Lake Maxinkuckee Its Intrigue History & Genealogy Culver, Marshall, Indiana

Oak Knoll - 312 Plymouth Street 



NOTE: This is a combination of 2 files as not to lose any of the data since they were one and the same properties - more clean-up and documentation is needed - but for now all data researched in the past is combined into horpefully one workable file

The house sat up on the knoll and the alley or driveway was an extension of Clover St. off of South Plymouth Street

The old house did sit up on a knoll between S. Plymouth Street and the railroad and was surrounded by a grove of tall trees. This comes from Cathy Schlabach Keller this is just before they tore it down for the Cove project in the late 1980's



Taking a stab at this I believe this to be on S. Plymouth Street - where part of the cove and Jerry Semler property (308 S Plymouth) sets today - it was in the 1960's and 1970's the property of Charles Rhodes who owned and owned Park n Shop
This property originally only had one house on it back on 1906, 1914, 1924 & 1937 Sanborn fire maps and the 1908 & 1922 plat map - thus it was probably M. R. Cline who built the two smaller front houses only a few yards off South Plymouth street; the main and original house sat up on the knoll and the driveway ran a few inches of the south smaller house and the driveway or alley and was an extension of Clover St. off of South Plymouth Street

1835


1835-1837 Plat Map
    Section 21 Lot 1 - 52.41A
    Section 21 Lot 2 - 41.92A
    Section 21 Lot 3 - __.__A [41.49]


James F. D. Lanier of Jefferson county, Indiana on 30 June 1837 was issued the certificate #7339 the East half of Section twenty; Fractional Section of Twenty One; Fractional Section of Twenty Seven and Fractional section of Twenty eight containing 793 32/100 acres.
1872 Plat Map
J. Miller 18.32A A. Foot 21.60A
J Robbin 27.90A James G Robbins
J. Filer 10A
J. Smith 61.40A


1876 Plat Map - no names on it for this section


1880 Plat Map
"W. J. Myers 17.85A"
M. G. Gould 23.92A; 56/57A
E. Parker 27.42A
J. Filer 10A C. Filer 39.40A
G. A. Durr - Lot 2
A.C. Shepherd Etal
J. Green [James Green ]

It is an educated Guess that this was the W. J. Myers property at this time


From the Logansport Daily Journal page 3 dated Aug. 27, 1882:
    All the preliminaries for the extension of the Logansport branch of the Vandalia railway to Lake Michigan have been satisfactorily adjusted, and upon compliiance with a few easy conditions the contact will be closed, and the work will be commenced and pushed to completion.

    Readers of the Journal are familiar with the route of this line to Marmont (Maxinkuckee), and will have no difficulty in following it to South Bend and the lake...
    With these advantages before them, our citizens are asked to consider one of the conditions above named, which condition is that the right of way shall be furnished free to the new line thorugh our county. The estimated cost of this right of way is from $7,000 to $10,000 and it is proposed to raise the amount by subscription. A consideraable portion of this subscription has already been secured, and a committee appointed for that purpose will make an effort to raise the remainder during the present week...


1883 - Oct 6 - The Vandaiia railroad company commenced laying iron at Marmount a d ay or two ago, and-withln a short time the tract will be completed from Maxinkuckee lake to the Nickle Plate railroad, a distance of about three miles,- Logansport Pharos Tribune

This is Myers Garden from the 1895 Maxinkuckee Ag book - which became the Kreuzherger and depicts the area before the ice houses and co-op which was in between these prope


1898
Areas in corporated into Culver
N. Gould
M. Gruobs 10A +
B. Easterday 38.40
M R. Smith
J. Green [James Green ]
Rochester Club
Long Point
South Long Pont


1905 - May 6 - It is rumored that Thomas Medbourn has disposed of his house and will build a fine house on the island south of the elevator

1906 - Jul 26 - Mr. and Mrs. Secrita of Indianapolis were Sunday guests at Oak Knoll cottage, Thos. Medbounre Proprietor...

the 1906 sandborn map of the area shows the house at the top

1908 Plat Map


1908 - Thomas Medborn and shows the Railroad dissecting the property from the lakefront.

The only Thomas and Mary Medbourn I find are Thomas Medbourn was married to Mary E. Green... Thomas Medbourn died January 1, 1908, and his wife; Mary, February 20, 1925


1914 Sanborn shows the house, at the very top i


1915 - Apr 8 - Sidney Green has rented half of the Mrs. Mary Medbourn cottage, and his wife has not joined him after having spent nearly a year with her parents near Delong.

1915 - Apr 29 - S. E. Medbourn has bought from Mrs. Mary Medbourn a lot 50X200 adjoining the south end of the lower ice house.

1916 - Mar 9 - Exchange Property - Mrs. Mary Medbourn and M. R. Cline exchanged properties last week. Mr. Cline's South Main street house and lot went in at $1,500 and Mrs. Mary Medbourn's lake residence and lot was valued at $3,000. On his new property Mr. Cline will get access to the railroad and thus secure shipping facilities.

1917 - Mar -1 - M. R. Cline moved yesterday to "Oak Knoll", the lake front home which he bought of Mrs. Mary Medbourn a year ago. (was found in the March 1, 1947 issues under do you remember for March 1 1917 )

1922


The 1922 plat map shows that M. R. Cline [Milon Reno Cline] owned the property


1923 - ? - the ownership is unclear - but by 1952 M. R. Cline still had the Novlety Works on East jefferson Street just across the way which became the M. R. Cline Builder's Store.

st_rd_117/1927_st_rd_117.htm
1924 Sanborn map South Plymouth Street area.


