The south of Iowa was experiencing an ice crisis as the long hot summer of 1919 heated up. This was a time, keep in mind, when "refrigerator" meant "ice box" and chunks of ice were delivered directly to kitchens in town or collected by some farm families. On other farms, ice still was harvested from ponds during the winter and stored in ice houses well into summer, packed in sawdust.
Down in Benton Township, on my family's farm, ice still was collected during the winter from two big shallow ponds built for that purpose and stored in an ice house big enough to serve the neighborhood.
Other families, not equipped with ice boxes, lowered their perishables into the cool waters of cisterns or shallow wells.
But in Chariton, which had been the home of a state-of-the-art ice plant since the summer of 1913, there was a degree of complacency --- as reported upon in The Herald-Patriot of July 31 under the headline, "The Chariton Ice Situation."
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Chariton people should be grateful for the excellent quality of ice being delivered over town by the Chariton Ice Co., and our people should congratulate themselves, also, upon the fact of the excellent service rendered by Manager Will Edson and those in his employ.
Many cities in this vicinity are entirely without ice and almost every day autos from a distance come to Chariton for what is absolutely necessary. At Bloomfield, consumers are paying $1 per hundred for ice. Knoxville is without a supply of any kind and other nearby towns are in the same deplorable condition. At the local plant customers are charged 50 cents per hundred weight, ice is placed in Chariton refrigerators at 60 cents per hundred and outside demand pays a little above that charged regular customers or citizens.
A few cars of ice have been shipped out, but with the intense hot weather the machinery is run night and day to manufacture for our present needs, there being no surplus on hand. Just now an accident to the machinery would mean a serious situation, but the utmost care is being exercised to see that matters run smoothly.
Again we say that Chariton people should appreciate the fine quality of ice and the and the unexcelled service rendered by the Chariton Ice Co. for the ice man and the milk man more nearly earn the money paid them than any other class of merchants in our judgment.
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Construction of the Chariton Ice Co. plant had commenced during April of 1913 and was completed during late June at a cost of roughly $20,000. This was a private venture operated by business leaders J.A. Brown, G.J. Stewart, L.F. Maple, W.A. Eikenberry and Samuel McKlveen plus a variety of lesser stockholders.
It was located between the C.B.&Q. rail yard and Brookdale Avenue, northeast of the depot in northwest Chariton. Water was supplied by the railroad, pumped from the C.B.&Q. reservoir, now known as Crystal or West Lake. During the initial years of operation, ice still was harvested during the winter from the reservoir and stored both in the C.B.&Q. ice houses and in the ice company's storage area to supplement what was being manufactured.
Here's a description of how the freezing process worked, published in The Herald-Patriot of July 3, 1913:
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The plant is equipped to freeze 36 tons of ice at one operation, but the tins or cans in which the water to be frozen is placed are lifted from the liquid brine in which they are immersed alternately --- that is, every other can is taken out and immediately refilled so that the freezing is a continuous operation.
The ice making requires 48 hours, but by the method above described one-half the output is taken from the cans each day. These cans will hold a chunk of ice weighing 300 pounds, are taken from the brine which surrounds them by an ingenious lift, pushed to the desired position, a dash of hot water thrown upon them and the ice slips easily from its resting place. The can is at once refilled and replaced and 48 hours later yields another 300 pound cake of clear ice.
Most people have a very erroneous idea of ice manufacturing and it is difficult to explain the process. The facts are, however, that ammonia gas is placed in pipes which are placed between the cans which hold the water to be frozen. These pipes extend across the freezing room between the tins ten tiers in height and not a particle of water which enters into the cake of ice can come into contact with the ammonia.
Brine is then made through a mixture of salt and water --- just as occurs when ice cream is made --- and this brine is forced by a series of fans to flow in and around the cans containing the water to be frozen. The heat in the water is taken up by the ammonia gas in the pipes, is taken by these pipes to a compressor above and escapes through a pipe into the air. As the heat is removed from the brine surrounding the cans, freezing gradually occurs, leaving a piece of absolutely pure ice.
The water which enters into this cake of ice is first evaporated and then condensed, is deodorized, filtered through charcoal, heavy cloth and more charcoal, oil traps and water cleansers until the finished product should be absolutely free from all foreign matter.
Housewives should remember that every particle of water is boiled before being frozen, that it does not come in contact during the freezing with any substance which could possible make it injurious to the health and that the management would be plased to explain all this to those wanting informaiton.
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As the years passed, a new C.B.&Q. ice house was constructed near the ice plant and other businesses that relied upon cold storage located there, too.
In 1927, the freezing process was modified and the plant re-equipped; the distilled water process abandoned and a fresh water system introduced.
By 1937, the ice company was experiencing substantial competition from improved home refrigeration and businesses were utilizing new walk-in coolers. As a result, lockers and meat and produce processing areas were introduced at the ice plant (there eventually would be 400 lockers available for rent and stops at the ice plant to pick up frozen meat and produce became routine). George Steinbach, who had been operating a meat market on the square, signed on to manage that end of the operation.
After World War II, the Steinbachs opened a state of the art locker plant of their own on North Main Street, however, home and in-business refrigeration continued to improve and the ice plant struggled to remain viable. Eventually, soon after 1950, it ceased operations.
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Today, thanks to Hy-Vee, Chariton remains the ice capital of southern Iowa --- so some traditions go on. But fresh ice is no longer harvested for distribution from the waters of Crystal Lake and only traces of the Chariton Ice Co. plant and related structures built near it remain.
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