donald farabee Tobacco Industry Collection
Artifacts from Kentucky’s tobacco manufacturing industry donated to the Frazier History Museum’s permanent collection in memory of Donald Farabee.
Harry Weissinger Tobacco Company (c. 1860-1915). Cast iron tobacco cutter with rounded handle. Inscription “Burr-Oak, Old Kentucky (on reverse), Harry Wiessinger Tobacco Co Louisville, KY”
Hand Sealing Press, Louisville Loose Leaf Tobacco Company, c. 1940
This cast iron hand sealing press would have been used to create custom embossed seals for corporate documents. The seal on this particular press, which dates to the 1940s, contains the text: “Burley Tobacco Warehouse Camp Taylor, KY Corporate Seal.” At the time, the Louisville Loose Leaf Tobacco Company operated the burley warehouses at Camp Taylor.
Quail Cigar Box, 19th c.
The John T. Stier & Son company manufactured tobacco products in Louisville from the 1870s to the start of the 1900s during the height of cigar manufacturing. This Quail label is an excellent example of the colorfully printed advertising labels commonly used by companies to encourage sales. The cigar business was a very lucrative enterprise at the turn of the century. As this box reads, “A standard of Excellence for over Forty Years,” it is likely this particular cigar box was produced around 1910-1915. The Quail label was one of the J.T.S & Son’s major brands until acquired by George and Harold Schroer in the decades that followed, which can be attributed in part to John T. Stier Jr.’s death in 1924 and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression.
John T. Stier & Sons Cigar Company (c. 1870-1920). 50-count wooden cigar box with printed label, “Quail Perfecto.”
P.J. Sorg Tobacco Cutter, 19th c.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, grocers and shopkeepers would have used tobacco cutters such as this one to cut portions of plug tobacco for their customers. At the time, plug tobacco was produced in blocks that required one to measure and cut the desired portion by hand. Tobacco companies would include cutters for free with bulk purchases of tobacco, which is why the names of companies are often inscribed on the tool as an advertisement.
The P.J. Sorg Tobacco Company (1877-1912) manufactured this simple, cleaver-style tobacco cutter that would have been used by people in their homes or small shops, as opposed to the larger, “guillotine-style” cutters used by grocers that could measure tobacco more precisely. This “spear head” cutter with a pointed base is characteristic of the company, whose brand was “the home of the spear head plug tobacco.”
While the P.J. Sorg Tobacco Company operated out of Ohio, people in Kentucky likely made up a significant portion of its customer base in addition to supplying tobacco leaves, given Kentucky’s history as one of the highest producers of tobacco in the country. The P.J. Sorg tobacco cutter is one of many artifacts in the Donald Farabee Collection that reflect the history of the tobacco industry and culture both in Kentucky and regionally.
P.J. Sorg Tobacco Company (1877-1912). Red tobacco cutter with arrow-point base. Inscription “Spear Head, The P.J. Sorg Tobacco Co.”
Harry weissinger ‘burr oak’ tobacco cutter, 19th c.
Harry Weissinger was born in 1842 in Louisville, Kentucky on land that is now Central Park. As a young man he fought in the Civil War before starting a successful tobacco company in Louisville, the Harry W. Weissinger Tobacco Company. This cast iron tobacco cutter produced by his company would have been used by grocers or other tobacco sellers to measure and cut tobacco. The image below shows the one and two inch line markings that would have helped the cutter achieve an exact measurement, indicating its higher quality and capability.