Jubal Early and Pennsylvania Cigars

Close, But No Cigar: Tobacco Usage During the Civil War Era

(Library of Congress)

(Benjamin M. Roy, Gettysburg College) ...Captain Frank Donaldson of the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry tried his first chew of tobacco during the battle of Chancellorsville. He was tired, hungry, and worst of all, out of tobacco for his pipe. Donaldson decided to try chewing tobacco out of desperation. He hoped it might satiate his riotous stomach and reinvigorate his exhausted mind. Continued

The History, Manufacture, and Use of Clay Pipes

(Smokingpipes.com) Long before meerschaum and briar were utilized as pipe-making mediums, clay was the primary material used to make pipes. Clay pipes were at one time ubiquitous, often smoked in taverns, churches, and homes, and even after meerschaum became available, they were the choice of many because meerschaum was expensive. 

Clay pipes have been smoked for centuries and modern incarnations are nearly identical to early examples from hundreds of years ago in regard to the materials used and manufacturing methods. In addition to their classic appeal, clay pipes require no break-in and are renowned for their high level of heat resistance and flavor-neutral smoking qualities. Continued

Vintage Tobacco Tins

MLK Worked Two Summers on Simsbury Tobacco Farm

Connecticut Shade Tobacco

(nbcconnecticut.com) After testing junior year in high school in hopes to qualify for early admission to Morehouse College in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr. left the segregated South to work two summers on a Simsbury tobacco farm. Continued

How to fill you pipe with spun tobacco

Blending Tobaccos: Maryland

The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa

Ireland's Tobacco

Pipe and Tamper: A short history on the Radice Tobacco Pipe.

History of Dr. Grabow Pipes

A History of Burley Tobacco

(Tobacco Farmer Newsletter) I am very happy to let you know that I have recently helped write a short history of burley in Kentucky and its neighboring states. I and my co-author Billy Yeargin, tobacco historian and faculty member at Duke University, named the book The Bluegrass and Beyond to signify that white burley first appeared in the Bluegrass but has moved well beyond that area since. 

The core of the book is an oral history section composed of interviews with 14 burley tobacco growers who have grown the crop long enough to have special insights on burley pro-duction. 

And Billy has updated his popular essay on the auction marketing system over the history of American tobacco and uses it to end the book. If you would like a copy, the price is $20, plus $8 shipping and handling for those delivered by the US Postal Service (alternate delivery methods can be discussed). To order, write to me--Chris Bickers--at 7413 Six Forks Rd., No. 126, Raleigh NC 27615. Questions? Call me at 919 789 4631 or email me at chrisbickers@gmail.com.

Growing Tobacco In Early America

10 Things To Know About Candela—Or Green—Cigars

(Cigar Aficionado) ... They Once Were The Powerhouses Of The Humidor. Green cigars spent many years as the most popular type of cigars sold in America. They were so popular in the U.S. they became known as American Market Selection smokes. Continued

The Black Patch Tobacco Wars

(smokingpipes.com) The Black Patch Tobacco Wars is the name given to a violent episode in American history that took place among 30 counties in southwestern Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee at the turn of the 20th century. The unrest was over tobacco and its prices, and about the way growers fought back against the corporate monopoly that was ruining them, and about the desperation of people faced with losing their homes, their livelihoods, and their heritage. Continued

Cigar Industry Report: Edition 404

(Cigar Coop) The Cigar Industry Report is a one-stop place to catch up on the activity here at Cigar Coop. It is a combination of the news reports, cigar reviews, and assessment updates we do throughout the week. In addition, each week we will look back at Cigar Coop history. Continued

The History of Pipe Design: France and England

(Smokingpipes.com) ... We start in St. Claude, France, c. 1850. The Comoy's pipe factory, established by Francois Comoy roughly 30 years prior, had made a name for itself fashioning pipes from clay and boxwood for Napoleon's armies. Around 1850, however, the factory began producing pipes out of briar, having recognized the wood's superior smoking qualities and unknowingly establishing a precedent for pipe making that would endure turns of centuries. From that point, St. Claude would become the source of briar-pipe making through the rest of the 19th century, with tributaries eventually expanding to other cities and into other countries. Continued

Player’s Navy Cut Flake, “The best there is.”

(Dutch Pipe Smoker) ... First some history about the manufacturer, John Player & Sons. The man himself, John Player was born in Saffron Walden in Essex in 1839. In 1862 he came to Nottingham and some years later began a shop on Beastmarket Hill where he sold agricultural manures and seeds. As an extra income he also sold pre-wrapped tobacco. 

That went so well that it soon became his main business. So in 1877 he bought the tobacco factory from William Wright in the Broad Marsh, began manufacturing tobaccos and cigarettes and opened 2 more shops. Continued

Perique Tobacco - Ag Minute

Quintessentially American: Missouri Meerschaum Co.

(Tobacco Business) Mom. Baseball. Apple pie. These three things have traditionally been viewed as the quintessential essence of the United States. By 1860, the phrase “as American as apple pie” was already in use. By World War II, when asked why they were fighting in the war, American GIs often responded, “for mom and apple pie,” and the phrase became “as American as mom and apple pie.” Baseball and hotdogs—and Chevrolet, for that matter—got thrown into the mix in 1974 when an advertising campaign declared Chevys “as American as baseball, hotdogs and apple pie.” One wonders what Chevy had against mothers. Of course, like so much iconography and lore, these sayings aren’t exactly steeped in fact. Continued


For More on its earliest origins see: Who Invented the Corn Cob Pipe?