The Syracuse Journal, Volume 28, Number 27, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 31 October 1935 — Page 5

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1935.

, HtfTOfcY OR'SYRACUSE | •. • ; >• . IN -1835 Tbe- following ’is taken from th* history of Syracuse and Lake W»weeee, compiled by George W. Miles, and printed in the Syracuse Journal weekly, in 19U9; From my boyhood 1 have heard much of William Conkling, called Old Billy Onkling, who, it used to be claimed, was a relative of Roscoe Conkling, the {pmous senator from New York (of which claim 1 have always kept a very strong doubt) and who came here with the very first settlers and located on the hill that took his name, now changed to Oakwood Park, and though I have made many inquiries as to what manner of man he was, I have been unable to get such a description of him as would enable me to picture him- to you. A man of considerable importance in the very early days he was. 1 take it, possibly on account of his location at the near end of Wawasee Lake, ■ where those who came to fish and . hunt made heudquarteis. 1 am going to transcribe hete a picture of Mr. Conkling and hi* wife, drawn by Mr. P. M. Henkel in a

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• letter published in tbe Goshen Demi octal in 1898. ‘’My. elder readers 'need not be told wfid Mr.' Benke! is. For a great many years he was a resident and a prominent citizen of Goshen, and his son, Charley,, was for several years auditor of Elkhart county. When I was a little boy he made frequent visits here, in company with a Mr. Grubb, then also of Goshen, for the purpose of hunting and fishing on the lakes, at each of which they were entertained by my father and mothre in the old hotel in which we then lived, and my recollections of him are from that time. At the age of yearly ninety years he is still living with one of his daughters in lowa. And here is his description of the Conklings,-, written eleven years ago. “My first visit to these waters” (Syracuse Lake) “was in 1844. It was in the month of June. Syracuse at that time was but little more than a name. The mill and a few scattered houses composed the village. By previous arrangement I was to meet a party of friends ■ from Benton. 1 was to precede I them one day and engage some per- ’ son having the necessary outfit for our entertainment. With this object in view 1 was recommended to

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a Mr. Conkling, who had boats and was familiar with the' best grounds for fishing- When j called I found the old gentleman was away from home, disposing ’of hte previous day’s catch.. The old lady I found at home and very communicative. She readily consented to the arrangement that her husband should furnish the outfit and accompany the party next day. 1 engaged the use of a boat for the afternoon, for which I paid the good old dame the sum of twenty-five cents. This liberality the good old lady said was very unusual, and she thanked me. I found her very talkative, and determined to give me a full history of herself and her family. “‘Why,* she said, ‘I have a sister living in Cincinnati, and she is rich, and lives in fine style. She keeps servants, and has a fine carriage and horses, and dresses in silks every day. She has written me time and again to come and live with her. Then, too, my older brother, James he wants me to live with him. Bjdt how could I leave my dear old hhsband? We promised, when we were married, that we would be faithful to each other while we lived, and 1 think is is my Christian duty to keep that promise. “‘Brother James has written me frequently to come to him, but. you see, I can’t leave my husband. You must have heard who my brother James is. He is a man of much ; note and has filled many high of--1 fices in Pennsylvania, and I think !he is a member of congress from | J that state now. I mean Mr; James > Buchanan he is my brother. * [ “The sincerity with which the old lady made this statement convinced me that she really believed herself to be the sister of Mr. Buchanan of Pennsylvania. Up to this time 1 had no suspicion that she was mentally deranged, but this last claim convinced me that she was; but it would have been cruelty on my

