MCFADDEN COFFEE AND SPICE COMPANY

Photo courtesy: Jim Massey

View of 100 and 200 Block of Iowa Street with McFadden on the left, Dubuque Seed Company center, and the Dubuque Company Paper warehouse on the right.

MCFADDEN COFFEE AND SPICE COMPANY. The McFadden brothers operated a grocery store in the 1880s. In August 1886, the McFadden Coffee and Spice Company was established. The company at 64-68 Main was developed in association with J. A. McKinley who took no active role in the operation of the firm.

The premises occupied by the company included a two-story and basement building, 28x90 feet in dimen- sions, in which they had complete equipment for the roasting of coffee and the manufacture of pure ground spices and baking powder. Among the articles produced were baking powder, coconut, chocolate, coffee, Cream of Tartar, toilet soaps, sustard, whole and ground spices, dry and liquid bluing, hops, pressed and ground sage, cinnamon, pepper, and ground cassia. Tea was one of the major products imported to the Port of Dubuque, and McFadden's had a major part of the business. One "Bond for Examination of Imported Tea" showed 332 packages of Japanese tea weighing 26,390 pounds. The customs duty at ten cents per pound totaled $2,639.

Four women are seated at a long work table in a warehouse room. One is holding a bag under a small funnel at the base of a large machine. On the side of the machine, above the woman’s head, is a scale enclosed in a metal box with a glass window. William J. Klauer Collection. Center for Dubuque History, Loras College.

Between 1893 and 1894, Joseph F. McFadden joined the business and the company relocated to 72-78 South Main. The majority of the business was carried out in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. A "small army" of traveling salesmen were employed as were twenty-five men assigned just to roasting coffee. (1)

Stiff competition and no buyer for the company led to its closing in 1941.

The 1899-1900 Dubuque City Directory listed 72-78 S. Main

The 1915 Dubuque City Directory listed 227 1st as the address.

The 1939 Dubuque City Directory listed 145 W. 1st.

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Source:

1. "Coffee, Spices and Extracts," Times Journal, September 30, 1906, p. 19

The Industries of Dubuque: Her Relations as a Trade Center, Dubuque: J. M. Elster and Company, Publishers, 1887, p. 68

Burggraaf, Mike and Southard, Tom. The Antique Bottles of Iowa. Northfield, OH: Ohio Wholesale Copy Service, 1998

Trade Card-inside

Trade Card-outside

Stand up trade card. Photo courtesy: Bob Johnsen

Photo courtesy: Bob Johnsen

Coffee canister sold by the McFadden Coffee and Spice Company. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Flavoring bottle. Photo courtesy: Jim Massey

Advertisement from 1926. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding.

Wooden case used by the company. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding.

Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Coffee canister sold by the McFadden Coffee and Spice Company. Photo courtesy: Jim Massey

Photo courtesy: Jim Massey

Photo courtesy: Jim Massey

Photo courtesy: Jim Massey

Trade card(back)

Trade card(front)

Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

McFadden product in a unique bottle with a wire enclosure. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Trade Card (coffee)

Trade Card (coffee)

Reverse of trade card.

A two-sided flyer. If you sent 20-25cents and 10 sail boats from the wrappers of Happy Day Coffee you would receive either a children's toy coffee set or a stereoscope. Cards for the stereoscope seem to have been inside the cans of coffee.