Ice Wars

Written by George Gilbert Lynch

ICE was a Hot Topic in 1912...and some would get BURNED

Many bitter skirmishes over the Kern County oil patch leases led to violence and bloodshed. This story is about another war that was the talk of Bakersfield in 1912...

John Martin Hughes was born near Stockton in 1859, but he and his family moved to Bakersfield following the 1900 oil boom in the Kern River Oil Field. He decided to become a businessman rather than work the oil fields and built a small tavern. A mover and shaker in the 1910 settlement of Waits (later named Oildale), Hughes became known as the “Mayor of Waits,” due to his leadership in establishing the first businesses in this little town across the bridge from Bakersfield.

This was mainly due to the fact that his popular Hughes Tavern was a favorite watering hole for the thirsty workers of the Kern River Oil Fields. His tavern was also a depot for stage coaches traveling the Valley roads and featured a big watering trough at the front door. The industrious Hughes then built a general store, blacksmith shop, butcher shop, and a bakery. Naturally, this led to the construction of several homes surrounding the development. Hughes also graded the roads, put in a water system, and an electric generating plant for the new little town.

As business boomed in the fields, so did John Hughes’ business center. His small bakery spawned the Hughes Oil Field Delivery Service. Hundreds of homes were situated on the remote oil leases and the families were delighted to have Hughes deliver groceries, milk, beer, meats, and especially ice to them. He utilized a pair of two-horse wagons which were needed to make the daily deliveries.

The extent of Hughes’ delivery business can be illustrated by the daily output of 2,000 loaves of bread by his oil field bakery to satisfy the demands of the sprawling oil field community. Beer and liquor were delivered along with the other commodities, but block ice was the item of necessity. Every customer needed ice for their ice boxes because home refrigerators weren’t around in 1910.

War Clouds Gathering

This ice war began between John Hughes and the Union Ice Company, the only other source of wholesale ice in Kern County. The Union Ice Company was one of a chain of ice producers statewide, owned mostly by the Kern County Land Company, which also owned almost every public utility in the county.

The Union Ice Company, at the time located at 33rd and Chester Avenue, had delivered ice in horse-drawn wagons for years until they obtained a new Reliant Delivery Truck in 1911. With the new, faster, gasoline-powered truck, deliveries could now easily be made to outlying communities such as the Kern River Oil Fields. With two competing companies, a conflict was imminent.

The feud seems to have begun on April 11, 1911, after a fire was started behind the Hughes Tavern. The fire was contained just before it reached the tavern, but the delivery and hay wagons in the shed behind the tavern were destroyed. The fire was traced to a match thrown into the hay stack at the rear of Hughes’ property. Two months later, at about 3 a.m. on June 9, Hughes’ butcher shop burned to the ground. The cause of the fire was undetermined. Rumors circulated that someone wanted John Hughes out of business.

Of course, the obvious suspect was the Union Ice Company. They wanted the lucrative ice delivery business in the Kern River Oil Fields and, it seemed, they were going to use their monopoly and power to accomplish the task.

On March 20, 1912, special officer A. E. Cook of the district attorney’s office arrested John Hughes on four charges of “running a blind pig establishment.” A “blind pig” was the name given to an undercover saloon. A blind pig operated in this manner: a customer entered Hughes’ store and paid John $1 to see his blind pig. While he was waiting to see the pig, he was served a free cocktail thereby circumventing the law in “dry” counties where liquor was not to be sold. Because this patron wasn’t buying the booze...he was paying to see the pig!

Some states used the ruse of a two-headed chicken or three-legged calf to legally provide drinks to their patrons. Kern County had just passed anti-saloon laws and Hughes Tavern was singled out from dozens operating locally. He was fined and put out of the saloon business.

