Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop

German immigrant Matthew Edel built the original portion in this well-preserved Blacksmith's shop in the 1880s and expanded it over time to its present size. The shop looks much as it did when Edel died in 1940 and contains most of its original equipment and tools, many of which Edel invented and fashioned himself. The site also features the Edel family house, a summer kitchen building, cisterns, an outhouse, and a shelter house that contains restrooms. The shop was preserved by Edel's heirs who donated the shop and all of the equipment and tools to the State Historical Society of Iowa to honor his legacy and serve as an educational site. Today, the shop is one of eight historical sites owned by the state of Iowa's historical society and is managed by the Historical Society of Marshall County. The site is open to the public from Memorial Day to Labor Day on the weekends.

Matthew Edel was born on June 17, 1856 in Stuttgart, Germany. Information about his youth is unavailable but he probably trained as a Blacksmith before immigrating to America with his family in 1873. They settled in Effingham, Illinois. There, Edel exhibited his talent for inventing and built a prototype of an improved mechanical reaper for harvesting grain. However, a manufacturer soon built a better one, forcing Edel to give up on his invention. He moved close to Iowa City in the late 1870s and met and married his wife, Maria. They settled in Haverhill in the early 1880s and appear to have built the original part of the shop in 1883. They lived on the second floor and the shop was on the ground floor. As his business grew, Edel enlarged the building and built the house in the early 1890s.

In addition to his regular Blacksmithing work for the area's farmers, Edel invented tools and other items, some of which he sold through the mail. These included dehorning clippers, nut pliers, metal grave markers, and a fence stretcher. Edel also patented tools including a wedge cutter and a weeding and cultivating hoe. His products were sold throughout the country including as far as Massachusetts. He was also an artist who made decorative iron cemetery crosses, which are common in Germany but rare in the United States. The shop still contains a number of them as well as wood versions to show customers.

In 1915, as a way to grow his business, Edel built an addition to house a car repair garage. He also went to automobile repair school in 1916 in Des Moines. Eventually, Edel sold gasoline and tires as well. He continued to work into his 70s. His son, Louis, operated the garage until 1952 when he moved to Waterloo. He left the Blacksmith shop as is. However, he returned in 1964 and reopened the garage on a part-time basis. On occasion he would give tours of the Blacksmith shop to area children. In April 1978, he moved to Arizona and passed away a month later. The Edel family descendants decided to donate the property to the State Historical Society. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Christian, Ralph J. "Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. March 11, 1983. https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/nrhp/text/83000391.PDF.

"Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop." State Historical Society of Iowa. Accessed January 21, 2022. https://iowaculture.gov/history/sites/matthew-edel-Blacksmith-shop.

"Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop History." State Historical Society of Iowa. Accessed January 21, 2022. https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-sites-matthewedel-sitehistory.pdf.