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Lake Maxinkuckee Its Intrigue
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History of the Ice Houses and HarvestThe ice business of Lake Maxinkuckee started probably much earlier than 1882 but thus far this is the earliest mention of the ice house of Lake Maxinkucke - It is found that as early as 1882 by a Mr. Holt who built an Ice House on West Shore Drive just north of the outlet. Another says it was Medbourn. 1891 - The Ice houses were built some time during this year or before - Armstron, Sam Medbourn and Sterling Holt were the proprietors. Maxinkuckee Ice Company employs 25-200 for annual ice harvest. In an interview with John Houghton, William Easterday recalled that his father was the one who had prepared the Holt Ice House site for construction of the ice houses using a horse drawn scraper to dig it out. Tho not a comprehesive history of the ice company here is some vague information on the Holt Ice Company, how it originated - Sterling R. Holt, came to Indianapolis in 1869. He was then but nineteen years of age... These were said to have come from a Culver estate auction of the Eckman/Saine family; they are from stereograph cards. Two of the cards show ice house scenes. Gathering ice from Lake Maxinkuckee was a large industry in Culver in the late 1800s to early 1900s. One card shows the conveyor belt carrying blocks of ice into the ice house. Another is a close up of the conveyor belt in the ice house.   1895 - Col. H. B. Holt, Indianapolis, who has 9 Ice Houses, plans to build 12 more. Ice brings high price in Logansport, Indianapolis. The Marmont Herald of 25 Jan 1895 was found these two articles: and the following one did not have a title to it - and is of a local resident: From Friday noon until 8 o'clock Saturday night, Mr. F. F. Cromley cut, loaded and hauled fifty-five loads of ice from Lake Maxinkuckee to the ice house and stored it snuggly away with the maintance of only eight men. Next - stand up! Teacher - "What did Mr. Cromley accomplish in such wonderfully short time that caused Marmont citizens to greatly marvel? Small boy - 'He done more juggling with hunks of ice in the same length of time, than was ever preformed on Lake Maxinkuckee. He can whack ice as lively as he can saw off beef bones, slice up steak or slash off first class roasts. That's all I know about it, Skule__."  This is where Verl Shaffer "Verl the Barber" now lives on South Street. This area was known as "Cob Hill"; according to David Burns - the name originated for the area because it was filled in with corn cobs.  Samuel E. Medbourn was manager. This ice house was cut off from the lake by the Vandalia railroad. Thus when a trains went through the track had to be cleared of any activity and ice and work had to halted for a period of time. Eventually Samuel E. Medbourn purchased the Holt Ice House and in 1905 Charles Medbourn was manager. In 1896 there were nine ice houses in existence on Lake Maxinkuckee. From the: Pictorial Histories: Terre Haute up_To_Date (1896) Terre Haute: Moore and Langen pg. 29 is found as follows: Maxinkuckee Ice Company - ...formed in 1894 by Sterling B. Holtz of Indianapolis, John Pitman, and Sam E. Medbourn. It was incorporated in 1894 with Sterling B. Holtz, President; John Pitman, Secretary and Sam E. Medbourn, Treasurer...has plant for both natural and artificial ice in Indianapolis, Evansville, Brazil and South Bend and for natural ice in this city, Logansport and Marmont, Indiana... the ice houses have at Lake Maxinkuckee a storage capacity of 30,000 tons... The business office here is under the management of John Pitman...counted as one of Terre Haute's most enterprising citizens and able businessmen.Of John Pittman - not much is known - except that his full name was John Roland Pittman b. 7 March 1858 Paris, Illinois, married 1886 to Rose Christina Bruncken, and died. 1904 in Terre Haute, Vigo, Indina. There is mention of him and his fmaily on 9 July 1903 in the Culver Citizen as follows: " Jno. Pittman and family of Maxinkuckee Ice Co. occupying one of the Duenweg cottages on Long Point for the summer." This location was between Jefferson St. and Marmont Street - it was where the Farm Bureau Co-op stood till it burnt in 1978 and where the Culver Cove is today. Samuel E. Medbourn also picked this area because of the swampy area and because of the drainage ditch that ran to the lake under the railroad; this gave him the idea to move the ice from the lake through it under the railroad rather than over it as was being done and movement of the ice from shore to ice houses had to be halted before the arrival of a train and the tracks cleared of all ice, men and equipment. He used this drainage ditch as a channel for moving the ice from the lake to shore; the ice industry prospered under Medbourn and he was soon able to buy out Holt and he had the channel here cemented and channels were built at the other ice houses. 