Caldwell County MO Archives History .....DELIVERY OF ICE IN THE EIGHTIES IN HAMILTON ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:40 pm DELIVERY OF ICE IN THE EIGHTIES IN HAMILTON Narrator: Ralph White, 68, Hamilton No industry in Hamilton's life has shown greater change during the past fifty years than the ice business. First of all, in the eighties, all the ice used here was natural, produced in general right on the ponds in or near Hamilton. The ice men worried their heads off in a mild winter, for it meant they had to ship in ice, charge more, have fewer customers and make less. Some one always cut the ice on the old fair ground pond. Ogden's pond and Dort's pond also gave a good ice harvest. Jacob Prough, butcher of the early 80s needed ice for his big meat refrigerator, so he sometimes ran ice wagons in the summer. He and Tom Neal put up an ice house. The ice house had alternate rows of ice and saw dust. The average thickness of ice was about seven inches, but thicker in extremely cold winters. Then ice was thrown by the driver of the ice wagon into the customer's front yard and the family went out, picked the ice up and washed the saw dust off, then wrapped it up in papers or sacks or carpets in a box in the shade, or even in a cellar. Few people then had refrigerators. It was cheap then, about 20 cents a hundred, and at 20 cents, it did not matter if one did forget it and let it melt out in the sun uncovered. Then more service was added as the driver took it to the pump and washed it and put it away, and the price went up too. When ice got thirty five cents a hundred, people began thinking of it as a luxury and too high for common every day life, so some just bought it for ice cream or special. They never dreamed of paying around 50 cents a hundred. Most people those days made their own ice cream in gallon or two gallon freezers and treated their neighbors and that meant more ice then. The ice man had a little book and put down what ice went to each house each day, and the customer paid at end of month. They had no ice books or coupons, nor ice cards to be hung out. Ordinarily a customer agreed to take 25 pounds a day, and that was left without any further talk. Often they got more than the amount agreed upon, for the ice chunks did not always come off right. There were scales then too at the back of the wagon. Interview Summer 1935. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/caldwell/history/other/delivery212gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mofiles/ File size: 2.9 Kb