Ogle County Newspapers / oglecountynews.com • Friday, Mar 4, 2022
OGLE COUNTY NEWS
8
LOCAL HISTORY
Ice boxes the norm before the age of refrigerators By OTTO DICK
I
remember the refrigerator in my folk’s home around 1940. The refrigerant unit was a globe shaped unit located on top of the refrigerator. This was given to my parents for being the first customer of electricity on their farm. Electricity was first supplied to cities and communities before it became available to farm areas. Before refrigerators, common kitchen appliances were ice boxes. Ice boxes were a compact nonmechanical refrigerator. They were lined with tin or zinc and insulated with cork, sawdust, straw or seaweed. Lester Myers owned and operated the Oregon Ice House located on the west side of Rock River. Ice houses were buildings used to store ice throughout the year. Ice was cut from a channel of water starting at the dam up to where Black Hawk Statue is located. There would be 50 to 75 men and horses out on the ice. The ice would be 15 to 18 inches thick and was cut into pieces 2 feet long and 18 inches wide. A one man saw, 6 feet long, was used to cut the ice. Sleds loaded with ice were pulled by two horses to the ice house. Homeowners would hang a sign on their screen door so the ice man would know how much ice they needed. If they needed 50 pounds of ice, they hung the sign with the 50 on top. Later, the Oregon locker plant was where the Super Value parking lot is now located. Each person had their own locker. Two of the first home refrigerators were General Electric in 1911 and Frigidaire in 1915. These two types of refrigerators were driven by belts attached to motors located in the base-
Photos provided by Otto Dick
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Two women deliver ice during World War II. Lester Myers’ ice house was located on the west side of the Rock River. This ice box is on display at the Ogle County Historical Society. ment or adjoining room. In the 1950s, advanced technology brought automatic defrost and automatic ice makers.
Come see an ice box and the ice man sign at the Ogle County Historical Society’s museum in Oregon at the corner of Franklin and North Sixth
SPECIAL EVENT Oregon in 1945 to be the topic at Oregon’s “Those Were the Days”
“Those Were the Days” will resume 2022 sessions beginning on March 26 at 10 a.m. at the Oregon Depot Museum. The program goes back to “Those Days,” so how about 1945 in downtown Oregon? “Dick Feibel, a lifelong friend of mine, grew up at 208 N. Fifth St., next door to what was then the Farrell Funeral Home,” organizer Chris Martin said. “As a grammar school boy after school and often on the weekends, he would head downtown and just hang out at the retail stores. He knew all of the merchants and most of their employees. In fact, as a young teenager he worked for several of these merchants.
“So, be a part of this downtown experience. We hope that you will join us at the Oregon Depot Museum for “A Walk Through Downtown Oregon in 1945.” “Dick has a fabulous memory, maybe even in Technicolor!” Martin said. Most of Feibel’s working years were with Sears, managing several departments at their regional shopping mecca on North Main Street in Rockford. “Dick later shared his Sears experience with several Sears operations in California. This is a story of its own!” Martin said, For information on the “Those Were the Days” programs, call Otto Dick 815-440-0639, Roger Cain at 815-757-9715 or Martin at 815-742-8471.
streets. • Otto Dick is a retired teacher and has researched Ogle County history for several years.
