Ice Houses History 1920-1929

1920 - Jan 7 - Ice Harvest Nearing End.

A few more days is likely to see an end of the ice harvest on Lake Maxinkuckee.

The south house is half full, but after some necessary work in reuilding a wal the three remaining rooms will be filled if the ice holds out.

Then with two or three railroad contracts to hill, loading directly into cars, the winter work of the Medbourn Ice co. will end.

The ice is now 14 inches thick and the splendid quality is maintained.

1920 - Jan 14 - The Medbourn Ice Co. has filled three of the rooms in the south house and is now loading cars direct from the lake to fill contracts amounting to several thousand, tons. This work will continue until Saturday when, if the ice is still in good condition, it is expected to fill the remaining three rooms

1920 - Jan 28 - The ice harvest came to an end last Firday with the filling of the ladt of the car contracts which the Medbourn Ice Co. worked on after storing all the ice it cared to carry in its ice houses. The ice on the lake is not 18 inchec thick.

1920 - May 5 - A burning grass started by the sprark from a train treatened the south ice house this morining. The engine room caught fire but the blaze was extinushed

Everett Norris in his biography in the History of Marshall County Indiana Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986 (Taylor Publishing Co., 1986, Publication # 357 of 1422) Marshall County Historical Society
pg. 329 states:

In the winter of 1919-1920 I worked for the Medbourn Ice Company, helping to place ice in the ice houses and then in railroad cars once the houses where full. Ice by the trainload was shipped to Logansport and Frankfort and placed in houses there to be used in refrigerators cars.

Ferris Zechiel in an interview with Jeff Kenney rememebred his father - "a farmer with little gainful work in the chilly depths of winter - finishing his farm chores before dawn and trudging a mile or two into Culver with tools in hand to work from sunup to sundown in the in the Medbourn ice house". Of this is acounted int the Marshall county history in Jesse Edward Zechiel biography:

during the winter months Jesse would work for the Medbourne's Ice Company, helping put ice up for storage. He would do his chores, walk five miles into Culver, arriving at daybreak, work till 6 p.m. (or dark), walk back home sometimes carrying a bag of groceries, and doing the evening chores before retiring for the day.

Needless to say this was probably true of many of the farmers surrounding Culver so that they could make ends meet during the winter.



Recently surfaced is the death of a little boy at the Medbourn Ice House - that now haunts the Culver Cove:

It is rumored that the Culver Cove has a ghost - part of it once sat on the property of the Medbourn Ice Houses property.

The identity of the ghost is a young boy of 8-10 years old.

It is assumed that his father was to have been employed by the ice company, and came into the ice shouse during the afternoon or evening. It is said that he had injured himself in someway and was not able to leave the building. It is said that he was found the next day frozen to death adn was to have occured during the early 1900's.

So far no documentation can be found on the little boy's death.

Culver Cove employee Lori Ratliff believes that she has seen the ghost via a computer monitor - she described him as a little figure - with brown pants, a khaki shirt, suspenders and a 1920's-1930's style hat.

He seems to roam - most of the Cove - and especially the North wing.
More of the Culver Cove Ghost story is re-counted from employees by Jeff Kenney in the 25 October 2007 Culver Citizen.

Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, Saturday, February 26, 1921

But, mercy me, let’s talk about the weather, as they say in The Pirates of Penzance, Record high temperature for February was reported all over the country, and just in that part of the month we usually get zero weather. I have been watching February ever since a year back before we had artificial ice and we had to depend on natural ice. That winter not a ton had been put up in Indiana until February 11, when along came a blizzard and for three mornings the thermometer reading was 10 or more below zero. Up at Lake Maxinkuckee, where there was a big ice house business, the houses empty Feb. 10 were soon filled with eleven inch ice. The records show, I think, that the cold spell comes between the 10th and 20th and that the low record for winters is oftener in February than in December or January. -

1921 - Mar 8 - Logansport Pharos-Tribune it sounds by the article below that the 1920-1921 winter season was a very mild one and a very bad ice harvest year for the Maxinkuckee Ice Company

LOGANSPORT ICE NEEDS TO BE SUPPLIED

LOCAL ICE COMPANIES ANNOUNCE THAT DESPITE MILD WINTER, THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF ICE,

PRICE TO REMAIN THE SAME

Ice Was Taken From Lake Maxinkuckee Between Christmas and New Years, Officials State.

The ice needs of Logansport residents are to be well taken care of this summer despite the fact that the winter has been so mild that no ice formed on the rivers, from which source a portion of the local supply is usually obtained.