The First Skirmish

To service his oil field customers, Hughes had been purchasing and reselling ice from the ice dock of the Union Ice Company plant for years. It was taken for granted his wagons would be at the ice dock at sunrise every day. On August 13, 1912 Hughes’ employees had paid for and loaded two tons of ice onto their wagon and upon attempting to leave, the ice company manager, H. F. Allardt, arrived and ordered his men to unload the ice. After the cussing and fighting had ended, the ice was unloaded. Allardt sent word to Hughes: “I have restricted the sale of ice to anyone who plans to resell in the Kern River Oil Field, as I see fit, regardless of any past implied contracts.”

Allardt used an excuse. “We have had complaints of poor service to customers,” he claimed.

Hughes’ attorney responded with, “the ice company is using discrimination and favoritism in an effort to create a monopoly to control sale of ice in my client’s territory.”

Hughes attempted to purchase ice at the ice company’s other storage houses but was unsuccessful and even a couple of independent producers refused to sell. Without a source of ice, Hughes’ delivery business was washed up.

War is Declared

At midnight the following Monday, Hughes, his three sons, and a group of his employees arrived at the Union Ice Company’s dock armed with two hay wagons, three covered wagons, one express wagon, and a buggy. They slept in the wagons until the company’s delivery wagons arrived to get their daily supply. But the company wagons couldn’t get to the dock because Hughes’ forces occupied that area. Hughes demanded he be sold ice and Allardt again refused....so the brawl began. As the bloody fight escalated, and the Hughes troops began to overcome the ice house gang, Allardt pulled a flanker movement and had his men go onto the roof and blast the Hughes men with fire hoses. Battered, soaked, and cold from the high pressure barrage, the Hughes battalion retreated back to Waits.

Hughes had lost that battle but the war was not yet lost. Within hours he and his lawyer, J. R. Dorsey, were 16 miles north, in Famoso, having constable Charles Kitchen issue warrants for the arrest of Allardt and his 10 troops for assault and battery. He would have sworn the warrants in Bakersfield except he knew the local constable and his deputy were on the enemy’s side.

Battle Lines Drawn

Constable Bino Pyle served the warrants on the Union Ice Company at 9 a.m. the next morning. He arrested 10 employees and Allardt. Hughes accompanied the officer to the ice dock. The employees and manager told the arresting officer they refused to be arrested and the fight started. During the fight, 4 of the 10 “ice house gang” ran away and Allardt agreed he would submit to arrest if his lawyer, W. W. Kaye, could accompany the group to Famoso to be tried before the judge there. The whole bunch boarded a passenger train and rode north. Appearing before Judge Kitchen, Constable Pyle swore out warrants against the 10 ice thugs, Allardt, and his lawyer W. W. Kaye for: assault and battery upon a peace officer and resisting arrest. He proclaimed Kaye assisted his clients in resisting arrest. The judge accepted $200 bail on each of the defendants and ordered they appear in superior court in Bakersfield the next week.

Spoils of War

After moderate fines were paid in court, the war continued on paper. Lawsuits and counter suits finally ended this historic ice war. John Hughes was denied purchase of ice at wholesale prices from the only ice company in Kern County, so his ice business came to an end. Fed up with fighting a constant, losing battle in Kern County, he sold his real estate holdings in Oildale (Waits) and Bakersfield.

In 1913, Hughes, his wife, daughter, and three sons moved to Long Beach where he went into the oil business in the Signal Hill Oil Fields. At midnight, October 21, 1913, a massive fire broke out at the Union Ice Company’s Chester Avenue plant in Bakersfield. It originated on the roof and consumed about half of the ice plant. Manager Allardt declared the fire had to be arson because it started on the roof, away from any wires. The night watchman stated he had heard footsteps on the roof earlier that night. No suspects were ever apprehended, but whispers of the old ice feuds circulated. The ice plant had to be rebuilt at great cost and nearly a year passed before it could again produce ice.

The Union Ice Company produced ice for many years thereafter before the building became a restaurant.

All that remains from this legendary battle is a little street in Oildale named Hughes Avenue.

Copyright by George Gilbert Lynch

Article appeared in our 26-5 Issue - December 2009

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