Home of Charles Michael (Coze) Meagher. Left to right: unknown woman, Parnell Meagher, Kate Weir Meagher, Raymond Meagher, Charles Michael Meagher, Front: Mary (Mamie) Meagher. Courtesy of Sean Dobbins
M. C. Meagher, wholesale and retail ice merchant stops in front of the Fortune Public Market at 32 Broadway, undated. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, December 6, 2008 Born: February 16, 1867
Died: April 20, 1927
Married: Katherine Weir (died 1919)
Children: Parnell Meagher, Mary (Mamie) Meagher, Raymond E. Meagher (1898-1990)
Michael Coze Meagher was a carpenter, builder, and businessman with a successful ice and coal business, Meagher Ice Company, in Saranac Lake for many years. He built the Ampersand hotel and the Wawbeek lodge, and also the first Ice Palace for Saranac Lake's Winter Carnival.
Lake Placid News, April 22, 1927
Michael C. Meagher Dies at Saranac Lake Home
Michael C. Meagher, 60, prominent Saranac Lake business man for over forty years, died Sunday night following a short illness. He was born February 16, 1887, at Elizabethtown, Essex county and came to Saranac Lake while still a young man where he followed his trade of carpenter and builder. He built the Ampersand hotel on Lower Saranac Lake, which burned about twenty years ago, and also Wawbeek lodge. Of late years he had been engaged in the hotel and coal and ice business in Saranac Lake. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Elks.
Malone Farmer, January 7, 1903
M. C. Meagher, of Saranac Lake, has been awarded a contract to furnish the crushed stone for the widening of the D. & H. roadbed in the vicinity of that village.
Malone Farmer, April 5, 1905
Michael C. Meagher has filed a claim against the State for $24,000 as a result of the action of the State Forest Preserve Board in appropriating in February last 160 acres of land belonging to him in Essex county for State purposes. The Forest Preserve Board and the claimant are unable to agree as to price, and the matter is to be adjusted by the court of claims.
Malone Palladium, March 1, 1906
An exchange says that M. C. Meagher, of Saranac Lake, has at Moody Pond the largest ice plant in the Adirondacks, and, in spite of the mild weather, has already cut and stored this season almost double the quantity of ice of any previous year. 1
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, February 1997 (for the complete article, see Winter Carnival, "The origins of Saranac Lake's Winter Carnival")
[In 1907] the local ice industry provided enough competition that regular construction contracts were made for palace construction. Written bids were submitted: $475 from Michael C. Meagher, $502 from A. B. Lacy, and $675 from E. W. Norman.
The Board of Trade signed a contract with Meagher on January 9, with the firm of Coulter & Westhoff as architect. The work was described as "...clearing of ice, cutting of same in Lake Flower, and laying the same to construct an ice palace near the Pontiac Club, Saranac Lake," with a completion date of January 28. The price, and the size, of Saranac Lake Ice Palaces were proportionately smaller than the city palaces.
Malone Palladium, January 17, 1907
M. C. MEAGHER, of Saranac Lake, has been given the contract to erect the ice palace for the carnival to be held in that village Jan. 29-31. The palace is to be an elaborate affair, 135 feet in length, with a main tower 60 feet in height. Two other smaller towers are to be erected and the walls of the palace will be about 30 feet in height. It will be lighted throughout by electricity. The carnival, it is claimed, will be the finest ever held at Saranac Lake.
Malone Farmer, March 27, 1907
The state court of claims has awarded M. C. Meagher, of Saranac Lake, $7,600 for the property on the Saranac River which the state recently condemned. Mr. Meagher declines to accept the award, claiming that the land in question has a valuation of some $32,000, or more than four times the amount of the award. Mr. Meagher will fight the case in the higher courts.
Malone Farmer, December 28, 1910
M. C. Meagher again has the contract for the erection of the ice palace for the carnival at Saranac Lake. It calls for a beautiful structure of feudal architecture. 148 feet long and 48 feet high to be located on Slater hill opposite the rink of the Pontiac Club, an ideal site with pine forests in the background. There will be a central structure and two wings the wing's having side towers 27 ft high. All along the top of the 140 foot front will be battlements, and the flags of five nations will float from as many flag staffs. An ice wall five feet high will also be erected, paralleling the front at a distance from the palace of 50 feet.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, March 17, 1966
The Pioneer Lodge was the pride of M. C. Meagher with 14 bedrooms, and a dining room that could handle 30.
Comments
Footnotes
1. This is likely the same ice plant that was later owned by Boyce and Roberson at 45 East Pine Street.
