January Gleanings: Ice, Ice Baby
On one of the newspapers I worked on, there was a column that ran every day called “Orchids and Onions.” In fact, it still does. An “orchid” might be praising the winner of a spelling bee and an “onion” might be leaving up campaign signs after an election. It filled space, sometimes got names in the paper (orchids only!) - which sold papers - and covered things that might not be covered in a full story. A “seen about town” sort of thing. Readers were invited to call in with their suggestions.
The Coffeyville, Kansas newspapers, and many newspapers of the day, similarly ran columns with commentary on weather, little things noticed about town, sometimes ventured an opinion, wove in some names, and also ads, like “Wells Brothers - oysters 25 cents a can” or “A full line of school books, tablets and slates at Harry White’s.”
The seasonal and farm life items from these days of yore are charming. The columns went by a variety of names, such as “Local Gossip,” though it was not; “the horribly named “Pungent Paragraphs,” “Twinklings” and “City and Country,” among others. I am calling them “Gleanings,” which was another heading that was used, and will put together samples for each month. Here’s a January sample from the various Coffeyville newspapers:
8 Jan 1881
The New Year was ushered in here by the ringing of bells.
Some good ice was obtained by our citizens during the late cold weather.
Geo. Taylor and his boys are death to wolves. They caught two or three last week.
The Episcopal church is to have a new stove.
Montgomery County was still paying citizens for wolf scalps into the 1890s.
Here is a collection of tools needed to harvest ice from rivers and lakes. This was featured in The Western Rural, "A Weekly For the Farm and Fireside," in November 1870. The weekly said the use of these ice tools "greatly lessens and expedites the labor of saving ice."
Ice harvesting was a very important business from the early 1800s all the way into the 1950s. Amazingly, in the 1880s, ice was the United States’ biggest export, after cotton. In 1900, it was the sixth largest industry.
Ice blocks were cut from rivers and lakes in winter and were stored in ice houses, insulated by straw or sawdust. In Minnesota the blocks were usually 22 inches square, had a thickness of 16 inches, and weighed 250 to 300 pounds. In Southeast Kansas, the Verdigris River didn’t freeze to a depth of 16 inches, and every winter there wasn’t always a lot of ice, but it was frequently reported on and commented on. Eight to 12 inches was considered very thick ice.
One year in 1886 the Coffeyville Weekly Journal recommended building one’s own ice house on the farm, with advice on the proper use of ice (drinks that were too cold were “injurious” to health).
7 Jan 1882
No ice yet.
Can you write 188 - 2?
Coffeyville has about one thousand inhabitants.
Women’s Rights was knocked all to slivers at the Lyceum at Parker Wednesday night.
J.J. Barndollar & Co. have the finest lot of furs and pelts that we have ever seen in Coffeyville. In two piles are about 1,200 coon, skunk and possum skins, all brought up from the Nation.
Lyceums were very popular in the late 1800s. People belonged to lyceum societies in which they would meet to debate issues of the day. One started in Parker, Kansas in 1881. It was a little boom town on the other side of the Verdigris River in Montgomery County. Issues would be presented starting with the formal “Resolved,” followed by a statement, such as, “Resolved, that there is more pleasure in pursuit than in possession,” which is what the Parker Lyceum Society decided December 17th would be their next issue. Their first was “Resolved, that the prohibitory law is more injurious than beneficial,” which they had decided in the affirmative. Meetings were every Wednesday.
The Methodist Episcopal Church in Coffeyville started a “social lyceum” in the 1880s which did not seem to feature debates, but people read papers. In December 1887, the Coffeyville Weekly Journal suggested that “an old-fashioned lyceum, such as is carried on in the county schoolhouses, be organized in our city. Wouldn’t it be a source of much amusement as well as profit to all concerned?”
The “Nation” referred to was the Cherokee Nation, which bordered Montgomery County.
13 Jan 1883
A little wintery.
Chas. Hoffman is putting up about 125 tons of excellent ice.
The boys have been enjoying themselves for the past week, skating on the river.
How is your vaccination?
16 Jan 1886, “Pungent Paragraphs”
The slang phrase “rats” has been ruled out, being both meaningless and vulgar.
In order to have a good time it is not essential to get drunk. Drunkenness is not conducive to true happiness.
An ordinance to regulate the hours kept by boys on the streets at night would do good for the community…
The ice men are smiling.
Americans in the past drank a lot, and a lot more than we do today. There was a reason the temperance movement arose in the 1830s. Historians say we actually drank more than any other country. By 1830, per capita consumption was seven gallons of ethanol per year. That is three times as much as Americans drink today, and is the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of 80 proof liquor per person weekly. One has to remember that this statistic existed with the fact that there were millions of abstainers.
Kansas was the first state to write prohibition into its constitution. This constitutional amendment was ratified by a majority of voters in 1880 and went into effect in January 1881. With loopholes and lax enforcement, however, Kansas didn’t dry up.
28 Jan 1888, The Sun “Twinklings”
Roads in bad condition
Whooping cough in town
Hog cholera has been reported in the Territory.
Tomorrow is the 27th anniversary of the admission of Kansas into the union.
The “Territory” was, of course, Indiana Territory, which is Oklahoma.
17 Jan 1889
Mud.
Wet and muddy.
The country roads are in bad condition.
Elegant cloaks are going like hotcakes at Bradford’s on ninth street.
Call on Charlie Brooks for dressed geese and ducks.
Sources:
Graf, Tim. “History Lesson: A Look Back At the Ice Harvesting Industry,” Sun Sailor (Osseo, Minnesota), 1 Feb 2021.
Vorel, Jim. “The 1880s: When Americans Drank Whiskey Like It Was Water,” Paste, 10 Aug 2028, https://www.pastemagazine.com/drink/alcohol-history/the-1800s-when-americans-drank-whiskey-like-it-was/
Lyceum: Coffeyville Weekly Journal, 17 Dec 1881, p. 5.
“Ice on the Farm - Many Ways It Can Be Used to Great Advantage,” Coffeyville Weekly Journal, 31 Dec 1886, p. 4.
“Prohibition,” Kansapedia, Kansas Historical Society, https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/kansapedia/19539
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