1881-1894  

The new-comers to the lakeside settlement are Aaron T. Benedict and his wife Cordelia, with their children. They had moved here from Miami County and settled at the extreme north end of the lake. It was in 1872 that, they located here.

The Benedict homestead was established on a knoll somewhat back from the lake. Pine trees were planted around it. These grew and grew, and in the passing years witnessed the changing fortunes of the family in the house they sheltered. Finally, by marriage and death, the Benedicts were parted and scattered, and there came a day when the homestead was deserted. At length the house itself was gone, and only the pine trees remained on the knoll that overlooked the lake. There they stand to this day, a little grove of them, grown real tall now, landmarks, telling the story of human habitation there once where no dwelling stands any more.

The Benedict homestead beneath these trees was north of the present Road 10 and east of the Hibbard Road. The highways today are not as they originally were. In the 'seventies the old roads ran close to the house. There was a three-point intersection almost in front of the house, where the highway from Marmont, coming diagonally and directly northeast from the lakeside, joined the eastbound Argos Road and the Hibbard Road. The Argos Road was immediately south of the Benedict house, while the Hibbard Road then followed a northwesterly trend till it reached the Shaw school house, then proceeded north a s hort stretch before turning east, as now.

"Aaron T. Benedict, my father, owned two hundred acres at the north end of the lake," says Mrs. Augusta Warner of Culver. "All of this is now the property of Culver Military Academy. The original site of the Academy was on the Benedict tract, bordering the bay. It was acquired by Henry H. Culver from the family."

He also owned considerable acreage north of the lake along Aubeenaubee Bay, 83 acres along the lake front and 200 acres thence north. He built a home approximately a half mile from the lake and planted pine trees around it. He never lived there, but rented it to his daughter, Augusta, and husband William WARNER and family. Later the house burned but the pine trees stand to this day; the site is historically known as the Pine Tree House. His land holdings were later acquired by Henry H. CULVER for the Culver Military Academy.

Wayne's maternal grandparents, William B. Warner (1846-1898) and Augusta Benedict Warner (1848-1939), ...

The William Warners owned a farm that is nor part of the Culver Military Academy Campus. Wayne's mother was born on this farm. The house was located near the pine trees where the activities of the Woodcraft Council Fires are held.

H. H. Culver - 76.49 to the North
H. H. Culver - 38.10 to the North
H. H. Culver - 39.25 to the East

It is said that Mr. Culver was interviewd ten years later and to use Mr. Culver's own language
"I spent the whole summer,by the side of the lake. I fished nearly all the day, and lived in a tent. When fall came I was a different man, It had such a glorious effect on my health that I determined to acquire property here. I bought ninety-eight acres on the northeast corner of the lake. The following year I bought 208 acres at the north end of the lake. A good deal of this land was low and damp. I employed a number of men to ditch and drain it, and before X was done I had put twenty-two miles of drainpipe in the 300 acres. It reclaimed the land and I started to have it farmed. On a part I raised corn, and part of it I devoted to meadow for hay. In 1889 I built a tabernacle, a hotel, and some cottages, and arranged for a big series of religious meetings. I secured T. DeWitt Talmage, of New York; Rev. Sam Jones, of Georgia, and Dr. John Matthews, of St. Louis, and had great crowds to hear them. I had revival meetings and lectures for the whole of that summer, but since that time there have been no public meetings of any consequence."