AN INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY
OF THE ICE INDUSTRY ALONG THE FOX RIVER
KANE COUNTY, ILLINOIS
Kira E. Kaufmann
Department of Anthropology
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois
ABSTRACT
This paper summarizes the history, growth, and reasons for the decline in
the natural ice industry along the Fox River in Kane County, Illinois in the
mid- l 91h century. Comments are presented on the remains of this industry
within the region.
INTRODUCTION
transactions concerning natural ice, and
personal historical accounts recalling
brief memories of people who remembered when there were icehouses. With
subsequent expansive development along
the river, very little remains archaeologically to interpret the questions surrounding this industry.
In the middle of the 19th century,
a flurry of industrial activity spawned
rapid urban growth along the Fox River,
Kane County, Illinois. This growth was
propelled by the continued expansion of
Chicago and its surrounding communities. Along the Fox River, most
commerce and manufacturing activities
were situated in towns with associated
dams. The darns facilitated industries
such as milling and founding with the
ability to control the river water. One
industry, not well recognized, which
briefly contributed to the industrial
importance of the Fox River during this
time was the ice industry.
This study was undertaken with the
goal to provide a more comprehensive
insight to the natural ice industry along
the Fox River in Kane County and what
happened to this once important industry.
It also attempted to locate any
archaeological remains associated with
the natural ice industry that may still
exist.
The natural ice industry existed for
such a short time during the industrial
renaissance of the Fox River that little
has been documented on its beginnings,
growth, or contributions to the area.
Historical documentation consists of a
very few maps locating icehouses along
the Fox River, a lilnited number of
accounting records furnishing economic
Many factors influenced the
decline of natural ice production. Major
contributing factors were adverse
weather conditions, political regulation,
internal conflict among producers,
pollution of natural ice, health concerns
with regard to the spread of diseases by
consumption of natural ice, and increased technology in the production of
32
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology 12(1997):32-38
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
manufactured ice_ Although natural ice
was in production until the 1930's, it did
not significantly contribute to the ice
industry afler 1925 (Jones 1984).
Archaeologically, very few remnants of the icehouse industry exist
today along the Fox River. As of the
writing of this paper, although various
mill race remnants and sluice gates are
existing for several towns along the Fox
River, the only remnants of an icehouse
recorded were those of
the Carpentersville icehouse on the west bank of
the river (Kaufmann et al. 1996).
Historical icehouse remains may also still
exist in Batavia on Wilson Street because
various debris was noted from the pond
in 1995 during dredging activities and an
icehouse was reported to have been
located adjacent to the pond. All of the
other historical icehouse remains along
the Fox River have been completely
demolished, are buried under modern
construction, or have associated features
that are now inundated by the river.
PHYSICAL SETTING ALONG THE
FOX RIVER
The
study
area
covered
approximately 500 kilometers along the
Fox River in Kane County. The Fox
River is situated in the morainal section
of the Northeastern Morainal division of
Illinois, an area characterized by rolling
terrain associated with the high density of
terminal moraines (Schwegman 1973:
13). The Government Land Office
records for the site area show the property covered by prairie and forest
(USGLO 1842).
Glacial advances during the Late
Wisconsinan created outwash deposits
Volume 12
1997
assigned to the Batavia Member (Henry
Formation) in the Fox River area of
Kane County (Cobb and Fraser 1981).
Tiskilwa till (Wedron formation) deposits
underlie a trough between the Yorkville
and Haeger till deposits (Cobb and
Fraser 1981 :2). The Yorkville till
member forms the Barlina and St.
Charles moraines to the west and the
Haeger and Wadsworth till members
forms the Cary, West Chicago, and
Minooka moraines to the east (Graese et
al. 1988). In between, the moraines are a
series of outwash deposits consisting of
alluvium, mud, sand and gravel. Along
the Fox River these deposits consist
mostly of fine grained alluvium to a
better sorted mixture of sands and
gravels with lower amounts of silt, clay
and mud. These sediments were probably
deposited by braided streams (Cobb and
Fraser 1981).
