How did they get ice in San Antonio, Texas in the 1830's for ice cream and cold beer?!
Answers: they took the water from up north and shipped it down south as fast as they possibly could, and theta how they got ice. keep in mind that there was no way for them to make ice cream in large quantities unless you lived up north. beer was never cold. but when you open it up, the pressure goes down a little bit and cools it down a few degrees.
In the book "Farmer Boy", which is the story of Laura Ingles Wilder's husband when he was young, they cut large blocks of ice from the frozen lake in winter and stored them in a barn heavily insulated with straw. In northern climates this was the practice. When refrigeration was invented and ice could be created using electricity then anyone could have it.
In the 1830s San Antonio belonged to Mexico -- till 1836, that is. And in those days, beer wasn't served cold. It wasn't served cold till way after the Civil War.