1896 - May 29 the Culver Herald record this: Horrible Accident Last Friday morning George W. Smith, a resident of Culver City, met with a horibble accident about 7:13 a.m. He had been employed by the Maxinkuckee Ice Company assisting to load cars with ice and upon the fatal monring mentioned was about 10 minutes laste. When he arrived at hte ice houses several men were pushing two frieght cars along the switch track intending to get them into position to load. Smith was upon the east side of the main track talking with a fisherman when he glanced south and saw the monring passenger only a few rods away coming toward the north. In an instant he sprang ahead of the passenger train and took hold of one of the cars being pushed by the boys, ostensively for the purpose of assisting, when in some manner one of the truck rails caught his boot and he fell face forward across the track under the cars and realizing his awfully danger rolled his body outside the track while the crew of the wheels ran over his legs just below the knee joints, crushing and mangling them in a fearful manner. The unfortunate man was taken to his home a few blocks distant and doctors Wiseman and Rea wre summoned who skillfully attended the badly injured man. When he was injured and during the terrible ordeal of having his wounds dressed exhibited remarkable nerve, never fainting not in the least flinching during the operation. The physicians have hopes if nothing of a serious nature sets in that the man will recover, although he will be badly crippled. It has been stated that Mr. Smith was accidently pushed under the car by one of the men, which is a mistake. Smith's own story is as follow: "I ran ahead of the passenger train and took hold of something upon the frieght car, when Jones, a deaf and dumb mute, in his haste to get between the cars when the passenger train was going by pulled my hand loose and as the truck had already caught my boot I was undable to hold myself up, consquently fell under the car and was run over by the rear trucks." The above story is empathically denied by Jones... 1896 - 12 - August It is said shipping of Ice from Culver was halted for the season as Maxinkuckee Ice Co. had exhausted its supply of ice except for what was reserved for local use. In February 1897 it is said that 26,000 tons of ice was harvested in 15 days! Per per ton for ice was $1 and profit from the ice harvest was $20,000. One hundred men had been employed at $1.25 per day making tatal labor cost $1900. 12 to 15 train car loads of ice were shipped out every day in April 1897. As early as 1898 The Maxinkuckee Ice Company owned a farm west of Culver on what is now St. Rd. 10 to raise their own marsh hay.  this was listed in two plots one at 100+ acres and the other at 40 acres This land was rich indeed muck land during the 1960's - it laid according to the 1898 map between two lakes - the one to the north was Houghton Lake which was on the Gerald and Wilma Osborn farm untiil the estate was sold in recent years. The outlet (ditch) of this lake ran southward down through the baove property. The other lake in the various plat maps had been listed as Manatau Lake the property owners that surrounded it were members of the Zechiel family for years. It was shown on plat maps until 1936 and then seems to be non-existant this it was probably either drained for use as farm land or it dried up. By 1936 this property was in Samuel Medbourn's name at 130.25 acres. by 1961 this bore Harry Medbourns name and the land was again labeled into 2 plats of 93 acres and 36 acres (129 acres in all). By 1967 the propery had changed ownership to Glen and Wilma Snyder and again by 1974 it had changed ownership to Floyd and Audrey Crow by by the last plat map I have found thus far 1996 was still in their ownership. Over the years the acreage listed has varied  Marsh hay is said to be different than regular hay. David Burns has told of how the ice was stored with the first layer being directly liad on the ground of the ice house and then ice was layered to almost withing the very top of the ice houses and then this layer was covered with the marsh hay to help preventing texessive thaawing of the ice while in storage. It is said that the thawing of the ice only amounted to four to six inches of the stored ice. 1899 - It is said 15,000 car loads of ice was harvested. 1903 - 18 June - The ice company has just completed a new 34’ X 34’ barn and large shed on the ice house grounds… 1903 - 24 December - The Culver Citizen The Maxinkuckee Ice Company began work on the ice Tuesday. It is reported that very fine ice having an average of 9 inches is being cut. This is one of the permanent industries of our town and has been successully conducted for the past twenty years. There are abut few men living here that have not worked on the ice at some time in the past. We see that each year there is a slight shrinkage in the amount put up, but hope that the old fashioned ice the kind our mother used to use and the kind that requires zero weather to mature will not be displaced by that new fangled kind that is made to order in a stew pot and at any time of the year. 1904 - Thus by this time - by the way the lease reads Holts sold the Ice company property to the Terre Haute and Logansport Railway Company. This is the Ice house at the area refered to as "The Hole" - A two page lease for the privilege of occupying and using the existing ICE HOUSE.. ,together with the necessary machinery for propertly handling and loading ice, cut from Lake Maxinkuckee,and which is to be shipped over the railroad. The lease from the Terre Haute and Logansport Railway Company to the Maxinkuckee Lake Ice Company is dated May 25,1904 and signed by W. B. Hollingsworth as President of the ice company. 