In honor of my great grandfather Schuyler Jones I am featuring his employer of 36 years the Pure Ice Company of Centerville, Iowa. He was the ice delivery man starting with a horse and wagon and moving on to a truck. Below you will find photos of Schuyler Jones and company advertising that ran in the local Iowegian newspapers.
I saw the below picture hanging on a wall near the entrance of the Appanoose County Historical & Coal Mining Museum. It is part of a display about ice delivery. While visiting the museum 20 years earlier to get out of a rain storm Mom (Penny King) saw the picture and identified Schuyler in the photo.
On this visit to the museum Mom and I see they have blown up the picture and hung it on the wall. While talking about how amazed we are to see great grandfather/grandfather Schuyler’s picture in on the wall in a very predominantly white town. The lady running the museum this day comes over and greets us. She goes into how she remembered Schuyler and how nice he was. She says you won’t believe it but three of his kids were in town recently and came in to take a tour. She said I was lucky enough to get a picture of them holding his picture. We laughed and told her you won’t believe it but we are the granddaughter and great granddaughter of the man in the picture. We asked for a copy picture of the children holding their picture. The past Fall we had last two of the three children and what a great picture to have in the family. She was nice enough to email a copy to me and Mom.
I thought I would share another photo of Schuyler Jones found on the original visit to the museum 20 years earlier. This time Little Karey was about 5 or 6 playing around the card racket. She looks up and asks what’s that back there? We all look and there is a photo of a group of people. The lady takes it down so Little Karey and us can see it better. Mom looks and says that looks like my grandfather. There is writing under the picture and with a closer look it says Schuyler Jones. We have just found his senior class photo. This lady makes a copy and gives it to us and states they are trying to identify everyone. If you recognize someone please let me or Appanoose County Historical & Coal Mining Museum know.
Are you asking what does this have to do with the Pure Ice Company and newspapers which this blog is about? Well, the below newspaper stories can be used to fill out my written history of Schuyler Jones’ story. When I read the ads, I can see Schuyler having to deal with an upset customer who didn’t receive ice because he ran out before getting to their house. I can see him collecting fees or advising a possibly customer on the cost. Or, explaining the difference between artificial and natural ice.
Copyright protected and published by Ricki King
30 January 2019