Frequent Asked Questions

Frequent Asked Questions

Q: What were these fur blankets used for?
A: The fur blanket was called a lap robe or auto robe and used for keeping warm when driving the early automobiles that did not have heaters and also used as a horse and buggy lap robe.

Q: What is the value of my lap robe?
A: The value will vary greatly depending on the condition. In good condition and not falling apart they are valued at several hundred dollars. In poor condition the value is a couple hundred or less. Ask a professional furrier to give you written appraisal for insurance and reselling purposes. Antique stores can sometimes give you a current value. Check the internet for auctions with their current prices. Keeping the lap robe original will help the value of the robe, if part of it is changed or replaced the value deceases.

Q: How do I store my lap robe?
A: The best way to store your fur lap robe is in a cool dry place, laying flat and covered to keep dust off. Place a few moth balls on the side, NOT touching the fur, this prevents moths from eating the wool backing. Local fur stores can offer suggestions on the best way to store you vintage fur lap robe at home.

Q: Why was horse fur used?
A: Horse hinds were readily available back then as many people used horses for transportation purposes and due to the lack of modern veterinarian medicines, horses had a short life. Owners were often very attached to their horses, and one way of remembering their horse was to make it's hind into a lap robe, that was a popular thing to do back then, if you had the money. Other animal hinds were used, according to the Edes catalog they were able to make robes from; kip, buffalo, calf, dog, angora goat, fox, raccoon, wild cat, wolf, and coyote.

Q: How much did a lap robe cost back then?
A: In 1915 one could buy a 5 feet by 6 feet cow or horse lap robe for $8.50 and for an extra 95 cents one could get matching fur mittens (large gauntlet mittens) or a woman's muff for 85 cents.

Q: There is a machine stitched name near the label, who is this?
A: This is the employee who made the robe.

Q: Is the Edes Tanning Company still in business?
A: Unfortunately the company went out of business when man made materials became popular, were being sold cheaper, plus the change in fashion. St. Clair Ede, the son of David F. Ede tried to turn the company around making life jackets and boats since the head office was on the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa where river boats were built. The turn around came too late and the Edes company collapsed.

H.H. Beckman - Edes Furrier Employee

Tom Kleven - Edes Tanner Employee

Harold Hartline - Edes Tanner Employee

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In May 1905, David F. Ede purchased property on the corner of Shields and Jones Street in Dubuque, Iowa for $3,000 from the heirs of early Dubuque capitalist John D. Bush. Soon thereafter he began construction of a substantial brick block to house his growing hide tanning business. The building was completed in June 1906 at a cost of about $17,000. Located on the former site of the Bush Brothers’ planning mill, the two-story structure was slightly wedge-shaped to conform with the acute angle of the street intersection. Ede’s business thrived, and in 1909 a large, two-story side addition was built for $15,000 that almost doubled the building’s square footage. The building was organized with business office, main tanning room and finishing room on the first floor of the original section and the dye department in the side wing.

Drying, cutting and sewing rooms occupied the second floor of the main building, with the stock room upstairs in the addition. Ede operated in this building for over thirty years. Around 1938 the company was renamed Ede’s King-O-Fur Tanning Company, and within two years the building was occupied by the Julian Moes Wholesale Beverage Company. This was soon followed by the Dubuque Wholesale Grocery Company, which was in turn followed by the Sloan Wholesale Grocery Distributing Company.
In 1969 this building was occupied by Linehan and Molo, plumbing contractors who since 1900 have dealt in coal, cement, salt, steam and gas fittings and electrical supplies. Throughout this time the structure has undergone relatively minor exteriors alterations, most notable of which are the demolition of the rear part of the original building and the side addition, infill of the two doorways with brick and infill of several sidewalk-level basement windows with stone.

Ede located his factory propitiously at the corner of Shields and Jones Streets near the William Ryan and Son Packing Company (a ready supplier of hides) and the Illinois Central depot (a ready shipping point). His business included tanning hides – primarily horse and cow – and manufacturing fur robes, garments and rugs. “Ede furs are scientifically cut and there is no expense saved that would make them equal to the best furs produced anywhere in the world,” a 1911 business gazette stated. “Their stock of furs includes nearly every native and foreign skin in their various grades, thus making it possible to handle a large quantity of repair work with entire satisfaction.

Visitors are made welcome to the plant, as the firm takes just pride in showing customers a complete and up-to-date institution, and want them to see how clean and free from things offensive a tannery can be and under what favorable conditions the employees work.”  In addition to fur tanning and clothing manufacturing, Ede employed taxidermists to mount game trophies. Staff by some 40 to 60 people, the company grew into one of the largest of its type in the country and eventually established branch plants in St. Paul, Omaha and Sioux Falls. The home office remained in Dubuque, where Ede maintained a high civic profile.

Robe tanning was a major industry in Dubuque, and firms such as Ede’s and the Dubuque Tanning and Robe Company contributed to make the city a nationally important tanning center. This building is thus historically significant as the site of one of the city’s major early 20th century industries. It’s architecture typifies factory design of the period and, although altered somewhat, the factory retains a degree of integrity.

The story above is from:
Historic American Buildings Survey
Department of the Interior, National Park Service
Rocky Mountain Regional Office, Denver, Colorado

Building and Lot information:
41 Main Street, Dubuque, Dubuque County, Iowa
Architecture Style: 19th Century Functional
DOT designation: Resource Site No. 5.9
Cadastral grid: SE1/4  NE1/4  S25 T89N R2E
USGS quadrangle: Dubuque South Iowa 7.5’
UTN coordinates: 15.691990.4707010
Lot dimensions: 54.9’x140’: .18 acre
Lot description: Lots 1 and 2 of City Lot 540
Present owner: Iowa Department of Transportation
Building demolished for highway

References:
Dubuque City Directories: 1857 – 1970.
Sanborn Insurance Map: 1879, 1884, 1891, 1909, 1972.
Iowa State Gazetteer and Business Directory: 1882-1921.
Dubuque County Assessment Record: 3-17-6-10.
Land Title Abstract (located at Iowa Department of Transportation, Ames, Iowa).
Iowa Department of Transportation, “Draft Environmental Impact Statement – Cultural Resources Assessment.”

H.W. Gardner, Greater Dubuque (Dubuque: The Times Journal, 1911), page 54.
Franklin T. Oldt and P.J. Quigley, History of Dubuque County, Iowa (Chicago: Goodspeed Historical Association, 1911), page 678.

Descriptive Survey of Dubuque (Dubuque: Dubuque Chamber of Commerce, 1911).