Jacob J. Hotz Ice Company employees, 1900s-1910s

A photograph of the Jacob J. Hotz Ice Company employees. About forty men stand on the frozen Iowa River and on the top of train cars in the back of the image. Dressed in coats and hats, several of them hold saws or long sticks meant for stirring the water. Horses stand among the men, ready to haul the ice blocks up a wooden chute. The ice blocks would either go into storage in a barn, or packed onto the train to ship out.

Jacob Hotz was a businessman from Iowa City, Iowa. He owned the ice company and field, located north of the dam near Coralville, from the late 1800s to about 1918. His employees were likely made up of farmers from both Coralville and Iowa City. According to Henry "Hank" Fairchild, workers were paid ten cents an hour. The company was later known as the Englert Ice Company.

Jacob Hotz can be seen in this photograph on the left hand side; he is a portly man standing in front of a wagon. Third from him on the right is Frank Alwine. The mustached man near the center of the photograph with a saw could be James Paintin, Sr. The boy in the black coat with the water jug is Carl Alwine; Edward Demory* stands to his right.

From 1905 to 1918, residents of Coralville and Tiffin were more likely to get their ice blocks from Edward Koser, who also cut ice north of the dam. He stored his ice in a house on Second Avenue (Lovetinsky et al., p. 62-63).

*Lest We Forget lists Edward Demory as George Demory.

Coralville Public Library. Coralville Digital History Library.

1900s - 1910s

Educational use only, no other permissions given.

jpeg

Johnson County, Iowa