The Lake Maxinkuckee Launches - Mc Donald  

...Peter Spangler kept the only hotel on Nees-wau-gee Hill and had some heavy plank fishing boats, the only boats about the lake at that time.

Row and Sail Boats

Up to about 1850 the only water crafts about the lake were Indian canoes or "dug-out", was they were called. They were made out of round logs, dug out with a foot-adz, so that one person, and sometimes two, could ride in them, if the waves did not run to high. They were generally propelled with a long pole, and of course it was not safe to venture very far from shore. They were only used for fishing purposes, such as seining and spearing.

In 1850, Isaac N. Morris, father of Capt. Ed Morris, moved to the lake, locating on the north shore, on the farm now owned by A. N. Bogardus, His land ran down to the lake, taking in all the lake front from the Lake View Hotel grounds to and including the Palmer house.

In the spring of 1852 Mr. Morris built a flat bottom skiff which he called the "QUEEN OF THE LAKE". This was the first boat other than the dug outs.

In 1874, W. W. Hill, of Plymouth, the a member of the Old Plymouth Club on the east side of the lake, built a large sailboat he called "The ANNA", after a model of his own, equipped it with a tall mast, large sail, rudder and center board. In ordinary light breezes it would runny steadily and was considered safe. On one occasion, in company with three others, Mr. Hill set out for a sail across the lake from the seat side to Long Point. A dark and threatening cloud was rapidly coming from the west, with a light wind blowing from the direction. After a brief consultation it was decided that the boat could easily cross the lake before the storm could overtake them. The boat was righted about, the big sail unfurled, and the craft sailed away rapidly. When about a quarter of a mile out from Long Point, the storm broke in all its fury. It proved to be almost a tornado. The mast and sail were blown off instantly, the boat capsized, and those in it thrown indiscriminately out into the angry billows. The sand-bad ballast had slipped down into the stern of the boat, which had sunk to the bottom, the bow being out of the water. There were two life preservers in the stern of the boat which Mr. Hill succeeded in getting out and which he gave to the two boys, he and the other man with him swimming about and holding to the bow of the boat, as it was pounded about, as best they could. The people from the other shore saw the boat go down, but after that the wind and rain and hail and breaking waves made it impossible to see anything that far away. A double oar row boat with two stout men at the oars started for the scene of disaster, but the wind was so strong and the waves ran so high that slow progress was made. Finally the wind abated to some extent and the rescuing boat reached the place, not much too soon, however, to save the exhausted men from drowning. This is the nearest to a fatal sail boat accident that ever occurred on the lake, and practically ended the sailing career of "the Anna".

In 1874, Capt. Ed. Morris built the first flat bottom sail boat, and in the spring of 1876 built the celebrated "NANCY LEE". It took its name from a boat song of that name just then quite a pop ular about the lake. He afterwards sold it to the Peru Club. He then built "THE FLEETWING", which he used for sailing purposes until the coming of the railroad in 1883. When steamers were put on the lake and broke up sailing as a business.

This sketch of the sail boats on the lake would not be complete without brief mention of the "ELEPHANT", owned by the Lake View Club, which was launched on the lake in the early 80's. It was an 18 by 30 foot craft, built in Chicago for service on Lake Michigan. It was the largest sailing yacht ever on the lake, and rode the waves, however boisterous the weather might be, with ease and grace. None of the club members were expert sailors, and it soon became noised about that there was danger of if capsizing. As its name indicated, it proved to be an "Elephant" on the hands of the club, and in course of time it was run up on the shore, a bonfire made of if, and now only the memory of the "Elephant" remains.

During the life of the "Elephant, Ed. R. Wheeler of Shady Bluff, built a large and well equipped sail boat, which was intended to be and probably was, the finest boat of its kind on the lake up to that time. It proved to be faulty in its construction, leaked badly, and was so much annoyance to the owner that he saturated it with coal oil, set a match to it and it went up in smoke.

Steam Boats

The first steam boat on the lake was brought from Rochester, Ind., by a man whose name can not be ascertained. It was launched at Maxinkuckee landing on the east side in the spring of 18778, and was christened "the VICTOR". It was a small, unpretentious vessel, with a diminutive engine and boiler, and was not considered entirely safe. There were not many people about the lake at that time, and the few that patronized it did not justify the owner in keeping it on the lake and it was removed elsewhere the same year. And the "the Victor" was vanquished.

The next steam boat brought to the lake came from the St. Joseph river at South Bend in February, 1883, by a man named Davis. It was called "the BESSIE", but when the railroad reached the lake early the same year the name was changed to "the VANDALIA". The patronage was not sufficient to make it a paying investment and it was removed not long after it came to Cedar Lake, now Bass Lake, in Starke county.

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".

About 1886 Capt. A. J. Knapp purchased a small steamer which had been built for service on Pretty Lake, near Plymouth, but as there was no sufficient patronage to justify the owner keeping it there he sold it to Mr. Knapp, who launched it on Maxinkuckee lake in connection with his hotel, "the Arlington" christening it "the LLOYD MCSHEEHY", in honor of a son of editor McSheey of the Logansport Chronicle, and it has been doing service on the lake ever since.

Capt Ed. Morris began building boats in 1872. His first White Hall clinker row boat was built for B. F. Jones of Indianapolis, in the spring of 1879. About that time he also built boats for N. H. Oglesbee and C. E. Toan, of Plymouth. He built and launched the first side wheel steamer "WELCOME", in 1885. It was 50 by 14 feet, but was so badly built and equipped owing to lack of experience in boat building, that it proved a failure and was abandoned during the year.

The next year he built "the PEERLESS" which he ran for ten years, when it was laid aside and the present "Peerless" No. 2 was constructed. Capt Morris has the distinction of having been the first to build all kinds of boats now on the lake that were built here, except gasoline and naphtha launches, and in all has built more than one thousand boats which have been used on the lake. This is a record that probably no other man in this country can duplicate.

After the coming of the railroad in 1883-4, naphtha and gasoline launches, steamers and sail boats became numerous, so that now it is but the truth to say that no lake of its size anywhere is so well stocked as is Maxinkuckee with every kind of up-to-date water craft.

An Early History of Lake Maxinkuckee (1905, Levey Bros. & Co. Indianapolis) Daniel Mc Donald, Maxinkuckee Lake Assoc. pg. 23 - 26