"The Queen of the Huckleberry Marsh"

Some of the more raucous pages of Marshall County history will come alive on May 20th at Christo's Banquet Center when retired local schoolmarm Ann Liechty will don the persona of the notorious Huckleberry Queen who retired from a much older profession in the late 1800's. Mrs. Liechty will be the featured entertainer for the Marshall County Historical Society's Annual Dinner bringing Life to some of our own local history!

The Huckleberry Queen reigned in the marshy huckleberry plantations near Tyner, Walkerton, and Koontz Lake from about 1875 to about 1886. Her antics made the local newspapers quite regularly. Since thousands of locals flocked to the marsh every summer to pick berries, it only made economic sense to take advantage of such a congregation of humanity. The Queen, most likely a woman named Mary L. Helms, left the circus when it came to Plymouth to take advantage of that opportunity.

Sometime before 1875, Mary Helms, Ann Davis, and a couple of other girls opened a restaurant in what was called "the Old Stamping Ground." According to her biography (copies of which are available in the Marshall County Historical Society Museum), the Queen claims that she and the girls really didn't do much cooking since they were "after the boys."

An article in an 1876 Plymouth Democrat reports that there were pickers, buyers, packagers, shippers, families, and curious onlookers, with some reports speculating that there were 2500 people or more on a given weekend gathered at the marsh. Hacks ran from Donaldson and Walkerton. It was only a half an hour's ride on the train from Plymouth to Tyner, and there were at least three trains a day.

The local papers in 1878 and 79 were filled with indignations about the state of affairs at the Huckleberry Marsh. The Republican newspaper in June of 1878 reported that "the interest in temperance is a cause unabated, and the time when saloon keepers can sell liquor without a license, and sell to minors with impunity is passed" (sic). In the Democrat they proclaimed that order-loving citizens of LaPorte, Marshall, and Starke Counties would see to it that this would be the last season "that such a villainous mob will be permitted to assemble here."

But, still, the next year the newspapers continued to report the Huckleberry Queen's reign over the drunkenness. The July 10, 1879, Republican noted the Queen "riding through the avenues without a male escort," being in a "maudlin condition," using language "vile and shocking," and engaging in altercations as well as open gambling.

However, there are also references to the Queen saving people from drowning, keeping the peace among the hot heads at the camp, providing medicine for sick women, and of preventing a number of shooting deaths. The Plymouth Tribune in an article from September 25, 1902, waxes sentimental about the colorful days gone by and indicates that on June 23, 1892, the Huckleberry Queen officially reformed and joined the church.

Such contradictory reports leave modern readers wondering. Was she a wild woman who never reformed and died an alcoholic hitching rides on railroad cars? Or did the Huckleberry Queen, also known as Mary L. Helms, overcome the challenges of her childhood and become the decent woman she claimed she wanted to be? Call the museum (936-2306) and reserve a ticket to decide for yourself as Ann Liechty presents a living, breathing historical interview with "The Queen of the Huckleberry Marsh."