Hilarity Hill

HILARITY HILL AT LAKE MAXINKUCKEE FAMOUS RENDEZVOUS FOR INDIANAPOLIS FISHERMEN LONG BEFORE THE DAY OF SUMMER COTTAGES, AUTOS AND SPEED BOATS.

BY MABEL WHEELER SHIDELER

Picture of Lodge and Guests in Attire of Early Times, One of Prized Possessions of Clemens Mueller, Whose Summer Home Now Occupies Site Where His Grandfather, Clemens Vonnegut, Kiefer Boys and Otto Stechan Spent Happy Days in Fishing and Merry-Making

Hilarity Hill, the old fishing shack of Clemens Vonnegut on the site of what is now the Clemens Mueller home at Lake Maxinkuckee is shown here. The party includes left to right: Clemens Vonnegut and Mrs. Vonnegut, on the porch proper; Charles Kiefer; Mrs. W. K. Stewart; and Otto Steckhan, on the steps; and Anton and Walter Vonnegut in the boat. Even in 1888 some soul was sail-minded. for a home-made example leans against the shack. The picture was made in 1888 but the house was was built several years before that time and was among the "pioneer cottages" on the shore.

A group of lake dwellers and guests in the yard of the Clemens Mueller home, the lake, which is the highest point on the lake, is shown in the picture From left to right women are Miss Marjorie Jean Mueller (sitting), Mrs John Sloane Kittle and Mrs.Herman Kothe (standing) and Mrs. Carl Wallerich and Mrs. Mueller. A modern summer cottage replaces the quaint old structure that oncegraced the hill top.

Hoosier Resort Now Has Array of Beautiful Homes With Well-Kept Grounds, Piers, Motor Boats and Sailing Vessels- Some Patrons Have Cottage for Year-Around, Enjoying Also Winter Sports of. Ice-Boating, Skating, Skiing- -Culver Academy Plays Prominent Part. Hilarity Hill!

Few are the Lake Maxinkuckee settlers who remember the day when that name signified the rendezvous of Indianapolis fisherman but a number of descendants of those old-time anglers recall tales that have been told of the grand and glorious times when the highest point on the east side, now the site of the Clemens Mueller summer home, was known as Hilarity Hill.

It was before the advent of the motor car, the speed boat, the paved road, even before the birth of the Culver Military Academy, when Mr. Mueller's grandfather, Clemens Vonnegut , the Kiefer boys, Otto Stechen and other fishing addicts, used to take the train to Argos, then ride in a two-horse hack across to the lake for several days of real sport.

No summer homes decorated the banks of the lake, not a smart sailboat ornamented the shining waters, but fish were plentiful and the Vonnegut shack was the scene of many fish dinners and rare merry-making in those days of real sport.

One of the rized possessions of Mr. Mueller is an old picture of the lodge and a group of guests, which hangs on the wall of his cottage at the lake. The cottage and the sports clothes of the persons on the porch are a far cry from the modern homes and costumes of today.

Mr. Vonnegut wears a mustache which was the hight of fashion in the late eighties and the blazer of Charlie Kiefer was no doubt the last word in lake toggery. The picture was made in 1888. Just how long the shack had been in existence is not certain but it dated some years before that time.

As a visitor at Lake Maxinkuckee gazes on the array of beautiful homes, with their well-kept grounds, their piers, motor boats and sailing vessels, it seems hard to believe that only fifty years ago, most of those shore places were farmlands; that along the lower levels, now lined with cottages, were marshlands where mosquitoes, as "big as butterflies," according to one old- timer, were thick.

Few Know Original Name.

Today Hilarity Hill is still there, but few know it by its original name. It is a part of the colony which might be called "Little Indianapolis", for it is just a community from home which changes its 1ocation as summer starts its torrid advance on the city. Many of the Maxinkuckeeltes are living on sites which were bought by their fathers or grandfathers in earlier da

ys. The Walker Winslows, the Vonneguts, the Parrys and many others have built new homes on old sites.

Mrs. Clemens Vonnegut, who is shown on the porch in the old-time picture, is so enamoured of the lake with all its wealth of sentiment and historical significance, that she built an all-year-round home and settled there to enjoy both winter and summer on the lakeshore.

Newcomers, of course, have drifted in, building smart houses, boathouses and piers, one of the latest being the Harold Wests, whose handsome white house was completed last summer.

The sensation of this summer. however. is the new "zinc" house which is being erected by Chicago residents. It is fireproof with concrete Floors and steel window and door frames. The insulation has been ingeniously designed, to keep the house delightfully cool in hot weather. It is of the new ultra-modern architecture and is equipped with many gadgets which would have made the oldtimers open their eyes in amazement.

The Mueller home is a delightful airy cottage with a wide screened-in porch and shaded by great forest tress, its gay summer furnishings and its comfortable modern equipment showing the rapid advances time and man have made since the eightles.

