Lake Maxinkuckee Its Intrigue History & Genealogy Culver, Marshall, Indiana

One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXX  



HERE DWELT THE RED MAN


    Where long ago their council fires burned,
    Now many a furrow has been turned;
    Where beside the lake their wigwams once rose,
    Now a thriving cottage colony grows.
    ... Random Rhymes 


HERE DWELT IN PEACE THE RED MAN, on reserves and in villages beside the still and running waters. But not for long now. The day for their going approached; soon would they be leaving on their long westward trek, and soon would the incoming white man possess all to himself the lands that for countless years had belonged solely to the Indian.

When the first white settlers came, they found here a somewhat numerous branch of the Potawatomi tribe of Indians. These Indians were divided into bands, the most or all of which, by the treaty of 1832, obtained reserves. Among the treaties made by the government and the Indians then occupying this part of the Northwest Territory were some that provided for the setting off of a number of reservations.

The largest reserves were those of Aubeenaubee and Menominee. Of these two, the latter was of the greater extent. The Aubeenaubee Reserve was situated west of the Michigan Road and in the southern part of the county, extending partly into the county of Fulton. The Menominee Reserve embraced a region of country to the southwest of Plymouth, its northeastern corner being near the western border of that town. This reserve comprised twenty-two sections, or 14,080 acres in all. Within its boundaries were Twin Lakes, Pretty Lake and a considerable portion of the Yellow River. These two reserves contained twenty or thirty sections each.

The reserves of Benack (or Ben-ack), Nees-wau-gee (or Niswaug-ee), and Quash-qua were much smaller, each of them containing two or three sections. The Benack village was on or near the Tippecanoe River, in the southeastern part of the county, about five miles south of Bourbon. The reserves of Nees-waugee and Quash-qua were on the east side of Lake Maxinkuckee.

The Indian bands above mentioned, governed by chiefs, had several villages while living in this region. The Au-bee-nau-bee village was located on or near the southern line of the county, and about two miles to the west of the Michigan Road. The settlement of the Me-nom-i-nee band in the neighborhood of Twin Lakes contained close to one hundred wigwams. Around and among the wigwams were partly cleared fields. The Indians raised considerable quantities of corn. The Twin Lakes village of the Menominee band was the most noted Indian village in the county, and, one might say, the capital of the Menominee Reserve.

There was also a village on the Roberts Prairie, and another on the old Taber farm, called Pashpo after its principal chief. The Mankekose Reserve, like some of the others mentioned, was not in Union Township, but it was mighty close to the eastern boundary. It was immediately east of the Aubeenaubee Reserve, and contained four or five sections. An Indian village at Wolf Creek, not far from the northeastern corner of the township, has been mentioned by early settlers.

On the Yellow River, there existed an Indian settlement known as Mis-sin-ne-co-quah, apparently named after a Potawatomi Indian chieftainess [chieftain] of that name, and seemingly located within Union Township. In one of the treaties a section or two of land was assigned to this chieftainess [chieftain]. When the whites first settled in that section of the county, she was very old, well on toward one hundred years of age. She went with those driven away in 1838 and was never heard of afterwards.

According to an old map of Union Township, the Menominee Reserve extended down across the Yellow River and into the northeastern corner of the township, occupying all the eastern half of Section 34 and all of Sections 3 5 and 36.

On the east side of Lake Maxinkuckee, Nas-wau-kee (Nees-Waugh-Gee, Nees-wau-gee) and Quash-qua's Reserve is given jointly on the map. The extent of this reserve along the lake front was from the south line of the old Vanschoiack property north along the water's edge to about where Peru point, as it was designated in later days, is located. The reserve took in the village of Maxinkuckee and all the summer cottage sites from the division line between the VANSCHOIACK and EDWARDS lands to a short distance north of Peru Club house, later the Brownell cottage, and including part of the PEEPLES' lakeside property. The reservation extended from the lake east to the township line. Its northern boundary was in a line due east of old Marmont village across the lake, and followed the line of the present dirt road that leads eastward from the old K. K. CULVER cottage. The southern boundary extended east from the lake on the line between the old L. T. VANSCHOIACK and STEPHEN EDWARDS properties, located nearly to the south end of the lake. All of Sections 22, 23, and 24, and parts of Sections 25, 26, and 27 were once within this reservation.

The Indian village '.n [in] this reserve, according to MC DONALD, was immediately across the road from what was later the residence of PETER SPANGLER. This village was next to the Menominee village in importance. All along the east bank of the lake about 1835-36, when the white settlers began to arrive, there was quite a settlement of Indians, mainly under the supervision of Neeswaugee. Quashqua also had some authority over the band, but delegated it mostly to his brother chief, Neeswaugee, "who ruled his people with mildness, moderation and decorum."

"This was a charming spot," says MC DONALD, "and the Indians who occupied it had the most delightful place to live this side of the land of Paradise. Fishing and hunting could not have been better; there was an abundance of pure spring water; and all sorts of berries and wild fruits in abundance in their season grew in the forests near by. Trails led in every direction to other villages in the region for many miles round about, so that the villagers could visit back and forth whenever they felt inclined to do so."

"The small village of Maxinkuckee was a favorite Indian village," one reads in an essay written by ULEE MC CLANE in district school some years ago. "It is hilly and close to the lake. Indians like to live near water. The Indians' ways of traveling were a great deal different from the present time. They walked or went in canoes. There were a lot of trails from place to place. There were no nice gravel roads to travel on as at present. They had no buggies, wagons, automobiles and locomotives. In their fighting they never had guns, air ships and bombs. (This was during the World War). They fought with bows and arrows."

The Aubeenaubee Reservation adjoined Neeswaugee and Quashqua's on the south and extended southward a considerable distance into Fulton County. Next to the Menominee tract, it was the largest in Marshall County. It contained ten or twelve sections in Marshall and quite a number in Fulton. It extended east from Lake Maxinkuckee five or six miles. From the southeastern corner of the lake, its boundaries extended south and east to the county line. This reserve took in all of the southeastern corner of Union Township, covering parts of Sections 25, 26, 27, and 34, and all of Sections 35 and 36. It extended north as far as to include the properties of STEPHEN EDWARDS, JOSEPH BOZARTH, and DANIEL EASTERDAY.

Aubeenaubee village was in Fulton County, it is reported. It was on or near the southern line of Marshall County, and about two miles to the west of the Michigan Road, an authority adds. Aubeenaubee presided as chief over several Potawatomi bands in this and Fulton County, but made his permanent home in the village that bore his name, a few mites south of Lake Maxinkuckee. A large allotment of land was ceded to him and his followers, which was called Aubeenaubee Reserve.

These are all the Indian reservations that existed in this part of the country, so far as can be ascertained from the records that have been kept. Of those mentioned, all except the Mankekose Reserve, the villages of Benack and Pashpo, and those at Wolf Creek and on the Roberts Prairie, were wholly or partially within the bounds of Union Township.