Louie Brindejohn
Gold Nugget 4
"Now we will go down through the woods and call on the Brindejohns," said Miss Jones. "They are very old settlers here too. There are just the two brothers left. They are both quite active for 89 and 86 years of age."They drove along a narrow, dusty road, down through the woods. Upper Rock Creek babbled over rocks nearby. Hazelnut bushes, wild raspberries, tall ferns and azelea bushes grew in a tangled thicket along the way. Soon they came in sight of a small white house surrounded by open grain fields and a few old apple trees. This was the original home of the Brindejohns. As they drove in, several dogs barked threateningly, but were soon quieted by Louie Brindejohn, the older of the brothers. He welcomed them cordially and was soon being bombarded with questions. The most important question that the children had to ask was. "What is that flat place we saw just below the gate as we entered? It looked like a pond, but had no water."
"That," laughingly answered Louie, as everyone called him, "is our ice pond."
"Ice pond!" exclaimed all the children in chorus.
"Yes, that is where we used to make ice to sell in Grass Valley and Nevada City," answered Louie.
"Oh, do tell us all about it," begged the children.
"Well, there's not much to tell," answered Louie. "The Sauvee's, who were my cousins, and ourselves used to cut and pack down ice in the winter and then peddle it around the two towns during the summer."
"How could you keep it from melting all that time?" asked several children at once.
"Oh that was easy," he answered. "We piled it in big piles and covered it with sawdust. It would keep for as long as two years."
"Were you the only one who froze ice to sell?" asked Dick.
"No," answered Mr. Brindejohn. "There were seven ice companies in and near the Truckee Basin because it was so cold there. Each company had a long ice house by the river. The water was dammed to make a big pond that would freeze every winter. On the other side of the house was a railroad."
"How did they cut the ice?" asked Fred.
"The ice was measured off into three foot blocks and was cut by an ice saw. The blocks were pulled apart with an ice lance," answered Mr. Brindejohn. "Sometimes the ice was cut with an ice plow pulled by a horse. It had two handles and a sharp knife which cut the ice."
"Were the blocks very thick?" asked Fred.
"Yes," said Mr. Brindejohn. "If they were too thin, another block of ice was shoved underneath and they were frozen together. The blocks were sent up into the ice house on a moving ladder which had blocks of wood across it like steps of stairs. These blocks were a little more than three feet apart, or just large enough for a block of ice to fit in between. At the top of the ladder were many chutes going in every direction into the long ice house, and ice was sent down each of these to be stored there. The men used long poles with steel points to shove the ice into place."
"Did they use all that ice in Nevada County," asked Ruth.
"Oh no," laughed Mr. Brindejohn. "It was sent by train to every city and large town in California and the state of Nevada."
"What were the names of some of the ice companies," asked Fred.
"The largest were the Boca Mill and Ice Company, the Summit Ice Company, and the Nevada Ice Company," answered Mr. Brindejohn.
"Were you the first ones to sell ice in town?" asked one of the children.
"Yes, I believe we were," he answered. "Later Sauvee opened a place in Nevada City where ice could be purchased and that was the beginning of the Union Ice Company that still does business there."
"How did you get the ice into town?" asked Janet.
"We hauled it in wagons drawn by three teams of horses and peddled from house to house. We didn't take it around and put it in people's ice boxes either, but just left it on the porch or let them take it from the wagons." he continued.
"Where did the Sauvee's live?" asked Teddy.
"They lived across the road there where Loney's live now. It was one of the showplaces in the county in the early days. There was much water then. The fields were all in alfalfa. They used to have the largest hay crops of any place around. They kept about twenty horses and eight or nine hundred head of cattle," he said.
"Why is there no water for irrigation there now?" asked Miss Jones.
"When the hydraulic mines closed, the water ditches were taken over by the P. G. & E. Co. and later sold to the Nevada Irrigation District. The water was then used in the lower foothill regions and this part of the county was left dry," he said.
"Has the climate changed much in the last eighty years?" asked Bob.
"Yes, I think it has," he answered. "I can remember many winters when we had ten or more feet of snow and had to tunnel out from the house to the barn. Many mornings we had to break the ice with axes to water the oxen."
"Oh, there goes another load of logs!" cried Teddy.
"Mr. Roberts has a sawmill down the road a short way," said Mr. Brindejohn.
"Is that where all the smoke is coming from?" asked Ruth.
"Yes, they burn their sawdust in a large burner. It is less of a fire hazard than when it is allowed to pile up for years," he answered.
"Were you born here on the ranch?" asked Ruth.
"My folks came over from France when I was three years old," he said. "But I have lived here for eighty-six years. I attended the Blue Tent School when it had between forty and fifty pupils."
"Well, we certainly have enjoyed talking with you," said Miss Jones. "Now we must get started back to town."
"Goodbye," called the children. The bus bumped and rattled toward home. "Now I have seen some of the old timers," said Fred.
(This chapter was taken from the children's book "Gold Nuggets of Nevada County" illustrated by my former high school art teacher Miss Dorothy Dyke, and classmate Keith Kohler and written by others in a coordinated effort to honor the pioneer teachers of Nevada County. It was published in 1951).