Ice Businesses at Turners Falls

Ice Businesses at Turners Falls, Massachusetts Reported in the Turners Falls Reporter for the years in this compilation.

August, 2017 Page 1 of 24 Ed Gregory Ice Businesses at Turners Falls

Ice Businesses at Turners Falls, Massachusetts Reported in the Turners Falls Reporter for the years in this compilation

Pages of the Turners Falls Reporter given in this compilation are verbatim. Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling are as in the archetype. Evident edits are displayed via [sic]1

Composed, printed & bound by Ed Gregory August, 2017

1 Thus; so. Used to indicate that a quoted passage, especially one containing an error or unconventional spelling, has been retained in its original form or written intentionally.

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Content - Year

1873 4 1913 18 1874 4 1914 19 1875 4 1915 19 1876 No editions available for 1876 or, from January,1877 to April, 1877 1877 4 1916 19 1878 4 1917 20 1879 5 1918 20 1880 No ice info. 1919 21 1881 5 1920 21 1882 5 1921 22 1883 6 1922 22 1884 7 -end- 1885 7 1886 7 1887 8 1888 8 1889 9 1890 9 1891 9 1892 9 1893 10 1894 10 1895 10 1896 11 1897 11 1898 11 1899 12 1900 12 1901 13 1902 13 1903 14 1904 14 1905 14 1906 14 1907 15 1908 15 1909 16 1910 17 1911 17 1912 17

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Ice Businesses at Turners Falls, Massachusetts as reported in the Turners Falls Reporter for the years 1872 to 1922.

January 15, 1873 -The frame of an ice house 32 x 40 feet, with 18 feet posts, looms up alongside of Baker & Miner's new barn. This is a need that has been sadly felt hereabouts. We wish Messers. B&M success in their enterprise.

March 12 -The ice crop has been all harvested in this place. It will be deal out next summer as reminders of what we had to stand during the winter.

December 10 -The ice crop has been retarded by the genial showers and generous sun although the harvest will be no later.

Dec. 30 1874 -N.D. Allen and Charles Jones are to work harvesting ice just above the ferry. It is about ten inches thick and as solid and pure as crystal.

December 8, 1875 -Jones Brothers will commence shortly to fill their ice houses.

May 16, 1877 -N.D. Allen's ice cart is on its rounds for the summer.

December 5 -Maurice O'Donnell is utilizing every inch of his lot on Avenue A. He has just built a fine barn in the rear, and the masons are working away on the walls of the store. Under the whole building is a splendid cellar, and under the ten feet of sidewalk a commodious ice-house is being constructed. A carriage shed will occupy the space between the store and barn.

January 23, 1878 -Geo. E. Hartley has made contracts to fill a number of ice houses in the village.

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May 8 -C.A. Davis has started his ice cart for the season.

September 18 -Chet Davis has bought George Hunter's ice house and ice.

January 1, 1879 -The village ice house in Montague Centre is being filled with splendid ice from Lake Pleasant.

January 15 -Stephen McCarthy and brother are building an ice house into which they will put a stock of ice for the supply of customers, next summer.

April 23 -Stephen McCarthy and brother are building an ice house into which they will put a stock of ice for the supply of customers, next summer.

May 14 -The competition in ice has brought the price down to 30 cents a hundred.

May 21 -McCarthy Brothers have a new ice cart which presents a fine appearance.

October 1 -C.A. Davis gives notice to his customers that he does not intend giving up the ice business.

January 12, 1881 -What a splendid ice crop there is on the river this winter. Ice enough to last several years ought to be collected.

January 18, 1882 -Chet. Davis has begun to cut ice on the shores of the river. -Thermometer 12o below zero this morning. Icemen[sic] throwing their caps in the air.

