Many, many years ago, the Augusta Ice Co. had an ice house on the west bank of the Kennebec River just north of the Edwards Mill. Does anyone remember how you got there?

If we go back in time, more than 70 years, we see that George Pepin, owner of the Augusta Ice Co., and my father, Arthur Moore, were good friends.

My father owned an ice house and operated a retail ice business at 5 Summer St. in Hallowell. He inherited the business from his father, Fred, in 1925. My grandfather took over the business from his father, William.

My father harvested all his ice from The Cascade, a pond located on the Hallowell-Litchfield Road in Hallowell. William W. Vaughan owned the pond, but gave my grandfather permission to cut the ice there.

Pepin and my father agreed not to cross the Augusta-Hallowell line to sell ice in each other’s territory. A similar agreement was made between my father and Ed Talbot, owner of the Gardiner Ice Co., with the line set at Grant’s Crossing in Farmingdale.

I worked on my Dad’s ice truck in summers from 1936 until I went into the service in July 1942.

During the winter of 1946, my father had to stop cutting ice at The Cascade because he was unable to find enough workers; he needed at least 25 men and 12 trucks. Business also had slowed down because of the influx of electric refrigerators after World War II. At this time, Pepin agreed to sell ice to my father at a wholesale price.

My father would make one to two trips a day in his Ford 1932 Model A truck. At the Augusta ice house, they would fill his truck with 12 cakes of ice, and then he’d drive to the Augusta Ice Co. office, where the truck was weighed on a big steel platform scale, located down back of the office on Water Street just north of the Colonial Theater. He’d pay for the ice and then make his deliveries.

I used to help my father when he went to the ice house, but I’ll be darned if I can remember how he got there. I think we might have had to go through the yard of the Edwards Mill.

This routine continued until the summer of 1950, when lack of business forced my father to stop delivering ice. He sold his Model A truck to Harold McPherson of Hallowell and got rid of all the equipment he used to harvest ice.

In January 1949, I drove to the Augusta Ice House (so I must have known how to get there at one time) to take some photos of them harvesting and storing the ice. I did this because I knew I was looking at a dying business.

I’m glad I took those pictures because the Augusta Ice Co. eventually shut down. Does anyone know what happened to that building or when it was done away with?

Arthur R. Moore Jr., 91, lives in Hallowell.