In 1835, William Harris sectioned off his land—the area now known as Main and Green Streets in Brownsburg—for the purpose of establishing a town. Harris used beech trees, elm trees, and hickory stumps to define the town's boundaries; he called it Harrisburg. The name Harrisburg was already in use elsewhere in Indiana, so Brownsburg, which paid homage to early settler James B. Brown, was selected as an alternative. Brownsburg's railroad station, located between Indianapolis and Crawfordsville, positioned the farming community for dramatic growth. As new settlers arrived, new businesses, mills, and factories also began to open. Today, Brownsburg continues to grow, and the community is known for its engineering and racing industries and its first-rate schools.
Linda Lichte Cook is a longtime resident of Brownsburg who works at the Brownsburg Public Library in information services and local history. She has a master's degree in education and a certificate in genealogical research and is a member of the Society of Indiana Archivists and the National Genealogical Society. Cook happily maintains the digital archives of images and historic documents known as the Brownsburg Then and Now/Indiana Memory Project, from which the majority of photographs in this book were selected.