W. R. McKeen AKA "Flora"

1884 - Feb 18 - R. K. Lord of Indianapolis, is ngotiationg with the Vandalia Company for the exclusive priviilege of navagating a pleasure boat on Lake Maxinkuckee during the comming summer. The boat he intendes using is a 36 feet long, 9 foot beam and propelled by a ten-horse power engine. The hill is made of iron and made in the very best manner. She was built at a cost of $4,000. by a wealthy Cleveland gentleman, and used as a pleasure yacht on Lake Erie. She will seat about fifty passengers very comfortably. Mr. Lord informed a Terre Haute reporter that if he gets the privilege he will have his boat running by the first of April - Evansville Daily Journal

1884 Apr 19 - On Thursday the steam yacht "Flora," of Cleveland, was unloaded from the cars at Marmont on the Vandalia. She will be placed on Lake Maxinkuckee. The boat is equipped in regular ocean steamer style. with life preservers, lifeboat, anchor, etc. and is propelled by a steam engine of about thirty or forty-horse power -- Indianapolis Journal

1884 - Apr 21 - The new steamer "Flora" will be launched on Lake Maxinkuckee today. This steamer is an elegant of water eraft. It is thirtyseven feet long. nine feet beam, and will carry from fitty to sixty passengers, and eost $4.000. A dock is to be erected at the Vandalia depot for the accommodation of passengers. The railroad people propose to run a number of excursions to the lake this summer from Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Logansport, Plymouth and other points. Altogether the prospects for a lively season are good. -- Indianapolis Journal

1884 - April 28 - The Maxinkuckee resort, with a new steambeat and improved hotel facilities, promises to be popular again this season. The Vandalfa and Wabash lines offer season excursion rates next month to the lake. -- Indianapolis News

1884 - May 7 - Launched by Capt. R. K. Lord.

Pharos May 7, 1884 - The steamer "Flora" which we made mention of some days since, has been placed in Lake Maxinkuckee, and repainted and name changed to Wm. R. Mckeen. We are informed that great preparations are being made for excursions during the summer. -- Logansport Weekly

1884 - Jul 30 = The steam yacht run on Lake Maxinkuckee has bee christened after Wm. R. McKeen, president of the Vandalia

- Indianapolis Journal

1886 - Apr 26 - The pleasure steamer called Wm. R. McKeen, owned by Captain Lord, which plies Lake Maxinkuckee, is now undergoing repairs, preparatory to the coming season -- Indianapolis Journal

Daniel Mc Donald wrote of the McKeen:

Capt. R. K. Lord brought the iron clad steamer he named "the W. R. MCKEEN", in honor of the president of the Vandalia Railroad, about the first of April, 1883.

Capt. Lord purchased it from a man by the name of Conover, at Cleveland, Ohio, where it had been run on Lake Erie for the accommodation of the owner.

It was a small boat, but modern in all its appointments, and had a fair patronage from the first. Capt Lord continued to run it for several years, but becoming despondent, drowned himself in the lake a short distance east of Long Point in the spring of 1889.

Mrs. Lord continued to run it for a few years, when she sold it to a man who removed it to the Lake of the Woods. During the first winter it was there, water was left in the boiler and pipes, which were busted from freezing, and the boat was so badly injured that the owner did not consider it worth repairing, and this ended the career of "the W. R. McKeen".
1893 - Apr 27 - The Steamboat W. R. McKeen, which has been plying the waters of Lake Maxinkuckee for several years has bee sold to parties who have transfered to Lake of the Woods near Bremen - Argos Reflector

John Bigley wrote of the McKeen:

In April 1883 Captain Lord Launched the W. R. MCKEEN, naming it in honor of the president of the Vandalia Railroad. This launch was an iron clad steamer which had previously run on Lake Erie.