1905 - ice left the lake, March 26. Earlier on February 20, it was reported that the 24-inch thick ice was best ever harvested. December, 1905 - By Corwins "One Township Yesterday's" Some People had their own private ice houses. Daniel Walter had one, and built an addition to it during this month. He a,so had the Walter's meat market. 1906 - Listed as the Maxinkuckee Lake Ice Co. on the 1906 Sanborn map and also on the 1914 map.   1906 - June A big block of Ice Houses near the south end of town burned. The Bucket brigade was ineffectual in saving them. They were re-built before the winter's ice harvest. S. E. Medbourn will again engage in the ice business in Culver. Material has been ordered for a building 140x120, 40 feet high, to be located a short distance south of grain elevator. The plant will cost $11,000. Ice will be flotated from the lake through a canal under the railroad track. - - Rochester Sentinel, Friday, December 14, 1906 The Medbourn ice house was filled on Monday and the entire force is hustling to fill the long string of cars that is hauled in every morning. On Tuesday 34 cars were loaded and sent out, and on yesterday 40 were filled. Medbourn has an open order for 50 cars a day as long as the ice lasts. - -[Rochester Sentinel, Saturday, February 16, 1907] This is the ice houses in the area refered to as the "The Hole": 1907 - Feb - South Bend Tribune: CULVER, Ind. -- The ice houses at Lake Maxinkuckee will be filled with an enormous crop; already thousands of tons have been harvested. The Maxinkuckee Lake Ice company, whose principal owners are Messrs. Hollingsworth and Reamer, of South Bend, are rushing to completion their plant that was destroyed by fire last June.This is the ice houses at the area referred to as the "Hole". 1907 - Forty thousand tons of Ice was harvested from the lake this year. - October 12, Lake nearly covered with ice Culver Citizen. - The Medbourn ice house was filled on Monday and the entire force is hustling to fill the long string of cars that is hauled in every morning. On Tuesday 34 cars were loaded and sent out, and on yesterday 40 were filled. Medbourn has an open order for 50 cars a day as long as the ice lasts. - - Rochester Sentinel, Saturday, February 16, 1907 1908 - It is said that the ice gangs were paid off in gold this year. The Ice house at the end of Jefferson St. was built. Twenty-six cars of ice from Culver were handled through Logansport over the Vandalia Saturday night about 12 o'clock enroute to Frankfort. The train was double headed out of there. This is the first large shipment of ice since last winter. - - Rochester Sentinel, Tuesday, February 4, 1908 The Medbourn ice gang is averaging about 1350 tons a day. The three rooms of the house are full, and a good start has been made on the new room which is under construction. Three or four days more will complete the work and the loading of cars will be taken up. - -Rochester Sentinel, Friday, February 7, 1908 1908 - May - J. O. Ferrier bought Maxinkuckee Lake Ice Co. for $24,000. It included 6 acres of land, 11,000 tons of ice. E. C. Hawk was manager of the ice company at the time. One account of the sale is as follows: The Maxinkuckee Lake Ice Co., Reamer & Hollingsworth, of South Bend, proprietors, sold its property in Culver Thursday to J. O. Ferrier of this place for $24,000. - - Rochester Sentinel, Friday, May 22, 1908 1908 - June The date not exactly know - a cylcone hit Culver and tore the big ice house into shreads - as evidence by the pictures below. Sections of the roof were carried out into the lake, winds reached 70 mph. ANd this is found in the 'One Township Yesteryear's - Corwin: Hollingsworth & Reamer were owners of ice houses that were burned in June, 1906, Clark Ferrier tells us. These were rebuilt, however, in 1906-07. This is found in Lake Maxinkuckee: Physical and Biological Survey (1919): A pretty severe wind storm occured early in the summer of 1908 and blew down the large ice houses on the west side of the lake. The appears to have been an unusually strong wind; none of the dwelling houses in the immediate vicinity, however, was injured and the destruction of the ice houses was due to their being empty at the time and offering much surface and litte resistance to the wind.This storm destroyed the roof of the Holt-Medbourn Ice House near the outlet; David Burns stated that the wind storm put the roof of the ice house into the lake. From other events that occurred around the lake referring to "storm damage" I have placed this here for now. The ice house was eventually tore down in 1915 according to David Burns.        