The ice industry in Monroe

From 1870s to 1930s, creameries, cheese companies and local stores depended on Monroe’s lakes and ponds for a year-round supply of ice Editor’s note: The following is adapted from Monroe Town Historian James A. Nelson’s authoritative article on the ice industry in Monroe. By James A. Nelson, Town of Monroe Historian Monroe - It might be a shock to many youngsters, but refrigerators have not always been in the kitchen. Prior to refrigerators we had ice boxes -insulated boxes that kept food cold with blocks of ice inserted in the top. The iceman delivered ice throughout the community, selling the ice he’d harvested during the winter and kept in his own storage building to be sold during the summer. Many of the farms and estates had their own ponds and icehouses. The art of ice harvesting flourished as an industry in Monroe from about the 1870s to the 1930s. Ice was an important industry here, needed by the cheese company, creameries, ice cream manufacturers, local stores and households. The primary commercial users were businesses located around the Mill Pond in Monroe. Ice harvesting usually took place in January or February. A cold steady deep freeze provided clear, dense ice, but a thaw and a rainstorm could ruin the crop. If the crop was ruined, ice would have to be imported from icehouses elsewhere in New York State or Pennsylvania. Harvesting the ice involved scoring the ice blocks so it could be sawed into 2’x3’ blocks. In the early years, the ice was sawed by hand, but power saws would eventually be used. The most important tool for ice harvesters was the pike. The pike was a long wooden pole with an iron pointed spike and sharp hook. The earliest news report we have on the harvesting of ice in the area appeared in February 1892, when it was reported that the Farmers Creamery (Monroe Dairy Association) and the bottling creamery (Alexander Campbell) were filling their ice houses. It would take 50 train car loads to fill Campbell’s big ice house in Oxford Depot. Ice was a big business. The value of natural ice industry at the start of the 1920s was in ninth place of all industries in the United States at that time. Shortly thereafter, though, it went into a fast decline as mechanical refrigeration came into use to manufacturer ice and refrigerators moved into the family kitchen. Even so, it was reported that the Mountain Lakes Ice Co. was still harvesting ice from its pond in 1923. The company had 70 to 80 men working on that harvest, expecting to store 16,000 tons of ice. That property is now in Kiryas Joel, which uses the old ice pond to supply water to its community. The shell of the once-massive icehouse still stands nearby as testimony this once thriving business.