Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
JAMES FORESTER AND COMPANY
JAMES FORESTER AND COMPANY. This firm, of which James Forrester, James Forrester, Jr., and Chas. S. Robison were the individual members, was established in 1874. First involved in the dry goods business, they added their manufacturing department.
The factory was a 38x115 foot four-story building at 757 and 759 Iowa Street. Employing two hundred workers, the firm manufactured clothing, overalls, pants, shirts and jumpers, making ninety dozen pair of overalls and pants and fifty suits of clothing besides other goods, daily. The firm had a large trade extending throughout Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Dakota and Iowa.
The second story of the establishment was used as a salesroom for the goods which were "put in shape" on the floor above. The company employed mostly women and girls.
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Source:
The Industries of Dubuque: Her Relations as a Trade Center, Dubuque: J. M. Elster and Company, Publishers, 1887, p. 57