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February 1 -While C.A. Davis was at work scraping ice on the river, the other day, his horse broke through a rotten place, and was only saved by the active exertions of a dozen men. Mr. Davis while attempting to save the animal's life, came near losing his own, having slipped through the ice, but coming up where he went down, grabbed the horse’s collar, and sprang out safely in a second. February 15 -Owing to the rottenness of the ice in the rivers, the ice harvest has been declared over. March 8 -Chet Davis has filled his ice house, and has also drawn out on the river bank above the suspension bridge a great many tons of ice which he has piled in a solid block and covered with a temporary shed. April 26 -C.A. Davis has many customers for ice this year. He has probably the largest block in the county. June 21 -C.A. Davis has traded his ice-business, tools and stock, for Thomas Carey's Riverside house. October 18 -George Carey has bought the ice business from his brother Thomas Carey, Jr., and will build a large ice house near the river this fall. November 22 -George Carey is building an immense ice house on the river bank above the new suspension bridge. December 20 -The ice on the river is ten inches thick, clear and solid. The ice men will begin harvesting the last of the week.

January 3, 1883 -Geo. W. Carey has a large force of men filling his immense ice house on the bank of the river with a fine quality of ice with which to furnish his trade the coming season. Mr. C.A. Davis superintends the work.

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January 10 -George Carey has put up an immense ice house near the river. -Icemen claim that they have never secured a better quality of ice than has been obtained during the past three weeks. January 2, 1884 -There are indications of an ice famine next summer, as the ice in the river is very poor. January 16 -Geo. W. Carey, our local ice dealer, has just finished harvesting his ice, to the amount of twelve hundred tons, of excellent quality, which he will furnish his customers the coming season.

January 23 -There is not so much danger of an ice famine as there was. April 2 -Geo. W. Carey has sold his ice business to Stephen McCarthy. -Samuel E. Ripley has put a four horse power engine into the old ice house on T Street, and saws up his cord wood by steam. December 31 -Stephen McCarthy has contracted to fill Geo. W. Carey's ice house on the bank of the river, and cover with saw-dust, as he took it last spring. January 21, 1885 -The New Haven and Northampton Railroad Company will probably take ice from the river alongside their tracks, this winter, and ship to New Haven. July 1 -The old ice-house on T Street has been torn down. November 11 -George W. Carey has begun to build a large ice house just above the upper suspension bridge.

February 17, 1886 -George W. Carey finished filling his large ice house with excellent quality ice just before the late thaw.

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February 2, 1887 -The ice-men have no cause to complain at the ice harvest this winter -Stephen McCarthy has the contract to fill cars with ice for the big railroad ice house in Greenfield. A platform has been built to take ice from the river near the suspension bridge, and some thirty cars will be filled a day till the monster ice house is filled.

February 16 -Stephen McCarthy was urged to hurry up his contract in filling up the big ice-house in Greenfield and was obliged to fill a couple of trains of cars, on Sunday. He has platforms and arrangements for handling ice such as was never thought of in this county, and he can fill a car with 15 tons office, by power, in a few minutes, direct from the ice field and start it on its way to the ice-house. It is said the Swift people would have built an ice-house here only somebody lied and said the river could not be depended upon. February 1, 1888 -Stephen McCarthy will cut 4,000 tons of ice from the Connecticut river for the Swift Chicago Dressed Beef house at Greenfield. May 2 -The water in the Connecticut River began to rise on Saturday and by Monday night it was the highest seen here since 1869. About the only damage so far has been the stopping of the mills, and the destruction of two well filled ice houses on the river bank.

May 9 -George Carey, the ice-man, had his ice house badly damaged by the recent high water, and suffered much loss, almost enough to discourage him, when Ed Hatch and George O. Peabody, passed around a subscription paper and raised enough to put Mr. Carey in working trim again.

September 19 -The ice-house of Stephen McCarthy on the river bank was burned up, last week.

November 28 -George W. Carey has built another ice house at the upper suspension bridge.

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February 13, 1889 -George Carey began to fill his ice house from the river on Monday morning. The ice is not thick but it is hard and clear. Stephen McCarthy gets the ice for the meat houses at Greenfield, from the ponds on the Gill shore.

