Cigars?

[santee]

I know they were available back then (1880s), but where were they manufactured? Here in the states?
AND, how did they keep them fresh (no electronic humidors like today)?

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I know they were available back then (1880s), but where were they manufactured? Here in the states?
AND, how did they keep them fresh (no electronic humidors like today)?

I can't answer your questions, but perhaps you could ask Mr. Google for help.

I do know that Marsh (Wheeling) was around "back in the day" and they are still in business - their HQ is (believe it or don't) in Frankfort, Indiana.  (Indiana isn't a big tobacco-producing state)

I believe MW is the oldest manufacturer STILL in business: they were established in 1840.

Here's their website: http://www.broadleafcigars.com/marsh.htm

[St. George]

They were manufactured in the tobacco-growing states and even in New York.

Shipped fresh and smoked fairly quickly by a population that wholeheartedly embraced 'Tobacco' -  - 'most' didn't need to be 'kept' as they are, today - but the humidor of the time had a small moisture holding pad that sufficed.

There are numerous websites devoted to 'tobaccoania' and to smoking that go into great detail as to styles, shapes, the leaf, cigar cutters and even humidors.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Dr. Bob]

SHB,

Thanks for the link!  Very informative!

[Steel Horse Bailey]

SHB,

Thanks for the link!  Very informative!

Glad to help, mi compadre'.

[Delmonico]

Lincoln Nebraska even had at least one cigar factory in the latter half of the 19th century.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

My Great Aunt & Uncle lived down the block from the Marsh Wheeling factory in Wheeling, W. Va when I was small. When we visited, We'd walk past there on the way to the store. My great uncle was big cigar smoker. The term " Stogie" , used in reference to a cigar, was a shortened version of one of M-W's main products, the " Conestoga"...........Buck

[Texas Lawdog]

Interesting info, Buck.

[Ranger RB]

There are still small tobacco farms in Western Massachusetts. 
RB

[Dr. Bob]

There are quite a few tobacco farms NW of Kansas City and a tobacco sale barn in Weston, MO.  [Just across the Missouri river from Fort Leavenworth, KS.]  Weston is also the home of the McCormick distillery, in continuous operation since the 1850's.

Cigars go at least as far back as the Napoleonic wars.  They were mostly cheroots, small tapered cigars with both ends open.  You can still buy these at most places that sell cigars.

[santee]

Thanks for all the great info, fellas!

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Believe it or not, Canada grows tobacco at Tillsonburg Ontario.  As it was a 20th century industry, I have no idea about cigars.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:crchtFeXJIsJ:www.fredsphoto.on.ca/tburg.htm+Tilsonburg+tobacco&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=

Ranger RB; Note the Massachusetts connection.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:67DhIHFAxdMJ:tobaccodocuments.org/ness/2723.html%3Fzoom%3D750%26ocr_position%3Dabove_foramatted%26start_page%3D21+Tilsonburg+cigars&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

Scroll down to pages 26 to 30.  Canada has been exporting tobacco since 1926.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:XiNBf8uJaYQJ:www.civilization.ca/tresors/cigares/cigarbox020e.html+Canada+history+cigars&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

The above link shows that cigar boxes in collections go back to the 1880's, and are very common by about 1897.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:hrQlZAA-kogJ:www.correnticigars.com/history.php+Canada+history+cigars&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=16&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

This link is from a Danish company dating back to 1883, but moved to Canada in 1956.  As part of their corporate developement they purchased the Hernandez Cuban Cigar Company, that had been rolling Cuban cigars since the 19th century.

And I haven't smoked a cigar in almost 35 years!

[Kentuckian]

I know it's an old thread, but I'm new here...

Cuban Cigars were being imported into the US as far back as the 1840s. I have an 1860 Newspaper ad from a Louisville Newspaper advertising over 10,000 Cuban cigars just arrived for just one store in downtown Louisville. They even listed a few of the brands (Partagas was on there- they're still around).

About any hand rolled cigar will do for the period. You just have to watch for a few of the sizes that weren't around at the time (such as Robustos). Torpedoes are a good shape for the bigger cigars. There's a picture of a few sealed in glass for a World Exhibition during the 1850s. Homogenized Wrapper cigars are a little later (the type of wrapper that's on Swisher sweets etc. that looks like brown wrapping paper instead of a tobacco leaf, used on machine made cigars).