The one on the far left is near the outlet [the area of where Verl Shaffer and all of the houses are today on South Street]; the middle one is at the end of South Street [Akron St.], and is known as "the hole" the last is down where the Culver Cove is today in the area of Jefferson and Madison Streets. 1909 The Medbourn's ice harvest began with 70 men running the 7 3/4 cakes of ice at a rate of 98 per minute by a conveyer system it was place in the ice houses which hold 10,000 tons of ice and five layes had been put up already. The conveyor system was also used to load the railroad cars with ice for shipping out. One of the conveyor systems is pictured below:  It is said one of these conveyor systems weighed several thousand of tons and consisted of iron links that was 1,200 foot long that was held up by oak four by fours at intervals and was powerd by a steam engine. David Burns told that if the blocks of ice stopped along the way it was a tremendous job to get them moving again since they weighed over 100 pounds apeice. At the same time in 1909 Maxinkuckee Ice coumpany had hired 100 men and would also begin taking in ice to fill their houses. 1909 - January 28 – Ice cutting came to a sudden termination last Friday. The heavy rain of the night before and the spring temperature were too much for Jack Frost… 1909 – Ice Harvest began December 27th. 1910 - January 10, Medbourn Ice Storage filled to capacity with 500 rail car loads of ice.200 carloads already shipped to Logansport a nd Terre Haute. Ernest Benedict after returning from North Dakota in 1910 was one of many who with his team of horses, worked at cutting and hauling ice off the lake for Medbourn. [History of Marshall County Indiana Sesquicentenial 1836 - 1986 (Taylor Publishing Co., 1986, Publication # 357 of 1422) Marshall County Historical Society, Pg. 61-2 Biographical Sketch on Ernest Benedict family] and also in their biographical sketches Guy B. Davis and John Wagner also state they were among the many men who worked for Medbourn during the winter ice harvest. 1911 - In October Medbourn had announced plans to enlarge his ice house. They were to add two more rooms that would hold a capacity of 2,000 tons each. They each were to be 40 by 130 feet. Thus when done the capacity of Medbourn Ice Co. would be a total of 14,000 tons. Artifcial ice was coming into being at this time also but seemed to have little impact on the ice industry of Lake Maxinkuckee at this point in time. 1912 - October Samuel E. Medbourn bought the big ice house owned by Ferrier for $10,000. Charles Medbourn was superintendent of the ice plant and Harry Medbourn was in charge of the office. The Maxinkuckee company had 6 houses that were 60 by 140 and held 18,000 tons of ice total and the rooms. It covered a 6 acre area. 1913 - The ice gathering season on Lake Maxinkuckee closed on Tuesday with the loading of the last string of cars consigned to the Clover Leaf railroad. Both houses are full, the 12 rooms containing something like 20,000 tons. Most of this has already been engaged forivery next summer. About 300 cars have also been loaded and shipped. Rochester Sentinel, Saturday, February 22, 1913 The ice gathering season on Lake Maxinkuckee closed on Tuesday with the loading of the last string of cars consigned to the Clover Leaf railroad. Both houses are full, the 12 rooms containing something like 20,000 tons. Most of this has already been engaged for delivery next summer. About 300 cars have also been loaded and - -[Rochester Sentinel, Saturday, February 22, 1913] Yet another says it was a windstorm that hit in 1913 [this could be the floods, cyclones that hit Easter weekend - 25 March and some of the history of it is under the lighthouse of the 1913 is found in Lake Maxinkuckee: Physical and Biological Survey (1919): On July 8, 1913 there was a very severe storm soon after noon from the northwest, a small tornado, lasting 30 minutes. It began as a severe windstorm, the wind being full of cutting sand..another account was in the 17 July 1913 issue of the Culver Citizen damange was done to the Medbourn Ice house tower and runways: ..brought a mass of dust which resembled a sandstorm in the desert...canted over at a sherp angle..all of the runways on the east side of...the ice house went down... 1914 - the Sanborn Map shows that the S. E. Medborn & Sons Ice House Stables were located at the West lot on the corner of Ohio & Mill Streets  and this is the Ice Houses at the end of Jefferson Street - the farmbureau Co-op property - now the Culver Cove.  In 1915 Maxinkuckee Ice Company built the ice House in the area called "the Hole" which was just East of the intersection of Akron and Peru Court; tho by above accounts the was the Maxinkuckee Lake Ice Co. and had been in existence for some time first owned by Sterling R. Holt, and then by Reamer & Hollingsworth, of South Bend; J. O. Ferrier and finallly S. E. Medbourn. This ice house burned in 1925. Was just another ice house building added this year? This area for years was referred to as "the Hole" and for years was represented by a wood over grown area. At one time condos was proposed for the area - but was contested by area residents. Single housing was out of the question as as who ever built in the area of "the hole" had to have enough financial assets in order to build a private lift station in order to hook into the sewer system of Culver. Finally this has come about as today there are at least two homes there now. A third is now [2007] in the process of being built on the upper edge of the cliff.  