Tobacco Culture in this Area, York County, South Carolina

Tobacco Culture in this Area
By: Louise Pettus

Most people nowadays are not aware that this area was once a producer of tobacco for export to Europe. Before the Revolution there was a tobacco warehouse and inspection station built in York County on Col. William Hill’s property in Bethel township.

The South Carolina provincial government had comprehensive laws governing the preparation and inspection of the “stinking weed” as King James II once called it.

William Stevenson, an Irish immigrant who settled in Chester County in 1772, built up a sizable business hauling local products such as “deer skins, venison, ham, bacon, butter, lard, tobacco and indigo” to Charleston. Stevenson exchanged these goods for merchandise from Europe and rum from the Caribbean.

Further evidence of tobacco production locally may be found in the will of Robert Crawford of Lancaster District. One item in his 1800 will was “three Hogshead of tobacco lying in Charleston and three at home to be sold by my executors to the best advantage. . .” (A hogshead was a very large barrel often equipped with wheels and pulled by a horse. The average net weight of a hogshead was 1,000 lbs.)

But the invention of the cotton gin in 1794 changed matters. By 1820 cotton dominated the export market. Still, there was local demand for tobacco as demonstrated by entries in old account books.

William Elliott White, the builder of Fort Mill’s White Homestead, had a store and sold tobacco among other goods. An 1829 ledger in the Close family archives reveals items such as James McKee, Esq. purchasing 2 and 1/2 lbs for 50 cents. James Knox bought 6 lbs for $1.

Perhaps some of the tobacco sold in White’s Store was pipe tobacco and some was “plug” or chewing tobacco. There was not a single entry for snuff, a tobacco powder that in the colonial era was generally sniffed but in later years was more likely “dipped” by placing the powder between the lower lip and the gum.

The use of tobacco was at a low ebb until the War with Mexico. When U. S. Army soldiers encountered the richer and darker tobacco of Mexico they were quickly turned into smokers.

The first American manufactured cigarettes came out in 1860. The most popular brand was Bull Durham.

During the Civil War, both the Union and Confederate armies received tobacco rations. Union soldiers liked the milder Southern tobacco and often made southern tobacco warehouses major targets for raids. Confederate soldiers wrote letters begging their home folk to send them tobacco to trade with Yankee soldiers for food, especially coffee.

In the late 1880s cotton had so glutted the market as to reduce the price to as little as 5 cents a pound. Farmers began casting about for other crops. F. M. Rogers, a Florence farmer and publicist, started a hard-hitting campaign to have tobacco culture replace cotton culture. The Pee Dee success in reviving tobacco as a major crop also attracted farmers across the Piedmont.

In 1883 Dr. J. E. Massey set up a tobacco factory in the back of his Fort Mill drug store. Using a “Waxhaw Belle” label on a small cotton sack, Dr. Massey sold his tobacco for 5 cents a package. However, it was too troublesome and Dr. Massey abandoned his fledgling enterprise after one season.

In 1887 George Conway set up a small factory to produce smoking tobacco in Rock Hill. The tobacco was cured, shredded and made ready to be rolled in cigarette papers. Local boosters praised Conway’s tobacco as “nice and fragrant.” (One of his brand names was “Winthrop Girl.”)The tobacco was grown within 5 miles of Yorkville according to the Yorkville Enquirer.

Conway lasted longer than Dr. Massey but soon found that he could not compete with James B. Duke, R. J. Reynolds or the other North Carolina entrepreneurs.