The Kennebec River ice houses were massive multi-storied structures, one was aslarge as a football field and as high as a six-story building. By 1895 most of the individual companies along the river had been consolidated under the management of Charles W. Morse, the "Ice King." By the early 1920's the industry went into "rapid meltdown."

I bet there are a few more songs out there.

My parents, who moved to the family farm in Maine from New York City in the 1930's, learned to cut ice from their neighbors and did so for about 10 years. There was a small ice house, where the blocks were stored, insulated with sawdust. The ice pond was about a mile up in the woods and old Betty, the workhorse, was used to pull the big ice cutting "plow," and the bobsled full of ice blocks out of the woods. I was too young to remember the actual ice cutting but I do remember the ice house full of big blocks and the old icebox in the back room.

We didn't get electricity to the farm until after World War 2, so refrigerating with ice was a practical option.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble