There were two types of wagoner, regulars or teamsters who were full time wagoner's and militia or sharpshooters who were farmers who used their farm wagons at off peak times to make extra money hauling goods. Wagoning was a young man's profession and when he got married he usually left the road. They had the same position in early 1800s eastern folklore as the cowboy had in western lore of the late 1800s. Wagoners wore a wide brimmed hat, a homespun suit, high top boots called stogies and usually had abeard. Tradition also has it that stogies was the name given to the coarse cigars that waggoners smoked, made from Pennsylvanian tobacco, which was not of the highest quality. These cigars were said to resemble the spokes of the Conestoga wagon. Stogies were also a shortened name for the wagon.In winter a big coat, mittens and a scarf kept out the cold. They were very skilful men to harness a team on their own and then to drive it maybe well over 100 miles.
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1847, "rough, heavy kind of shoe," later "long, cheap cigar" (1873), both shortened from Conestoga, rural region near Lancaster, Pennsylvania; both items so-called because favored by drivers of the Conestoga style of covered wagons first made there.
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TIME, like Reader Parker, could be wronger, but not much, about the origin of "stogies" (March 4, p. 2). They were invented in Washington, Pa., a town equidistant from Pittsburgh and Wheeling (about 30 miles). The following is from History of Washington County, Pennsylvania by Earle R. Forrest:
"The drivers of the old Conestoga wagons were inveterate smokers, and when the government first laid a tax on tobacco, these old wagoners were worried for fear they would have to give up their beloved smokes because of the high prices which the tax made necessary. George Black, a cigar manufacturer at Washington, came to their rescue with a cheap 'roll-up' which he sold at four for a cent. These 'smokes' immediately became popular with the wagoners who first called them 'Conestoga Cigars' which was later corrupted into 'stogies' and 'tobies'. . . . George Black . . . started to make 'stogies' and cigars for the old wagoners and stagecoach drivers on the National pike about 1840. He erected a brick building on South Main Street which is still standing. . . . Many years ago his son . . . estimated that during the period from 1823 to 1853 Black manufactured twenty-five million 'tobies,' which sold at $2.50 per thousand. These were packed in barrels and hogsheads and shipped to all parts of the country after their fame had spread."
Forrest was a pretty careful historian and he was acquainted with the Black family. Incidentally, many years ago when I worked in a Washington drug store, the best seller at the cigar counter was an "Ohio Flat," a variation with the damndest shape you ever saw.
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1847, "rough, heavy kind of shoe," later "long, cheap cigar" (1873), both shortened from Conestoga, rural region near Lancaster, Pennsylvania; both items so-called because favored by drivers of the Conestoga style of covered wagons first made there.
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TIME, like Reader Parker, could be wronger, but not much, about the origin of "stogies" (March 4, p. 2). They were invented in Washington, Pa., a town equidistant from Pittsburgh and Wheeling (about 30 miles). The following is from History of Washington County, Pennsylvania by Earle R. Forrest:
"The drivers of the old Conestoga wagons were inveterate smokers, and when the government first laid a tax on tobacco, these old wagoners were worried for fear they would have to give up their beloved smokes because of the high prices which the tax made necessary. George Black, a cigar manufacturer at Washington, came to their rescue with a cheap 'roll-up' which he sold at four for a cent. These 'smokes' immediately became popular with the wagoners who first called them 'Conestoga Cigars' which was later corrupted into 'stogies' and 'tobies'. . . . George Black . . . started to make 'stogies' and cigars for the old wagoners and stagecoach drivers on the National pike about 1840. He erected a brick building on South Main Street which is still standing. . . . Many years ago his son . . . estimated that during the period from 1823 to 1853 Black manufactured twenty-five million 'tobies,' which sold at $2.50 per thousand. These were packed in barrels and hogsheads and shipped to all parts of the country after their fame had spread."
Forrest was a pretty careful historian and he was acquainted with the Black family. Incidentally, many years ago when I worked in a Washington drug store, the best seller at the cigar counter was an "Ohio Flat," a variation with the damndest shape you ever saw.
