XXXVI. PIONEER MILL

 

Not long ago the writer visited the site of an early saw mill which few of the residents of Marshall county at this time know anything about and fewer still ever heard of. It was what was known as the "Hupp Saw Mill" and was located on Yellow river about three or four miles southwest of Plymouth and about two miles east of the old Menominee Indian village on the north of the middle Twin lake. The mill was built by Jacob K. Hupp, about 1840, for the purpose of sawing lumber for the floors and doors of the settlers who were building log cabins in the country round about at that time. Later a corn-cracker was added and cornmeal ground out from the grist carried there on horseback. The dam across the river

 

188                                          HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.

 

is yet much of it plainly visible, about 100 feet of it on the east side of the river having been washed out, leaving a deep channel through which all the water that flows down the river easily passes. The mill race, which is probably eighty rods in length, is still there, at least the greater portion of it, much as it was when the mill was abandoned just before the beginning of the Civil war, except that the sides and bottom have grown up with vines, and weeds and bushes. The mill, which was a very primitive affair, stood at the foot of the race near the river. Not a trace of it is left, the timbers having doubtless been carried away and used in building a bridge across the river not far below, which in turn has given away to a modern iron structure. Jacob K. Hupp, who settled there about the time of the organization of the county and who erected the mill, was an enterprising, dashing, go-ahead man of considerable ability. In politics he was a democrat, always taking an active part in the hotly contested political campaigns that were the rule even in those early days. He was elected sheriff on the democratic ticket in August, 1846, and reelected in 1848, serving two terms, ending in August, 1850. He died in 1856, and like the old mill, nothing remains of him or his family except old time memories.

 

Polke's Cemetery.

 

Col. William Polke was one of the most distinguished men in northern Indiana and was the first to blaze the way to civilization in this part of the state. He was one of the original proprietors of the town of Plymouth, and was appointed by the governor to take charge of the Pottawattomie Indians at Danville, Illinois, when they were removed from Twin Lakes in 1838 by Gen. John Tipton. He was buried three and one-half miles north of the south Marshall county line and one-half mile east of the Michigan road. Before he died he requested that his remains be buried at a place he designated on his farm, and his wishes were carried out by those who had the burial in charge. Other interments occasionally followed, and the place is still in use as a burial ground and is known as "Polke's Cemetery."

 

Plymouth was undoubtedly given its name by Col. Polke, who seems to have been the moving spirit in securing the location of the county seat; Why the town was called "Plymouth" the writer has never beep able to learn.