The Pilot-Tribune's Bicentennial picture this week is the old Blair Horsecollar [sic] factory and the men who worked there.

The building and workers are shown above.  The picture is part of a collection provided by Ann Huber, wife of Judge Walter G. Huber.

Many of Blair's older residents remember the Blair Horse Collar factory which was in the building now occupied by Bill Tripp's Super Service at fifteenth and Washington Streets, but the picture shown above is a factor which was located several blocks east in the block east of the Legion Club. (NOTE:  This location is not correct.)  The manufacture of horse collars is now virtually extinct, but in 1890, when this picture was taken, horse collars, were as important to the area's economy as tires for automobiles are today.  The factory made the "separable" horse collar which was adjustable to the size of the horse. A perfectly fitting collar around the chest and front shoulders of a horse had a lot to do with the amount it could pull and length of time it could work.

In those days almost everything that moved was pulled by horses and every horse had to have a collar.

The younger generation would scarcely recognize a horse collar because most folks seldom contact horses or harnesses, but they would find that horse collars and the accompanying hames and traces are quite an ingenious arrangement of straps and buckles. 

Making horse collars was big business back at the turn of the century as the crew standing in front of the old horse collar will indicate.

The building pictured above burned down two years later in 1892.  After some years, the site became the location of the Blair Canning Co. plant which became another of the flourishing Blair industries of former years. (NOTE:  This location is not correct.)