McClung ice box is storage for memories

By Matt de Simone

Did you know that there is a wooden ice box currently located in Daleville believed to be nearly 300 years old?

In the August 28, 1975 edition of The Fincastle Herald, an announcement was published that Benny G. Stinnett, of Eagle Rock, purchased an old ice box that once belonged to the McClung family, an Irish family that immigrated to Pennsylvania and later Rockbridge County through the years 1740-1781.

The article goes on to explain that one of the descendants, Joseph Alexander McClung, moved to the county a few miles outside of Eagle Rock and in 1904, Joseph’s home was burned. A spot burned onto the ice box from the fire still remains.

Later, the chest was moved to the home of Will McClung, and then later handed down to his son, Hugh. The ice box has a mirror, a place for blocks of ice and a lower section for food. The article referred to the ice box as “a very unique piece of furniture.”

The ice box’s current owner, Chuck Vassar of Daleville, remembers the original writeup. Vassar acquired the ice box from his uncle, Benny Stinnett, who promised the antique to his nephew. The ice box has “always had sentimental value” to Vassar. Stinnett passed away in 2009. His nephew finally came into possession of the ice box in 2023.

“There used to be an old gas station out in Eagle Rock – Brooks’ gas station,” Vassar recalled. “Minnie Truslow ran a grocery store on the old Route 43, a real old grocery store. My uncle, Benny, frequented the grocery store and that’s where he first found the ice box.

“He was into antiques. He wasn’t working (at the time) and he would travel around Botetourt and the Eagle Rock area looking for antiques. He would buy them and resell them. This one here struck his eye but he wanted to keep (the ice box), which he did for a while. I would visit him, see it, and then told him I would like to have it.”

The wooden ice chest still functions, amazingly enough. The metal insulation has remained intact and is still reliable for short-term storage for cooler items. There is also a small tank to hold water and a faucet/nozzle on the front of the chest that once released the stored water.

They don’t build them like they used to.