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Pritchard House Gardens
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GARDEN #1
Originally named by pirates who distilled rum on its shores, "Happy Creek" was a nearby inlet on North Merritt Island and home to Henry & Carolina Benecke who settled there in the early 1890s and raised six children. Henry was a hunting and fishing guide who made his own fishing nets, boats and guns.
THE HAPPY CREEK GARDEN
IN HONOR OF
HERMAN RAY & CARROLL JUNE BENECKEThis tradition was carried on by his son Herman who taught his three sons. Herman Ray was born in 1919, graduated from Titusville High School in 1938, and was a veteran of WWII and Purple Cross recipient. Carroll June was born in 1927 and was running back and a star player for the Titusville High School football team, graduating in 1947. Ray and June established "Happy Creek Hunting & Fishing Lodge" in the mid 1940s on North Merritt Island with fully equipped rental cabins. They had constructed their own nets and fishing boats, provided hunting and fishing guide services, and fished the Indian River Lagoon Estuary.
In the early 1960s Happy Creek was included in NASA's land acquisition for development of Kennedy Space Center, and in 1961 the families closed the "camp" and moved off the island and settled in south Titusville. Ray and June continued to commercially fish the Indian River together until Ray retired in the early 1980s and June in 1995.
Sponsor: Betty Ann M. Benecke Anderson
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