Page 26. MAINE COASTAL NEWS June 2018 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Maine Industrial Journal - 1882


place on the stocks in the spring a ship 210 feet in length. A large number of men are now in the woods getting out the timber. * * * * *


A fi ne piece of granite work has just


been fi nished at Vinalhaven by the Bod- well Granite Company. It is in relief and consists of two fi gures, one representing “Justice” and the other “Commerce” while between them and in the centre is a large shield on which are carved the stars and stripes. The work is for the new Custom House and Post Offi ce at Cincinnati. It took about 180 days’ labor to cut it and costs for labor alone in the neighborhood of $600. * * * * *


Parliament on the 19th


At the opening of the Nova Scotia inst., the Governor


in his address stated the industries of the Province had fl ourished and many new ones had been and were being started; that there had been many good crops and not a bad run of fi sh; that the returns from their mines and minerals were steadily increasing; that the art exhibition had brought people together to see pictures and that the Dominion Ex- hibition showed progress; that the export trade was fl ourishing by the addition of new markets, and coal and other minerals were being produced in large quantities and that the public accounts would show a surplus. * * * * *


At the annual meeting of the Collins


Granite Company of Blue Hill held in Port- land, Monday, the directors reported 115 men at work at the quarries and also plenty of work on the Mills building and Produce Exchange building of New York; also that they had contracted with the Portland Com- pany and other parties for two engines and boilers, steam pumps and drills and pol- ishing lathes for making granite columns, and machines for polishing general work. The company have a valuable property, and with improved steam machinery and careful management expect to make a fi ne showing for the coming year. Eben Corey, C. J. Chapman, J. F. Randall, Albion Little and Christopher Binder were chosen directors.


Railroad, Steamboat and Hotel Notes, Work on the new steamer for the Bangor


& Bar Harbor Line is progressing favorably at Oakes upper yard, near the ferry slip. * * * * *


Steamer HENRY MORRISON of


the Rockland and Blue Hill Line is at Portland receiving extensive repairs on her machinery, boilers and engine. * * * * *


A new steamer for the Frenchman’s


Bay Steamboat Line is well under way near the Brewer ferry slip, opposite this city. The craft is about 75 feet keel, will be about the same tonnage as the MAY FIELD and will ply between Bar Har- bor and Sullivan the coming season.


Page 92-93. The auxiliary steamer MAYNARD


SUMNER was launched at Rockland re- cently. She is 307 tons, 143 feet length, 18½ feet beam, 10 feet depth, engine 120 horsepower. She is three masted and schooner rigged. The craft is owned by the Bodwell Granite Company and is to be fi tted for the general freighting business.


Page 93. Nuggets. Petitions to Congress for a duty


on ice of one dollar per ton have been circulating in Lewiston and Auburn. * * * * *


The islands in Portland harbor have been


designated as East Portland by the Peaks Is- land “Improvement Society”. The society


was lately formed for social entertainment. * * * * *


A New York journal devoted to the ice


interests estimate that 600,000 men are em- ployed in that business in the United States during the season, that $30,000,000 are ex- pended in a year and that fully $40,000,000 are invested in the business. The ice storage capacity of the country is placed by the same authority at 32,000,000 tons.


17 February Page 103. THE ICE BUSINESS IN MAINE


A Leaf From its Histo- ry on the Penobscot --The Probable Magnitude of the Kennebec and Pe- nobscot Harvests the Present Season -- A Season of doubt –Failure of the Crop in the Middle States – Operations at Bangor – The Prospect in General.


“Oh to be an ice man. And with the ice men stand On the pond all day a working With an ice-hook in my hand. Oh to be an ice man. And with the icemen stand When the harvesting is ended And the cash is in my hand.”


