The Arrival of the First Ice Shipment in Seattle
A historic crowd gathers at the wharf in 1872 to welcome the bark 'Osmyn' and its cargo of frozen luxury, signaling a new era of chilled comforts.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The bark Osmyn hauled around to Yesler’s wharf on Tuesday last and commenced discharging her cargo of ice. Numbers of our citizens gathered to see the first ice landed in Seattle, and as the huge crystals slid rapidly to their bed in the ice-house, we saw several new comers nudging the old settlers as much as to say—'Juleps my boy, ice-cream, my boy, cobblers, my boy.' The next gathering will be when the mining train over the Snoqualmie brings the first load home to the ice-house from Lake Kitchelos.
“Numbers of our citizens gathered to see the first ice landed in Seattle, and as the huge crystals slid rapidly to their bed in the ice-house, we saw several new comers nudging the old settlers as much as to say—'Juleps my boy, ice-cream, my boy, cobblers, my boy.'”
Today, refrigeration is a taken-for-granted utility, but in 1872, the arrival of natural ice was a civic event that transformed the frontier dining experience. This scene marks the transition of Seattle from a rugged logging camp to an emerging town capable of supporting the 'civilized' comforts of the urban elite.
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