Information furnished from the office of the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice company this morning is to the effect that company has in the neighborhood of 12,000 tons of ice in its houses at Lake Maxinkuckee for was taken from the lake this winter the week following Cristmas, it Some of the ice no held bu the Maxinkuckee company was shipped from Cadallic, Michigan. The ice Logansport patrons will receive is from 10 to 12 inches thick declared the girl in the Maxinkuckee office today. We will be in postition to take care of the Logansport people this summer.

Shipping Car a Day.

_ Forbis, manager of the local Ice Company, stated that the company has already started operations to meet any city ice _ that may develope this year. _ are now putting a thousand _ of ice into the cold storage _ of the Logansport Ice cream _y on Wheatland Avenue. de_ Forbis "we have always _ care of the Watts Brohers cream company. in addition to _ we are no taking care of the patrons of the Maxinkuckee Ice company to enable it to conserve supply for summer's use. We - _ipping now anbout a car a day. we have had chances to con_ out entire output to outside _ns but we have refused to _er them." forbis said. "We _ out first allegiance to the city Logansport."

_manager McCarroll of the _um ice company stated that plant had been enlarged and _ no had a manufacturing capcity of 50 tons a day The most of this we are now shipping out of city, but of course supplying local patrons", the manager _.

The price of ice will remain the same as last year it was stated.

Artificial and Maxinkuckee _ _any announce a 50 cents per _ed pounds domestic rate. The _um company states that price _ ice will remain at 40 cents same as last year.

The following ads pictured ran in several issues of the Logansport papers. during 1921

This has been found concerning an ice house about 1920 to 1922 - it is a techincal report of some type I think dealing with the railroad:

Putnam (Marshall County JS Bilby 1920) One mile south of Culver on the west side of the track 270 yards south of milepost TH 148 45 yards north of a road crossing 100 yards south of Medborne ice plant directly west of the switch signal for ice plant siding 5.75 meters 18.86 feet west of the west and nearest rail The station underground and reference marks are bronze tablets set in concrete as described in notes la 7a and lla 1 The reference mark is on the same side of the track 3.01 meters 9.88 feet from the station in azimuth 91(degree)43' - PRECISE TRAVERSE AND TRIANGULATION IN INDIANA By CHARLES A MOURHESS Mathematician and JASPER S BILBY Signalman United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Special Publications By U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 1922

1921 - it is said there was no ice cut from the lake and the ad from the Logansport paper which ran several time this ad bore the date of 6 May 1921

1922 - Jan 18 - The Medbourn Ice Co. began harvesting Monday. The ice is eght inches thick

1922 - Friday, January 20, Logansport Press Logansport, Indiana

Low Mark of cold Wave is 10 above

Harvesting ice at maxinkuckee first time in Two Years - Backbone of cold Wave broken - Wamrmer Weather on the way

The cold wave which followed the snow storm of Tuesday night hit the low mark abought midnight when the government thermometer stood at 10 degrees the drop from noon untill 8 o'clock last night, when the termometer stood sti11, was rapid but from 8 o'clock until after midnight only one degree difference was registered

According to the forecast of the weather man the backbone of the cold wave will be broken today and warmer weather can be expected.

The cutting of ice, the first in two years, was started Monday at Lake Maxinkuckee. The ice is eight inces thick. Last year no ice was cut on the Indiana Lake, there being no time during the winter when it became thick enough to harvest..

1922 - feb. 1 - Medbourn*s ice harvesters have completed their work for the season

1922 - Feb 22 - LOCAL ROOFING CO. GETS CULVER JOB The Logansport Roofing and Supply company, at Third and Eel River avenue, has received the contract for the roofing of the ice houses of the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice company at Culver, and Frank Young, the proprietor, will take a large force of men with him Monday to begin the job. The contract is one of the largest that has been received lately and it will require about ten days to complete the work.- Logansport Pharos Tribune

1922, April 6 - The ice has all melted in the lake and the waves are lashing the landing. This winter the ice on Maxinkuckee Lake froze to the thickness of thirteen inches - Denver Tribune, Denver, Indiana

1922 - Listed in the 1922 Marshall County Plat book S. E. Medbourn, Prop.; H. E. Medbourn, Manager; & Charles Medbourn Superintendent

Another advertisement is found in the Maxinkuckee yearbook of this year

This shows the channel going under the railroad into the lake and the location as being at the end of Madison near Plymouth street and to other area buildings.

The south one is near the outlet [bottom] & and the north one nown as "the hole" location at Akron St. & South St.

