This week we’ll chat about a few of the Town of Hunter tidbits during the ice harvesting industry. With July 4th approaching I thought it would be a good time to share a bit of Hunter’s refrigeration history. I’ve written before on the subject but with the holiday, I thought we could use a reminder of how life used to be.
Field Horne wrote in his Greene County Catskills: A History. Ice harvesting was already popular in most Greene County towns when Hunter joined the industry. It was tough business, working 10-12 hours a day in the bitter cold. The Mountain Top
took advantage of their lakes, with South Lake being the busiest lake being used for ice harvesting. South Lake provided the railroads with the ice needed for transporting goods. One example was the daily shipment of products from the Hunter Creamery, owned by Mr. Samuels of N.Y.C. Sadly, it burned in May 1926, after 25 years of production. The Creamery brought a loss of $35,000 (about $619,000.00 today).
The harvesting typically began in January, ensuring the ice was about a foot deep; safe enough to hold the weight of workers, teams of horses, and the equipment.
Horne explained that the first ice blocks, or ice cakes, were cut with a hand saw. If snow was on the ice, it was cleared away or pushed into the water after removing the ice cake. He said some of the ice blocks weighed 300 pounds, and endless chain elevators
driven by 25 to 36 horsepower engines were used to lift into storage ice houses.
The industry gradually slowed and came to an end in the 1950s. Many ice houses had burned; sawdust insulation kept the houses as dry as timber.
It was the continuous pollution and sewage dumped into the rivers that helped to speed up the process of affordable refrigerators. The first refrigerator was attempted in 1913 but failed. By 1927 General Electric made the Monitor Top refrigerator available but costly. That year it sold for $525.00, or $7,900 in today’s money.
By 1945, just after WW II, modern mass-produced refrigerators became available. By 1950, about 90% of homes owned a refrigerator.
So, as we bite into our July 4th burger or hot dog, we might want to take a minute to appreciate how difficult it was to get the refrigeration that we expect today!
Have a happy 4th of July.
Be safe and stay well.
Dede Terns-Thorpe
Town of Hunter Historian
Remember to Subscribe!
0 comments:
Post a Comment