Pelham Breathed a Sigh of Relief as Prospect of a Summer "Ice Famine" Eased in 1907

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It was an age in which electric refrigerators were not in widespread use in Pelham.  Instead, nearly every home and many businesses used the ubiquitous "ice box" -- typically a wooden box with interior insulation where blocks of ice could be stored to cool the interior (and food items stored there) while dripping water from the melting ice drained into a pan below to be removed by the owner as necessary.

Horse-drawn ice trucks delivered ice to Pelham homes throughout the year.  Delivery drivers would grab the ice from the truck with giant ice block tongs.  They then would hold the tongs by the handle and swing the ice block secured in the tongs along their sides or throw everything over their shoulders as they carried it into the home and placed it in the ice box.

Ice Block Tongs

Before modern ice manufacturing complexes dotted the Pelham region, much of the ice had to be harvested from local bodies of water and stored in ice houses for months on end until the ice could be delivered to local homeowners.  In such circumstances, a warm winter raised the prospect of a local "ice famine" during which the price of ice trucked from distant climes skyrocketed.  

Pelham and the surrounding region suffered such an ice famine during the summer of 1906.  The winter of 1905/1906 was so warm that ice was not widely harvested by ice companies in the region.  Throughout the Summer of 1906, ice was hard to come by and was far more expensive than normal.  Pelhamites resolved to build their own personal ice houses and lay in their own ice the following winter to avoid predatory pricing in the future.  Human nature being what it is, however, few kept their resolutions.  A local newspaper reported:

"During the famine of last summer, much was said about individuals erecting their own ice houses and securing a supply during the winter but if any such enterprises have been formed and carried out little has been heard of them, so it is supposed that nothing has been done." 


In late 1906 and early 1907, matters began to look grim again.  The weather stayed warm through mid-January.  Pelhamites began to fear another "ice famine" that would drive up ice prices locally, especially during the upcoming summer months.

As the weather remained warm in early January, 1907, Pelhamites were worrying.  Then, in mid-January, the weather turned.  Bitter cold blew over Pelham and ice began to appear on Pelham Reservoir.  For the next two weeks, the bitter cold did its work as the ice on the reservoir began to thicken.

By Saturday, February 2, the ice was thick enough to permit men from the local ice house onto it to begin harvesting reservoir ice as quickly as possible before the weather warmed and the ice began to disappear.  For the next 48 hours there was a flurry of activity on the reservoir ice as 75 men sawed, cut, and harvested ice to be carried to the two nearby ice houses where it would be packed amidst hay and sawdust to serve as insulation to slow the melting of the ice during the remainder of the year.  Ice wagons would then deliver the reservoir ice throughout the year to nearby homes and businesses for use in their "ice boxes."

The Herculean work was extraordinarily successful.  By early Monday, February 4, about 2,000 tons of ice were harvested and stored into the ice houses.  A local newspaper reported that day as follows:  "As matters stand today, already more ice has been harvested in this section than was obtained last year and another forty-eight hours will see capacity storage reached with the expected prospect that the companies and dealers will be in a position to meet the usual summer demands as well as in normal years and much better than last season."  The paper further reported, with a sense of relief:  "that there will be plenty of ice this summer is good news as it means beyond a doubt that the price will be less than last year.  Advices from the north state that the ice cutting and harvesting is also proceeding there and that the supply will be far in advance of last year."

Pelham, it seems, had avoided another dreaded "ice famine." 

 

Ice Box

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"NO ICE FAMINE IN THIS CITY NEXT SUMMER
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Prospects Are Good For Big Supply --- Harvesting Going on Night and Day
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FORCE OF 75 MEN AT WORK SINCE SATURDAY MORNING
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There should be no ice famine in Mount Vernon this summer.  Sufficient cold weather has been endured within the last two weeks to form good quality ice.  Saturday and last night and all day yesterday a force of 75 men were at work cutting and harvesting ice on the reservoir at North Pelham and at noon today it was announced that one of the two big houses had been filled and that the work would proceed tonight and and tomorrow and until such a time as the entire crop was packed away into the houses.  About 2,000 tons are in now.  As matters stand today, already more ice has been harvested in this section than was obtained last year and another forty-eight hours will see capacity storage reached with the expected prospect that the companies and dealers will be in a position to meet the usual summer demands as well as in normal years and much better than last season.  

The prospect of an ice famine here this summer seemed to be almost assured in the early part of January and speculation was rife as to what high prices the commodity would attain in the hot season, but this is all changed now and the reports are that Mount Vernon consumers will not have to be warned to cut down their supply, neither will they have to join the millionaire class to buy it.  Nothing has as yet been heard from the independent dealers, but it is safe to say that wherever an ice field exists in this locality, the commodity will be harvested and stored to provide for the regular demand.

During the famine of last summer, much was said about individuals erecting their own ice houses and securing a supply during the winter but if any such enterprises have been formed and carried out little has been heard of them, so it is supposed that nothing has been done.  But that there will be plenty of ice this summer is good news as it means beyond a doubt that the price will be less than last year.  Advices from the north state that the ice cutting and harvesting is also proceeding there and that the supply will be far in advance of last year."

Source:   NO ICE FAMINE IN THIS CITY NEXT SUMMER -- Prospects Are Good For Big Supply --- Harvesting Going on Night and Day -- FORCE OF 75 MEN AT WORK SINCE SATURDAY MORNING, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Feb. 4, 1907, No. 4537, p. 1, col. 3.  

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