The Ice Harvest - 1902
From: The Clinton Daily Herald; January 8, 1902
Transcribed by a Clinton County IaGenWeb volunteer.
Clinton Dealers at Work Filling Their Ice Houses.
An Early and Abundant Harvest is Expected – Ice Has Attained a Thickness of
Sixteen Inches – Scarcity of Teams a Slight Drawback in the Work.
The ice in the Mississippi river at this point has now attained a thickness of
sixteen inches, and the ice harvest is on. A glance up and down the river
presents a busy scene. Patches of ice hundreds of feet in area have been staked
off by the Clinton dealers, and on these men and teams are busily at work,
hauling the crystal product to the shore, and thence to the big ice houses which
were almost completely emptied of their contents as a result of the severity of
the summer season.
Emig & Jenks have a broad tract of ice staked out in the channel of the river
out from the foot of Sixth avenue and have a dozen teams at work there every
day. C. Boock, the North Clinton dealer, who will fill the house near the court
house this winter, has a “claim” at the foot of Oak street, and employs a good
force of men and teams to perform the work. The work of filling the immense ice
houses of the Northwestern has commenced, and all the other dealers have either
started the season’s ice cut, or are making preparations to begin as soon as
possible.
The Clinton ice dealers have found it extremely difficult to procure a
sufficient number of teams for the work this year. This difficulty, one of them
remarked today to a Herald reporter, is getting more noticeable as the years go
by. There was a time when the mills were all running, that teams were abundant,
and any number could be picked up without trouble. But of recent years this
condition of affairs has been reversed, and although unemployed men can be found
without much difficulty, the teams are hard to procure.
The old-time method of putting up ice with horse power is generally employed in
Clinton. This year, however, Gabriel Bros., of the north side, introduced an
innovation, and have erected north of their big house near the Lyons water works
an engine house, in which powerful machinery has been installed for hoisting the
ice from the channels up the long chutes built for this purpose. The new
machinery saves a great deal of labor and time, thus giving increased facilities
for securing a good harvest in case of early thaws. However, the minds of the
ice dealers are perfectly easy in that respect, as no doubt there will be plenty
of cold weather and ample time for all to reap an abundant harvest.
Fulton Ice Men at Work.
Fulton Journal: The ice harvest in Fulton is now on, having opened this morning,
when S. J. Akker with a force of twenty-six men and six teams commenced the work
of filling his ice house on the corner of Union and River streets with a
splendid quality of crystal tubes. The cakes are about ten inches thick and free
from all dirt and slush.
There are two large ice houses in Fulton an d to fill these houses will give
employment to a large number of men for three weeks. In addition to these two
large houses are several private ice houses to be filled, and the farmers for
several miles around draw their supply principally from the river at this place.
