Ice Cutters in Toronto, Canada, 1890’s
Courtesy of wikipedia.com
Great
Grandfather Lewis Penny Doty began working for the Middletown Ice Company in
1914 when he was about 47 years old driving an ice wagon. He had moved his
family within the Middletown city limits from their Wallkill, (Orange Co.) New
York home.
Lewis
Penny was employed by the Middletown Ice Company until 1925 and perhaps for a
few years after. The Middletown, New York city directories confirm he was a
driver and laborer from 1914 to 1925.
A
little research proved to be very informative and I must say I’ve acquired a new respect for Great Grandfather.
My mother recollects Lewis Penny “as a giant” of a man. That was fortunate
because his job required great physical strength.
I
consulted Wikipedia.com, the free internet encyclopedia, and am sharing parts
of two articles with you describing the cutting and harvesting of the ice. [1], [2]
“Ice cutting was a winter occupation of icemen whose task
it was to collect surface ice from lakes and rivers for storage in ice houses
and sale as a pre-refrigeration cooling method. Kept insulated, the ice was
preserved for all year delivery to residential and commercial customers with
ice boxes for cold food storage.
Ice harvesting generally involved waiting until
approximately a foot of ice had built up on the water surface in the winter.
The ice would then be cut with either a handsaw or a powered saw blade into
long continuous strips and then cut into large individual blocks for transport
by wagon back to the icehouse. Because snow on top of the ice slows freezing,
it could be scraped off and piled in windrows. Alternately, if the temperature
is cold enough, a snowy surface could be flooded to produce a thicker layer of
ice. A large operation would have a crew of 75 and cut 1500 tons daily.
The occupation generally became obsolete with the
development of mechanical refrigeration and air conditioning technology.”
Wikipedia
also has a silent amateur film dated 1919 showing ice harvesting in
Pennsylvania which I highly recommend you watch. You can view the film at the
Wikipedia website noted with my article sources.
The local newspaper reported when the harvesting began.
%2BBegin%2BLocal%2BIce%2BHarvest.jpg "Middletown Times Press, December 31, 1915 edition")
Middletown Times
Press
December 31, 1915
edition
The
Doty in the Doty & Shoemaker Ice Company was George W. Doty, a nephew of
Lewis P. Doty.
As
you can see from the next news article the weather was a concern for the ice
companies.
%2Bmay%2Bbe%2Bice%2Bshortage.jpg "Middletown Times Press, February 15, 1919 edition")
Middletown Times
Press
February 15, 1919
edition
The
1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929 Middletown directories indicate Lewis Penny Doty was
a laborer but don’t state his employer’s name. By1930 my 62 year old Great
Grandfather and my grandfather, Frank L. Doty, were both working at an ice
cream factory in Middletown.
Advertisement from
the 1915
Middletown, New York
City Directory
page 226
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