The 1930’s were a time when many people still relied upon manufactured ice for their refrigeration needs. They had ice-box refrigerators in their homes, and they still bought ice to fill them. Hightstown had its own ice-making plant. It stood behind the houses on the north side of lower Stockton Street, between them and Rocky Brook.
Frank C. Underhill bought the ice plant in 1931. He was from Nebraska originally, and worked for the Fairbanks-Morse company, which manufactured ice-making equipment for plants like Hightstown’s. The company sent Underhill out to troubleshoot and repair its equipment in plants around the country. He was sent to make repairs to a plant in Red Bank, Monmouth County, where he met a young woman, Olive Runyon, of Belford in Monmouth County. After a courtship, they married, and to settle down, Underhill bought Hightstown’s ice plant. He and Olive bought the house that still stands at 401 Stockton Street, and while there had their three children: two daughters, Corena and Janet, and a son, Frank C., Jr.
Underhill combined the selling of ice with that of kerosene and fuel oil, which balanced one another quite well, the ice being in greatest demand in the summertime when kerosene and fuel oil were little needed. Frank had several routes, a small fleet of trucks, and several employees who helped him operate the plant.
It all came crashing down for the family in an instant. On December 11, 1946, the very day on which Corena, the eldest child, turned 14 years old, her father was performing maintenance in the engine room of the ice plant when a piece of his clothing caught in the machinery, pulling him in. He was killed instantly, caught between a 12-inch wide drive belt and the flywheel to which it was attached. He was dragged through a full revolution of the wheel before the machinery could be stopped. Bones were broken throughout his body. Local physician William G. Rose pronounced him dead at the scene, and notified the county physician. Underhill was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
After the tragedy, Olive continued to operate the business for five more years. She sold it in 1951 to William C. Pullen, who continued for decades to be a principal local purveyor of fuel oil. Corena recently shared with the Society a collection of photos of her family. Together, they depict the ice plant, evoke the character of upper Stockton Street in the 1940’s, and show the family’s fondness for horseback riding.
Frank C. Underhill, Jr. on horseback. You can see the old Hightstown High in the background where Walter C. Black elementary now stands.
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