The first ice plant in Cayuga was run by William Hutchinson in 1855. He sold this plant three years later to the Cayuga Lake Ice Line, a company composed of men from New York City. They had a successful business for five years on Cayuga Lake. Then, their ice plant burned and they all retired from the concern.

Another ice plant was started in 1894, by John H. Stoneburg, who had an extensive business with the New York Central Railroad Company.

A third plant was operated by E.L. Thornton of Auburn, just north of the New York Central station. After a few years, E.L. Thornton sold out to Wade Shannon, who later bought the Stoneburg plant.

The Independent Ice Company was one of the last companies to harvest ice in Aurelius on Cayuga Lake. The office was one mile south of the Cayuga village.

The ice harvest was normally completed in two weeks, filling ice houses. Five hundred railroad cars of ice were shipped to distant places. They employed around 80 men.

This was no small business. The ice increased in thickness from 9 inches on the first day of harvesting to 16 inches on the 10th day.

In 1916, a newspaper report said that the ice at Cayuga measured 19-inches thick and was cut in cakes 22 inches by 32 inches with five cakes making a ton.

The shippers could put three tiers of cakes in a car. Sometimes, this would be a load in excess of the freight car's rated capacity. They would then have to start over.

On Feb. 23, 1917, the severe weather of the previous week had frozen Cayuga Lake from shore to shore. This opened a big field of ice to the merchants of Cayuga Village. A stream of teams of horses were seen daily coming across the lake.

The ice harvest was a hard, cold, and dangerous job. It demanded long hours from daylight to dark with a lot of risk to life and limb.

A lot of men from Aurelius worked on the ice in the winter for it brought in money during the months when farm work was less demanding. Charles Probst, with his team of horses, along with Jim Short, worked hard at harvesting the ice.

Many a good horse went through the ice and had to be hauled out of the cold water dripping wet to face a cold, snowy January or February wind.

A choke rope was hung loosely on the horses' harness for this purpose. When a horse went through the ice, ready hands seized the ropes, choked the horse up so he could float, and hauled him to shore. After the horse was rubbed down, he went back to work on the ice again. Rough. Hard work.

Each one of us should be thankful that we have refrigerators and freezers to make ice now.

Ruth Probst is the town of Aurelius historian