Georgina Whetsel: Canada’s Ice Queen and Black Business Pioneer
Photograph of Georgina Whetsel. ‘An Ice Merchant,’ from The Woman’s Era, 1895.
Front page of the Woman’s Era, June 1895, featuring Georgina Whetsel.
The remarkable story of a woman who broke barriers and built a thriving business empire.
Early Life and Marriage
Georgina Mingo Whetsel (1846 – 1919) was born into a mixed-race family and grew up in Pictou and Bedford, Nova Scotia. In the early 1860s, she relocated to Boston to join her older sister, working as a domestic servant. There, she met Robert Whetsel, a widower from Saint John, New Brunswick. They married in 1872 when Georgina was 26 and Robert 49.
The couple returned to Saint John, where Robert had incorporated the Saint John Ice Company in 1876. Alongside running an Oyster Saloon, their business ventures flourished, and the family earned a reputation for hard work and integrity. Together, they raised four children and acquired several properties downtown.
Building the Ice Business
In 1885, Robert Whetsel died, leaving Georgina a widow with a major business to manage. She chose to sell the Oyster Saloon and focus her efforts entirely on the ice company.
Displaying remarkable business acumen, Georgina negotiated an exclusive lease with the local horticultural association to harvest ice from Lily Lake. This strategic move gave her an effective monopoly within Saint John, as transporting ice from other locations would have been prohibitively expensive for competitors.
The ice trade was a massive undertaking. During the winter of 1886 – 1887, she employed a large workforce and maintained nearly 30 wagon teams to harvest 7,000 tons of ice – double her late husband’s best season. By the end of 1894, output had increased to 8,000 tons, reaching 10,000 tons by the turn of the century. Georgina continually adopted the latest technology to streamline operations.
A Black Woman Business Leader
Georgina’s extraordinary success attracted widespread attention. In June 1895, she was featured on the front page of The Woman’s Era, the first national publication for and by Black women in the United States. She was praised for her ‘pluck and intelligent perseverance’.
Her leadership extended beyond business. When a float at Saint John’s first winter carnival in 1889 mocked her enterprise through racist caricatures, Georgina responded forcefully. In a published letter to the Daily Telegraph, she defended the quality of her operations and condemned the caricature’s portrayal of Black citizens, emphasizing that she hired workers of all races based on merit, not skin color.
Later Life and Legacy
In 1900, Georgina sold her thriving ice business for $33,000 – the equivalent of over a million dollars today. She married Edgerton T. Moore, a retired dry-goods merchant from Bermuda, in 1901. Together they settled in Bedford, Nova Scotia.
Georgina lived her final years quietly. Edgerton passed away in 1916, and Georgina herself died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1919 while traveling by train to Halifax.
The Saint John Daily Sun called her ‘a first-class businesswoman’ whose ‘extensive business … [was] the outcome of energy, honesty, courtesy, and tact.’ Georgina Whetsel’s success story remains a testament to resilience, ingenuity, and grace under pressure.
Born, built, and retired in Canada, Georgina Whetsel stands as a towering figure in the history of Black entrepreneurship.
Ice harvesting in Massachusetts, early 1850s. This engraving illustrates the labor-intensive process of cutting and storing ice before the advent of modern refrigeration
The Ice Trade: A 19th-Century Essential
Before modern refrigeration, ice was one of the most valued commodities in North America.
Natural ice was harvested during winter from lakes and rivers, then stored in insulated ice houses to be sold year-round. It preserved food, protected medicines, and made life more comfortable in the sweltering summer months.
Cities depended on steady supplies of clean ice, and the trade became fiercely competitive. Ice cutting required skilled laborers, teams of horses, and specialized tools. In Saint John, Lily Lake became a prized resource.
Dominating this challenging, male-dominated field, Georgina Whetsel’s rise was nothing short of extraordinary.
References
Arenson, A. (2023). Mobility and Opportunity: Black Business Owners and Inventors Cross the US-Canada Borders. Essays in Economic and Business History, Manhattan College.
Nason, R. P. (2021). Georgina Whetsel: Black Entrepreneur and Innovator. Active History: History Matters. Retrieved from https://activehistory.ca/blog/2021/01/11/georgina-whetsel-black-entrepreneur-and-innovator/
Nason, R. P. (2003). MINGO, GEORGINA (Georgiana, Georgianna) (Whetsel (Wetzel, Whetzel); Moore), in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14. Retrieved from https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mingo_georgina_14E.html
Ruffin, J., Woman’s Era Club, & National Federation of Afro-American Women. (1895, June 1). The Woman’s Era. Retrieved from https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/7p88g1668
Winks, R. W. (1997). The Blacks in Canada: A History. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Image Credits
An Ice Merchant. Photo of Georgina Whetsel. Public domain. Retrieved from https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/7p88g1668
Front page of The Woman’s Era, June 1895. Public domain. Retrieved from https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/7p88g1668
Ice Harvesting, Massachusetts, early 1850s. Public domain. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice_Harvesting,_Massachusetts,_early_1850s.jpg