February 20 -Stephen McCarthy had 22 teams and 50 men loading cars with ice for the ice house in Greenfield.

February 26, 1890 -Stephen McCarthy, while the sleighing lasted, succeeded in harvesting a considerable crop of ice from Barton's cove. The ice is of exceptional quality from 10 to 12 inches thick. March 19 -S.E. Ripley has obtained a large quantity of ice from deep hole and stored it in the old barn there. He has had offers for all he could get by Connecticut parties. December 31 -Stephen McCarthy and George Carey are filling their ice house from the river. The ice is excellent and almost a foot thick. Swift & Co., the meat men, are harvesting ice at the foot of L Street and shipping it on the cars to their ice houses. January 14, 1891 -Stephen McCarthy has completed the cutting of ice for Swift & Co. at Greenfield, having put in some 150 carloads of ice 16 inches thick and of first class quality. He will at once put in a stock for his own business. January 27, 1892 -No attempt has yet been made to cut ice by any of the local dealers, although a fair thickness could be had on the ponds. All have faith that cold weather will yet freeze the river over.

February 24 -Carl Schneider is filling his new ice-house in the rear of his K Street block.

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March 2 -George W. Carey finished filling his ice-house last Monday, with fine Connecticut river ice from twelve inches thick.

April 27 -George W. Carey, having filled his ice house with a fine quality of river ice, solicits the patronage of all who desire the best of ice.

January 18, 1893 -Our local ice dealers have been harvesting their crop. They find the ice from 14 to 16 inches thick, and of the best quality.

January 3, 1894 -The icemen have begun to cut ice which is now of excellent quality and thickness.

January 10 -Stephen McCarthy has obtained the contract to fill the Armour2 ice houses at east Deerfield.

November 28 -Stephen Carey has sold his ice business to C.A. Davis.

January 2, 1895 -The icemen are getting ready to cut ice, as the ice on the river is of good thickness. March 6 -When Greenfield gets permission to extend a street railway over the lower suspension bridge, it will be after all the icemen have signed a contract to fill their ice houses out of hades.

March 27 -C.A. Davis, having bought out Stephen Cary's ice business, is now prepared to furnish the best quality ice to all who desire.

2 Armour & Company was an American meatpacking company founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers, led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most important business and had helped make Chicago and its Union Stock Yards the center of America's meatpacking industry.

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April 3 -C.A. Davis has a thorough knowledge of the ice business, and expects a big trade among his old customers and many new ones. April 17 -The high water carried away the large ice-house of C.A. Davis at the upper suspension bridge on Monday, destroying nearly all of the contents. The loss will be considerable, running up in the thousands.

October 9 -C.A. Davis has leased land of E.L. Goddard, just above the upper suspension bridge, on which he has begun the erection of a fine ice house. The building is to be 40 by 80 feet, and a solid foundation of stone and earth is being put in that will raise the structure above the high water mark and thus ensure its safety from floods.

February 5, 1896 -Ice men have been busy for the last week harvesting their ice. February 19 -C.A. Davis has finished harvesting ice. It was cut above the upper suspension bridge and is about 10 inches thick. The quality is excellent. April 15 -C.A. Davis has his big ice house full of the finest ice this spring, and his carts are already supplying his host of customers in this village. December 30 -Stephen McCarthy and C.A. Davis have scraped the snow from the ice on the river preparatory to the ice harvest, which will begin at once. The immense ice houses will be filled as quickly as possible.

January 20, 1897 -The ice men are getting a splendid product this year.

