Ice Houses History 1910-1919c

1910 - Jan 6 - last week Lucas Duddleson, in ferrier's ice harvest gang ran the point of a pike pole into his leg and is still confined to his bed with a bad punture. Arthur Kaley, in Medbourn's gang, received a similar injury while pulling a cake of ice toward him.

1910 - January 10, Medbourn Ice Storage filled to capacity with 500 rail car loads of ice. 200 carloads already shipped to Logansport and Terre Haute.

Ernest Benedict after returning from North Dakota in 1910 was one of many who with his team of horses, worked at cutting and hauling ice off the lake for Medbourn. [History of Marshall County Indiana Sesquicentenial 1836 - 1986 (Taylor Publishing Co., 1986, Publication # 357 of 1422) Marshall County Historical Society, Pg. 61-2 Biographical Sketch on Ernest Benedict family] and also in their biographical sketches Guy B. Davis and John Wagner also state they were among the many men who worked for Medbourn during the winter ice harvest.

1910 - Jan 27 - the Ferrier ice houses were filled Tuesday noon and Medbourn completed the loading of 500 boxcars on tuesday evening.

1910 - Jan 27 - Homer Zechiel accidentally received a nasty jab in the right had last Satuday from a pike pole in the hands of a fellow worker.

1910 - Mar 24 - Lake Again Clear of Ice

The Whole FIeld Breaks up and Gradually Disappers
,br> Once mroe the limpid blue water of Lake Maxinkuckee sparkle in the sunlight or curl in snowy folds as the wind plows up their surface.

The ice began breaking up at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon moving upon the north and east shores, but crumbling and dissolving as it struck the beach.

The movement continued all Saturday night and the last vestige disappeared Sunday morning when the wind changed and carried the small remaining portion of the field to the south end.

The lake has bee ice-bound since Dec. 18 - a period of 92 days. - citizen

1910 - Dec. 15 - The ice measured five inches thick on Lake Maxinkuckee and the Medbourn crew will begin cutting on Dec. 19.

1910 dec. 22 - the ice harvest began on dec. 21 with the medbourn crew cutting seven inch ice for shipement.
1910 Dec. 29 - Ferrier & Son started their elevator Monday morning on 9-inch ice

1911 - Oct 5 - Enlarging Ice Houses

If the plans which Medbourn & Sov have in view are carried out, the Culver City Grain & Coal Co. will add considerably to the value and efficiency of its plant this fall.

It is probably that two more rooms will be added to the ice house.

These will each be 40X130 feet with a capacity of 2,000 tons each.

The enlarged house will then comprise of seven room with a total storage capacity of 14,000 tons.


Figures are also being secured for installing a mechanical carried which will dispense with th primitice method of conoducting the ice along the galleries to the rooms by men with pike poles.

It is expected to build a new engine room and to install a new boiler and a 35-horse power engine.

These improvements will give the company the modern and extensive plant which the growing business demands.

1911 - Nov. 9 - Work at the Ice Plant

The Medbourn ice plant is the scene of activity these days.

About fifteen nechanica are at work putting together the mchanical carrier which will conduct the cakes from the water to the different rooms of the house


When this is erected work will commince of the two rooms which are to be added to the present four.

With a favorable season the company will emplor 125 to 150 men during the ice harvest and will ship not less the 320,000 tons and possibly 40,000

Artifcial ice was coming into being at this time also but seemed to have little impact on the ice industry of Lake Maxinkuckee at this point in time.

1912, Dec 21 The mechanical plant has been completed and found to run in perfect shape. The carpenters are rushing the construction of the addtional house

1912 - Jan. 11 - A Splendid Crop of Ice

The ices companies began cutting on Monday and the work is in full blasr. The ice is 12 inches thick and of the finest quality seen in years. Medbourn had 87 men at work yesterday and ecpects to put on 20 or 25 more. The mechanical carried easily handles 400 toons an hour even with the precent force which does not work it to its full capactiy. Ferrier has not got all the men he needs yet, but with milder weather this drawback will soon over come, and the big plant will be in full swing this week

Found in the Indianapolis Star, Jan 18, 1912; pg. 11:

Maxinkuckee Lake Yields 100,000 tons of Fancy Ice.

