Tobacco History in Stoughton
With the
decline of wheat farming in this area, a new crop appeared. Tobacco.
This was a cash crop. Just a few
good years at favorable prices promised release from the burden of debt.
The
Scandinavians especially welcomed the crop.
Though it was new to them, they were willing to learn its secrets. They had large families with great capacity
for hard work. In addition, they could
get cheap help from the great flood of immigrants. The Stoughton area became the center of the
tobacco industry in southern Wisconsin.
Grading, or
sorting, the tobacco gave employment to numerous Stoughton people, women
especially. The men worked at the shops
and the women at the warehouses.
Stoughton prospered.
Excerpts
taken from Oak Opening, The Story of Stoughton, by Ferd Homme
There were
many tobacco farmers around Stoughton and many of these farmers also hired
Stoughtonites, especially during the planting and harvesting seasons.
Many of our teenagers also spent parts of their summers harvesting
tobacco.
All the warehouses were built during the years 1877 and 1880. The first tobacco bought by a local buyer was by Matthew Johnson in 1871. For several years he was the only buyer. In 1877 Mr. James S. Hutson erected a warehouse near the depot and soon after seven others were built, by Mr. M. Oppenheimer, Bunzel and Dormit, and Johnson and Turner. From “Early History of Stoughton (1847-1882)” by Ada B Thompson
The warehouses had a close
proximity to the railroad tracks and depot and during the prime tobacco days there
were seventeen or eighteen tobacco warehouses,
but only four remain today.
Click the address below for more information
on each remaining site. (once link available it will be blue)
515 E. Main St. - Turner, Dearborn and Atkinson
524 E. Main St. - Levi Kittleson, O.K. Roe, later L.B. Carl
567 E. Main St. - O.C. Lee Tobacco, later warehouse for Greig Machine
E. Main St.
– Corner of Coffee Street - American Tobacco