They were skilled rollers at the time, so every cigar doesn't have to look like a "Backwoods". 

[santee]

Good info. I often see antique glass jars that held them, and wonder if that kept them very fresh. My bet would be no, and if they sat around in there long enough would get pretty dry.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Those jars probably had a rubber ring and a wire bail type latch(?) system on them. Might have kept things fresh for awhile......Buck

[Leo Tanner]

It's funny how so many cigar plants were founded in non tobacco producing areas.  The tobacco was just sent into the more industrialized areas of the nation for production.  In a big way, the cigar is responsible for the birth of labor unions in this country by way of Samuel Gompers.

[RattlesnakeJack]

For a "British Empire" contribution to this thread, here is my favorite Rudyard Kipling poem:

THE BETROTHED

"You must choose between me and your cigar."
--BREACH OF PROMISE CASE, CIRCA 1885.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,
For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.

We quarrelled about Havanas -- we fought o'er a good cheroot,
And I know she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.

Open the old cigar-box -- let me consider a space;
In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face.

Maggie is pretty to look at -- Maggie's a loving lass,
But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle, the truest of loves must pass.

There's peace in a Larranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay;
But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away --

Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown --
But I could not throw away Maggie for fear o' the talk o' the town!

Maggie, my wife at fifty -- grey and dour and old --
With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold!

And the light of Days that have Been the dark of the Days that Are,
And Love's torch stinking and stale, like the butt of a dead cigar --

The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket --
With never a new one to light tho' it's charred and black to the socket!

Open the old cigar-box -- let me consider a while.
Here is a mild Manila -- there is a wifely smile.

Which is the better portion -- bondage bought with a ring,
Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?

Counsellors cunning and silent -- comforters true and tried,
And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?

Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,

This will the fifty give me, asking nought in return,
With only a Suttee's passion -- to do their duty and burn.

This will the fifty give me. When they are spent and dead,
Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.

The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,
When they hear my harem is empty will send me my brides again.

I will take no heed to their raiment, nor food for their mouths withal,
So long as the gulls are nesting, so long as the showers fall.

I will scent 'em with best vanilla, with tea will I temper their hides,
And the Moor and the Mormon shall envy who read of the tale of my brides.

For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between
The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen.

And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear,
But I have been Priest of Cabanas a matter of seven year;

And the gloom of my bachelor days is flecked with the cheery light
Of stumps that I burned to Friendship and Pleasure and Work and Fight.

And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove,
But the only light on the marshes is the Will-o'-the-Wisp of Love.

Will it see me safe through my journey or leave me bogged in the mire?
Since a puff of tobacco can cloud it, shall I follow the fitful fire?

Open the old cigar-box -- let me consider anew --
Old friends, and who is Maggie that I should abandon you?

A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke;
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.

Light me another Cuba -- I hold to my first-sworn vows.
If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for Spouse!


(I believe I'll step out on the back verandah and enjoy a cigar!  (And 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' be d*amned!)

[Dr. Bob]

Thanks to you RJR!   

[Kentuckian]

The above link shows that cigar boxes in collections go back to the 1880's, and are very common by about 1897.

I was at the Steamboat Arabia Museum (www.1856.com) a few years back. They were restoring Cigars boxes (Cuban) that were being shipped out west by the Boat when it went down in 1856 outside of Kansas City. A few were slide lid boxes like a type you can find in modern cigar shops.If I remember correctly they also had the lift lids like you find today too.

If you've never been, it's one of the best Artifact Museums you will ever go to. I know it's a little earlier of a period than most people here deal with, but it's still interesting. It went down with tons and tons of cargo such as clothing, boots & rubber shoes, FOOD still in the bottles, hardware/tools like you wouldn't believe and tons of other things. It's a very good research resource for common-everyday items.

[RattlesnakeJack]

I was at the Steamboat Arabia Museum (www.1856.com) a few years back.  ......
If you've never been, it's one of the best Artifact Museums you will ever go to.

I certainly agree! 

They even have a display featuring the skeleton of the only fatality of the sinking!