Little York Ice Company

Ice harvesting

 

 

     In 1910 the Little York Ice Company employed over 70 seasonal workers for the annual ice harvest. Eighty five railroad cars were loaded with "ice cakes" in one day. The ice was sold to the Lackawanna Railroad and was shipped to Oswego, Syracuse, Chenango Forks and Binghamton. The railroad company put some of the ice in storage tanks for drinking water on passenger and Pullman cars.
     It was estimated that the number of railroad cars loaded and dispatched in 1909 would have stretched from Little York to Blodgett Mills.
     Collecting the ice was a coordinated process. Men with horse-drawn plows cleared snow on the lake and cut into the ice to a depth of several inches. Cakes of ice were broken off by workers using ice spuds. A typical ice spud or chisel was over six feet long and weighed fifteen pounds. Some had wooden handles and a special steel head fixed with tang and collar. Ice fishermen still use ice spuds and augers.

ice spud bar

 

 

     The ice cakes were loaded on a conveyor and run to a railroad loading platform. Several men were assigned to the conveyor to keep it running. Five men worked at each railroad car. One man used an ice pick to move the ice cakes from the conveyor into the car. The other four men arranged and loaded the car. Tongs were not used.
     The seasonal workmen came from Scott, Preble, Little York and Cortland. Workers from Cortland rode the 6 A.M. train to Little York lake.
     A big ice house at Little York lake and another in Cortland were filled with ice after the work for the railroad was completed.

Reference:
Cortland Standard--January 27, 1910