Remembering the local cigar king

(myjournalcourier.com) Smoke-free businesses were the stuff of pipe dreams a few generations ago. That was especially true in Jacksonville [Illinois], where the tobacco industry once flourished.
In fact, for many years, the aristocrats of the working class in Morgan County were the cigar makers, who were present in Jacksonville at least as far back as 1843. Benjamin Pyatt is credited with being the city’s first cigar maker, and a nephew and one-time employee of Pyatt — Robert T. Cassell — became one of Jacksonville’s best-known cigar manufacturers. Continued