Harvesters Ship Enormous Supplies.

From North State to Many Indiana Cities.

Culver, Ind., Jan. 17. - By the end of the present week 100,000 tons of ice will have been cut on Lake Maxinkuckee this winter, according to the estimates of th local cutters..

The freezing weather having been continuous since the first formation of ice, the quality is as fine as has ever been taken from Maxinkuckee.

One local company alone has been cutting 400 tons an hour since beginning work, and after filling its own ice houses on the lake is now shipping a train load every day.

Indianapolis, Logansport, south Bend Evansville, Terre Haute and many smaller cities in Illinois have ice companies which draw their supply from the Maxinkuckee cutting..

The Clover Leaf railroad fills its houses with Maxinkuckee ice for use in its passenger service.

1912 - Jan 18 - Fine Progress on the Ice

The ice cutters are working on 15 inches of ice, which is a little heavy, but the quality is super and the blocks are easliy nadled. Medbourn reports 95 men on his payroll,and says he will get his houses filled tonight. He has loading contracts, however which will kepp th e force at work indefinitely.

Ferrier is working 85 men, but has had as high as 108 on the payroll. He finished filling three of the six houses last night aftter a fine run of eight days in which men and machinery worked with perfect smoothness.

1912 - Jan 18 - Maxinkuckee Lake Yeilds 100,000 Tons of Fancy Ice

Harvestors Ship Enormous Supplies From North State to Many Indiana Cities

Culver, Indn. Jan 17 - By theend of the present weeil 100,000 tons of ice will have been cut on Lake Maxinkuckee this winter according to the estimates of the local cutter.

The freezing weather having been continoussince the first formation of ice, the quality is as fine as has ever been taken from Maxinkuckee.

One local company alone has been cuttung 400 tons an hour since beginning work, and after filling its own ice houses on the lake is not shipping atrain load every day.

Indianapolis, Logansport, South Bend, Evansville, Terre Haute and many smaller cities in Illinois have ice companies which draw their supply from the Maxinkuckee cutting.

The Clover Leaf railroad fills its houses with Maxinkuckee ice for use in its passenger service.

1912 - feb. 1 - The ice cutting has come to an end with all ice houses filled to capacity.

1912 - Apr 18 - The ice in Maxinkucke lake id about gone. It froze over January 1st and held for ninety-seven days, which is a long stretch of time for ice to hold - Citizen

1912 - October 24 -Sale of Big Ice House

S. E. Medbourn last week bought the big ice house owened by J. O. Ferried for the past five years.

The ouse is 360X140, and contains six rooms 60X140, and has a capacity of 18,000 tons.

With the ice house goes six acres of land.

Two of the houses are nearly full of ice.

Mr. Medbourn paid $10,000 for the poroperty.

The sale of this plant to a home man will meet with general satisfaction.

Indianapolis people were negotiatinge for it, but its ownershiop by Medbourns will be of greater benifit to Culver.

1912 - Friday, December 27, Logansport Journal-Tribune Logansport, Indiana


Lake is frozen over

Lake Maxinkuckee was frozen over the first of the week. it was sufficiently thick in places to allow skating. the warmer weather since has however, blighted the hopes of the ice house owners whoo expected soon to be able to fill their houses for the next summer's use



1912 - Dec. 12 - The Chaney Ice Company is building an addition to its already large ice storage plant. The new building will have a capacity of 900 tons and will be filled with Maxinkuckee Lake ice.

1913 - Jan 13 - culver citizen - the Medbourn houses were filled with ice last week and in addition, upto Tuseday night, 220 fireght cars had been fileed and shipped out. Anout 230 more car loads will be cut. Ice depth now measures 14 inches and of absolutely perfect quality. a newspaper can be read through 1 10 inch cake.

1913 - Jan 1913 — Ice cutting, which was suspended a week ago, will not be resumed until colder weather. The ice has melted down to five inches.

1913 - Jan 16 - Bad Accident At Ice House
Harry Nedbourn was seriously injured at the ice house Wednesday morning, falling a victim to a double accident, either angle of which contained the element of death

He was in the tower, from which the ice carrier is controlled, with G. R. Howard and Lou Raver.

A kerosene heater in the tower exploded, and Harry and Raver undertook to throw it from the tower, but it was a mass of flame and they were compelled to drap it. As the flames threatened to enveloped the tower Raver got out upon the roof of the ice house and did not see what immediately followed for did Howard whose attention was fully occupied the the machinery and fire.

In some at present unexplained manner Harry fell off the platforn in the tower to the ground, a distance of not less than 35 feet, striking either upon a crossbeam or the stairs, and alighting on some chunks of ice in the middle of the switch track.

He was pickerd up by Bert Rector and carried into the elevator office, and telephone calls were sent out for all the doctors.

A littler was fixed up and Harry was carried to his father's house.

As the peper goes to press information from his bedside is that hands and feet are badly burned, and there are several cuts on his head. Unless internal injuries develop, the doctors are of the opinion that he will recover.

The genral belief around the ice house is that the stove contained gasoline insteand of kerosene, both being cans of the same size and both painted red. Mr. Howard who filled the stone is certain that he used the kerosene can. Mr. Howard put out the fire in the tower with a quilt.


1913 Feb 29 - The ice gathering season on Lake Maxinkuckee closed on Tuesday with the loading of the last string of cars consigned to the Clover Leaf railroad. Both houses are full, the 12 rooms containing something like 20,000 tons. Most of this has already been engaged for delivery next summer. About 300 cars have also been loaded and - -[Rochester Sentinel, Saturday, February 22, 1913]

1913 - 3 March culver citizen - After a three week's almost continous run both ice houses are filled with a crop of fine quality ice ranging from 6 to 13 inches in thickness, and long trains of cars are now being loaded diredt from the lake to fill shipping contracts.

The rotted field of ioe broke away from the south end of the Lake Friday and, driven by a strong wind, drifted to the north end where it crumbled against the shore and disappeared. Last year the ice did not go off until April 6. - March 20, 1913 - Culver Citizen


Yet another says it was a windstorm that hit in 1913 [this could be the floods, cyclones that hit Easter weekend - 25 March and some of the history of it is under the lighthouse of the 1913 is found in Lake Maxinkuckee: Physical and Biological Survey (1919):


1913 - Mar 20 - The Medbourn Ice Company bought a team of heavy draft horses last Monday from William Hartman. They weigh about 1,400 pounds each and the price was $480. They will be used for ice delivery in Logansport

1913 - June 6 New Deal at Elevator
... S. E. Medbourn & Son will continue in the wholesale and retail ice buisness which has grown to proportions which will occupy their time

The senior Medbourn had been handling ice at Lake Maxinkuckee since 1882, and took on the grain and coal business in 1905. ... Charles Medbourn will continue to act as in the past, as superintendent of the ice plant, and Harry will willbe in the office...




On July 8, 1913 there was a very severe storm soon after noon from the northwest, a small tornado, lasting 30 minutes. It began as a severe windstorm, the wind being full of cutting sand..



another account was in the Culver Citizen:



17 July 1913
Culver Citizen
Storm Does Damage
'The big wind' of a week ago Tuesday afternoon was on of the worst which has vistited this section in many years. It came at 5 o'clock from the northwest bringing a mass of dust which resembled a sandstorm on the desert. It blew steadily for nearly half an hour, accompanied by a deluge of rain but the damage was done in the first force of the blow

All the runways on the east side of the Medbourn Ice House in town went down, carrying a large number of heavy castings, and the big tower from which the ice-carriying machinery is operated was canted over at a sharp angle. The damage is $3,500 to 4,000...


16 Oct 1913 -The runway on the Medbourn ice house is being re-built. The runway was wrecked by the wind in July.



1913 - Nov 13 - The Medbourn Ice Company will have its own plant in Logansport next season to take the place of its present rented facilities . A lot, 70x300, adjoining the right-of-way of the Butler division of the Vandalia, has been purchased. A switch track will be laid, and an office, loading station, scales and a barn to accommodate 20 20 horses, will be built in the spring



The East Jefferson street Ice Houses which really was situated in the middle between Madison Street & S. Plymouth St. listed as the S. E. Medbourn & Sons Ice Co. Ice Houses





this show the conveyer belt location which is labeled as "ice slide"





This crop of the 1914 plat map shows the location of both the ice houses and where they were located into relationship of each other.



