History Of Lake Maxinkuckee, O. A. Gandy Part Three

(Continued From Last Week)

Life among the Indians before the coming of the white settlers was ideal, especially as viewed in the spring of the year.

They had no rents or taxes to fret about, no house cleaning convulsions interfered with their pleasure; there was no ccoal to carry ir or ashes to lug out - mothing to do but hunt and fish and loaf all day.

On warm and pleasant afternoons they gathered in groups on the shady banks, where they would lie and talk for hours at a time. Some were fluent talkers and would recount the mighty deeds of their forefathers and themselves on the warpath or in the hunt, and thus they would lie and talk, and talk and lie for hours.

The squaws were the workers of the family. They hoes the little patch of corn and spuds, tended the kids and fowls, built the fires and the dress suits of the braves, and made themselves generally useful .

They went cheerfully about their simple daily tasks, while ever and soon the strains of the beautiful Pottawattomie hymm, "Ydobyreve skrow tub rebtaf". would float out over the sparkling waters of the lake.

The high coast of living was not such a factor then as now. FIsh and game were very plentiful. Possum and coon, deer and bear, euchre and seven up flourished profusely all about the lake. (There are still p lenty of coons at the lake, especially in the summer).

It was no uncommon sight to see hundreds of deer and occasionally a bear or two come down to the water's edge in the twilight hours to drink and frisk about the banks of the lake. Rabbits were so numerous that sometime you could stand on top of Bunker Hill and no matter in whihc direction you looked you could see nothing but ears. They were the common woods variety, the Welsh rabbit not being introduced until the resorters began to come.

How history does repeat itself~ The present day visitor to Maxinkuckee probably sees more dears around its shores than the Indiana did.

Almost any warm summer evening they come in bevys and conveys and droves from all around the banks of the lake to sip cooling and refreshing drinks at the fountains, and many of the dears are some bears, too.

The first white settlers around the lake came from Southern Indiana and Kentucky. According to one authoroity there were but few white folks located here when they arrived!

They came up the old Indiana trail and crossed the Tippecanoe River at Leiter's Ford. This was the only place of crossing at that time, and the only ford within a days drive. Now you see more Fords around these parts than any other kind.

THese pioneers traveled by ox cart, as they were in a hhurry to reach their destination, bringing their household goos, children and other burdens, lares and penates.

Nowdays we take things easier; our hurry is over, and we go by way of the Vandalia. ROads were poor, being for the most part merely a blazed trail, so that on the night the first contingent arrived a meeting was helf and steps taken to pave Main Street.

In fact, it was so moist that pictures of most of the streets sold right along as lake scenes and were often mistaken for marine views.

Life was a struggle for these hardy pioneers. They labored from daylight until dark, and those who came from Kentucky were skilled in the art of putting in a few extra hours with the moonshine.

The Indiana had ceded the land, but the settle ha to see it all over again. This made some of them cow-peevish. They had to be content with such pledian ailments as malaria, stomach ache, mumps, measles, etc. None was opulent enough to afford gout, angina perctoria, appendicitis, or other fashionable Indiaposiltions of the present day.

Furniture and utensils were of the crudest kinds, as the installment houses were delayed in opening up and interruptions in the mail service made buying from cataloue houses unsatisfactory.

Most of the pioneers made their own mission furniture with an axe out of the native trees (shoe boxes being scarce), and as timber was plentiful they built somewhat heavier more durable than present-day creations.

But for all their labor and hard life they had some compensations - they had no prahhophones in the neighborhood - no roman chairs or for foot "sofys" cluttered up the house, no bargin days, no suffragettes, no motorcycles with open exhaust.

Although food was generally plentiful, the pioneers suffered terribly at times from thrist. Often for long intervals there would be nothing to drink but water. The following item, never before published, clipped from a paper about this time gives an insight into the fonditions which the early settlers had to contend with:

End of Loung Drought - Bad-yee Pete Slocum drove in from Indianapolis yesterday with two ox carts loaded with oil of joy, and says that more is on the ways.

This arrival has greatly stimulated the real eastate market which has been depressed for some time. Chief Howd-Ri I-Yam came in from the Kankakee bottoms and bartered three townships for a four-gallon demijohn.

There is much elation among the tribe today. Badeye Pete has announced a cabaret every afternoon and evening as long as the supply of refreshements lasts.


He has accumulated so much swamp land that he is now said to be the guy that is getting the "ooze" out of "booze".

Simple amusements were the rule with these early settlers. Foot races were common, often between an Indian and a settle, with a bunch of hair for the prize. The start would be some spot in the forrest, the goal the cabin of the settler.

If the Indiana won he got the hair, and pretty much everything else the settler had. If the settler won, he merely kept the hair. This would seem to be a one-sided arrangement, but the pioneers had to concede many points in order to have an amusement at all.

Horse-racing was another popular form of early amusement. Two mounted men, one of them usually the sheriff, would engage in a several days test of speed and endurance. If the sheriff lost, the other man lept the horse for the prize, and the sheriff got nothing but a chance to explain to the people back home. If the officer won, he got the horse, and as a consolation prize his opponent was given a nive hemp necktie, and a jollification followed.
,br> The Menominne Dramatic club was one of the earliest purely social organizations around the lake. It was started along about 1835-36, and produced such classics as "East Lynne", "Lady Audley's Secret", "The Corner Store", etc. They played in the open, like Ben Greets of the present day, to standing room only.

The Aubbenaubbee Literary and Scientific circle came into being about the same time. Its aims and objects, according to the prospectus, were very comprehensive, being "the diffusion of knowledge, the settling of mooted questions for all time, and the discussion of scientific topics". During its life many topics of vital interest is the community were taken up, and disposed of, among which may be mentioned "The Longaviity of Ann", "The Moral Hazard od Kamchatka", and "Current Conudrama in Hottentot". It continued its existence for many years, but finally so much dissension and difference of opinion across over the discussuion of "Why is a June Bug?" that the organization was disbanded.

It is believed that from this humble beginning has grown the Chautauqua entertainments of today, and that if the original members of the Aubbenaubee Literary and Sientific circle were alive today they would certainly be members of the presidential cabinet.

To Be Continued_

Part One ~ ~ Part Two ~ ~ Part Three ~ ~ Part Four ~ ~ Part Five