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SYRACtSfc JOURNAL

part to express a doubt of her statenfarits. She lived and died fully bineying' that’sjie was ’a sister lof that famous statesman, ‘James I Buchanan. 1 made many efforts to I escape from her in the boat I had hired, and at last succeeded, while | she stood on the bank of the lake j and fired her clack after me until I got out of earshot of her tongue. “On returning in the evening I found my host awaiting me at the landing. He received me cordially and made me welcome. From this time on the old gentleman monopolized the entire conversation, to the exclusion of his wife, which to me was a source of consolation. There was but one bed in the house, and it was occupied by the old gentleman and his wife, while I took my chance on the floor, with my boots for a pillow. I “In this position I was entertained for many hours by Mr. Conkling giving me a history of his early life. He hid spent many years as a sailor and taken part in many of the naval engagements of the war of 1812. At times he became truly eloquent, and some of his descriptions were transcendently beautiful Coming from the source it did, it filled me with astonishment. But nature demanded rest and I passed to the land of dreams, to awake under the, fumes of frying bacon only to hear the last part of the old man’s wonderful descriptions, from which I concluded they had continued during my sleep. “For want of a basin, towels, etc. I repaired to the lake to perform my ablutions. The morning was quiet -so quiet . that the stillness was almost oppressive. The lake was as smooth as polished glass. Not a sound could be heard except the doleful call of a loon at the farther end of the lake, and a bittern sounding, his trumpet at itervals in an adjoining marsh—a fitting prelude to what was to take place on my return to the house.. Here 1 found my host and hostess seated at the table, ready to partake of the morning meal, the old lady with downcast eyes and folded hands reminding me that something of a devotional character was to take place. A more fitting and devout acknowledgement of benefits received never fell from the lips ol I man than the old gentleman there offered up, and at its close he immediately began to find fault with the meal before him. It was certainly the most surprising blending of piety and profanity I ever witnessed." Such is the picture of the Conk- ! lings and their home life drawn for us by Mr. Henkel. Further, in giving his experiences of the day, with Mr. Conkling for his guide, he says that the landing of fish was sport for a short time only and then he tired of it, they were so plentiful. Presently he heard the baying of a dog, and a large buck deer, pursued by two men,' plunged into the lake and attempted to swim across it. The chase was interesting, he says, and his sympathies were with the deer, but it turned back on account of their boat and was easily capturned by its pursuers. Os the lake then and the fishing and hunting Mr. Henkel says: “The present generation can form no conception of the sport those grounds afford. The disciples of Nimrod and Walton were in their element there. The marshes about the .lake were literally filled with geese.

ducks and brants, and the firing of I a gun would . fill the air with the whijring of. their, wings. What a place for sportsmen! “As to fish, the waters were wonderfully supplied with all the choice i varieties. Os pickerel, black bass and sunfish there was great abundance, and they could be taken with the most primitive appliances. “How little was the gift of a kind Providence appreciated by the early settlers. In a spirit of wantonness they were taken in and out of season, in the belief that the supply could never be diminished." I have no record of Mr. Conkling ever having acquired any title to Conkling Hill, and I suspect he was only a squatter there. And what became of him and his wife I can not tell you. To the east of Conkling Hill, on a tract of some twentyfive acres that was then an island,* squatted two English bachelor brothers named Kaleb and Thomas Oram. And they made a new headquarters for sportsmen in their “bachelors hall," built of logs taken from the land on which they had squatted. I would describe these brothers to you, but I am hard put to find away to do it so that you will understand. Thomas, or Tom, I remember, who was a tall, slim Englishman, had had smallpox at some time during . his life that left him deeply pitted. He left his brother and went to the war at the beginning of 1865 as a private in the 152nd regiment of Indiana infantry volunteers, and shortly after his return from that service departed for the West and was never seen here again. His brother, Kaleb, always known as old Kale, remained on the island alone for several years, and then married Mam, whose other name, if she had one, I cannot tell you, who was the widow of Joseph Woods, an early settler of Syracuse, of whom I have heretofore told you. She had a lank, pointed nosed son from her first marriage named Bill. And these two took up their abode with Old Kale at Kale Island. On account of the eccentricities of its occupants the place then became quite famous, and many of the experiences had there by parties of fishermen and hunters would make interesting reading now, no doubt. Mam was a lean, cadaverous person with the facial expression of a pike, and her son much resembled her. Her housekeeping and cooking were hardly such as would have pleased fastidious persons. Kale was a great lover of dogs and usually had a dozen or more about him, each with a name, some of which were unprintable. A convival and companionable fellow was he, and a man of, considerable intelligence. After the building of the railroad in 1874 Mart Hillabold, who had acquired the title to Kale. Island expelled Kale and Mam and Bill from it. The three then moved to town into a little old house that stood just south of the present residence of Rev. Jos. Bumpus, and that Mam had inherited from her first husband, and there Old Kale died within a year or so. Mam survived him but a short time. Bill then moved to Kansas and I am told he still lives there and has accumulated a considerable fortune. After Kale had been ejected from his island home John Wysong and March McCrory, both of Goshen, secured some kind of a lease from Mr. Hillabold, and in 1874 built on Kale Island the first hotel on Wawasee Lake. A cheap affair of rough boards it was, without battings over the cracks, and through these the mosquitoes swarmed- I remember spending a miserable night in one of its rooms without sleep because of being as unprotected from these pests aa though I had been on the lake bank outside, and I wondered at the time* that others in the house seemed to sleep, unmindful of them. I was a young lad then. As I look back to it now I am convinced that they were like the Kentucky colonel whose negro servant said of him that in the first part of the night he was so drunk that he couldn’t feel the mosquitoes bite, and in the last part of the night the mosquitoes were so drunk they couldn’t bite him nohow. In the following summer of 1875 that hotel called the Island House was conducted by Ed E. Miles, now of this place, and Jack Kitson, now deceased, who advertised it in the Syracuse Enterprise, published here that year by Jacob P. Prickett, now of Albion, whose foreman printer was Thomas A. Starr, now of Goshen. They had a considerable patronage, principally at first from Goshen, and later from Wabash and other Indiana towns'farther south. It was in that year that Uncle John T. Vawter first visited Wawasee Lake. Miles A Kitson ran the place but the one summer, and after them as I remember, old man Kinman —a tall, dark complected queer old man, who added somewhat to the fame of the place by increasing tbe quantity of boose consumed there, and probably elevating the poker limit too, and by making large quantities of turtle soup, which was quite an innovation. And then poor Jamas Getty, who had eome from about Pierceton, as I

