There was a special art to cutting this ice. Straight lines were cut on the ice by a horse-pulled plow that had teeth like a skate. Each tooth dug in 1/4 inch. From year to year, the ice would vary in thickness depending on how cold the winter had been; so the plows came in several sizes, each designed for a particular thickness of ice, and each leaving four inches of ice uncut underneath for protection. The plow went both directions to cut the ice into squares or rectangles. The huge blocks of ice, usually four inches thick, 50 blocks in length, and weighing 200 pounds, were then floated to shore. On shore the blocks were split into two-inch thicknesses and loaded into an icehouse.

The icehouses were built at the water’s edge and elevators and conveyors carried the ice blocks inside. Icehouses were very specially built to preserve a great deal of ice throughout the year. At Lakeville the wooden icehouse was built in the 1870’s and operated by the John Rush family. The building was 100 by 225 feet and forty feet high, and the floor and side walls of the icehouse were insulated with ten inches of sawdust. In addition, three feet of rye grass or hay would be placed on top between the top row of ice and the ceiling. Every year 50,000 tons of ice were stored and shipped from Lakeville.

Block ice was shipped out of Lakeville by rail. Wagons would transfer ice from the icehouse to train cars as needed for transport around the region. Four railroad cars were loaded every day with ice. The train filled icehouses in Mansfield, Crestline, Wooster, Canton, Massillon, Alliance, etc. and even as far away as Pittsburgh. This was, indeed, a very prosperous industry in the 1870’s and early 1900’s.

Gradually technology doomed the ice-harvesting industry as electric refrigeration became available. In 1907 the Lakeville icehouse burned and the ice-harvesting business ceased operation,