The ice trade — lake ice by wagon

1883 – 1934

The dealers: Farr's 1883 directory gives the ice trade two houses under Ice Dealers: "Seek, George & Son, 121 n Main" and "Jackson & Wing, 105 n Michigan" — the OCR of the directory's text layer renders the first name "Seek," and it is printed as the directory carries it. The ice they sold was a harvested crop, cut from lakes and stored in ice houses, and by the 1890s the city's supply ran through one lake above all: Maxinkuckee, in Marshall County.

The Maxinkuckee companies: The South Bend Tribune of 23 April 1895 records the trade's organization in a single item: "The Maxinkuckee Ice Company has established a branch in South Bend with a full complement of wagons, horses and men, and will begin delivering ice on Thursday morning. The company purchased its entire outfit here." The Medbourn company that succeeded in the lake's ice business kept retail outlets in South Bend, Mishawaka, and Logansport for the ice its houses harvested at Culver, and the company closed in 1934, on the account of the lake's ice age compiled from its participants' recollections in the Culver Citizen about 1974. The closing ended the natural-ice trade the directory opened.

Sources:

1. Farr's South Bend City Directory for 1883, Classified Business Directory — the Ice Dealers heading and its two houses.
2. South Bend Tribune, 23 April 1895, as preserved in the Lake Maxinkuckee history record — the Maxinkuckee Ice Company's South Bend branch, its outfit, and the start of deliveries.
3. "I Remember… The Ice Age," Culver Citizen (about 1974), as preserved in the Lake Maxinkuckee history record — the Medbourn company's South Bend, Mishawaka, and Logansport outlets and the company's closing in 1934.