Maine is the State of all States for


good, heavy, healthy ice, and the business of harvesting and shipping, the crop pro- vides employment for a large number of men and boys, who, at the time of the fi rst named operation, would otherwise be idle. The Kennebec people woke up to the


importance of the trade fi rst, and, while Penobscot was absorbed in her lumber business, her neighbors established a heavy trade and secured many large customers. For the last half-dozen years, the Kennebec ice crop has approximated a million tons annu- ally, and the thousand of men employed in cutting, and the hundreds of vessels loaded each season, have made a lively business winter and summer. This year the crop on the Kennebec will, it is thought, fall some short of a million tons, partly on account of the ice being thinner than usual and partly due to the great amount of work involved in scrap- ing off the heavy snows which for the past month have followed one another so closely. The success or non-success of the


crop on the Hudson, Schuylkill and other rivers in the Middle States, has much to do with the extent of the business here, and regulates the amount of ice cut in Maine and the profi ts thereon. The crop in New York and Pennsylvania is a hard thing to estimate any year, until the season is well advanced and operations over, and ice deal- ers in those States have well learned the wisdom of the adage which warns people not to count their chickens before they are hatched. And the uncertainty of the Hudson crop creates a like uncertainty in regard to the Maine crop, for if there is a large harvest on the river mentioned, prices are liable to rule low here and curtail the crop, and in the event no outside parties care to venture into the business, leaving the reg- ular companies to do what there is done. Then, in a year when is seems rea-


sonably certain that the Hudson crop will be a partial or complete failure, scores of new companies are formed and stacking operations are carried on a large scale in the expectancy of high prices. It is in such a year as last described that the ice trade received its fi rst impetus on the Penobscot. It was the winter of 1879-80, and early in the season it was evident that only a partial crop would be secured on the Hudson; later, in February, Maine ice dealers were greatly excited by the


news that the Hudson crop would prove a complete failure, and all sorts of speculators rushed pell mell into the business. Many new companies of solid capitalists, were also formed, and the rivers and ponds of the Pine Tree State were soon the scene of great activity. Numberless new houses and stacks, bright in new hemlock materials, lined the banks, while ice fi elds were black with men. Up to this time, the business on the


Penobscot had been confi ned to one or two companies who made moderate shipments to southern and West India ports, and peo- ple here were totally unused to the work of cutting and storing. In this lively season, however, the parties engaged in and about Bangor housed and stacked 127,000 tons of fi ne ice, and all of this was sold at prices ranging from $1.25 to $4.00 per ton, the average, perhaps, being as good as $1.75 or $2.00 per ton. The great benefi t of the season’s work to laboring men, lumber dealers and all classes of business men, and to the trade of the port, was evident to any- body, and several new houses were erected in 1880, preparatory for another winter’s campaign, should the signs be favorably. The season of 1880-81 was one of


usual doubt as to profi ts, but the companies operating harvested about 105,000 tons. Most of this ice was stored in permanent houses, where the waste, in case of it being carried over to another year would be slight. Unfortunately for those who expected high prices, the Hudson crop proved to be of suffi cient magnitude to create low prices, and the market was slow at 65 to 85 cents per ton all through the season. About 15,000 tons were shipped from this port, mostly in large vessels, and all to southern ports in the U.S., and to the West India islands. The waste in some of the stacks was large, and the stock on hand at the close of navigation, Jan- uary 2, 1882 was estimated at 65,000 tons. Now another season is well advanced,


and from the best information obtainable, the Hudson and other rivers of New York and Pennsylvania will aff ord but a meager harvest, and that of the poorest quality of brewers’ ice. The phenomenal weather of December


and the fi rst week of January prevented the forming of much ice in Maine, not to speak of New York and other Middle States and the amount of ice formed in the latter localities since has been unusually small. The Penobscot was alternately closed and opened in a manner which startled the oldest inhabitant and the thin ice in the lakes and ponds, together with the total lack of snow prevented any attempt at lumbering. The latter half of January and that part of Feb- ruary passed, have however, made a good thickness of ice all over Maine, particularly on the Penobscot, and for the past two weeks operations have been going on as briskly as the heavy snow storms would admit. Much time and money have been spent in scraping the fi elds, and, although the prospect of pay- ing prices is good, the cost of harvesting has frightened the majority of small operators from the fi eld, and left the regular compa- nies comparatively “alone in their glory”. Thirteen companies have already