HISTORY OF THE
NATURAL ICE INDUSTRY ALONG
THE FOX
Better harvests of natural ice
were produced from shallow lakes and
rivers where there was still sufficient
water flow to inhibit the growth of
aquatic plants and the formation of
bubbles in the ice. Ice that was cloudy or
included bubbles was considered a poor
quality product (Hall 1974). There were
not many readily available sources for
natural ice in Chicago because by 1871,
the flow of the Chicago River had been
reversed carrying the city's sewage and
waste away from Lake Michigan and into
nearby streams and rivers. Natural ice
harvesters were well aware of the
potential problems of disease carried by
contaminated waters. By 1896, the
Health Board of Chicago stopped much
33
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
of the natural ice cutting around Chicago
on the grounds of impurity (Lawrence
1965). During the late 1800's, a shift to
outlying areas and the shallow lakes of
Wisconsin for natural ice harvesting took
place.
Manufacture of natural ice along
the Fox River began to unfold as an
important commercial endeavor in the
middle 1800's. The Fox River is perhaps
the most shallow river in Northern
Illinois as well as being relatively close to
Chicago. Ice houses were constructed
near dams in towns along the Fox River
Damming raised water levels eliminating
the marshy shores and weed infested
waters typical of shallow rivers. The
dams also maintained sufficient water
movement to provide bubble-free ice.
Natural ice was used to prolong
the use life of perishable products such
as meat, milk, beer, fruits and vegetables
so that they could be sold to more distant
markets such as Chicago and beyond.
Along the fox River, the largest
consumers of natural ice were the meat
packers, the dairy industry, and the
brewing industry (Hall 1974). These
industries used large quantities of ice to
cool their products as they were
transported to Chicago. The brewing
industry also used natural ice in the
distilling process of manufacturing beer.
Moreover, during the late 1800's in
Wisconsin, the general public started to
prefer lighter beers that required more
ice during production (Lawrence 1965).
Most of the industries along the Fox
River used the railway to transport their
products into Chicago. Natural ice was
used to help preserve meat and dairy in
refrigerated rail cars which first appeared
in 1867 (Pirtle 1973). The ice industry
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1997
also relied on the railroad to convey
natural ice to other markets. Gustavus
Swift, a Chicago meat packer, was
instrumental in developing a refrigerated
rail car to transport his produce
(Lawrence 1965). Armour meat packing
followed Swifts lead by also usrng
refrigerated cars to transport meat
(ibid.).
In the early 1900's, natural ice
was still in demand along the Fox River.
The dairy and brewing industries
appeared to be the largest in the Elgin
area with four dealers in dairy products
and ten creameries, five brewers, four
apple dealers, and eight fruit and
vegetable dealers (Hughitt et al. 1901).
Across the United States, consumption
of natural ice in 1907 was estimated to
be approximately fifteen million tons. By
1914, the production of natural ice
decreased, while artificial ice consumption went up to 21,000,000 tons. At
the same time, in the Chicago area
natural-ice still accounted for sixty-seven
per cent of ice consumed although other
parts of the country were relying more
heavily on manufactured ice (Anderson
1953:107-109). By 1925, very little natural ice was being commercially harvested in the United States (Jones 1984).
Icehouses first appear along the
Fox River on historical plats in 1892 and
continued to be present until the early
1900's. In the Fox River area, the natural
ice industry started to show signs of
strain in 1904 and the historical plat
maps show a decrease in the number of
commercial icehouses along the Fox
River. No ice houses appear on historical
plats after 1925.
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
FACTORS AFFECTING THE
DECLINE OF THE NATURAL ICE
INDUSTRY
Weather. Several periods of unseasonably warm winters decreased the
feasibility of continued natural ice
production in Illinois. In 1877 to 1878, a
poor ice harvest greatly affected the
natural ice industry. From 1878 to 1890,
there was increased building and moving
around of icehouses into Wisconsin
because the growing season of ice was
longer and more predictable (Lawrence
1965). Another extremely unseasonably
warm winter of 1920 to 1921 brought
and end to many of the natural ice
companies still operating in the Midwest
(Lawrence 1965).
Business Practices. In 1898, nearly all
natural ice companies in the Chicago area
consolidated to form the Knickerbocker
Ice Company. This monopoly was
created in part to prevent overcutting of
ice in the area, alleviate conflicts between
companies, and to maintain prices
(Lawrence 1965). Some companies in
the meat packing industry still maintained
their own icehouses. In the early 1900's,
larger ice companies, like Knickerbocker
began selling off some of their icehouses
for other uses. Knickerbocker hoped this
would narrow the availability of natural
ice which in turn would create more
demand, higher prices and thus more
profit for production of natural ice
(Lawrence 1965).
