Ice Harvesting by jennifer Stone Cnines

Everybody loves cream in the summertime. Just o nly ro Ca ribbean islands and south ern citi es in rhe look at the happy expectant t:,ces of people in line Uni red Stares, bur al so ro India, on the t:,r side of at ice crea m shops. See the contented faces of folks rhe world - months away by sailing ship. By the sittin g at sid ewalk rabies w ith the ir . Watch mid J 800s the demand for ice had spread ac ross rhe children race off the beach when rhe ice cream rruck eastern sea boa rd of the Unired Srares. Tudor had no jingles its bell. id ea that within 25 years New England ciri es would be demanding ice as well. O ne hundred years ago, ice cream would have been a rare and special n ea r. To have it at home, ice In New England, dairymen, fi shmongers and butch­ and rock salt would first have ro be bought, then ers were the first ro demand ieci householders soon rhe laborious process followed. With the of cranking rh e ice in vc nrion of rhe ice­ cream freeze r would box (a n insulated box follow. Of co urse, the with a compartment whole barch would for ice and a comparr­ have to be eaten right m enr for mear and awaYi there we re no dairy products) in the home freezers then. J 860s, fo ll owed by O ne hundred years more efficienr models before that, ice cream in the J 880s, rhe de­ wou ld have been a mand rook off. By the Ice Harvesting Plaque by Sarah Peters. Photograph by Ja cki Forbes. great lu xur y ava il ­ J 890s the icebox was able only ro the very an imporranr pan of wea lthy. In those days, most people kepr their milk in most middle class kitchens. a glazed pottery container pur inro a wooden bucket and lowered inro a well. In winter people kepr milk During the many decades rhat people grew ro and mear in a " room." depend o n iceboxes in their ho mes, rhere was a steadily increasing demand for natural ice. Allover Thanks ro o ne Bosronian , Frederic Tudor, rhe idea New England, harvesting on local ponds became a and rechniques for harvesring ice were developed in cornmon winrer activiry. Even Thoreau record ed ice the ea rly 1800s. In J 806, he began his scheme ro harvesting on Walden Pond. sell New England ice [Q tropical coull[ries. When he first attempted ro sell ice from Massachuse rrs Ice harvesrin g became big busin ess in northern in Martinique, he lured people in by making ice New England and New York where ice was carri ed crea m for them, the first ro be made in that Carib­ overland o r down rivers ro sea porrs. From mere ir bean island. He harvested, shi pped and sold ice not was shipped all over the world. By contrast, most ice 29

On Nobska Pond. Peo ple in background arc clIfling ice in from of the Fay Icc House. Phoro by Sara h Bryant Fay, ca. 1899. Cour· (esy WHHC. harvested in Falmouth was fo r use w ithin [he [Own. don't know of ice houses in Falmouth prior to rhe A look ar a Falmourh map of 1914 shows ice houses coming of rh e wealrhy summer res idenrs building ar rh e edge of ma ny local ponds: Shi vericks and ice houses on th eir properties for th eir own lI se .. .1

Weeks in rh e middle ofFalmourh, Crockers (neX[ [Q don't know rhar people used ice around here before Bourne Farm) in We" Falmouth, Mill Pond in Ea" rhe inAux of oursiders, because eve rybody here sal red Falmourh, Bournes and Ice House in Waq uoir. In rheir food, or sunk ir in a dug wel l." The Fays had an North Falmoud1 th ere was ice harvesting on Trout ice house on d,e shore of Nobska Pond, which is sri II and Flax Ponds. sranding. 1he Emmons house on Mi ll Road had irs own ice ho use. There is nunar of (he Beebes having Many big esrares had their own ice houses. In [.lOt, an ice house ar rhe edge of rhe Punch Bowl, rhough lo ng-rime local hismrian C larence Anderson sa id) "I there is no clear evidence. Pete Swain remembered being hired [Q help rear down rhe ice house on the Grasmere esrare on rhe shore of rhe pond behind rhe present Coonamessett Inn when he was a teenager in rhe earl y '30s.

