Robert Kreuzberger: Love for Lake Maxinkuckee

“I made my first mental maps of the world, when I was a little child in the summertime, on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee, which is in northern Indiana, halfway between Chicago and Indianapolis…. Because everything about that lake was imprinted on my mind when it held so little and was so eager for information, it will be my lake as long as I live.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Author

Robert (born Rupert) Kreuzberger, a successful liquor dealer from Lockport, Indiana, likely harbored similar sentimental feelings about Lake Maxinkuckee when he lavished his time and money on creating a popular resort on its shores.  Shown here, Kreuzberger was among the many whiskey men who fostered recreational opportunities for their communities, dying before he could see his labors undone by prohibitionary forces.

Born in Wirttemberg, Germany, in March 1843, Kreuzberger reached America’s shores in 1863 during the midst of the Civil War.  Unlike many young male German immigrants, he did not enlist to fight but apparently headed almost immediately for Logansport, Indiana, where he may have had relatives.  My assumption is that he found employment with one of the several liquor houses

there.

In 1867, at the age of 25, Robert also found a bride in Logansport.  She was Mary Meyer, 21, who had been born in Ohio of German immigrant parents.  The couple would go on to have six children over the next two decades, three boys and three girls.  The financial challenges of a growing family may have provided the incentive for Robert to leave being employed and in 1873 launch his own wholesale and retail wine and liquor business.  A Catholic, Kreuzberger appears to have emphasized selling “altar wines.”

Advertising himself as an :”Importer and Wholesale Merchant in Wines & Liquors,” Kreuzberger was also selling at retail, bottling his proprietary brands of liquor from shipment of whiskey and wine received from distillers and wineries across America.  He used amber bottles with his name and Logansport embossed on them.

The German immigrant appears to have been quickly successful.  He subsequently provided sketches of showing his quarters as his business grew.  At left is his first store, a small two story building.  Within six years he had outgrown his initial quarters and was inhabiting a three story structure, shown below right,  capable of hold 55,000 gallons of product.  When that building became insufficient for his business needs in 1886, Kreuzberger moved again to a more spacious location, left.

When Kreuzberger’s last move came in 1890, he saw it as an opportunity for a celebration, issuing a fancy invitation that apparently went not only to his customers but to dignitaries across Indiana. In part it read:  “No effort will be spared to make your visit to our enterprising city a very pleasant and interesting one.”  Shown right, this large building at Third and Market Streets provided Kreuzberger with the capacity to hold 100,000 gallons of wine and whiskey.

Having expanded to the maximum in Logansport, Kreuzberger now cast his eyes 47 miles north to Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana’s second largest, and the shoreside town of Culver, earlier called “Marmont.”  There a Terre Haute resident named Anton Mayer had bought three acres and built a drinking establishment known as Mayer’s Beer Garden.  Some said it also harbored a brothel.  In 1894 Robert Kreuzberger bought the property and immediately began improvements designed to transform the site into a first class resort.

A local newspaper reported what the Logansport whiskey man achieved in a short time:    “Kruezberger Park…is situated upon the west side of Maxinkuckee Lake, and presents a grand panoramic scene in nature and art.  The park grounds are covered with magnificent shade trees and leisure seekers can enjoy the cool breezes of the lake while reclining on rustic seats, hammocks , etc.   On the grounds are situated Kreuzbergers’ wine pavilion, beer garden, pond, billiard room, and bowling alley.  This is one of the finest places on the lake, and is visited by the elite of all cities.”

The following year saw the Kreuzbergers sponsoring a giant lakeside picnic for veterans of the Mexican War who had marched out of Logansport 49 years earlier.  The Vandalia Railroad Company, whose interurban line ran to Lake Maxinkuckee, provided an excursion train to take the men to what was described in the local press as “a huge glittering success.”  Imagine the pride of the impresario whose labor of love had made the lake resort possible.

Although he visited frequently, Kreuzberger relied on a strategic plan that emphasized distinct operations, each run by a qualified manager.  The resort restaurant was under the proprietorship of D.A. Bradley, the wine and beer hall run by William Knoble, and the bowling alley under a third manager.  To keep watch over these three and the resort as a whole he designated his son, Robert Junior.

Over the next decade, Kreuzberger was frequently at the lake supervising renovations and improvements as the resort continued to flourish.  Even then he could sense the growing tide of anti-alcohol sentiment rising in Indiana.  In 1904, he was arrested by state authorities for violating liquor laws by allowing after hours drinking.  He paid a fine. About the same time he began planning to hive off six lots, each about 40 feet by 120 feet as sites for privately owned cottages. He supervised this subdivision personally, declaring in handwriting:  “…I am the proprietor of this addition, and the same was platted and laid out under my direction….”

In 1907 local “dry” forces were able to mount what one newspaper declared “a monster saloon remonstrance,”  a petition with sufficient signatures under Indiana law to require all the saloons in Culver to shut down for two years.  The Kreuzbergers’ Maxinkuckee resort was included.  In October of that year all the properties went up for sale.   Eventually the hotel and restaurant became a rooming house.

Robert Kreuzberger was not there to see the end of his dream to bring an elite resort to the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee.   In November 1906, after a brief illness, the Logansport liquor dealer, age 63, was felled by a stroke, lapsed into unconsciousness and died the following day.  The local newspaper called him “one of the most prominent businessmen of Logansport.”  Robert was buried in the city’s Good Hope Cemetery where his wife Mary would join him four years later.

Note:  Although multiple sources were referenced in writing this post, two stand out as particularly important:   “Kreuzberger’s Park and Saloon”  on The Culver-Union Township Public Library internet site “Culver Through the Years” and the website “Lake Maxinkuckee Its Intrigue History & Genealogy”  assembled by Judith E. (McKee) Burns.