February 2, 1898 -Stephen McCarthy and C.A. Davis, the two local ice dealers, have had large forces of men at work cutting ice on the river. February 9 -C.A. Davis having filled his immense ice house on the river-bank with the best eighteen-inch ice that has been harvested in many a day, is

August, 2017 Page 11 of 24 Ed Gregory Ice Businesses at Turners Falls now cutting for some twenty or thirty extensive farmers who put in quantities. November 2 -C.A. Davis is putting in a steam engine and endless carrier at his ice houses to take the place of the old system of inclined planes and horse power formerly used to put away the ice as cut. The new arrangement is the most complete in this part of the state, and Mr. Davis will be able now to fill his houses in quarter of the time usually taken. He will put away a couple thousand tons this year. November 9 -John C. Fellows is putting up the runs for C.A. Davis's ice house, and when finished there will be nothing like them in the country, as the system is an improvement invented by Mr. Fellows. By the new system ice can be put into houses with a less number of men, with greater speed, and much less hard labor. The cakes are switched off the track at the different points selected, by simply turning a lever, which can be done by a youth. The arrangement of the switches is very simple and quite ingenious.

January 4, 1899 -C.A. Davis and Stephen McCarthy are both very busy harvesting ice from the river. The summer necessity is of good thickness.

January 11 -F.H. King has begun harvesting ice from Green Pond in Millers Falls.

January 18 -C.A. Davis has his ice houses all filled to their fullest capacity, the work being done this year in much less time than heretofore, owing to the new machinery. He has harvested over 3000 tons.

May 10 -Ice-dealer C.A. Davis's ice carts are making their rounds in bright and attractive colors of paint and varnish.

January 17, 1900 -The ice dealers are busy harvesting ice.

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January 31 -C.A. Davis is filling his ice house with excellent quality ice. Having steam power and improved methods of harvesting, he can bide his time and rush his houses full when the crop is at its best.

February 7 -C.A. Davis filled his ice houses in three days, putting in 2000 tons about 13 inches thick.

May 9 -Carl Schneider is taking down the ice house and sheds back of his K Street block, and will have the house remodeled for tenements.

January 16, 1901 -The ice men are very busy harvesting ice. It is of fine quality and the usual thickness.

January 23 -C.A. Davis had his ice harvested in very short order this year, owing to the special labor-saving inventions in use. Mr. Davis has harvested 2500 tons of ice and this was all cut and stored in the ice houses in only 20 hours. To haul from the river and store a ton and a half of ice in one minute was nothing unusual.

January 30 -L.A. Rivet is changing his ice house on T Street into a dwelling. He will make a first-class house of good size, in a very good residential locality.

December 4 -C.A. Davis is building an addition to his ice house on Second Street.

February 5, 1902 -John McCarthy has been harvesting ice the past week. -C.A. Davis harvested ice last week and his big ice houses were filled to their full capacity in a very short time. By the modern labor saving appliances which Mr. Davis uses, it is a very simple matter to harvest thousands of tons of ice.

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January 14, 1903 -The ice men are getting ready to cut ice.

January 21 -C.A. Davis had begun to fill his capacious ice house.

January 28 -John S. McCarthy has sold his ice business to Daniel McCarthy of Second Street. -D.F. McCarthy is filling his ice house. -Chester A. Davis has finished filling his ice houses at the upper suspension bridge, and he has harvested a splendid crop of three thousand tons. The work was done like clock work[sic] in three and a half days. About fifty men were required to float cakes to the housing machinery. Mr. Davis has also cut a quantity of ice for the surrounding farmers, the hospital, and other users who store their own supply. February 11 -D.F. McCarthy is finishing the work of filling his ice houses.

December 30 -C.A. Davis and D.F. McCarthy are filling their ice houses. The ice is about twelve inched thick and of excellent quality.

December 21, 1904 -C.A. Davis is scraping the snow from the ice on the river, preparatory to cutting it.

December 28 -C.A. Davis was delayed in cutting his crop of ice on account of the low water last week.

January 11, 1905 -C.A. Davis has begun filling his extensive ice houses. The ice this year is of extra good quality.

January 31, 1906 -C.A. Davis has a large force of men at work on Barton's Cove getting out ice of very good quality, which is about a foot thick. In a short time he will have his ice houses filled as though nothing has happened to the winter so suddenly.

