Southwick's Ice Industry: The Berkshire Ice Company (Part Three)
The ice in 1913 was of excellent quality and unusually clear. But, the harvest could have been better, and, when combined with increased shrinkage due to warmer weather that summer, the price of ice jumped. This caused Berkshire Ice to consider moving their operation to someplace with extended cold weather - like Maine.
The ice proved far better at the start of the cutting season in January 1914, when it measured 10 to 12 inches thick. The season, however, was cut short when unseasonably warm weather forced Berkshire Ice to temporarily suspend operations on January 29.
Berkshire Ice bought electric ice cutters for the 1916 ice harvesting season. The company expected the machines to maximize production while reducing costs; however, when they tested them in January, they found that their men cut much faster, so they returned them. That same month, about 40 unorganized workers - demanding a twenty-five cent per day increase - went on strike. Fearing trouble, Berkshire Ice called on selectmen to have constables protect their property. (Workers made $2.25 per day.)
The strike and the general scarcity of workers impacted operations, forcing the company to repurchase the electric cutters they had previously returned.
While Berkshire Ice took measures to protect its assets from tramps and striking workers, it could do little against the threat of Mother Nature.
Heavy snow caused considerable damage to the Congamond and Berkshire ice houses when their roofs collapsed in February of 1906.
On January 3, 1914, a storm blew the roof off an engine house at one of the ice houses, causing several hundred dollars in damages.
Berkshire Ice incurred about $5,000 in damages when wind during a storm blew off a large section of the roof of one of the company's ice houses on December 26, 1915. The strong wind also claimed an ice conveyor, which blew away.
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| Congamond Ice House Ruins |
On October 17, 1920, a telephone pole fell on top of some electrical wires providing power to the Berkshire Ice Company. It pushed the higher voltage wires down to cross those of a house, which caught fire, causing minor damage.
The Berkshire Ice Company's Crystal Ice House went up in flames after lightning struck it around 4:00 P.M. on July 14, 1923. The sawdust that insulated the ice house burned well into the night. The Crystal Ice House, valued at $45,000, burned to the ground. It had a capacity for 20,000 tons of ice, but it was empty at the time of the fire.
Fire struck again when it destroyed the Berkshire Ice Company's Walker Ice House on November 12, 1923. Firefighters from Southwick and Suffield saved the engine house tower and an elevator for filling the mammoth ice house. (It had a capacity of 60,000-to-65,000 tons of ice.) The estimated loss was $140,000.
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| The Walker Ice House |
On June 11, 1926, at an ice house in Bridgeport, someone spotted Harry Walker's hat on an ice runaway - several feet from shore. Looking out into the pond, they discovered Walker's body, sitting upright or in posture. Using a board, they turned Walker's body - only to see a bullet hole in his head. Police were dispatched and began searching for a .32 caliber revolver - but could not find it. His death was ruled a suicide. (See separate story.)
Several ice cutters and their families were asleep inside the Lake House when it burned on the bitterly cold morning of January 15, 1925. Nobody was injured, but several people on the third floor had to be rescued. Some of the frightened and shivering guests, who escaped with only what they were wearing, were taken to the office of the Berkshire Ice Company.
Missing Heir
When sixteen-year-old orphan Clifford K. Payton, heir to $250,000 of his grandfather's fortune, had gone missing in June 1916, authorities found him in Southwick, where he was in charge of a gang of men handling ice cakes at the Berkshire Ice Company. He earned $2.50 per day and resided at the Lake House. When Payton initially went missing, people speculated that the young heir met foul play, had been kidnapped, or was in a terrible accident, the latter based on a letter his grandfather received a few months prior. In the letter, Payton writes that he had a bad head injury from falling from a street car in Springfield.
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Southwick's Largest Ice Houses
Railroad Ice House/Hygienic Ice House
Crystal Ice House
Berkshire Ice House
Congamond Ice House
Walker Ice House
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