The new wing with its "New England arches", which has recently been added to the Walker W. Winslow home, and Mrs. Winslow, her daughter and a guest are shown here. The group includes, left to right, Miss Dorothy Michels, Chicago; Miss Eleanor Winslow and Mrs. Winslow. The spacious home was developed from the small two-room cottage built by Mr. Winslow's father in the early days.

Another home which has a historical background is that of Walker Winslow, for his father lived there before him. The big house of today it the outgrowth of a small weather-boarded cabin of forty years ago, According to Mr. Walker, the present dining room and part of the north bedroom adjoining it formed the ground floor of the original structure. The latest addition to the Win- its slow home is wing marked by interesting "New England arches" which are shown in one of the pictures. The basement has a new recreation room and boathouse which is a delight to the mechanical minded for it has automatic doors, and very "slick* contrivances for launching boats down the hill and for bringing them in again snugly.

Mrs. George Home, who has been going to Lake. Maxinkuche since she was a child, has a wealth of the bappy memories of days spent on the shores of the shining waters. She was an Ogle before her marriage and her father was one of the early settlers. In reminiscing of tales her father of the development of the colony, she said that the east shore, as the Indianapolis community is now called, waS formerly known as the "Indianapolis bank."

The McOuats were among the first to buy land, she said, and the Burfords were also pioneers.

The oldest cottage on the lake, according to all reports, is the Robert L. McQuat cottage which was built in 1875 on ground that was part of the old Van Scholack farm.

According to Mr. McOuat, who 15 spending his fifty-seventh summer at the lake, Levi Van Scholack, who was from Richmond, went to Lake Maxinkuckee on horseback in 1830 and later settled on the land.

Many of the present residences are built on ground originally owned by him. The old farmhouse is now owned by Stuart Dean, whose family also pioneered in the territory.

Started in 1879.

Mr. McOuat's father, Robert L. McQuat, also started his lake career in 1879, and his shack was also a fishing haven. The building had a loft-like upstairs which was equipped with sleeping bunks built in for the men. The women slept downstairs. His uncle, George McOuat, went to the lake four years earlier than his father. He recalls early days when he took part in the fishing jaunts as a youngster. Only a few shacks were on the shore and fishing was the sole attraction.

The Shaneberger home, in the old days, was the rendezvous of the Halcyon Club, another fishing group, he said.

The Bay View camp was another "lake frontier" group made up of Peru residents who camped in tents, the name being obtained from the location which was on a small bay.

Just when or why the name Lake Maxinkuckee was derived is vague but the name is said to be Indian. Legend has it that lake shore in early times was the site of an Indian village, the Pottowatamie tribe. Some have translated the name as meaning "diamond lake" or "clear water.' Various signs that the Indians did dweli there by the shining Indiana *big sea water" have been found. No doubt birch bark canoes made their way lightly over the rolling waves in those vague days of yesterday.

Today, however, canoeing is dimmed by the favorite sport of sailing. The theme song of the colony might be "White Sails in the Sunshine" for boat races are greatly in vogue. Each Sunday the sailors do their "stuff" trying to win laurels in thrilling and picturesque contests, when the lake forms a background for the graceful rigged boats. Sailing reached such a high point in fact that a Maxinkuckee Yacht Club was formed and this year Frederick Holliday is the "admiral."

Academy Joins in Sport.

The academy also enters into the sailing sport and the cadets frequently carry off honors in the races. Many Indianapolis boys are attending the school this summer and are adding zest to the lives of some of sub-debs.

It is interesting to note that the academy was not opehed until 1896, according to record H. H. Culver, a St. Louis manufacturer of stoves, was the founder and it was from him that the little town of CuLver got its name.

He bought several hundred acres of the shore land with the idea of establishing a sort of chautauqua after putting up some buildings engaged entertainers to present programs.

However, in some way it developed into a summer school which is now the famous Culver Academy, The same year the school opened, a military Academy at Mexico, Mo., lost Its buildings by fire. After various con ferences, its commander Colonel A. F. Fleet, consolidated his institutions with Culver. Lake Maxinkuckee is commonly known as a summer resort but attractions are not limited to warm weather. Indeed winter week-ends. were extremely popular last season with ice supplantins. selling.

Skating and sailing also came in for share of attention and large groups of the summer colonists spent gay winter days on the lake with the same delight that they experienced in summer.

26 Aug 1936 Culver Citizen

Indianapolis Paper Reviews Early Days at Maxinkuckee

The early days of Lake Maxinkuckee, when Hilarity Hill was famous as a rendavous for Indianaplis Fisherman long before the advent of summer homes, autos, and speed boats, were reviewed in the Saturday, August 1, issue of the Indianappolis News in a feature article written by Mabel Wheeler Shideler.

A picture of Hilarity Hill with the vacationers in 1888 toggery offered a contrast to pictures of present day cottagers.

As the artice contains much of interest to all readers of the Citizen, it is reprinted below:...