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Edwards Manufacturing Company
| Name: | Edwards Manufacturing Company |
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| Dates: |
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1918 - 1930 (Life/Active Dates)
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| Biography/History: | The Edwards company made ready-to-wear clothing in Clinton, Iowa before 1918, when then-owner, Fred Rixon, moved the company to Spokane. In January 1927, Rixon sold to Beaucie J. Kemp, who built a large one-story factory building at 2203 N. Division and sent salesmen throughout the Western states. According to advertisements, the company’s most successful products were “Miss Spokane wash dresses” at $1 to $3 each– wash-and-wear casual dresses “for house, garden, porch and street wear,” including matching aprons. By mid-1928 they were sold in almost every state west of the Mississippi. In 1931 the company name changed from Edwards Manufacturing Company to Miss Spokane Inc., but success was short-lived. After Kemp was arrested on a morality charge in 1933, the factory closed and the building sold to Hennessey-Calloway Funeral Directors. |