remember, and who had lost his fortune and was in the grip of an unquenchable thirst that was consuming him body and soul, I belleve had charge of the place. And I now you will not be at all surprised when I tell you that it burned down. This in about 1877 or 1878. We never knew to a dead certainty who or what caused the fire, but everybody took it for granted that it was incendiary origin, and that Jack Kitson was the incendiary. So came and went the first sumI mar hotel atthe lake. Its juration was not more than four y’ears. After it had disappeared, in 1879, came the organization of the North Lake and River Association, | the purchase from the late William Moore of five acres of land at what we then knew as the Yellow Banks, the naming of the place Cedar Beach, and the building of the second hotel at the lake. But this is another story, and I must keep it for a future issue of the Journal. j. —o TIPPECANOE Mrs. J. Garber and Mrs. Isaiah Kuhn were in Goshen, Tuesday. Mrs. J. L. Kline called on Mrs. Phoebe Goppert, Monday. Clarence Mock made a business ‘trip to Milford, Monday. Mr. and Mrs. Charles See of Warsaw were in this vicinity, Tuesday. Mrs. Isaiah Kuhn and daughter Eva, and Mrs. J. Garber visited Mrs. Rosa Lewallen, Wednesday. Mrs. Phoebe Goppert and daughter Minnie visited Mrs. Quill Lewallen, Friday. J. Garber and family took Sunday dinner with William Mock and wife. i Miss Neva Likens visited Miss Mayzel Kline, Sunday. James Rothenberger and family spent Sunday evening at the J. L. Kline home. Mrs. Isaiah Kuhn and daughter Eva called in the Phoebe Goppert home, Monday. FOUR CORNERS. Ralph Disher spent two days in Ohio, returning with a fine launch for Mr. Harkless of Syracuse. Crist Darr and wife were Warsaw visitors, Saturday. Crist Darr and wife, Earl Darr and wife attended the funeral of Frank Darr in South Bend, Thursday afternoon. Jesse Darr of Syracuse called at i the Crist Darr home, Monday even- ' ing. ' A. W. Geyer was in Chicago Sat- I urday night and Sunday. Mrs. Irene Disher and son Paul were Goshen shoppers, Thursday. AFRICA, Sim Lewallen is suffering with an infected leg, the infection being caused by his shoe rubbing his heel. Mr. and Mrs. Lee Dye and son of Elkhart and Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Ferverda spent Sunday in the Eli Shock home. Jonas Cripe, Mrs. Elizabeth Shock and Elmo Shock and family spent Sunday in the Noah Shock home in Ligonier. Mrs. Mary Kuhn, Mrs. Sallie Garber and Mrs. Rose Click visited with Mrs. Emanuel Cripe of West.Goshen Tuesday. U’ Mr. and Mrs. John Baker of Goshen called in the Elmo Shock home 1 Sunday evening. Mrs. Stanley Milter spent Monday with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sim Lewallen. Clarence Lewallen <and Son Jack called in the Elmo Shock home, Saturday evening. — 0 HAS EYE REMOVED Guy Houston, who had been suffering with ap injured eye, which . had been struck by a piece of steel, | had the eye removed, in the St. Jo- 1 seph hospital in South Bend, Satur- | day. ’ »

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