Thursday Dec 01, 2022

ABC #045 Juan Portuondo, Otto Eisenlohr, Caleb Milne, Walter & Henrietta Garrett - Stogies, Coffin Nails, and Spittoons: Laurel Hill Tobacconists

At one time, there were more than 900 cigar makers in Philadelphia who made a sizable portion of the 7 billion cigars sold every year in the United States. 

  • Cuban native Juan Portuondo featured a top-quality cigar that was copied by many.
  • German American Otto Eisenlohr and his brothers made one of the bestselling fiver-centers in the country, the ubiquitous 'Cinco'.
  • Caleb J. Milne rented three floors of his Washington Avenue factory to a cigar company that illegally hired immigrant girls; a fire false alarm panicked them into a stampede and a stairwell of death.
  • Walter Garrett made a fortune in the snuff business which he left to his beloved wife Henrietta.  But when Henrietta died more than three decades later, nobody could find her will and literally tens of thousands of people tried to claim her fortune as their own. 

Four stories of tobacconists and their wares in the December edition of "All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories."

 

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