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This is a contributing entry for Ralph Ellison and African American History in Oklahoma City and only appears as part of that tour.Learn More.

Wichita, Kansas-based Nicholas Steffen and William Bretch brought their successful dairy and ice company to Oklahoma City's Bricktown area in the early 1900s. The company sold large blocks of ice, Steffen's brand ice cream and other dairy products. Ralph Ellison's father, Lewis Ellison, delivered Steffen-Bretch products to Black homes in northeast Oklahoma City beginning in 1916.


Steffen-Bretch Ice and Ice Cream Company, 1922

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Steffen-Bretch Ice and Ice Cream Company, 1945

Tire, Car, Wheel, Land vehicle

Lewis Ellison, the father who was the subject of fantasies of memory for an older Ralph, was a physically strong, former soldier who found various jobs in his adopted Oklahoma City home. The tragic last of these was with the Steffen-Bretch Ice and Ice Cream Company for whom he supplied ice to both White and Black homes and grocery stores. As Ellison described it: “All of three years old, I was with him when he collapsed while mounting a ladder to place a block of ice in a grocery refrigerator.” This event, at such a young age, imprinted on Ellison’s mind, and later he described that “as a youth I would be bemused by a recurring fantasy in which, on my way to school of a late winter day I would emerge from a cold side street into the warm spring sun and there see my father, dead since I was three, rushing toward me with a smile of recognition and outstretched arms. And I would run proudly to greet him, his son grown tall."

Callahan, John F.. Conner, Marc C.. The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison. New York City, New York. Random House, 2019.

Rampersad, Arnold. Ralph Ellison A Biography. New York City, New York. Vintage, 2007.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma

Gateway to Oklahoma History https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1117298/: accessed January 25, 2022