From the 3rd floor
of the Webb City Public Library
March 19, 2025
The 1891 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the layout of the ice plant. The building was located at the north end of Tom Street, near the current location of Standard Iron and Steel.
In 1802 the refrigerated ice box was invented by Thomas Moore. Those ice boxes were typically stocked with ice harvested from ponds or brought to the country by ship.
Due to the enormous demand for ice, production of artificial ice slowly began to grow. E.T. Webb, son of Webb City’s founder John C. Webb, established the Webb City Ice & Storage plant in the late 1880s. At this time ice was made using ammonia and steam condensers.
James F. Daniels purchased the Webb City Ice plant in 1891 from Webb. George Mattison, a former engineer at the Carthage Ice Factory, went to work at the plant in 1892.
In 1907, Daniels announced that the factory would be enlarged to meet the demands of the increasing patronage. Two 30-ton engines were installed, and storage tanks were enlarged.
It was estimated the plant was supplying ice to a population of 12,000 to 15,000 people in Webb City and probably 10,000 or more throughout Carterville, Johnstown, Prosperity, Duenweg, Alba, Purcell, Neck City and Oronogo.
Aside from the main plant, two smaller plants were operating in Carterville. The Webb City Ice plant was also a wholesale distributor to outside vendors.
In the 1920s, the approaching wave of prohibition was threatening the ice industry and the Carterville members of the company sold out. During this era, the Webb City Ice Company became the Inter-Urban Ice Company.
H.A. Spradling, Clyde B. Nance and O.E. Proctor, of Carthage, and C. K. Rowland, of St. Louis, purchased the company in 1929.
James Daniels remained at the company until his retirement in 1931, having worked at the plant for 40 years. He died in 1936 at the age of 80 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.
Spradling had recently took over and modernized an ice plant in Carthage, and he did the same for the Inter-Urban Ice Company. He dismantled the massive steam engine that had been used for 38 years to make ice and installed electric motors that would be used in the production of the ice.
In 1932, Nance bought out his partners and became the sole owner of the Inter-Urban Ice Company. In 1937, part of the factory was occupied by the Jersey Ice Cream and Butter Factory.
C.B. Nance was also the owner of Nance Furniture and Appliance Company, which he established in 1940. Both businesses were incorporated in 1946.
Nance quit the ice business in 1954 to devote more time to his furniture store. He purchased the Mt. Vernon Mattress Company and moved it into the old ice plant building. The building caught fire in 1958 and suffered heavy damage. Charles Stubbs was also a tenant in the building, operating an ice cream plant there. It is unknown if the building was torn down after the fire or at some other time.
The Inter-Urban Ice Co. held several ice-guessing contests in Webb City. A hundred pounds of ice was sealed up in a Coolerator and reopened at a later date. The nearest guess to the remaining amount of ice would win a $3 ice book. The second-best guess would win $3 in trade at the participating store. The Coolerator ice box had 5 cubic feet of food-storage capacity.
The Webb City Sentinel isn’t a newspaper – but it used to be, serving Webb City, Missouri, in print from 1879-2020. This “newspaper” seeks to carry on that tradition as a nonprofit corporation.
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