Hamilton Lake - Steuben County, Indiana

Tour the Property Environmental Assessment Family History

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Table of Contents

	For Sale
	Vital Statistics
	Environmental Assessment
	Family History
	Contact Information

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Family History

This property on Hamilton Lake, Indiana has a long history which we are able to date back to the Potawatami Indians. Simon Pokagon, the last chief of the Potawatamis, described the land his ancestors lived on thus:

"Here they found game in great abundance. The elk, the buffalo, and the deer stood unclaimed before the hunter's bended bow, fish swarmed the lakes and streams close to shore, pigeons, ducks and geese moved in great clouds through the air, flying so low that the fanned us with their wings. Here we lived in the lap of luxury."

Government Treaty

By a treaty in 1833 the government purchased the land from the Potawatami and "removed" them to Kansas. Pokagon was asked to state the circumstances of the removal but said, "But I cannot. My young heart was so touched by the sad story of it, told to me by my mother, that all through youth and manhood I have tried to forget it."

After our government declared it theirs they turned around and began selling it. Their first buyer was Nicanor Munson an early Indiana settler and the original settler of Hamilton, Indiana. The property went through many owners in the 1800's, including being involved in a court suit between a Civil War widow and her brother-in-law, until it came into our family.

The Family Connection

It was purchased one hundred and two years ago in 1905 at a bankruptcy sale by our great great grandfather, Horace Newall Van Auken. Horace was one of sixteen children, a middle brother from a farming family. Horace's grandfather Absalom Van Auken fought and was killed in the War of 1812. Absalom's son, Horace's father, Jacob Van Auken, found himself homeless at age six in New Jersey. When we next pick up his history he has moved to Pennsylvania, trained as a surveyor, taught school, courted and married one of his pupils, Nancy Straway, a coal miner's daughter, and they have set out for the West. Their original goal was southwest Michigan, but due to the hostilities of the Blackhawk Indians they settled in Portage County. Jacob worked as a surveyor with another fellow by the name of Jim, who when he became President preferred to be called James (Garfield).

Jacob and Nancy began their family of sixteen children. Horace was born in Chagrin Falls Ohio in 1939. In 1860 Horace came with his father to the Hamilton area. He returned to Ohio in 1861 to claim his bride Miss Philena Brewer, a fellow classmate. She died only four years later, leaving her baby Ernest or "Squire" who was born in April 1865. Horace next had a short courtship with a "local" girl, Mary McMillan, and he married again on December 29,1865.

Mary's father, Wooster McMillan had, at age 16, driven a team of horses from New York to Sandusky County, Ohio, homesteaded there and then moved to Indiana in 1836 with his young wife Mary Bullard who was only 22 when they set up housekeeping in the wilds of Indiana. Mary McMillan born on August 22, 1838 was the third white child born in Steuben County.

Mary McMillan and Horace Van Auken had four children of their own, Mary Nancy, Amy Etta, and Horace, Jr. They had fifty years together--Mary died first--her death being attributed to never recovering from the excitement of viewing the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. When Horace died in 1915 he was able to leave a farm to each of his children. Mary Nancy, our great-grandmother had preceded him in death and thus her farm came to our grandmother, Mable 19 at the time, and her brother, Mark, age 23. Human nature being what it is, the "kids" were given the farm with poor farming soil--lakefront property, mostly wooded with rolling hills and lush streams.

Our grandmother Mable, following family tradition also married a middle son from a poor farming family. This was John Roger Day, the middle child of eleven. Roger must have been a dashing figure, he was the proprietor of Indian motorcycles, having a business in Hamilton, and courted her with rides in his side car. He lived up to her expectations and exceeded her family's. Roger bought her brother Mark out of the farm by making payments from his checks during World War I.

He started Day Brother's Oil and his company eventually acquired restaurants, movie theaters, gas stations and several Ford dealerships. Our mother, Georgetta Day, was very popular in high school--she owned a Model-T--and drove it--a bit unusual for a fifteen year old girl in 1932.

The Last Lot

In 1940 Roger Day platted Fountain Park, selling off lake front lots--several of which have natural artesian springs. He saved the last lot for Georgetta and her husband Allen "Dutch" Callender. They named it the Last Resort and it connected to the lakefront property, beautiful woods, rolling hills and lush streams and still--not very good farm land.

The Callender Lake Farm has provided a magical childhood for the four Callender daughters, Beth, Diana, Alana and Sara. We swam, canoed, rode our horse Goldie, water-skied, raked leaves, ice skated, camped, learned the names of spring flowers, trees, grasses, and wildlife. Our children and their children, thirty-one in all, hope another family, individual or conservation minded group will recognize the importance of the history and try to preserve the beauty so they can "live in the lap of luxury" and add their story to ours.

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