Southernmost Illinois History

First Refrigerated Rail Car
was designed by a Cobden fruit grower

http://www.history-magazine.com/refrig.html

The first refrigerated car to carry fresh fruit was built in 1867 by Parker Earle of Illinois, who shipped strawberries on the Illinois Central Railroad. Each chest contained 100 pounds of ice and 200 quarts of strawberries. It was not until 1949 that a refrigeration system made its way into the trucking industry by way of a roof-mounted cooling device, patented by Fred Jones.

Farmers in many Southernmost Illinois communities such as Cairo, Mounds, Pulaski, Wetaug, Dongola, Balcom, Anna, Cobden, Makanda, shipped produce directly to the Chicago market in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s.]

The first ice-cooled car designed to prevent shipments from spoiling in transit was introduced by a meat-packing firm in Chicago in 1857. The first shipments of fruits under refrigeration were from southern Illinois to Chicago in 1866.

To Parker Earle, an enterprising fruit grower of Cobden, Ill., goes the credit for pioneering in this development. After several unsuccessful efforts to ship strawberries to Chicago without their spoiling on the way, Mr. Earle hit upon an idea.

During the winter of 1865-66 he harvested a large quantity of ice, which he packed in sawdust in his barn so it would keep well into the summer. Then he built several large wooden chests with double linings. Each chest was fitted with two compartments.

When the berry-picking season arrived Mr. Earle packed one compartment of each chest with ice and the other compartment with strawberries. Then he shipped them by railroad to Chicago.

The strawberries arrived in the Chicago market in perfect condition - several days before local berries ripened - and Chicago housewives and hotels eagerly bought them for as high as $1 a quart! Parker Earle reaped a handsome profit from his crop.

It was only a step from the iced chest to the iced box car, and Parker Earle was one of the pioneers in this venture also. By 1872 many carloads of strawberries and other fruits were being shipped from southern Illinois to Chicago under refrigeration. In 1885 berries from Virginia were shipped to New York under refrigeration.

In order to reach the consumer, potatoes travel an average distance of 741 miles; peaches, 843 miles; cabbage, 970 miles. Even greater travelers are the watermelons that come to our tables, their average journey being 1,084 miles, and apples, which travel 1,162 miles on the average.

And the berry family travels 1,200 miles, on the average; tomatoes, 1,894 miles; oranges and grapefruit, 2,126 miles; and cantaloupe and melons come 2,434 miles-about as far as from Los Angeles to Cincinnati. But the record-holder among domestic fruits is the grape. This little fellow journeys 2,597 miles to reach our tables!

The artwork of strawberries, above, was made by the US Department of Agriculture to illustrate a variety of strawberries (specimen #6663) which Mr. Earle developed. It was described in the 1890 issue of "Pomologist". Click the image for more.

December 28, 1856 - The Illinois Central Railroad was completed from Cairo to Chicago just 3 days before the legislative deadline. The railroad was only a decade old when Mr. Earle began rail refrigeration.