Jordan Stover opened his family homestead at the corner of Headquarters road and River Road in Erwinna as an inn in 1880.
During the summer guests played croquet and badminton on the grounds or they enjoyed fishing, boating and swimming in the river. In the winter, the family had a small ice harvesting enterprise.
Ice harvesting began in January and could continue for about six to eight weeks or until the icehouse was filled, depending on the temperature.
Farm hands and neighbors, accompanied by horses, often worked ten hours a day harvesting and storing ice.
. The harvesting season was very limited and ice had to be at least six inches thick to be cut, ensuring the ice was strong enough to support the men and Horses, So the first step was determine its thickness by measuring it with and auger.
Clearing the Field
The second step step was to clear snow or dirt from the surface with horse drawn plows.
Laying out the field
Next the field was marked, defining the size of the blocks to be harvested. The lines were marked by scoring the surface with a cutting tool, or hand plow.
After the first two lines were made, a horse-drawn plow was used to score a grid for standard sized cakes of ice – typically 22 inches square.
Then a horse-drawn grooving plow made multiple passes to deepen the score marks to one-half to two-thirds of the ice thickness.
It was critical to not cut the grooves too deep; leaving four inches of ice at the bottom of the grooves kept the grooved field strong and safe for men and horses.
Hand Saws, Grapples, Markers and Hooks
Long rafts of unseparated cakes were broken into squares by hand-sawing at the ends or by repeatedly striking a chisel along the groove.
Splitting Forks
Floating the Blocks Down the Channel
Once cut, The blocks were moved down the channel toward the collection point on the river's edge before being pulled out of the channel.
Splitting Chisels
Loading the Wagon
Grapple and tow hooks were used to drag the block from the water up a ramp into a horse drawn wagon for transport.
Depending on the weather, the ice channel might freeze over during the night and have to be recut in the morning.
Ice Blocks needed to be large enough to last through transport and a year of storage but small enough so they could be lifted.
Ice Tongs
The ice was transported by a horse-drawn carriage with as many massive ice blocks as it could carry.
Packing the Ice House
Ice tongs were used to lift the blocks out of the wagon and into the ice house.
The blocks in the ice house were insulated between layers by sawdust and hay to prevent them from melting and fusing. Ice house roofs were often painted white to reflect the sun, and positioned to face east and west rather than north and south to further aid the preservation of the year's ice.
.A small harvest could be done with a handful of workers, a minimal tool set, and would only take only a day or two. Even a small operation would yield a harvest of 5-20 tons - enough to fill a small 9 x 12 foot ice house and last Riverside farm for the entire year.