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-C.A. Davis, who had made preparations for filling his ice houses, lost his scrapers, which were on the ice when the river broke up Wednesday morning. The ice had been cut and all was ready for putting it into the houses, when the movement down stream[sic] began. The loss of his harvest, with the tools, is quite a serious one for Mr. Davis, but he will have an ample supply of good ice however, as though nothing had happened.

February 14 -About all hope has been given up of getting any ice on the river this winter. The late cold snap made about five inches of ice, but the warm weather has put a stop to all increase.

January 23, 1907 -It is iceman's weather at last, and C.A. Davis commenced cutting ice, Monday, and though the big storm of yesterday hindered operations somewhat, the weather to-day is ideal for the business and cutting goes merrily on.

February 6 -C.A. Davis finished filling his ice houses last week. He has harvested an immense quantity of first quality ice. There will be plenty of ice next summer as Mr. Davis new ice house enormously increased the capacity. Harvesting this year was done under the most favorable conditions.

May 8 -C.A. Davis's ice carts have begun their rounds. The price this year is the old one of 25 cents, a reduction of 10 cents per hundred over the unusual one of last year.

January 29, 1908 -C.A. Davis has a big gang of men at work on the river preparing to cut ice. The ice field is the handsomest seen for many a day, clear and blue, and the quality bids fair to be the best in many years.

February 5 -C.A. Davis has a large force of men busy filling his ice houses. The work is rapidly accomplished, but it is a good cold job.

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February 12 -C.A. Davis has finished filling his ice houses with splendid quality ice, which was some 14 inches thick. He had a large force of men at work and many hands made light work.

February 19 -J.W. Bragg of Greenfield has leased Stephen McCarthy's two ice houses on Third Street and expects to peddle ice in Greenfield this summer. Mr. Bragg had begun filling the ice houses, but the going out of the ice Sunday, prevented further cutting of ice for a time.

January 6, 1909 -C.A. Davis has had men at work on the river scraping the snow off the ice to hasten freezing. Saturday the ice was six inches thick.

January 20 -C.A. Davis has begun harvesting ice. The weather conditions are ideal, and the ice is of excellent quality and of good thickness.

January 27 -C.A. Davis has finished filling his seven ice-houses with splendid ice 13 inches thick. Only four and one-half days were required to do the trick.

February 3 -C.A. Davis is cutting ice for farmers who get their supply from the river.

April 28 -C.A. Davis advertises that the price of ice for the season will be thirty cents a hundred pounds to families. The rate to butchers and other large consumers will be $3.50 a ton.

October 20 -C.A. Davis has been repairing his ice houses, and getting everything in shape for the winter harvest.

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January 5, 1910 -C.A. Davis expects to begin cutting ice on the river next week if present weather conditions continue. Yesterday the ice measured 10 inches and by next week it will probably be considerably thicker.

January 12 -C.A. Davis commenced filling his extensive ice houses yesterday, and everything and everybody is bustling down by the river side.

January 19 -C.A. Davis completed filling his ice houses last week, and the work went along like goose grease. The weather conditions were ideal and there was nothing to fret and worry about as has been the case for many years past.

April 27 -C.A. Davis' ice cart is beginning to make its ever welcome rounds.

November 30 -C.A. Davis is making extensive repairs and improvements in his ice houses at the foot of Second Street. New flat roofs have been put on all the houses among other changes.

January 18, 1911 -C.A. Davis harvested his ice the past week, and the big ice houses were filled in record breaking time with ice of the finest quality and about ten inched thick. Mr. Davis had his houses all put into ship shape this fall and installed the latest labor saving devices and machinery, so that harvesting the big crop with the congealed water so indispensable during the summer, has seemed almost like play. Scores of people were at the river watching the fascinating proceedings of getting the ice, every day while the work was in progress. January 17, 1912 -C.A. Davis, the local ice dealer, is getting everything in readiness for the ice crop which he contemplates getting in next week. The ice is about 11 inches thick and of a good quality. Mr. Davis plans to have about 75 men at work.

