Hand Rolled Cigars in Territorial Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Territorial Museum has in our collection cigar making equipment and photographs from the Traband cigar factor, 205 W. Oklahoma Ave. owned and operated by Adam Traband. There was a cigar factory in Guthrie? Yes, and Traband was not the only one; I. Segal operated the New York cigar factory and John Sampsels’ Harmony cigar.
According to 1900 census records, Oklahoma Territory claimed Seventeen cigar manufacturers. Combined these manufacturers employed around fifty people, while men filled the majority of the positions, women and children accounted for about twenty percent of employees. Factory owners would provide the tobacco and journeymen cigar makers provided the tools and expertise. All major cities and many towns in the territory had cigar factories.
A cigar consists of a wrapper, a binder and filler. The wrapper is the outer leaf of the cigar cover and uses unblemished leaves. The binder holds the cigar together and the filler adds the flavor. The wrapper, binder, and filler tend to be from different varieties to achieve certain flavor profiles.
“Cigar shops were always dusty from the tobacco stems and powdered leaves. Benches and work tables were not designed to enable the workmen to adjust bodies and arms comfortably to the work surface. Each workman supplied his own cutting board of lignum vitae and knife blade.”
Samuel Gompers
American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers began his rise in organized labor as a cigar maker in New York City. Labor in the cigar industry unionized as early as the 1850’s in response to cheap labor flooding in from the German states. Unions worked to increase wages, shorten workdays, provide for better working conditions, and to block cheap immigrant labor.
On November 10, 1900 on orders from the Oklahoma City local of the International Cigar Makers Union, workers went on strike at the Traband cigar factory. The Union looked to increase the per 1000 rate from $9.00 to $12.00, in keeping with other union shops. Traband denounced the strike as being instigated by disgruntled employees whom he had let go and the attempts of the union to run his business from Oklahoma City. Within a few days the Union rate was established at the Traband factory.
In some factories in the Caribbean and other places in the United States workers would elect a “Lector,” a reader who would read newspapers, books, and political pamphlets to their fellow workers to stimulate their minds.
Cigarettes supplanted cigars as the tobacco of choice in the 1920’s and brought about the demise of the small town cigar factories.
SURGEON GENERAL WARNING: Cigar Smoking Can Cause Lung Cancer And Heart Disease. … SURGEON GENERAL WARNING: Tobacco Use Increases The Risk Of Infertility, Stillbirth, And Low Birth Weight. SURGEON GENERAL WARNING: Tobacco Smoke Increases The Risk Of Lung Cancer And Heart Disease, Even In Nonsmokers.