1926 - For Sale or Rent - Oak Knoll cottage on Lake Maxinkuckee

1927 - May 4 - Mrs. Marion Jones and family have rented the Oak Knoll cottage near the ices houses for the summer months.

1937 Sanborn map South Plymouth Street area.


1947 - Mar 14 - Explosion of Cleaning fluid Starts Fire
    A can of cleaning fluid near a stove exploded in the William Melock home Wedensday night., and about $200 damage. The funiture and walls in one room were burned and several winows broke by the hear. The house is known as Oak Knoll and is owned bny M. R. Cline


1960 - Aug. 3 - The sale of Real Estate... on August 12, 1960... the three (3) houses and an extra vacant lot owned by the said Milon R. Cline at the the time of his death, known as Oak Knoll Properies, located in the Town of Culver City, Marshall County, Indiana...

An ad found in the Logansport Pharos-Tribune on 11 May 1962 are likely these houses:
    Three Lake Maxinkuckee Cottages

    nice view of lake, Many oak trees, 140' frontage X 193' approx., west side of lake. Sell all for $12,900 to settle estate. Terms. Clline's 201 E. Jefferson St. Culver Indiana. Ph. VI-2-3455 or VI-2-2566


We do know that Charles Rhodes purchased the E. jefferson Street property in May 1963 .
    All three houses were owned by Charles Rhodes in 1964-198_; exactly how long after that is not known. The two front houses were rental properties along with the downstairs of the "big house" the upstairs was used by the Rhodes family when they were in Culver; probably until they acquired the Hampton property.


Charles Rhodes who was founder and owner of Park n Shop and he or his sons sold probably to the Culver Cove.
    This was listed as the M. E. Cline lot - in 1964. There was one big 'old house' that sat up on the knoll it was divided into an apartment upstairs and downstairs (whether it was at one time one house is unknown) but at this time it was owned by Charles Rhodes

    The driveway to it was an extension of Clover St. off of S. Plymouth St; old address in the 1960's being 312 Plymouth Street


This house could of been consider lakefront - with the railroad running between it and the lake.

In front of this lot sat the 2 homes that M. R. Cline built , date unknown
    19__ - ? South Plymouth - #1 M. R. Cline -
      This sat in front of the older house on the same piece of ground This house was ped around

      This house sat on the north of the lot partially in front of the curve of Plymouth St onto what is considered Marmont to intersect with Main St.




built by M. R. Cline; and was identical in style to the one next to it.

1964 - Aug. 19 - For Rent: Three bedromme house with utility room and garage on Plymouth St. Culver. Located on Lake Call Park N Shop Phone VI 2-2450
    From sometime in 1964 - till the fall of 1968 our family (Alvin R., Reba D., Judith E. and Stephen M. McKee) lived in this house. While living here - many a trips was made down the old railroad tracks past the co-op over the tressell, trough the park and to the Lakeshore Garage - generally it was taking dad's meals to him.

    There is no re-call of the actual house # as we had a P.O. Box from the time we moved into town in August. 1962.


As expressed in articles about Mr. Cline he loved wood - the stairway, landing and the large attic/bedroom was done in Knotty pine.

The living room in this house was in the front to the west with a bedroom in front on the southwest corner and another bedroom in back to the notheasrt the batheroom in the middle, a hallway sepearted the north part house in half; thr kitchen to the south had an endtrance from the garage and the stairway to a landing area that coulld be uesd as a small bedroom and to the 2nd floor which was one big room. This sat on the south end of the lot next to the driveway for the house on the knoll.

19__ ? South Plymouth - #2 M. R. Cline
    This house was also built by M. R. Cline; and was identical in style to the one next to it. but layout was swap
    The crop of the plat map of 1922 shows the large lot marked "M R Cline"; the other is the area as it is today showing the cove buildings and the red dots mark the property which has been re-surveyed to include more land.


    Below is the front view of the house standing with back to the lake. To the left (which would be south) is the edge of sometime during the 'Cove' pruchasing era - the William Hampton's house was moved to across the street into the 'circle' and became 309 S. Plymouth and the landscape flattened out and in the background just over the knoll you can see the top of the #1 M. R. Cline house; and to the right you can see a very small portion of the #2 M. R. Kline house.



    This comes from Cathy Schlabach Keller this is just before they tore it down for the Cove project.; her family lived in the downstairs of the 'house on the knoll'. These houses along were tore down in the 1980's to make way for the Cove.

    Next to this property was the lot belonging to the Co-op most of it was swampy and it had several metal buildings on it for storage.

    Several years before this it was the Medbourn ice houses location (now part of the Culver Cove).

    Back in the 1960's there was a well worn path through this lot from the houses across to Park-N-Shop; Al Sclahback worked at Park-N-Shop and lived in the old house in the bottom duplex and would walk across this lot to work - so would people of the neighborhood when they went to the store if it was not swampy wet when it rained. Charles Rhodes and sons used the upstairs for their visits and stays to Culver - they were at the time from the South Bend or Osceloa area and also had other Park n Shop's there too.

    It is unsure but it is believe that the parcel of land and all three houses was purchased by the Culver Cove project in the late 1980's as an expansion to their project and all three houses were tor down by them - and then possible parcels of land were sold off as financial problems set in with the project.

    1993 Charles Rhodes


    4 lots in 2005

    2015
    This property became 308 S. Plymouth St. as the lots have dimineshed from 4 down to only 3 lots (the middle one the has 2 counts as one as it has not been re-surveyed as yet to exculded the railroad property); as shown in the photos.
    Now a part of 308 S. Plymouth)