News

Jun 27, 2023

Harvesting ice and the ponds of Amityville

By [email protected] | on May 18,

By [email protected] | on May 18, 2023

In days before electric and modern refrigeration, ice was harvested from ponds and lakes during the 19th and ear­ly 20th centuries, well into the 1930s and 1940s. It was what was called harvesting ice, the way you would a crop. As the Industrial Revolution pro­gressed, ice was needed for growing businesses such as meat packing and brewing companies, restaurants etc. Regular everyday people needed ice in their homes. The water from ponds and lakes were suitable "ice fields." Ponds were sometimes avoided because the lack of proper movement of water did not provide the proper aeration needed. This was called "pond ice," sometimes murky with holes which produced poor quality ice for cooling purposes. In Amityville even though ponds were used they were conducive for harvesting good quality ice. The reason for this is that Amityville's ponds were man made from streams that originated far north flow­ing south. Low lying areas were dammed and flooded thus creating the ponds as we know them. In Amityville we have Ireland's Mill Pond, now known as Avon Lake and Hart­mann's Pond to our west was also the Carman Mill Pond.

There was also a small square man made pond belonging to Dr. Luce whose house was at the intersection of Broadway and Albany Ave. Folklore has it that Dr. Luce may have harvested ice from his pond for his own personal needs, but there was not any sale of ice from his pond document­ed. Ireland's Pond and Hartmann's Pond were shallow and larger and good flowing water produced ample water power to run wheels for mills. Both the Ireland and Car­man ponds harvested ice and had mills on their sites. Hartmann's Pond did not have a mill on it but there was one nearby, owned by Charles Wood of Woods Lumber. Ireland's Mill Pond is the most drastically reduced in size of Amityville's ponds. At one time it was about 200 feet wider on the east side as well as the west side. It was dredged in 1927 and made deeper and less wide.

To harvest ice, it had to be in good condition and be a certain thickness. It had to be kept free of snow on top, as snow reduces the proper freezing of the ice and its thickness. The approximate size of an ice block may have been 2’ X 6’ X 9" wide. Horses pulling wood plows were used to clean the surface of the ice on ponds.

Next the ice was scored and marked for the ice block size. Horses were also used for this purpose. Horses wore special shoes to reduce slipping and pull equipment and had ropes tied around their necks. The shoes were wood and similar to the ones hors­es wore when harvesting salt hay at the bay. The ice harvesters also wore spe­cial shoes for the same purpose. As a rule it was common for both hors­es and harvesters to fall through the ice. If this did occur, the ropes were pulled in order to pro­vide less oxygen intake, thus the horse would calm down and stop struggling. This made it easier to pull them out of the ice cold water. Other horses were used to pull out both hors­ es as well as harvest­ers. The next step was cutting or sawing the ice. There are special ice saws to do this. You accomplished this with one or two harvesters. They had to be extreme­ly strong to do this, as cutting ice is extremely difficult. Some other ice harvesting tools are chisels, ice adzes, bars, and tongs. One well known ice harvest­er in Amityville, was Carl Chiches­ter, who worked for $1.50 per day. After the ice was scored and cut it had to be floated to the foot of the ice house where it was stored. Sometimes a channel had to be cut to float the ice to its destination. Obvi­ously very hard work in the cold with the never ending danger of falling through the ice and sometimes death.

Frances G. Colyer was born in Amityville on April 7, 1909, daughter of Jennie Ireland and granddaughter of John E. Ire­land (an owner of Ireland's mill). She wrote that she was told that after Ireland's new ice house was built, it took three years to be able to har­vest ice. The pond did not freeze over for that period. In addition, when the ice house on Ireland's Pond was full, a whistle was blown for all surrounding villagers to hear. It was a welcomed sound to hear as it meant that there would be plenty of ice for next summer. The whistle was only sounded at that time of year. An additional welcomed sight was a large flag pole sur­mounted to the top of the ice house cupola, an Amer­ican flag flown only when ice was being harvested and filled. The new Ireland ice house commenced construction in 1889 and was built by Charles Pears­all and Erastus Ketcham. The structure was made of all brick and was 38 feet X 75 feet. Steam was used in the engine and boiler for the purpose of hauling the ice up into the ice house to fill it. It was completed in December of 1889 and was considered state of the art of its time on the south shore. Ice was stored in the ice house with salt hay har­vested from the bay instead of saw dust. Salt hay was an excellent insulator. There was also an old ice house on the East side of Ireland's Pond, used before the new one was built. The site of Ireland's ice house, originally about 80 acres, was owned by the Ireland family since 1793 and it had a saw mill, a grist mill, a bakery and a tavern on it. The mill, ice house and other buildings were torn down in 1915. Hartmann's Pond also had an ice house and Jacob Hartmann sold ice there. The pond once called Oak Street Lake and later known as Hartmann's Pond and now Peterkin Park, was named for Hartmann. His home and business were located adjacent to the pond on Lake Street. The pond supplied ice to the Suffolk County Ice Company with ice each winter. In addition to the Suffolk County Ice Company, Hart­mann was the proprietor of Suffolk County Bottling Works. Originally a partnership with Charles W. Smith, Hartmann owned the bottling company from 1890 until he sold it and Suffolk County Ice Company in October 1902 to George Lyons of Coney island.

While ice was being harvested, not much else was being done on the ponds in Amityville. Ireland's Mill Pond consisted of two ponds, a small one to the south and the larger to the north. Since the smaller pond did not harvest any ice, it became a winter wonderland of sports and recreational activities. Ice skating was the most prevalent and then ice fishing. When the larger pond was no longer harvest­ing ice, ice sailing or gliding was quite pop­ular. Frances G. Colyer is quoted saying that "when I was young, we all skated on the big pond. In my mother's time they skated on the small pond. There would be three or four campfires scattered around the edge of the pond where you could stop for a while and get warm. The big boys always had a fast game of hockey in progress. You had to watch out for them. One or two of them would have a homemade skate sail which sometimes you could catch on to. Then there was ‘snap the whip’ which I joined fearfully. How you could fly when you got on to that."

These were all winter sports enjoyed on Ami­tyville's ponds. "Snap the Whip" is a nineteenth cen­tury and early twentieth century children's game. Children held hands tightly then ran very fast. The first kids stop suddenly, yanking the other kids side­ways. This causes the ones at the end to break free from the chain and go flying. Imagine playing this on the ice! Well, I have come to the end for now on this subject. I will close by saying that you cannot even begin to imagine the vast changes that have occurred in these places.

Joseph Guidice, Village Historian, APHNYS regis­tered historian. To learn more about ice harvesting and the ponds of Amityville, Visit the Lauder Muse­um. Hours 2 p.m. – 4 p.m., Tuesday, Friday and Sun­day. For information, call 631-598-1486.

Sources: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Southside Signal, Gene Purcell 1/1995, A Backward Glance.

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