Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
ICE HARVESTING
ICE HARVESTING. As a rule, ice-cutting in the United States took place in January and February, and in the early part of March. When ice was thick enough for operations to begin it was scraped, if covered with snow, and, if rough and wavy on the surface, it was sometimes planed.
When the snow has been cleared, the field was " prospected" for the best point to begin cutting. Holes were bored and a measuring rod was inserted to test the thickness. The rod was marked in inches and the lower end was turned off at a right angle to hook on to the bottom of the ice. It paid best to cut the thickest ice even if a smaller quantity of it was gathered. The preference was given to that part of the field above the ice-house, if on a river, in order to gain the help of the stream in floating the detached ice down to the house. The further away from the house the cutting took place the more the time, labor, and. money required to harvest the crop, especially as the channels for floating the cakes to the house were always likely to freeze up over night.
The ice field was marked off in the harbor by a gasoline-powered circular saw. Each ice cake was marked off 22 inches square. After the marking, making a groove 11 inches deep in the ice, the circular saw cut "floats," ten cakes long and two cakes wide.
These "floats" were floated down a channel cut in the ice to a mechanical chute extending from the company's large ice house to the river. All along the channel were men with pike poles to keep the "floats" moving towards the chute. At the river end of the chute, which was 150 feet long, men used steel bars called "spuds" to break the "floats" into individual cakes each 22 by 28 inches. A water wheel at the end of the chute caught each cake and sent it up the chute to the ice house.
The ice house was divided into five compartments. Men with pike poles were stationed at each compartment opening to divert the ice cakes from the conveyor into the compartments. Inside each compartment were twelve men who moved the cakes into orderly rows with all space used. All ice cakes which appeared defective were pushed off the conveyor to the ground. Delivery was made to homes and businesses displaying an "ice today" card in the window. In 1910 one ton of ice cost fifty cents including the cost of delivery.
Ice harvesting provided seasonal employment for many people. In 1914, as an example, it was estimated that the harvest would require 600 men or all the surplus workers in Dubuque with the big three Dubuque dealers. (1) Three of the leading packers were THOMAS MULGREW AND COMPANY, CONLIN AND KEARNS, and FISCHER AND COMPANY. (2) Others over the years included William Ryan, George Rath, Strobel & Son, and Zumhoff & Son. In 1916 reports showed that all ice concerns were each holding crews between 75-125 men. (3) Just prior to WORLD WAR I large scale ice harvesting began to diminish with electricity making modern refrigerators more common. (4) In 1941 Conlin and Kearns employed a crew of fifty. Mulgrew and Company fielded a crew of sixty which was expected to complete their work in four days. (6)
Using an ice pick and axe, the delivery man (shown in the picture) chipped a block of ice, stored beneath heavy canvas, to the size desired by the customer. Carried with metal tongs to the customer's kitchen, the ice was placed in wooden chests that served Dubuque families for many years as the method of refrigeration. Melted ice was caught by a drip pan that had to be regularly emptied to prevent it from overflowing onto the floor. The last of Dubuque's three major ice houses to carry out "ice harvests" was CONLIN AND KEARNS.
It took 100 men, working ten hours daily, six days to cut and store 9,000 tons of river ice for the Thomas J. Mulgrew company. In January, 1886, there were 46,700 tons of ice harvested; the packers alone put up 12,200 tons.
In 1924 the ice harvest continued as a local business although ice-making machines were becoming increasingly common. In 1924 it was estimated that over one million cakes of ice (one foot long, one foot wide, and fifteen inches thick) would be removed from the river. (4) Local consumption would account for two-thirds of this, while the rest would be shipped to points within 150 miles or used in railroad refrigeration. (5)
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Source:
1. "Ice Harvest May Commence Monday," Telegraph Herald, Jan. 31, 1914, p. 2. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HKJdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9FwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5360,7216845&dq=ice+harvesting+dubuque&hl=en
2. "Ice Harvesting Opens in Dubuque," Telegraph Herald, Jan 18, 1916, p. 14. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IAheAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3l8NAAAAIBAJ&pg=4034,815506&dq=ice+harvesting+dubuque&hl=en
3. Ibid.
4. Hogstrom, Erik., "River Museum Seeks Winter Artifacts for Ice Fest," Telegraph Herald, Jan. 10, 2004, p. 3. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XpZdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qlwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2218,2087245&dq=ice+harvesting+dubuque&hl=en
4. "Harvesting the Ice," Telegraph Herald, Feb. 12, 1924, p. 12. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=liVFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=W7sMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1235,7817184&dq=ice+harvesting+dubuque&hl=en
5. Ibid.
6. "Ice Harvest Started Here," Telegraph Herald, Feb. 23, 1941, p. 1. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nRNRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IssMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5332,1637656&dq=ice+harvesting+dubuque&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x9rc-54s-I
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Source:
Harvesting the River: Harvesting: Ice: Ice Harvesting Process ... www.museum.state.il.us › Home › Harvesting › Ice
Home Page of ICE, Harvesting & History. http://www.museum.state.il.us/RiverWeb/harvesting/harvest/ice/ice_harvesting.html.
Oldt, Franklin T. History of Dubuque County. http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/franklin-t-oldt/history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl/page-21-history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl.shtml