Ice Cutter
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Le Coupeur de glace | The Ice Cutter
"Cutting Ice for the Summer at Quebec City, Lower Canada" (circa 1830 watercolour by James Pattison Cockburn, Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN No 2836373).
The coupeur de glace, or ice cutter, went out onto frozen rivers, lakes or ponds in wintertime (generally from late December to April) to cut and collect surface ice for personal use, or for sale. Before the advent of mechanical refrigeration, people would keep “ice boxes” in their homes or small “ice houses” in order to keep foodstuffs cold. Families that lived in the countryside sometimes collected their own ice, but most households, especially in cities, relied on ice cutters or icemen (sellers of ice) for regular ice deliveries.
Once the ice was at least a foot deep, the ice cutters would use a horse-drawn plow to clear the ice of snow or scrape it off by hand, and then score the ice into sections. Finally, they used horse-drawn devices or hand saws to cut through the ice. A pre-cut channel was used to guide the blocks of ice to a place where they could be taken out of the water and placed on carriages for delivery. It was a dangerous job often undertaken in difficult weather conditions — it wasn’t unheard of for an ice-cutter or his horse to fall through the ice.
"Cutting and towing block ice" (circa 1847 watercolour painting by James D. Duncan, Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN No 3838192)
In Montréal, ice was collected from the St. Lawrence near the Victoria Bridge, or on the Rivière des Prairies. In Québec City, it was taken from the Saint-Charles River or from nearby lakes. However, it was said that the best ice was the one that formed on the bay at Beauport. Years ago, one could have seen up to 300 men working together to remove ice for Allan Shipping Line, Canadian Pacific Railway and for large Québec hotels like the Château Frontenac, the Saint-Louis and the Victoria.
The ice trade was an important one in the 19th and early 20th centuries, until refrigerators and freezers became commonplace. Today, ice cutting is rarely practised, but it is still used for ice sculpture competitions and for building ice hotels and other ice structures.
This CBC article (in French) has great videos showing how ice cutting was done. In the U.S., the Thompson Ice House in South Bristol, Maine, has an annual ice cutting event using traditional methods (see the great article and photos by Nicola Twilley here).
"Cutting Ice on Nun's Island" (circa 1880 engraving by Henry Richard Sharland Bunnett, Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN No 3029603)
"(Relief Projects - No. 61). Storing ice in a pit." (1934 photo (unknown photographer for the Government of Canada), Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN No 3578700).
Short documentary (in French) about ice cutting in Québec (source: “Le coupeur de glace - version complète”, Culture Beauce (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxOSmLM5L3M).
Sources:
“Le métier de coupeur de glace au Québec”, CBC Radio-Canada (https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1088014/coupeur-briseur-glace-metier-quebec-archives; published 8 Mar 2018; accessed 14 Jan 2019).
Jean Provencher, “Les Quatre Saisons”, Jean Provencher website (https://jeanprovencher.com/2012/01/30/la-recolte-de-la-glace/ : published 30 Jan 2012; accessed 14 Jan 2019).
Melanie Radzicki McManus, “10 Extinct Job Titles: Ice Cutter”, HowStuffWorks.com (https://money.howstuffworks.com/10-extinct-job-titles8.htm : 29 Sep 2015; accessed 14 Jan 2019).