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January 31 -C.A. Davis, the ice dealer, has finished harvesting his ice crop and he is now cutting form private individuals. He has harvested about 500 tons. The work was finished quickly owing to a new electrical motor which was recently installed with which the ice was more quickly handled than the old gasoline engine.

January 22, 1913 -The water in the Connecticut river that has been quite high all winter rose considerably Monday night, and there were over six feet of water on the dam. With the high water and a mild winter the river has scarcely been frozen over at all this winter. The ice on the Barton Cove at one time averaged four inches in thickness and C.A. Davis, the ice dealer, has been cutting considerable off there to supply the regular trade, as his ice-houses are practically empty and no ice is to be had elsewhere at present.

February 26 -C.A. Davis has about completed the work of filling his ice houses, and in spite of all the peculiar conditions which have existed, has succeeded in securing a full crop of excellent quality ice over ten inched thick. The heavy rains last week interfered with the work, and it looked as though the ice might go out of the river before it could all be harvested. Owing to the holiday Saturday, nobody wanted to work, despite the urgency of the case, so that operations had to be suspended. But all's well that ends well, and we shan't suffer for lack of ice next summer.

April 2 -C. A. Davis, the ice dealer, announces that ice during the season of 1913 will cost more than last year. There will be an advance of five cents per hundred pounds in the cost to families, and two and a half cents more per hundred will be charged to large consumers. This advance has been made necessary by the increased cost of harvesting ice this winter. Ice for family use has cost 30 cents per hundred for several years, but this season we shall pay 35 cents.

September 10 -C.A. Davis has about 200 tons of ice for sale.

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January 21, 1914 -The ice in the river is of good thickness and of splendid quality, and C.A. Davis is about ready to begin filling his extensive ice houses. -C.A. Davis has started filling his ice houses. The ice is about twelve inches thick and of excellent quality.

January 28 -C. A. Davis has harvested a splendid crop of ice this season. It is a banner crop, both as concerns quality and quantity, and it was gathered in record time. The ice was from 13 to 14 inches thick and as clear as crystal. -C.A. Davis, having had the good luck to get in a splendid crop of the best looking ice ever taken from the Connecticut river at rattling quick time, at a fair price for efficient labor, the price of ice for the year 1914 will drop to 30 cents per hundred pound―the price that was once possible when the river froze over well, and a laboring man could be had for a day's work without getting down on one's knees to beg of him, too kindly, if he would please, as a man and a gentleman, earn a little money for his family. May 6 -C. A. Davis, the ice dealer, has set the price of ice this season at 30 cents per 100 lbs. for family trade, which is a reduction of five cents a 100 from last year, when the rate was 35 cents.

January 7, 1915 -C. A. Davis has begun cutting his ice supply. January 23 -C.A. Davis finished filling his ice houses last Wednesday night, the job having been done in double quick time He is also cutting a lot of ice for Green field and other parties. January 12, 1916 -C.A. Davis, the ice dealer, has had a force of men and horses at work clearing off the snow and scraping down the ice on the river, preparatory for beginning the big annual ice harvest. In addition to filling his own extensive houses, Mr. Davis will, as last year, fill the houses for Greenfield parties also. The Greenfield ice houses have been roofed in and partitioned off into sections, instead of having the open sheds of last year.

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January 19 -The cold snap has increased the thickness of the ice on the river and it is now 13 or more inches thick and of excellent quality. C.A. Davis has begun to fill his ice houses.

April 26, 1916 -C. A. Davis's ice carts are making their accustomed summer rounds.

January 17, 1917 -C.A. Davis, the ice dealer, began harvesting a big crop of ice, Monday morning, and the work is progressing at a rapid rate. The ice is of excellent quality and about a foot thick.

March 21, 1917 -C.A. Davis, our local ice dealer, announces that there will be an advance of ten cents per hundred in the price of ice next summer.

