Harvesting Ice
- Recollections of Homer Warner in 2004---In winter there was ice cutting on Warner's Lake, which occured right on the north end of the lake in front of our house.They had a sled of some kind, rigged up with a gas-powered buzz saw, which could be lowered down into the ice so it would cut the ice into blocks as it was pushed along the ice. The ice blocks were then moved along in channels by pike poles until they were near the shore. At the shore they had set up a raised platform that included an inclined elevator. This lifted the blocks of ice by a chain, much like a hale bale elevator works today. Power for the elevator was provided by an automobile. It had the rear end jacked up, a flat belt was run over one rear tire, and then the belt was run over a pulley at the elevator to power it. Once the ice blocks were on the platform they could be loaded into trucks.
- Recollections of Harold Miller in 2001 about the Miller Ice House.
Men harvesting ice. Note the use of pike poles for moving the ice blocks. The man in the middle smokeing is Charlie Haluska 
Channel left open to move blocks of ice to shore to be loaded 
Loading the truck for delivery.Men on truck from left to righr, Harold Sholtes, Charles Wright and Ralph 
Loading ice blocks 
Altamont Enterprise] - March 28, 1958
DO VOU REMEMBER? By Orlo J. Northrup Ice harvesting on Thompson's and Warner's Lake, Foxenkill Creek and various other places flourished during years when nearly every place of business, farm, or residence had an ice storage place of some sort. The ice fields were laid out with a horse-drawn marking plow, the cakes usually 18 inches by 22 inches being sawed or barred off, and the product was horse-drawn to its destination. There was a field at the Bins' Grove on the south end of Warner's Lake, and another at the north end adjacent to the then Dick Mattice place (now Zwicklbauer's) and the Warner-Strevell places. At the latter place, Dick Mattice was thrown from the plow he was riding, hitting his head, resulting in his death in a few hours. On the south end, George Pitcher turned around over 60 feet of water; and on the light snow being cleaned off it was found two wheels of his ear had been about two feet on less than an inch of ice from the day before's opening. The late Floyd Gibbs had stepped out on snow-covered thin ice, gone through and luckily popped back up through the hole. If he had missed, the ice was thick enough to have held him down. Some one asked him why he did not bi'ing the ice bar he had in his hands back up! It was -quite a EDITOR'S NOTE — The follow- Personal registration of qualified ing information is released by the ' voters for the annual meeting and elec- Guilderland Central School System in tion of Board of Education members |cold, day but he bundled up and was regard to its teaching of reading. i was adopted by the Guilderland Cen-i taken home in a sleigh.
- * * | tral School District Board of Educa-1 Finally, power saws (usually Model
Reading, writing and talking com- , non at its meeting Monday night. The -j- Ford frames and engines) were
than the cakes, cut from the field to
a convenient distance from the Bins'
ice house, and a wooden chute with
the lake end under water, so the
cakes were floated into it. A rope
with a hook in the end was dropped
over the end of the last cake, and
up to 20 cakes were pulled up to the
ice house about 150 feet from the
lake. I furnished the motive power
for this filling by the late John
Stannard with my young dark iron
gray horse "Smoky.'-' The horse required
no driver as he went back
and forth with no guidance. He was
real'dark gray with white face, mane
and tail, and white hind legs, fie is
now all white, 25 years old, has had
149 different horses hitched with
him, loaned to one after another. The
late Harvey Van Schoick had him a
year and a half. I just got him back
from George Zeh after a year and a
half loan, and before picking him
up Eldon Quay called and has the
loan of him at present. He is still
at and capable of a good day's w o 4
He was also the carriage horse for
the kids who were too small for the
ponies at the New York Telephone
Company field day in Albany. It
was discovered on the morning Of
the event that Bob Goetz's mare had
cut her leg so she should not be used,
so I had to borrow my own horse.
(I trust I may be forgiven for the
horse mixed in with the ice, but he
is truly a great horse. I have owned
him 20 years, the longest I ever owned
one horse, and he will be buried
'•Tetters ""haw W1* n o t so through the grinder).
L*a.iei>. "dX|l, .gBjsfqre thfe-iinnovaeQon of. artificial
g|S*;|#eMge^afion; fiozen-ice-was a g^-eat
" 'industry. The Hudson River was
lined with large ice houses. The Alex
house and pond were just north of
Western Ave. and west of Manning
Blvd. Warren Bros.' house and
pond were on the south side of
Western Ave., with no buildings until
the large Jacobie dairy farm at
New Scotland Ave. with its row of
large stately pines-along the road.
(There was ho South-Manning Blvd.
^Candidates ft For
School fet Election
(Continuedjlfou, jpage 1)
road YMCA, the ^fetarfi Machine Accountants
association and is a member-
and former , M f t . i of the Guilderland
Center Cilf Association.
Mrs. Briggs has^esided to Altamont
for 10 years, antf'Cr husband is the
mayor of the villain She received
Luncheon March 29
Opens Cancer Drive
The kick-off luncheon in the 1958
Speakers will include Trell Yocum,
umt_ president; Edward S. Poole, Jr,
" tmpaign chairman; Alan Stev
or poor sight certain speech defects^ ecniestovn's, Nexeewc utvivne* dcirtefcft°o^r °o- f• t hee S °s;o -
lack of naming in the left to right Tr^™J°r^s™l*™™- ™d
varied- •Then . * • u " J v v a l " •=>. .ruoie, j r .
Physical defects such as poor S r T g ^ 1 ^ ^ . , * ! ! ™ ^ ^ n . S t e v '
cts
direction that the process of reading S f t t i J d K ^ ?• ****** f
direfor
requires changing schools, missini tee r s d l v l s l o n s f l e i d ^ of volun-
BChool m the important early years.
All these plus many other reasons
may keep a child of good intelligence
from reading at t he expected time
Detecting weaknesses and helping
the child to overcome them is each
teacher's concern Here the classroom
teacher and the reading teacher
work together Special material
i s recommended and supplied by the
reading teacher in certain cases.
However, there remains the child
whose handicaps require diagnosis on
. a n individual t a s i s and whose correcfaon,
comes* best in small group
work. The reading teacher carries
A style show, with fashions from
E)aZld"5'"' A l b a ny. also will be featured.
Three vacancies on the unit's board
were filled last week with the election
of Dr. John Mellon, executive
vice-president; • Mrs. Joseph Doran,
vice-president, and Mrs. Edmund B.
Tobin, member of the 'boards of ••directors.
Preparing For Contest Candidates for the •alHriialsfmblfb' speaking contest are 'being prepared at the Guilderland - Central High school. Ten pupils will compete for the Van Wormer prize, "Ehe two Key on this work.
Throughout the total program the _ r , emphasis' is on comprehension and' Club prizes and me two PTA prizes ideas. As the reader develops, his The faculty committee planning the reading expands to. new interests and-April event include Donald-Carlson new tastes m literature. He learns chairman, Edward Behan and Neii study skills and usteML efficient ways J Brown, of locating and evaluating infdrma at that time.)
The late Ernie Hein of McKownville was for many years the representative of the Hygienic Ice Co.
- [[h:Altamont Enterprise|Altamont Enterprise] - March 28, 1958