Mr. Anderson, born in 19 12, remembered his firsr

job, when he was only eight years old , helping [Q harvest ice o n Oyster Pond fo r the Emmons estate. He led a ream of rwo horses along rhe [[ail rhrough

rh e woods which is now Elm Road [Q rhe edge of rhe pond. Explaining rhe process, he said, "11,e firsr operat ion at the pond, wherever it might be, let's rake Shivericks Pond where I remember ir bes r. 11,e Sm:l ll wooden sled , icc saw, ice breaker and icc pick used fo r people involved would ger our rheir ice plows and tTallsponing blocks from frozen ponds to icc hOllse. Ph oro by P:lu l Ferris Smith of the Woods Hole Hisrorical Coll ecti on and a horse. They would go down a srrip of ice wirh rhe Museum. Tools counesy Falmoudl Historical Socicr}'. horse dragging rhe ice plow, whi ch would Cll[ a slor in 30

the ice probably half the thickness of the ice, perhaps down he went. It was JUSt one of those things; you six inches deep. They would CUt a slot in the ice, the weren't grea tl y concerned about it. You just gOt up ice plow would. Then at the end of the distance to and went home and changed your clothes and went travel, we would [Urn around and move over, I think back [Q work." Pete Swain remembers [hat horses it was rwo feer. We would rerum with another slot sometimes fell through the ice toO , bur "we always cur in the ice. Then we wo uld rurn around and repeat gOt 'em DUL" the operation back and forth over a given distance of perhaps two hundred feet. 50 we would end up After sawing through one slot about twenty feet long, with a sec ti on of the pond that is completely fi ll ed a man sawed through in a parallel slot, about four with slo[s. Then we would cri ss-cross these slo[s.,. rows over. Then he'd cur off the ends so he had a big and go the opposite way still using the ice plow with block made up of smaller blocks that were partially a horse dragging it. cur through. This slab was Aoated over to the ramp at the ice house. Then the workmen hit one of the "Then after all this was done it was time for a man long grooves with an "ice breaker" which broke the and a saw ... O ne man stood on rop of the ice and slabs into one long piece, many blocks long and only worked the saw up and down (in the slot) ... and one block wide. As the long thin slabs were led to progressively backing up all the time .. :n,ere was the ramp they were chunked off into single pieces many a man when rhey were cutting ice that fell along the grooves. Each of these single pieces was in the pond because he'd cut through somewhere abour twO feet wide and four feet long and weighed and the ice would give way undern eath him and abour two hundred and fifty pounds. O n 5hivericks Pond the big commercial ice house had a continuously running conveyor belt with spikes on it. l1,e spikes caught the block and ran it up into the ice house. On the smaller ponds the li ft ing was done with block and tackle, heavi ng the ice up into the ice house, or onto sleds or wagons if there was no ice hOllse righ[ on the shore.

Clarence Anderson teUs us, "l1,e wal ls [of the ice house} were hollow, about twel ve inches thick, filled with sawdust, all the way from the ground to the roof­ line. We laid a layer of sawdust on the Aoor and then a laye r of ice and then a Falmourh Ice Company on Shi vericks Pond . lllis area has sin ce been filled in {O laye r of sawdust and then another layer make a park ing lot and a porrion of Karharine Lee Bares Road. \"'hi re building on of ice and another layer of sawdust un­ f.1 r ri gh! is rearofFalmoll!h Academy. now !he Falmoulh ChamherofCommerce bui lding. The ice houses could hold 2000 {Ons once. Pholo from fil/momb by tbe ti l we filled the whole building to the Sell. 1896. Courresy Falmou th Hisrorical Society. roof-line. Then we put probably a foot .l l

or maybe rwo feer of sawdusr on top of the whole mass. Then it was all ser until we opened ir up whenever rh e ice was needed " many mollths later. When asked about the source of sawd ust, EI­ I mer Hall et, who wo rked on the Whitney estate in Woods Hole and harvested ice o n Nobska 'l Pond , sa id . "We gar rhat down in Carver. down ar th e saw mi ll ; that's where that came from ." In - talking about sharing the harvest, he sa id, "Of course, the Fays cu t ice first . After they gOt their ice house filled up, then we fi ll ed Family harvesting icc with specia li zed tools. Note the Straighr lines family members .wi lh saws are following as rhe)' walk backwards, clltring the icc into long narrow blocks. From ours. Then I think ... Sam Ca­ the postcard collection of Phi lip $t3nron. COllrtesy \VH HC hoon cu r ice there roo."