begun or will soon commence operations at Bangor, and these companies with their proposed cut this year, overstock from last year, and form of storing, are substantially as follows: E. H. & H. Rollins, over stock 7,000 tons, in house, proposed cut 5,000 tons in stack; E. & I. K. Stetson, overstock 4,000, house, proposed 6,000 house; D. Sargent’s Sons, proposed 25,000 to 30,000 houses; Brastow Brothers & Company, proposed 3,000 house; Orrington Company, overstock, 6000, house, proposed, 4,000 to 5,000, house; Arctic Company, overstock, 18,000, house, proposed,15,000, stack;


Frost & Lord, proposed, 12,000, house; Penobscot River Ice Company, overstock, 7,000, house; proposed, 10,000, house and stacks; Higgins & Conners, proposed, 3000, stack; W. C. Pitman, overstock, 9,000, hous- es, proposed, 5,000, house; Charles Dolan, overstock, 3,000, stack, proposed, 5,000, stack; Katahdin Ice Company, overstock, 12,000, house and stack, proposed, 5,000 to 6,000, stacks; A. H. Babcock, proposed, 2,000, house; Cassidy & Conners, 5,000, stack. Thus it will be seen that the cut of the present season will approximate 115,000 tons, and will, with the overstock, give not far from 200,000 tons for shipment. There are, besides this amount, about


12,000 tons cut or to be cut, for city sales and private use; the most of the former is cut on the Kenduskeag stream. In event of 200,000 tons being shipped from this port the coming season, 600 vessels of average size will be required to carry it away, and this will give the port a busy appearance during the summer; and bring in a large sum of money into the city. The Kennebec crop will probably


be strong of 800,000 tons, although our Kennebec neighbors claim that their har- vest will exceed 1,000,000 tons. These last fi gures are hardly attainable though, as the ice is not so thick there as ours, ranging from 12 to 14 inches, while the Penobscot averages better than 15 inches. But these thicknesses will not remain long, as the season is well advanced and heavy thaws have already made sad inroads on the crystal treasures in some localities. Probably 500 men and 75 horses are


employed on the Penobscot, and the pay rolls are large. Considerable ice is to be cut in other localities in Maine than those men- tioned, and altogether the Pine Tree State will reap quite a harvest from the trade which stands among the foremost in her industries.


Page 106. There is an opportunity for some inge-


nious person to make fame and fortune by inventing a machine that will shuck clams. As we have stood in a market and watched an industrious person solemnly and cautiously removing the individual clams from their shells and tediously fi lling a quart measure, we have given birth to the thought that steady clam shucking must be an admirable tonic for perseverance, but a sure cure for ambition. But the dealers say they have had hard work to obtain clams enough this winter until recently. The clams from Scar- borough, Harpswell and Freeport are the favorites in this market. The Scarborough clam is noted for the thickness of its meat and the thinness of its shell. And by the way, there’s nothing romantic about clam digging in the winter, when the ice makes freely on the shore and has to apportion his labors with the tide, be it early or late. A large part of the clam yield is used for bait for the Grand Banks fi shing. Clams sell at about $8 per barrel for this purpose. One man at Pine Point employs a large crew of diggers and probably does the most extensive clam business in the State. [Lewiston Journal]


EASTERN INDUSTRIES Rockland is to have a mack-


erel-canning factory in the spring. * * * * *


Messrs. W. O. & C. Barney, Sear-


sport, have just received another large order for ship’s castings from California. * * * * *


General Hyde is employing in his


foundry at Bath fi fty men. Last year at this time he had only twenty-four men at work. * * * * *


The Searsmont Spool and Block Manu-


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