This ice house was eventually tore down in 1915 according to David Burns; and since there are only 2 ice houses and not 3 depicted on the 1914 sanborn fire map one can safely say that this one was tore down before or during 1914.



1914 - the Sanborn Map shows that the S. E. Medborn & Sons Ice House Stables were located at the West lot on the corner of Ohio & Mill Streets





and this is the same area and tho its not labeled as such on the 1924 & 1937 Sanborn Map this building but decidedly smaller a portion of it must of been torn down. Also nite that it is not marked with an "X" thorugh the building which was the icon for a livery barn or stable, so it would be assumed that Medbourn's descarded the use of the property as a stable and had probably sold it by 1924.





and this is the Ice Houses at the end of Jefferson Street and down to between Madison street - it here was quonset huts on it during the 1960's to ? (a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semicircular cross section) and then it was swampy, and over grown with weeds and grass - it is now the Culver Cove.





The 1914 Sanborn map show what is labeled as the 'ice slide' and engin area.





1914 - Listed as the S. E. Medbourn & Sons Ice Co. Ice Houses on the 1914 Sanborn map, this is the one located in what is or was referred to as "the hole". And the labeling reads: "3/4 mile S. E. of P.O." (Post Office); and it seems to the the centralized area of measurement for distance of all buildings on the map. It was eventually tore down in 1915 according to David Burns.



1914 - feb 5 - Whether or not a crop of ice is harvested on Lake Maxinkuckee the people of Culver will not be deprived of their supply next summer. If necessary, ice will be shipped in from the North to supply the home trade which the Medbourn Ice Company will take care of first.

1914 - Feb 12 - Ice Crop at Last
When the mercury shot down to 2 to 8 below zero Sunday morning and "stuck around" the zero mark all day, joyous visions of an ice crop after all became a reality.

"The ice man" has since been about the busiest proposition this man's town has seen for lo!these many days

On Tuesday a big gang started to feed the elevator at the south ice hose, and on Wednesday another gang got busy at the north house.

The ice yeaterday was not lee than 7 inches in thickness, and with the ptsent weather every 24 hours will add about an inch. - Citizen


1914 - 26 February Culver citizen - One ice float, 72 cakes long and six cakes wide, was poled through the channel the other day to the north ice house. Estimated at 150 pounds to the cake the float weighed over 32 tons. The value of the float was something more than $60.

1914 - Mar 5 - Ice Houses are FIlled
Three weeks ago Sam Medbourn's mental state might have been describe by saying" Hope defferred maketh the heart sick"

Today all is changed and he is gratefully realizing the "Joy cometh with the monring". He can also carry his meditations full further and decalre that "Tho harvest si past the summer is coming, and my ice is now saved".

After a three weeks almost continous run both houses are filled with a crop of the fine quality ranging from 6 to 13 inches in thickness, and long trains of cars are now being loaded direct from the lake to fill shipping contracts.

Tuseday was a good day, 54 cars being load, and a dozen or more additional would have been handled if there had been cars.

Again it has been demostrated that little ofl Feb. delivers the goods.


1914 - 12 Mar. culver citizen - The ice harvest came to an end Friday when it became a little risky for horses. besides filling the two big ice houses. 341 carloads had been shipped.


1914 - Tuesday, December 15, Logansport Pharos-Reporter Logansport, Indiana


Both Rivers are fozen Over and Ice men rejoice -

They hope for a continuance of present cold weather

Not much ice cut here

Most of the local Supply comes from Lake Maxinkuckee

....the lake maxinkuckee ice company is preparing to put up their annual supply of ice at Mainkuckee as soon as the conditions are favorable. the ice at this time is only about four inches thick and will require several days more of zero weather to make it ready for the harvest. this company now was a monopoly of the ice business form Maxinkuckee and millions of pounds of the lake ice are annually put into storage for the summer trade. the pennsylvania railroad company that formerly cut its own supply from the wabash river in this city, has discontinued the practice and now gets its supply from the Maxinkuckee Ice company.
several of the local natural ice companies went out of business with the advent of the artificial ice factories.