1923 - Friday, February 16, Logansport Pharos-Tribune Logansport, Indiana

Doubt that any ice will be harvesterd from local rivers this year - - George

...the cutting of ice on Lake maxinkuckee has already been completed, declared charles Wedekinf, manager of the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice company of this city. The harvest is noe of the beat in years that Lake Maxinkuckee has yielded and the ice averages from 12 to 14 inches in thickness

1923 - February 21 The Medbourn Ice Company last evening finished the work filling the seven rooms of north house.

1924 - Dec. 31 - Medbourn & Son Ice Company began cutting ice Tuesday. The ice is 9 1/2inches thick this year and very clear. Nearly 150 employees are helping i n the ice harvest.

The 1924 snadborn map gives a full depiction of just where and how the ice house lays in the area between East Jefferson Street and Madison street These shows the general area around the East Jefferson Street ice house and shows that it lies west of the grain elevatior and does not sit on the lake

The 1924 Sanborn fire maps shows the "hole and states that it is And the labeling reads: "3/4 mile S. E. of P.O."; P.O. = Post office and it seems to the the centralized area of measurement for distance of all buildings on them map

1925 - Chas. Medbourn accepts Position in Logansport - Chas E. Medbourn has accepted a position in Logansport where he has charge of the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice Company business. Mr. Medbourn took up his new work last week in the southern city. This sort of work is not new to Mr. Medbourn since he was accosicated with the local ice company before he went into the grocery byusiness in Culver...

31 Dec. 1925 - from the Rochester Sentinel comes this:

Ice Ring [Marshall county]
Farmers Near Culver Associated In Ice Ring

An ice "ring" is something new in farmers' organizations. We have heard about threshing rings for years, but now the ice ring. In Union township, Marshall county, along Lake Maxinkuckee twelve farmers have their own ice house and together put up their ice for the winter. They have been doing this for some six or seven years and have become so accustomed to the use of ice whenever they want it that they would not know how to live without the pleasures of ice.

1926 -Sunday Feb 28, Loganpsport Morning Press

Startr contract at Lake Maxinkuckee

Frank Young of the Logansport Roofing and Supply Company, will go to Lake Maxinkuckee tommorrow with a force of men to start work on a contract job awarded the local company by the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice companies at the lake. All the houses of the Lake Maxinkuckee Ice Company will be re-roofed.

1926 - Dec 29 - Several loads of seven inch ice were cut on Little lake last Frdiay - the first of the season.

1927 - It seems roumors that the ice of Lake Maxinkuckee was unsuitable for use by the Kokomo Tribune, Monday, August 08, 1927 - when a paid advertisment appeared in thast issue by Irvin G. Fisher the local health officer for the town of Culver in part states : This affiant further states thatlie has been inform ed that some person, firm or corporation in the city of Kokomo, Indiana, has circulated a report to the effect that he, this affiant, had made a statement to the effect that the ice taken from Lake Maxinkuckee was impure and not suitable for domestic use and now for the purpose of not only denying any such statement but for the further purpose of informing the public as to the quality of said ice he, this affiant, says that he knows from his own personal knowledge that the ice taken from Lake Maxinkuckee has been approved by the State Board of Health and that said ice is pure and suitable for domestic use."

1927 - December 28 - New Ice cutters for Medboun Ice Company

Again machinery is to replace man and horse.

THis will be the case in the ice harvest this winter by the Medourn Ice company as they have purchased two motot driver ice cutters which will do away with the services of twelve mean and sic horses.

It also does the work of both a marker and a cutter

These cutters are the latest thing in that line and will be much more efficient thant the old method as a uniform cut is given both is depth and shape. This will allow a great saving in space in both storing and shipping to say nothing of the greath ease in handiling. It will also give much cleaner ice.

The machine is on a sled and is driven by the saw which cuts the ice, which has a maximum depth of ten inches. It is a gasoline motor with a shaft dive. Each machine weighs 800 pounds, which is a much less strain than three horses put on the ice.

An ad for 1928 states that a movie was made of the Ice harvesting of Lake maxinkuckee and was shown in the Colonial Theater at Logansport.

1929 - Jan 16 - A large company of workers started the annual ice harvest of the Medbourn Ice Company Tuesday morning. The ice was 10 inches thick and of exceptional quality.

1929 - January 30, - The annual ice harvest on Lake Maxinkuckee by the Medbourn Ice Company was completed last Sunday afternoon. A total of 160 men aided in the work with an average of about 125 working each day.



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