November 28 -Chester A. Davis, our enterprising local ice dealer, who is always on the alert to improve his equipment, is having a chip conveyor built near his icehouses, to carry away the ice chips from the ice conveyor. The installation of this device will save considerable labor while ice harvesting is in progress.

January 3, 1918 -C.A. Davis, our local dealer, is getting ready to harvest the ice crop, and if the weather holds, will start culling next Monday. He needs a lot of help and will pay big wages for helpers.

January 9 -C.A. Davis has commenced harvesting his big crop of ice for himself and other parties and the work is being rushed along in fine shape. The ice, as might be, expected, is of superb quality, and very thick.

January 30 -C.A. Davis has resumed cutting ice on the river, the work of filling the ice houses having, been temporarily suspended en account of the heavy snow storms. September 11

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-Peter Orcott of Third Street has moved his family to South Hadley and will join them when he gets through working for C.A. Davis.

October 16 -Chester A. Davis has bought additional land beyond his icehouse and will build another icehouse further back from the river after the field is filled in to the dike level. The water from the river sets back under the foundations of the present icehouses and has necessitated rebuilding or new construction in order to take care rtf his increasing ice business.

January 15, 1919 -C.A. Davis is getting ready to harvest his usual big ice crop. Weather permitting, he expects to begin cutting Tuesday, Jan. 21.

February 5 -C. A. Davis has started harvesting ice and the work is proceeding rapidly. He is cutting the ice on Barton's Cove, the ice on the river being too thin.

February 12 -C. A. Davis has finished harvesting a mammoth ice crop. He not only filled his own big ice houses but also those of Helbig brothers of Greenfield and beside that he has cut and piled a lot of ice on the river bank for parties who will draw it themselves. All the ice this year was cut on the cove, so that the harvesting took longer than if it had been cut on the river directly in front of the ice houses.

January 7, 1920 -C.A, Davis expects to start harvesting ice about Jan. 12, and will need 125 men and boys at high wages to help do the work.

January 14 Ice Being Harvested C.A. Davis began harvesting the big crop of ice on the Connecticut Monday, and the work is in full swing. The ice is crystal clear and about 13 inches thick. A large gang of men are at work but more help is needed, especially ice packers, who are being paid five dollars a day. Mr. Davis this year is unable to be on the job personally, ad is his custom, because of illness, but his two trusty veteran employees, John Redding and Alfred Carter, have charge.

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January 28 -The task of harvesting ice was completed last week, though it took a few days longer than usual, owing to insufficient help, and almost daily snow storms. The weather during the harvesting was extremely severe and trying, but the quality of the ice is superb.

February 11 -The ice harvesting crew of C.A. Davis has been getting out ice for the farmers. Eleven inch ice was cut from the river in the place where ice was taken a few weeks ago for storage in Mr. Davis's ice houses.

October 13 -Charles Smith, for a long time an employee of C.A. Davis, the ice dealer, has been appointed the new permanent fireman at the fire station. Mr. Smith has been call man in the fire department for, a number of years.

February 2, 1921 -C. A. Davis, the ice dealer, started to harvest ice, Monday, and the work is proceeding like clock work.[sic] Owing to the mildness of the winter, so far, some people had begun to worry for fear there would be no ice, but the crop will be ample and of excellent quality.

February 9 -C.A. Davis finished filling his houses and those of Helbig Brothers of Greenfield, Saturday noon. The big job was completed in exactly five days, and never were weather conditions during harvesting more favorable Help, too, was plenty.

January 18, 1922 -C.A. Davis, our local ice dealer, expects to start harvesting ice next Monday morning. The preliminary preparations are being made.

January 25 -C. A. Davis is harvesting the annual ice crop.

February 8 -C. A. Davis has completed ice harvesting. The crop has been ample and of superb quality.

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Note: Ice harvesting was curtailed in Turners Falls in the 1930s.

~end~

C.A. Davis ice house c1900 Montague Historical Society

Ice harvesting near the Upper or "Red" Suspension Bridge c1900 Montague Historical Society

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~NOTES~

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