1914 - Dec 24 - Ice Harvest Starts - The ice on Lake Maxinkuckee is 8 inches thich and the Medbourn Ice Co. will commence cutting the mornning at the upper house

1914 - Dec 31 - The Ice Harvest. - Work on the ice field moved along smoothly until Tuesday when the rain stopped a portion of the force. The north houses would have been filled by Thursday night if the work had not been interfered with. The south houses got into operation on Monday. The Vandalia has been notified to handle 400 carrs after the houses are filled. More help is offered than can be employed.

In 1915 Maxinkuckee Ice Company built the ice House in the area called "the Hole" which was just East of the intersection of Akron and Peru Court; tho by above accounts the was the Maxinkuckee Lake Ice Co. and had been in existence for some time first owned by Sterling R. Holt, and then by Reamer & Hollingsworth, of South Bend; J. O. Ferrier and finallly S. E. Medbourn. This ice house burned in 1925. Was just another ice house building added this year? This area for years was referred to as "the Hole" and for years was represented by a wood over grown area. At one time condos was proposed for the area - but was contested by area residents. Single housing was out of the question as as who ever built in the area of "the hole" had to have enough financial assets in order to build a private lift station in order to hook into the sewer system of Culver. Finally this has come about as today there are at least two homes there now. A third is now [2007] in the process of being built on the upper edge of the cliff.



1915 - Jan 7 - The north ice house was filled on Friday night and the work of shipping 400 cars was begun Sixty-three loads were sent on Monday and the same number Tuesday, but the thaw stopped operations yesterday. The ice is 10 1/2 to 1 1 1/2 inches thick and of absolutely perfect quality, one of the most satisfactory crop ever handled here.



1915 Jan 16 pg. 6 Logansport Journal Tribune :


Best Ice Ever Havested in Lake Macinkuckee - Reports received by Vandalia officials here from Culver indicate that the quality of ice harvested at Lake Maxinkuckee this year is superior to that of any previous year for some time. The ices houses are all filled and the Cloverleaf Houses at Frankfort are fully supplied. Last year no ice was cut on the lake until Febraury.



1915 - Saturday January 16, Logansport Pharos-Reporter:


Reports received by the Vandalia officials here are to the effect all the iee houses at Culver have been filled with an excellent quality of ice, harvested from Lake Maxinkuckee. Last year the first ice was cut in February




1915 - 50,000 tons or 100,000,000 pounds of ice harvested in Decemeber:




HAVE 100,000,000 POUNDS OF ICE Fifty thousand tons of ice, cut from the bosom of classic Lake Maxinkuckee, is the report of the crop which was gathered in December by the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice Company, whose offices are located at, the junction of Michigan Avenue and the Vandalia tracks, Logansport, The company has thirteen big ice houses at the lake and these are filled to the limit with ice that measured from eight to twelve inches in thickness and is as clear as a piece of cut glass.

The company congratulates itself on the fact that the crop was gathered in December, a very unusual occurrence, as a rule the ice being secured in January or February. December ice is declared to be the best of the winter and is designated by icemen as "tough as a whalebone."

In order to better appreciate the enormous crop of ice gathered at Maxinkuckee it can be better comprehended by saying that the 50,000 tons foot up 100,000,000 pounds




The P. T. complains that no market can be found for the ice crop that is being harvested at Lake Maxinkuckee and that no ice is being shipped from that point. Considering the zero weather is this surprising? Ice consumpion begins when the July sun warms the atmosphere, and there is a possibility that the same old sun that warms the earth and tills it with fruitfulness, will do its work again this year as it has in the past. There will be a demand for ice later on and the supply of the natural article should be abundant. - SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1915 Logansport Pharos-Reporter



1915 - July crop from and ad for selling lots int Thw Ferrier Addition showing lots and locations . Shows the location of the Maxinkuckee Ice company ("The Hole" as it was refered t0 in later years)>.