Laws. In 1901, Wisconsin enacted the
Overbeck Law which stated that the state
owned and had rights to all meandering
streams within the state. This law
provided the state the power to levy a
tax of I 0 cents per ton of natural ice
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1997
harvested by companies for shipment out
of the state. In order to guarantee
compliance, all individuals harvesting ice
within the state but residing outside of
the state were required to post bonds of
$10,000 with the Secretary of State
before ice harvesting could be undertaken (Lawrence 1965:265). The Knickerbocker Ice Company of Chicago
tested the law in 1901-1902 by harvesting ice without posting the required
bond. This company was found guilty in
a Wisconsin court but appealed the
verdict and won their appeal. In 1903,
the Overbeck Law was found to be
unconstitutional and was repealed.
In 1906, the Hepburn act in
Illinois gave the Interstate Commerce
Commission power to regulate charges
Swift,
for the refrigerator cars of
Armour and others (Lawrence 1965).
Railroads became leery of transporting
large quantities of natural ice as they had
done in previous years. Growing
shipments of coal, wheat, and other
products became more profitable.
Pollution. As previously mentioned, the
flow of the Chicago River had been
reversed by 1871, carrying the city's
sewage and waste into nearby streams
and rivers By 1896, the Health Board of
Chicago stopped much of the natural ice
cutting around Chicago on the grounds
of impurity (Lawrence 1965). In 1900,
the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was
completed to help reduce the sewage
problems in Chicago by sending the
waste to the Illinois River from Lake
Michigan. As early as 1908, the Chicago
Health Board refused to accept any more
ice from the Madison, Wisconsin, area
because it was too polluted (Lawrence
1965). Although the public had been
35
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
aware of potential health hazards
associated with the consumption of
natural ice since the late l 800's, renewed
health concerns became rampant in the
1930's concerning the spread of disease
from contaminated natural ice_ Manufactured ice producers pushed to their
advantage the concern of
disease
transmission from using natural ice by
emphasizing that manufactured ice was
more sanitary.
Technology. Although mechanically
manufactured ice started in the late
1800's, it put more of an impact on the
natural ice industry after World War I.
Prior to that time, manufactured ice was
prohibitively expensive and still had many
flaws. For instance, manufactured ice
was often tainted with ammonia, drops of
oil, dust, or other impurities. During
World War I, refrigeration was
discovered to have a beneficial effect on
the manufacture and storage of
ammunitions. With the war effort
pushing an interest in refrigeration and
manufactured ice, more research improved the technology of manufacturing
the ice as well as improving the quality of
the ice while reducing the cost. After
World War I, manufactured ice became
less expensive, more efficient, and more
reliable to produce then natural ice. In
the Fox River area, a manufactured ice
company called Consumers Ice Company
had absorbed Knickerbocker Ice Company by 1917 (Lawrence 1965).
NATURAL ICEHOUSE LOCATION
ALONG THE FOX RIVER
All of the icehouses along the Fox
River in Kane County were located
directly above a dam. Most were located
on the east side of the river. This may be
36
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1997
accounted for with meandering stream
dynamics because this is where the force
of the river was least against the shoreline and there would have been less
erosion (Castenson 1996). It has been
suggested that some icehouses were used
as barns or for other storage after their
use-life and operation as an icehouse.
Most of the icehouses along the Fox
River had been previously destroyed with
commercial building and development
associated with the early 20th century.
Because today no icehouses are standing
or intact, historical location of icehouses
has been identified through the use of
historical plats. It may be possible that
more icehouse remnants remain beneath
modem construction or are inundated by
the river but these possibilities were not
investigated by this survey.
REGIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL
CONTEXT AND ASSESSMENT
Our understanding of the ice
industry, icehouse construction and use
in Kane County is limited. Although the
existence of icehouses in Kane County
has been well-documented in the archival
records, they are poorly represented in
the archaeological record. The exact time
sequence of use for many of the
icehouses in Kane County is also not well
documented. Considering its important
association with dairy production,
refrigeration, and transportation, the ice
industry in Kane county is weakly
represented in archival records compared
to the dairy industry.