Everett Norris in his biography in the History of Marshall County Indiana Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986 (Taylor Publishing Co., 1986, Publication # 357 of 1422) Marshall County Historical Society pg. 329 states: In the winter of 1919-1920 I worked for the Medbourn Ice Company, helping to place ice in the ice houses and then in railroad cars once the houses where full. Ice by the trainload was shipped to Logansport and Frankfort and placed in houses there to be used in refrigerators cars. Ferris Zechiel in an interview with Jeff Kenney rememebred his father - "a farmer with little gainful work in the chilly depths of winter - finishing his farm chores before dawn and trudging a mile or two into Culver with tools in hand to work from sunup to sundown in the in the Medbourn ice house". Of this is acounted int the Marshall county history in Jesse Edward Zechiel biography: during the winter months Jesse would work for the Medbourne's Ice Company, helping put ice up for storage. He would do his chores, walk five miles into Culver, arriving at daybreak, work till 6 p.m. (or dark), walk back home sometimes carrying a bag of groceries, and doing the evening chores before retiring for the day.Needless to say this was probably true of many of the farmers surrounding Culver so that they could make ends meet during the winter. Tragic Death Un-accounted for
Recently surfaced is the death of a little boy at the Medbourn Ice House - that now haunts the Culver Cove:It is rumored that the Culver Cove has a ghost - part of it once sat on the property of the Medbourn Ice Houses property. 1922 - Listed in the 1922 Marshall County Plat book S. E. Medbourn, Prop.; H. E. Medbourn, Manager; & Charles Medbourn Superintendent Another advertisement is found in the Maxinkuckee yearbook of this year -    
   The left is near the outlet [bottom] & Known as "the hole" location at Akron St. & South St. [top]; on the right is the Jefferson St. Location, note the channel location plotted from ice house to lake The 1924 - Sanborn Fire Map - pictured the ice house as such:   
1930 6 Aug. S. E. Medbourn local business man dies. Sally Medbourn writes: "When Samuel Ezra Medbourn died, his son (my grandfather), Harry Edward Medbourn took over the ice business and started the Culver City Grain & Coal Company (where the Cove now is)." Wednesday, August 6, 1930 - Rochester Sentinel  1931 - From the issue of the 11th Feb issue of Culver Citizen is found:
Also an ad for the Medbourn Ice company - advertising the artifical ice;    1932 - February - Maxinkuckee Ice Company [Medbourn] Ice house was destroyed by fire at 1 o'clock a.m. cause belived to have been caused by the dry hay and sawdust within the ice house that had not been in use for four years. The building was completely destroyed and estimated damage was $10,000; there was no plans to re-build the ice house. It was said to have been used for storage of vegetables and at the time when it burned - onions were being stored in it. February 24, 1932 issue of Culver Citizen announces that a $10, 000 fire destroys Medbourn ice house. The News-Sentinel, Saturday, February 20, 1932 December 21 1932 issue of Culver Citizen announces that the first ice crop in two years is being harvested. 1934 - Medbourn Ice House closed. It has been estimated that all of the ices houses when filed to capacity held nearly a half a million tons of ice!  1936 - It is said Ice harvesting was ceased because the ice on the lake was to thick to cut it had reached a thickness of 32 inches. At the time harvesting was halted the ice houses were only approximately half full.  Howrad K. Menser writed in his family biography..."As a youngster, I traveled to Culver with my father and mother on numerous trips to visit my grandparents. The train ride...On one occasion I went with my father and grandfather to watch the cutting and removal of ice from Lake Maxinkuckee, the last time it was done commercially in the early 1930's. The horse drawn saws and men with pike poles were cutting and cubing blocks of ice which they delivered down a channel for storage in the ice houses which was located on the property where the Marshall County Coop now operates [1986]...." 1937 - Last ice harvest from Lake Maxinkuckee. The Culver Citizen issue of February 10 announces that the a annual ice harvest stopped by rain and thaw. The 1937 Sanborn Fire Maps had this for the Ice house:   1939 - During this year profile of local businessmen appeared in the Culver Citizen - here is one on Harry E. Medbourn. 1943 - Culver Citizen dated 24 March - Medbourn Ice House Burns  The above photo is the same one that appeared in an advertisement that was found in the 1922 Maxinkuckee yearbook> but gives some details of the ice harvest. 1952 - Rochester Sentinel - Thursday, May 1, 1952 Charles Medbourn |
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