refrigeratio n purposes. It was for household use. it Oscar Hil ton of Woods Hole remembers other years. was that clear and d ean." "We'd cut the ice, and fill George Cahoon's ice house down at Quissett, where Sam Cahoon had his icebox Bo th Pete Swain and Claren ce Anderson remem­ there for a good many years later on ... We fill ed this bered skating on Shi ve ricks Pond, even as ice was place at the [Marine Bi ological] Laboratory. Horace bei ng harvested. Anderson says, "Now Shi ve ri cks, of Howes had a place that he stored quite a bit ... He had course, in the old days, everybody went to Shi vericks his in back ofhis mear marker, right [h ere," poinring Pond skating, both young people and old people. to Pi e In the Sk-y Bakery in Woods Hole, "where that Everybody! We'd have this great, huge secti on where little building is there, between the post offi ce that's th e ice had been all Cut out and open water, and you [here now an d whar we consider th e bank ... Then we re skating right along the edge of the water. ll,at Si dney Lawrence, he used ro have ... a man drive an was considered rhe common thing to do. You never ice wagon and peddle ice ro pur in an ice chesr." fell in the holes where they'd cut ice. People we re skating there all day long wh il e the ice was bein g The biggest commercial ice house in Falmouth was cut." Pete said that when he was courting the young on the banks of Shi veri cks Pond in the center of woman who was to become his wife. "We'd walk up town, right in back of the present Eastman's Hard­ from Quissett to skate on Shivericks Pond with the ware srore. lee from thi s Falmouth Ice Company was other yo ung people. When we'd done skating we'd sold to more than 300 fami lies. All the ice harvested go over to that li ttle cafe on Main Street for a cup in Falmouth's ponds was "consid ered perfectl y clean of soup. Then we'd walk home aga in . Oh yea h, we drinkingwarer. .. [with} no pollution orcontamina­ loved to skate." tion. The ice was considered pure. It was used for 32

W ESH WI 9 &c.

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.' '.f: 1895 bill fro m Isaiah Spindell & Co mpany to Edward E. Swi fl fo r ice during {he month of Augusr. Courresy WHH C.

1he delivery of ice by wagon, and later by truck, is came to fill the icebox, children gathered to collect remembered vividly by many of Fa lmouth's citizens, the shards and suck on them. Lucena Barth showed Priscilla Robb Billings (Mrs. Elliot Billings), who a hatch cut out of her kitchen wall so the ice man summered at Gunning Point as a child, remembers could deliver the ice into the pantry without even the ice man who came to her house delivering ice com.ing inro rh e house. from West Falmouth. He "wore a so rt of leather cape over his shoulder and slung the block of ice up The demise of the natural ice harvesting industry on his back with the tongs." Olive C rowell Beverly came from [wo related causes. First. th e introduc­ of Woods Hole remembers that "the ice man knew tion of electricity to the homes of America. Second, how much ice to bring in by the sign we would put the invention of man-made . In 1882 a up in the window. It was a big sign that said 'Ice' steam dri ven ice malcing machine made irs debut at and we'd clip numbers onto it showing how much an international exhibition, lr rapidly took over the we wanted. Many rim es we came in and found the ice industry in India, bur it couldn't compete with ice man corn ered in the kitchen by our dog. 1hat natural ice harves ting in North America fo r another dog really hated the ice man," The ice man carri ed thirty yea rs. In 1918 there were no home electric re­ the blocks in from his truck, then chipped it with frigerators, bur just [en years later they were found in his ice pick to fir i.l1m the icebox. When th e ice man more than one an d one quarter million homes across 33

rhe counrry, as rowns builr rheir e1ecrrical planrs and with a plaor thar made ice. Though ir mostly supplied wired thei r streets so most homes could be el ectrified. ice for Sam Cahoon's fi shing business in Woods Hole, General Elecrric inrroduced irs popular "Moniror some ice was also sold ro the public. Top" refrigeraror in 1927, the firsr hermericaJly sealed refrigeraror. The first small freezer comparnnenr in a With modern freezers, people can have ice cream home refrigeraror appeared in 1929. Home freezers any rime they wish, bur even roday rhe delighr in the were iorroduced in the 1940s. rirua1 of go ing to rhe ice crcam parlor fo r ice cream on a fin e summer day is sriU with us. Next time you Ice harvesring in Falmourh sropped around 1933. go Ollt for a conc, feel rhe ice cream melt in your Though many people sri II used iceboxes, rh e ice was mouth, and think of yourself as rakin g parr in an eirher man-made or imporred fro m Maine. 11,e old hisroric act. 1hink back to when men cur ice on the ice house on Miles Pond in Sippewisserr was replaced "'" -

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Pan of Mai n Street in Falmouth as ir was in 19 14, showing rhe [',110 buildings (a bove rhe wo rd Pond) used for storing icc on (he edge of Shive ri cks Pond. The map was published by the Sanborn Map Company of New York. Courtesy WH He.