out of state or out of the country even, and they mention Greensburg, we hope to be put in the same sentence with the tree on the courthouse tower.
Andrew:
Thanks Don, and thanks to the whole crew at Storie's. Next up, we're going to head over to the Greensburg Decatur County Public Library to hear about some of their upcoming events.
Vanessa Martin:
This is Vanessa Martin, Library Director at the Greensburg Decatur County Public Library, and this is what's going on this month at the Greensburg Library. We have Bats and Books at 6:00 PM on Friday, October 18th. We also have Toddler Time and Story Time going on all month. We also have a make and take craft this month. We have building with Legos. And we also have some adult programs going on. You should check out the library website for more information at Greensburglibrary.org.
Andrew:
Thank you, Vanessa. And finally, the music you hear creeping in is from Bill Rethlake's one night only Meals on Wheels benefit at Tree County Players back in September.
Bill Rethlake :
(singing)
Andrew:
Greensburg boasts one of the strongest and foremost community theater groups in the area. I spoke with current president Kathy Lincourt and founding member Cleo Dunkin.
Kathy Lincourt:
My name is Kathy Lincourt, and I am the current President of Tree County Players. Tree County Players is a nonprofit group of people who are interested in theater primarily, but other performing arts, in the community. We are dedicated to producing our own shows and trying to get some entertainment from other places, although we're just kind of starting on that. And it's been around since 1971, so there's many years of community involvement in putting on different theatrical productions.
Bill Rethlake :
(singing)
Cleo Dunkin:
Hi, I'm Cleo Dunkin, a founding member of Tree County Players. We moved to town in 1970. John was Assistant Principal at South Decatur, and joined a group called Welcome Wagon or Newcomers Club. And it was during Newcomers Club that Sue Coley and I started talking, and we were aware of all the wonderful productions that were going on at the high school at the time for high school students and grade school students; but there was nothing in town that involved adults.
Cleo Dunkin:
So, we contacted George Granhold and Bob Burdette. He was the head of the Parks Department at the time. And we decided to have a meeting to see if there was any interest in forming a community theater group. Well, a representative from the community theater in Connersville also came to our meeting, and we were hoping for like 10 or 20 people tops. Well, 50 people showed up, and the room was just packed. It was at the Armory. So, that was an indication that there was a interest in forming a community theater, so that's how we got started.
Cleo Dunkin:
Over the years, entire families have been able to participate in Tree County Players, and I think it enriches the life of the people who live in the community. And honestly, people have come to our shows from outside the community. Our dream was always to have a place of our own, and now we have it.
Kathy Lincourt:
Purchased this building, which was a church, we did that in the spring of 2017, and are just about finishing up the remodeling process to turn it into a theater. Tree County Players is located on Main Street just east of Needler's Market, 634 West Main Street.
Andrew:
Thanks, Kathy and Cleo, and thanks to Bill Rethlake for letting me record his performance. You can expect to hear much more from Tree County Players on future episodes of Beyond the Tree Tower. That just about wraps up this episode. Be sure to subscribe and tell a friend about the podcast. Beyond the Tree Tower is a production of Decatur County Tourism. You can come visit us online at visitgreensburg.com or in real life at 211 North Broadway Street in Greensburg.
Andrew:
Thanks again to all those who played a part in making this episode happen, including Pat Smith, Rick Nobbe, Bill Smith, Janet Chadwell, Don Storie, Phillip Deiwert , Vanessa Martin, Kathy Lincourt, and Cleo Duncan. Once again, please subscribe and tell your friends to look for us wherever they listen to their podcasts. Until next time, the Greensburg Community High School Concert Band.
