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Encyclopedia Dubuque

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CONLIN AND KEARNS: Difference between revisions

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CONLIN AND KEARNS. The last of Dubuque's three major icehouses to continue river "ice harvests." [[ICE]] was cleared from the [[MISSISSIPPI RIVER]] to form channels to the company's icehouse off East 6th Street. Gas-powered saws were used to cut ice rafts, twenty feet long and approximately sixty-four inches wide. As many as eighty men using "spud bars," steel poles with flat edges, guided the rafts toward the ice house where the slabs were laid in any of the building's four rooms.  
CONLIN AND KEARNS. [[ICE]] was cleared from the [[MISSISSIPPI RIVER]] to form channels to the company's icehouse off East 6th Street. Gas-powered saws were used to cut ice rafts, twenty feet long and approximately sixty-four inches wide. As many as eighty men using "spud bars," steel poles with flat edges, guided the rafts toward the ice house where the slabs were laid in any of the building's four rooms.  


[[Image:conlinkearns.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Ice pick. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding]]
[[Image:conlinkearns.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Ice pick. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding]]
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The 1915 ''Dubuque City Directory'' and the 1916-1917 ''White's Dubuque County Directory'' listed the address as 568 Iowa.
The 1915 ''Dubuque City Directory'' and the 1916-1917 ''White's Dubuque County Directory'' listed the address as 568 Iowa.


The 1918 ''Dubuque and East Dubuque City Directory'' through the 1934 ''Dubuque City Directory'' listed 576 Iowa.
The 1918 ''Dubuque and East Dubuque City Directory'' through the 1937 ''Dubuque Consurvey Directory'' listed 576 Iowa.


[[Category: Coal Dealers]]
[[Category: Coal Dealers]]

Revision as of 03:27, 30 September 2011

Illustration by Norman Zepeski
Advertising poster for Conlin and Kearns. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding


CONLIN AND KEARNS. ICE was cleared from the MISSISSIPPI RIVER to form channels to the company's icehouse off East 6th Street. Gas-powered saws were used to cut ice rafts, twenty feet long and approximately sixty-four inches wide. As many as eighty men using "spud bars," steel poles with flat edges, guided the rafts toward the ice house where the slabs were laid in any of the building's four rooms.

Ice pick. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Sawdust, an insulation, was normally used to cover the top layer of ice in each room. The walls of the icehouse were also packed with sawdust to keep the ice from melting. Harvests made in late winter, sometimes when the ice was only six inches thick, had to last until the next winter.

On May 28, 1911, the spectacular fire that destroyed Dubuque's STANDARD LUMBER COMPANY also destroyed the Conlin and Kearns' icehouse leaving a 12,000-ton charred wood-covered ice block to gradually melt. However, Conlin and Kearns continued to harvest river ice for another twenty years.

The 1915 Dubuque City Directory and the 1916-1917 White's Dubuque County Directory listed the address as 568 Iowa.

The 1918 Dubuque and East Dubuque City Directory through the 1937 Dubuque Consurvey Directory listed 576 Iowa.