Letters from Hilarity Club - 1885

Letter of Local Boys 46 Years Ago Reveal Life at Lake Maxinkuckee

Vacation outings on Lake Maxinkuckee, where many Indianapolis persons visit every summer, were pleasant, neighborly affairs forty-six years ago, letters written by two Indianapolis boys to their mother reveal.

The boys were John Dean, then 18 years old, Charles Dean, then 15, and the mother was Mrs. Thomas Dean.

The letters are dated July, 1885.

A sister, Mrs. Mary Dean Brossman, 5601 East St. Clair street, has them now. Two other boys were in the party with the brothers, Mrs. Brossman says. The name of one has been forgotten, but the other was Albert Shultz, whose sister was the second wife of Booth Tarkington's father.

John Dean is dead and Charles Dean is living in Milwaukee, Wis. Both, however, were reared in Indianapolis. John was born in Rome, N. Y., and came to Indianapolis when he was 1 year old. Their father was one of the founders of the Dean Bros' Steam Pump Works, a pioneer industry here, now located at 323 West Tenth street.

Spelling Is Unchanged.

The letters are reproduced here verbatim, without any changes in spelling.

Hilerity Hill,
Maxinkuckee, Marshall County, Indiana.
July, 1885.

Dear Mother: Where are your letters? I had expected one before this. We don't know anything about doings at home.

hen we arrived at Marmont we felt lost, for the lake was so big. It took us about four hours to get located, at the south end of the lake. This place was a perfect wilderness.

The mosquitoes so thick that I could not go to the same place twice.

We stayed there that evening and the ne morning we moved to a place on the east side of the lake, about a half mile north of Maxincuckee [now Culver).

This place is a high bluff, where there is always a breeze and no mosquitoes.

The parties next door are very obliging, lending us straw ticks to sleep on, their boat to row in and their yacht to sail in.

We are living high with these straw ticks and three blankets over us.

We have laid a floor in the tent, built stools and table, get fresh milk every day and more fish than we can eat.

Wore my pants through and had to make a big patch all over the seat the second day.

What do you think? I have sideburns.

I wish father was up here to have a sail on the lake like one we had. We went across the lake like an express train, with the boat leaning until the gunwal was under water. The waves flying over the bow, wetting us like rain, the stern churning the water into foam

Aff John.

It made us crazy. The boat was a dandy and filled with air tanks.

In Hurry for Dinner.
Hilarity Hill.

Dear Mother:

Oh I wish dinner would hurry up. Im always hungry. We have apples, potatoes, corn coffee. We eat bread and sugar instead of cake. All our groceries which are the above articles are brought to us by the grocer.

Having fine weather. There are a great many squirrels around the camp and they are so tame that they come within our reach. The birds and squirrels Have Fights every morning, in front of the tent. There are two propellers on the lake which travel very fast.

We did our washing Tues on the little pier made for that.

I am. cook and hope that you are well. We are.

There is not a bit of food left on the table after a meal. We get away with two loaves of bread 16 potatoes a mess of fish 10 stewed apples a gal. of coffee each meal.

We have moved from our old quarters, where we stayed one day to a place near the town of Maxincuckee.

We have a fine place now. It is on the border of a bluff about 50 ft. high, overlooking the lake.

It has a flight of stairs going down to the lake shore, where there are several springs, whose water was pronounced very healthy by the doctors.

There is a long pier running out into the water, where our boat and the larger boats owned by a fellow next door are tied. He is a handy good natured nabor, whom we soon got acquainted with, and lets us take them when ever we want them.

The other day he brought over large dish of stewed potatoes for us. On his porch he has an old tin pan piano, and another fellow who lives with him has a violin, and we a flute and fife.

Every night we go over in his yard and build a big fire, light the paper lanterns and have great times. It sounds so nice that bats from the hotels a little way from us come and listen to the music.

Don't worry, for where we ride in the canoe to fish, the lake is shallow and descends gradually, and I guess you can go 100 ft. without getting over your head. We catch more fish than we can eat.

You aught to see how comfortable we are. When we want lumber we go along the shore and find boards, pleanty of them, that the breeze carries right to the shore. Out of these we have built a floor, a table and stool.

We are living high on $3 a week for all of us.

Found a top to a stove and dug a square hole in the ground, over which we put this and our nabor gave us a stove pipe.

We do our own cooking and have lots of fun. The rest are getting tanned and I almost thing I am, a little. We are happy.

Love. CHARLEY.

Letter Writing Day.
Hilarity HIll, July 25.

Dear Mother -

I have just finished washing dishes and the rest of the boys are resting on the grass outside of the tent. I guess they can't get up enough courage to come in and write letters, as today is letter writing day.

I was sailing all day yesterday and am able to sail a sloop alone.

I never saw weather as fine as we are having. We have had only one rainy night and I did not know that it was wet 'till I woke in the morning.

The sunsets on this lake are uncomparable.

I was introduced to Frank Bird of Indianapolis yesterday.

An hundred excursion of twelve cars, seven people and a band of music made the lake rather lively yesterday.

We do most of our fishing in boat almost as broad as it is long. It is called a sneak boat.

This lake kicks up rather rough once in a while, and looks dangerous and in two hours will get as smooth as glass.

As it is fed by springs the lake is very clear and could be used for drinking water if the artesian wells were not so numerous.

Our bill of fare to-day is chicken, boiled potatoes, stewed apples and coffee and bread, butter and 1 lb. of sugar.

I would have sent some turtle eggs home if I had not be broken them.

A great many Indianapolis people have cottages up here.

There are two good hotels near our place charging $8 a week.

Your affectionate son, John.

Plan Return Home.
Hilarity Hill.

Dear Mother:

We will come home on the 7th as the rest of the boys are going to break up camp then, and we don't want to go before they do.

There are only three or four days difference.

We are going fishing as soon as Albert washes dishes.

We get fresh meat twice a week from the butcher who comes for orders. We have a regular milk man, who brings a peck of apples every day and butter twice a week. Sometimes he brings green corn.

The saloon in Marmont burned down this morning at four o'clock, and the people who lived upstairs barely escaped with their lives. One singed her hair and escaped with a calico dress.

We are perfectly well. Is everybody at home?

The grocer wants to know what we do with 2 lbs. of sugar a day.

I am now back from fishing and it is beginning to sprinkle.

You ought to see the fish we brought in. I guess about 25. I caught 2 nice red eyes over six inches long, and several perch the same length. Albert caught two big turtles on his trout line, and will have turtle soup.

The fellows next door that I spoke about will cook them for us, and we will devide the soup as there will be a good deal.

They lent us an old hammock, which we mended and it is very comfortable in the shade, to read in.

We go sailing almost every day with a man, who lives two doors from us. He claims that he has the fastest sail boat on the lake.

It is lots of fun on a windy day to go splashing through the water.

We are getting to be regular fresh-water sailors, when the weather is fine. He often lets John handle it, but I guess he thinks I ain't stout enough.

I must build the fire now so goodbye.

I am getting as brown as anybody.

Love. CHARLEY.

The Indianapolis Star Indianapolis, Indiana Sun, Aug 23, 1931 Page 46

Note: ABoove states:

The saloon in Marmont burned down this morning at four o'clock, and the people who lived upstairs barely escaped with their lives. One singed her hair and escaped with a calico dress.

BUT the Myers Beer Garden burnt as follows: From the Indianapolis Journal - Aug. 2 1886
On Friday morning the hotel and beer-garden of the Terre Haute Brewing Company at Lake Maxinkuckee, was entirely, destroyed by fire. Loss, $5,000, fully insured