Ice companies hired a seasonal local workforce to help harvest the ice that formed on lakes at the end of each winter. Some of these workers might also help delivery the ice to houses and businesses across the city in the summer.
Hot water was a byproduct of manufacturing at American Steel and Wire which was dumped into Salisbury Pond in the winter of 1899-1900. When the hot water damaged the ice crop at Salisbury Pond, the Walker Ice Company sued for damages.