1916 - Jan 17 - With Only two layers to complete filling the houses the Nedbourn Ice Co. was compelled by the soft weather to quit work Friday night. With a return of freezing temperatures the filling of cars for shipment will begin

1916 - February 09 - cutting Ice at Maxinkuckee
A force of men was put to work at Lake Maxinkuckee yesterday by the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice Company to cut ice on the lake which has frozen to the depth of about 6 inches. the ice is of a fairly good quality and if the cold weather continues the company will probably fill their houses at the lake - Logansport Pharos Tribune / Logansport Journal-Tribune (Indiana) 1916 - Wednesday, February 09, Logansport Pharos-Reporter Logansport, Indiana


cut ice At Lake

A force of men was put to work cutting ice on lake maxinkucke at culver by the Maxinkuckee Ice Company yesterday, and with the continued cold weather it is now believed the company will be able to fill their houses at the place.

In January the company succeeded in securing a good portion of their ice harvest, but the warm weather soon broke it up. The ice isnow said to be about six inches thick and of a fairly good quality


1916 - Feb 15 - Still Cutting Ice.
The ice cutting at Lake Maxinkuckee continues and the ice has frozen to a thickness of seven inches and a half.

The ice houses of the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice Company will pprobably be filled to their capacity before this evening

The ice is of very good quality... - Logansport Pharos Tribune(Indiana)




1916 - Ice house event unknown ... found in the - Logansport Pharos Tribune, Wednesday, December 01, 1926, Logansport, Indiana is the following:

TWENTY TEARS AG0 TODAY... Jacob Reamer of the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice. Company, of South Bend is in Culver looking over the site of the ice houses with the object of rebuilding,


c 1919 Jan 29 - For the information or our readers in France, Indianapolis and Grass Creek we chronicle the fact that the lake is still covered with ice, and that Sam Medbourn and his bunch are sill not cutting any ice in theis community. The ice has a dark and unkealthy look like a man with a bum liver, and the kids have quit skating on it...

1919 Feb 12 - An Ice Thought
How sweet the name of Medbourn sounds,
When the winter season's here;
When the crystal ice cakes shoot the chute
And the whistle booms so clear.
Wednesday, 1 p.m.
Now since we wrote this classic rhyme
No ice cakes shoot the chutes today,
And Sam and all his men can play


1919 - Feb 19 - Though the ice was only about 6 1/2 inches thick, the Medbourns started operations Monday monring determined to secure enough to supply the local trade at least. For two days the cakes slid into four rooms until ten layers had been packed away in each room. At 7 o'clock last night the whistle sounded the recall, taps was blown and the work was brought to an end until the wweather bureau hands out a more suitable brand od winter temperture than at present

1919 - May 7 - The Medbourn Ice Co. is erecting an addition to its storehouse to faciliate the handling of its ice cream business

17 Dec 1919 issue of the Culver Citizen - With 9 to 10 inches of ice on Little Lake and 6 to 7 inches on Maxinkuckee, winter seems to have arrived. The Medbourn Ice Company began operation on Little Lake Monday and will load cars for shipping.

1919 - Dec 24 - Ice Harvest In Full Blast
Following the preliminary work of scraping and marking the medbourn Ice Co. began cutting on Monday with a force of 110 men and eight plows the Medibourn Ice Co. i shooting the crystal cubes into the north ice house at high speed. The ice is of firstl lcass quality and consumers are assured of a better and more economical product than they were served with lat year The work will not be suspended for Christmas


1919 Dec 31 - Unsually FIne Condition for Harvesting Ice Crop
If you aske Sam Medbourn when he ever had as good a winter for harvesting an ice crop, he'd probably scratch his head and say, "I'llbe switched if I can remember"

From the 20th to the present hour there hasn't been a monment's interruption to the work from the weather. After two or thee days of scraping a light snowfill from the ice the cakes began the grand march, and since a week ago Monday there hasn't been a halt except on Saturday afternoon when a break in the elevator shut down the works for half a day.

Seven rooms in the north house were filled last evening with about 20,00 tonds of a pretty ice as you ever laid your eyes on.

Today the work of filling at least three rooms in the south hous is going on. Possibly three more rooms in this house will be filled; that will depned larggely upon the weather.






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