NEWFIELD — Starting in the 1800s, before today’s methods of refrigeration, folks kept food cool in the summer with ice.

But where did the ice come from?

In New England, it likely came from Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont. Ice was harvested from ponds, rivers and lakes, and either put in a ice house for local people to use in the summer or shipped across the country or around the world.

On Saturday, folks got more than a glimpse of how ice was harvested ”“ several participated in an ice harvest on Mill Pond at 19th Century Willowbrook Village.

It was a hands-on affair, from clearing the snow from the pond to marking the ice in neat lines as a guide for those using the hand saws.

It took teamwork and strength to repeatedly saw through the ice, and then hoist the heavy blocks of 18 inch-thick frozen water from the pond.

Those who did it were all smiles.

Cliff Punchard of Wells came to the event with a couple of friends.

“I was interested in coming to see,” how it was a done, he said as he paused to catch his breath after hoisting and dragging a big block of ice from the frigid water.

Daniel Blekkenk of South Berwick looked like he was hooked on ice harvesting as he helped haul a dripping block from the pond. You could say he’s hooked on Willowbrook in general – and has been since the summer of 2013, when, he said, he and his wife took a drive in the country and ended up at the village that showcases, as its slogan goes, “how life used to be.” His wife gifted Blekkenk with a blacksmithing class, and his interest in Willowbrook and the period continued. Blekkenk took in the first ice harvest in 2014, and has also taught some classes at the museum.

“I’ve been volunteering ever since,” he said.

Mike McIlvaine, of Remick Country Doctor Museum and Farm in nearby Tamworth, New Hampshire, where an ice harvest will take place Feb. 7, came over early Saturday morning to lend a hand clearing the ice of snow.

He was clearly enjoying himself.

“So I decided to stay,” for the harvest, he said.

Ice harvesting for the Durgin family that once lived here was likely for local use rather than for exporting, said Willowbrook’s executive director Robert Schmick.

The saws used Saturday were exclusively designed for ice use, and “resurrected” from the museum’s collection.

“They required sharpening, sanding and other repairs,” said Schmick, who added that Willowbrook welcomes donations of tools for its working collection and for hands-on history education.

One ice pike ended up in the Mill Pond Saturday, but participants were able to fish it out. Schmick said he expects there are likely lots of tools lost there, over the years, for archaeologists to discover some day.

There’s no ice house at Willowbrook at present, but there will be, as Schmick believes there once was, tucked away at the back of the property. Schmick said there are plans to build one, so when ice is harvested in January and February, it can be stored – as it used to be – in sawdust or wood shavings. Schmick said he has heard of seaweed being used as the insulator to keep the ice from melting in seaside ice houses – thrifty Mainers used whatever they had.

Once the ice house is built and ice harvested, “we’ll drag it out in the middle of the summer” to show visitors, said Schmick.

Drag might be the operative word. Ice is heavy. Willowbrook’s first ice harvest in 2014 saw ice that was 14 inches thick; Saturday’s was 18 inches thick. Blocks carved from Mill Pond, many measuring 2 foot by 2 foot, weighed upward of 200 pounds.

Commercial ice harvesting began in the early 1800s around Boston, when brothers Frederic and William Tudor figured it could be sold in the Caribbean. The first venture didn’t go well, but Frederic Tudor persisted, according to online accounts, and eventually established an ice empire.

After first harvesting in Massachusetts, the industry expanded to Maine.

According to a February 2009 story in the online Farm Collector magazine, 1.3 million tons of ice was carved from Maine lakes, ponds and rivers in 1879. Much of it was harvested from the Kennebec River, where farmers, largely idled in the winter found a welcome paycheck.

“Every idle workman along the Kennebec River was employed and put to work. Shipyards and sawmills were applied to for sawdust to pack the ice; the demand was so large and the supply so inadequate that the sites of old sawmills were hunted up in order to dig out sawdust several years old. The price (of sawdust) rose to $3 per cord. Marsh hay, also used for packing, rose from $5 per ton to $10,” Farm Collector quoted an 1880 census report.

Schmick estimated ice harvesting, and the subsequent use of the household ice box ”“ usually a well insulated free-standing kitchen cabinet that held a block of ice, with a drip pan underneath and shelves for food storage ”“ was popular in Maine through at least the 1930s, and later in some locales. And in some parts of Maine, he said, folks who have camps that are off the grid still harvest winter ice for summer use.

In all, more than 50 people attended the ice harvest on Saturday and about 125 homeschoolers stopped by earlier in the week.

Schmick said schools, homeschooling groups or other interested parties may arrange with the museum for ice harvesting demonstrations the first two weeks of this month.

For more on how life used to be, upcoming events at Willowbrook include classes in blacksmithing and metalcasting in bronze, brass or aluminum Feb. 7, and antique gas engine repair and maintenance March 7. For information, call 703-2784 or email: [email protected].

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].