Many icehouses had been
demolished during the Urban Industrial
(1900-1945) period after refrigeration
methods no longer required natural ice.
This destruction and lack of construe-
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeologv
tion and artifactual remains, has caused
discrepancy in the archaeological record.
Previous Studies. A phase II/phase lll
mitigation was conducted at a historical
icehouse site as a result of construction
activities by the Kane County Forest
Preserve District to create a park
(Kau:finann et al. 1996). From the
archaeological mitigation, the area of the
icehouse was determined to be
thoroughly disturbed by industrial debris.
However, remnants of the original
icehouse foundation remain and the
approximate area of the icehouse was
determined to be 425 m2 • The icehouse
appeared to have a base or floor
constructed of gravel with a possible
wooden floor. The presence of various
burnt timbers and burnt wooden debris
may indicate that the icehouse was
burned after abandonment. No additional
associated features were identified as a
result of this mitigation. No other
known industrial archaeological surveys
have been conducted along the fox river.
SUMMARY AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
This study has provided slightly
more of an insight to the operation of
the natural ice industry along the Fox
River in Kane County. This once
important industry declined rapidly in the
early 1900's because of adverse weather
conditions, manipulative business practices, internal conflict among producers,
political regulation, health concerns with
regard to the pollution of natural ice,
and increased technology m the
production of manufactured ice.
In an attempt to locate any
archaeological remams associated with
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1997
the natural ice industry that may still
exist, three possibilities were encountered: the remains of the Carpentersville icehouse, foundation remnants
present in North Aurora that may
represent a historical icehouse, and
remains still existing in Batavia on
Wilson street. As of the writing of this
paper, all of the other historical icehouse
remains along the Fox River have either
been completely demolished, are buried
under modern construction, have
associated features that are now inundated by the river, or have not as yet
been identified.
REFERENCES CITED
Anderson, Oscar Edward
1953 Refrigeration in America.
Princeton University Press, New
Jersey.
Castenson, Liz
1996 Personal Communication.
Cobb, James C. and Gordon S. Fraser
1981 Application of sedimentology
to development of sand and gravel
Resources in McHenry and Kane
Counties, Northeastern Illinois.
Illinois Mineral Notes 82 (December). Illinois Department of Energy
and Natural Resources, State
Geological Survey Division.
Graese, A. M., R. A. Bauer, B. B. Curry,
R. C. Vaiden, W. G. Dixon, Jr., J.P.
Kempton
1988 Geological-Geotechnical
Studies for Siting the Superconducting Super Collider in Illinois:
Regional Summary. Environmental
Geology Notes 123. Illinois Department of Energy and Natural
37
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
Resources, State Geological Survey
Division, Springfield.
Hall, Hemy
1974 The Ice Industry of the United
States, with a Brief Sketch of Its
History. Reprinted by the Early
American Industries Association from
U.S. Dept. of the Interior Census
Division, Tenth Census, 1880, volume
22 (Government Printing Office
Washington, 1888).
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1997
1996 Phase III Mitigation of Site
11-K-335. Northern Illinois
Universiry Contract Archaeology
Program Volume 6(6). DeKalb.
Lawrence, Lee E.
1965 The Wisconsin Ice Trade.
Wisconsin Magazine of History 8(4):
257-267.
Pirtle, T. R.
1973 History of the Dairy Industry.
Mojonnier Bros. Company, Chicago.
Hughitt, Marvin, Edmund D. Bringham,
H. M. Pearce, and K. C. Morehouse
1901 Official Directory and Atlas of
the North-Western Line for the Use of
Shippers and Buyers. Lanward
Publishing Co., Chicago.
Schwegman, John E.
1973 The Natural Divisions of
Illinois. Illinois Nature Preserves
Commission. Springfield, Illinois.
Jones, Joseph C.
1984 America's Icemen: An
Illustrative History of the United
States Natural Ice Industry 16651925. Jobeco Books, Humble, Texas.
U.S. General Land Office Records for
Illinois
1842 Positive Working Copies of
Land Records, Illinois. Township
Plats Volume 28:36. Microform
Copies Roll 38-4, Northern Illinois
University Map Library, DeKalb.
Kaufmann, Kira E., Christi M. Crabtree,
and Mark W. Mehrer
38