Interview with J. Thomas Ryan of Swisher Cigars

(jaxdailyrecord.com) ... The plant moved here in 1924 and the Swisher family was involved in the business at the time. They had the plant in Toledo, Ohio. The story is that Carl Swisher came to Jacksonville because a lot of the tobacco that we were using in some of our products came from Florida.

The story goes that the mayor was driving down the street and he (Swisher) was interested in talking to him. He jumped on his running board and was able to get an audience with the mayor and they hit it off pretty good. Continued