Gettysburg Civil War veterans served York ice cream July 4th
Eight-thousand quarts of Neuman ice cream was served to Civil War veterans on July 4th 1913 at Gettysburg upon the 50th anniversary reunion of the great battle. The H. L. Neuman Company made this ice cream at their plant along South Newberry Street in York, PA.
Henry Lenhart Neuman founded the H. L. Neuman Ice Cream Company in 1872. Neuman also started an ice business the same year; first harvesting natural ice in the winter and storing it to supply customers. Henry’s ice business evolved into manufactured ice; a business that still exists today as the York Ice Company. Mr. Neuman also branched out into other businesses; most notably processing and supplying building sand. All those businesses are depicted in the 1907 caricature of H. L. Neuman.
Click on this LINK for a yorkblog.com Full View of the original two illustrations in this post if details are cut off in the cropping of the illustrations, or if any has been removed from the ydr.com site.
H. L. Neuman was born in Conewago Township in 1839. He attended Dover public schools. He served in the Civil War and was severely wounded June 23, 1864 near Petersburg; eventually recovering. Following the war, Henry entered into a partnership with Peter C. Wiest in the grocery and confectionery business.
The Neuman ice cream business was established along South Newberry Street in 1872; eventually occupying 30, 32 and 34 South Newberry Street. H. L. Neuman won the contract to supply 8,000 quarts of ice cream for the Veterans’ Reunion Dinner at the Battlefield of Gettysburg on July 4th, 1913; as he proudly advertised in the following ad.
Henry L. Neuman died in 1920. In 1930, H. L. Neuman’s sons sold the ice cream business to the Borden Company; which continued to use the well-established Neuman ice cream name throughout most of the 1930s.
The York Ice Company continues to be operated by H. L. Neuman descendants; now run by the 5th and 6th generation. Their ice is marketed as Good Time Ice from their main plant at 281 Kings Mill Road.
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