Welcome To Pilgrims and Pioneers!

After many years of researching my family geneaology I have been lucky enough to discover actual information about my relatives that lived in the Pilgrim Era and the Pioneer Era- while many people also have realtives from those eras- many do not know their names or where they lived- actually seeing the proof in print makes you much more aware of who they really were.
After discovering these relatives it of course made me curious to learn more about the eras that they lived in and what their lives were like as, the history I learned in grade school had long since been forgotten.
I decided to start this blog for others who are also interested in these eras.
Some of the information here will be actual facts about my realtives and some will be information about the eras in general that I have found on the web.
I hope you will enjoy traveling back in time with me!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My GGGrandfather-The Pioneer Ice Man


When my gggrandfather John Ellis Shere first came to Yorktown, Illinois from Albion, New York his occupation was an ice man.

Blocks of ice were purchased from the iceman to place in the wooden ice boxes that pioneers used. There was a metal compartment inside the wooden chest type box that held the block of ice. There was a tube attached to a drain that sent the water from the melted ice to a tray underneath the ice box.

This picture is of an antique wooden ice box- today they are a highly collectible, expensive antique.

Ice was sold by the pound and was chipped off of a big block with a chisel and ice pick and carried to the customers house with a big set of tongs- ice tongs.

Like the milk man the ice man was in great demand in pioneer days!

2 comments:

BehindTheTimesGal said...

I enjoyed the post about your gggrandfather the ice man. My mother lived during the time of ice deliveries, and would often tell how the ice man was nice enough to chip some ice off for the kids in the house to have some treats. She said he was so skilled at chipping the blocks of ice that hardly a chip flew off -- thus his kindness in pretending to "slip" with the chisel and having enough chips for the kids!!!

Debra said...

Punkin- How wonderful your Mom remebered about having an ice man! Isn't it great to hear these old stories! If kids today would think that piece of ice was a treat wouldn't it be wonderful! To enjoy the simple things in life is a blessing!

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