Have a Cigar!
Here is more about
early cigar makers. We know that in 1901 Sleepy Eye had at least four
men practicing this
craft. We have the names
of C. A. Lemke, J.B. Hacker, Otto Nothardt and Albert Wandersee. Lemke lived on the north side of Main in the block across from the old L.P. Jensen residence, and that house
was between the corner) later site of a creamery)
and the Dyckman Library.
Hecker had been employed by Lemke and in 1901 he opened his own shop. Nothardt apparently was on the North side of Main near the Radl (later Martinka) corner. At least, his saloon
was in that block. There is reason to believe that Hecker later went to New Ulm. No information has turned up so far about Wandersee, who was perhaps a relative of later Wandersees living in Sleepy Eye. In 1902 William Davison was a cigar maker, and in 1905 Albert Kaping was apparently here.
Pictures of a Lemke cigar
box show his number was 521. J. J. Schobert made Verdict Cigars, about which we know very little.
In a box of odds and ends Richard Class found at an auction there were
three documents pertaining to the manufacture of cigars by F. Berg and Son. One "collector's certificate to the manufacturer of cigars" certifies that F. Berg and Son, manufacturers of cigars in Sleepy Eye "have given bond in the sum of $1,000 Dollars, said
premises being manufactory No. 645 of this district, and
limited to the metde and
bounds as follows: one room on west side of second
story of brick veneered building situated on Lot 8 Block 26 original plat Village of Sleepy Eye Lake, Brown County" The date is April 19, 1902, at St. Paul, and the same signed
looks like "Fred
vio Baumbach." I could misread it.
A second certificate gives a new location of the manufactory, "one room on lower story east room of
a frame building situated on Lots 1, 2, and 3, Block 2, of Brackenridge's 3rd Addition
to the Village of Sleepy Eye Lake. Date is April 12, 1903.
By January
13, 1905, the business
must have prospered. That notice, still $1,000
bond and No. 645, gives this
description of the premises, "two rooms (size 12 x 18
feet) and one room (size 12 x 14 feet) on the second floor of the building situated on Lot 17 Block
25 in the City of Sleepy
Eye, Minnesota. Also, one room (size 6 x 12 feet) in the basement
of the above building for storage of tobacco." You will notice that this was issued just after Sleepy Eye had acquired
a city charter.
There is a fine
print note at the bottom
of each certificate, "Section 35.
Act of October
1, 1890, dispenses with
bond 'for each person proposed to be employed by him in making cigars' and makes the minimum amount
of bond $100." As near as I can interpret this it means that F. Berg did not
have to give bond for employees, and the father and son were bonded
together for the $1,000. These
three documents are placed
in the files in a brown ringbook with other documents and many pictures for the Brown
County Museum.
Every little town once had its cigar maker. A tiny village might have at least one. The Sleepy Eye of 1901 had several men so engaged, J.B. Hecker, C, A. Lemke, o. F. Nothardt, and Albert Wandersee. It required only a small place for this skilled hand-rolled trade. Since this is not a country for raising tobacco, except as a small hobby, the men had to import their tobacco leaves, giving them proper care as they worked with them.
At some time, a man named Schobert apparently
made cigars in Sleepy Eye. An antique
store acquired a cigar box with this name.
The first initial may be an "H" but is blurred. The second initial is "J". His name
is followed by the word "cigarmaker".
The label
"Verdict" Brand is on the box, and the information that in some way
the "Community Development Committee" was involved or was sponsoring
the maker.
If we learn nothing else, we are made aware than in early Sleepy Eye the businessmen were wideawake and willing to
lend a helping hand to new business.
