Found out my great-great grandmother was a cob smoker

[brass]

I was talking with my mom this morning about this and that. I mentioned that I host a men's smoker and my mother was quick to point out that some women smoked cigars and pipes, including here great grandmother, Rose Powel Hannah, who smoked a cob pip her entire adult life.
My mom also mentioned that she and her family would buy her great grandma Camel tobacco for Christmas, usually in bags or boxes. Grandma Rose later switched to Prince Albert, first available in boxes, then later in cans. During the Great War, Grandma Rose again got her tobacco in bags or boxes because their was no tin available due to the war effort.
I know that Camel tobacco is being sold today to the RYO crowd but could find no record of it being sold loose when Camel was established in 1907. And the tobacco was blended exclusively for camel Cigarettes, the first packaged, pre-rolled cigarettes, so I don't think it pre-dates 1907.
I'm wondering if my mother was mistaken on the brand my great-great smoked?

 

[mso489]

People worked so hard in those days, I think particularly in rural areas and in the Western U.S. women took to pipes naturally. If I remember correctly, Andrew Jackson's wife, or one of the First Ladies, smoked a cob pipe. People needed a way to stake out time to sit down and wind down, because there was always the next chore or task.

 

[huntertrw]

brass:
Pipe-smoking by women was fairly common back in your great-great grandmother's day. Somewhere in my family's archives is a sepia-toned monochrome black-and-white photograph which shows one of my late father's female forebears smoking her cob-pipe.
The first mention (which I could find) of the Camel brand on the R.J. Reynolds Website is dated 1913, not 1907. I suggest calling RJR at 336.741.5000, and asking them the question as to whether Camel was ever marketed as a loose or bagged tobacco for pipe-smokers.
I hope that you find this informtation to be helpful.

 

[johnnyreb]

Among his many siblings from a combined family my grandpa had an older half-brother whose wife smoked a corn cob pipe. We all lived in a rural area within a half mile of each other and would often gather on someone's front porch of an evening. I was just a young boy but that's when I would see her smoke it mostly; in her rocker on the porch when the chores of the day were over. She had a little pocket sewn onto her aprons to carry her pipe in. I don't remember anything about her tobacco. She probably shared with her husband. She was the only female in our family who did smoke at that time.

 

[brass]

We lived for a brief time with my grandparents. It was in a farmhouse, and with us lived aunts, uncles, and great-grandma. The women cooked 3 meals a day - breakfast, dinner and supper - on a wood stove (actually used coal). This was even in the summer, when temps would hit high 90's in South Carolina.
Water was a hand-pump on the porch. Drinking water was kept in a bucket and everyone used the same dipper when thirsty. Baths were taken on Saturdays in galvanized wash tubs - when wash tubs were used for exactly that. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a galvanized tub in decades.
Bedrooms were equipped with porcelain wash basins - often works of art - and chamber pot potties, often elegant. We had electricity but bulb hung from the ceiling by their wires. There were no fancy switches. You screwed in the bulb to turn it on, and vice versus for darkness.
In the morning we were up before sunrise and fed the livestock before we fed ourselves. Breakfasts were feasts - homemade biscuits, homemade scrapple or bacon from out on pigs, eggs from our own chiken coops, grits that were store bought but ground locally. The men needed the calories. They had already worked about 3 hours before sitting down at table. Afterwards, we went off to school, to day jobs, or to the fields. Women did more cooking, cleaning, canning, sewing and maintenance.
Hardwork and honesty was expected from all. Anything less bought disdain. I vividly remember my great grandmother, who as committed Churchgoing Baptist, usually would never say a harsh word about any living thing. But she reached her threshold of patience regarding certain neighboring farmers, saying, "Those Hemingways are trifling people. They're too lazy to make their own soap." (Names changed due to hazy memory of the writer.) Making soap involved huge metal kettles on tripods in the back yard, lye, melted pig fat and ashes saved from the fireplace. You did not want to be downwind from a kettle cooking soap.
I did learn as a youngster that stuffing uncured tobacco into a cob pipe and smoking it was a good way of making yourself sick so you could get out of school for a day.
Pipes were smoked indoors only when it was too cold or rainy. Otherwise, they were enjoyed in rocking chairs on the wrap around porch.
Times were harder, people were poorer, and health care was almost primitive compared to todays standards of living. Why do I miss it so much?
PS. I had the dates turned around. Prince Albert was established in 1907, it was Camel that debuted in 1913. Camel cigarettes were very popular. They sold 45 million their first year.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yep, Turkish tobacco, Camel was a roll your own, and I remember seeing bags of it as a kid. When you hand roll, you tend to make as hump in the middle of every one. That's how you know their smoking a Camel. Then there was "I'd walk a mile for Camel". Then they used cartoons in the 80's, Joe Cool.

 

[huntertrw]

brass:
Out of curiosity I called the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and asked your question concerning Camel. According to the woman with whom I spoke, the Camel brand was never marketed as a loose tobacco, but, rather, always as a cigarette.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

So, they never had a hump, hmmm...

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Glad you called and not me, I would have had to of given her the inquisition till she relented the truth. Ha ha!! Just kidding. I would have forgotten why I had called by the time she picked up the phone.

 

[huntertrw]

brass:
Two popular bagged tobaccos at the time were Bull Durham, a product originated by the Bull Durham Tobacco Company, and Duke's Mixture, a product of the Duke Tobacco Company, which later acquired the former. Perhaps your great-great grandmother initially smoked one of these brands?
Incidentally, the phrase which we use today to describe an amalgamation of something as a "duke's mixture" references that brand.

 

[brass]

Thanks HunterTRW. I actually tried a call during lunch and got a deadend menu. From my little research, I was sure Camel did not market tobacco previous to the cigarette.
However, it does appear that RYO tobacco under the Camel brand is being sold. However, it appears to come from Spain, so I'm not sure if RJR isn't being ripped off.
http://www.tobaccoonline.co.uk/Rolling-Tobacco/Camel-RYO/Camel-Rolling-Tobacco-from-Spain-5-cans.asp
I recall seeing Bull Durham around the grandparents house. If I recall correctly, it was in a bluish-greenish box. Of course, I wouldn't know if this is what my great-great grandmother smoked but I'm going to ask around the aunts and uncles.
Pax

 

[huntertrw]

brass:
Below please find images of the Bull Durham and Duke's Mixture bags:

I hope that these help solve the mystery!

 

[brass]

Thank you much. The bag images bring back memories.
But memory certainly isn't reliable for details going back so many years. I could have sworn Bull Durham came in sea-green like bags or boxes. I'm thinking that my vague recall was probably of either Navy Player Cut or perhaps Bugler containers.

 

[huntertrw]

brass:
A Bugler container like this?

 

[agnosticpipe]

I love to see family history like this and pipe tobacco history in general! I've delved into a fair amount of family history on both my parents sides, but found little about smoking except for a few cigarette smokers.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how it's viewed in the future, our current great, great grandchildren already have a document of their great, great grandmother (my wife) smoking a pipe, but not a cob so much as a briar. Only time will tell if these recorded memories will be treasured or looked down upon.

 

[lonestar]

Fantastic stories Brass, I really enjoyed reading them.

 

[tbradsim1]

As a child my fondest memory of tobacco was my Maternal Grandfather rolling a cigarette and pulling the strings on the bag shut with his teeth and putting bag in top pocket of his overalls.

 

[agnosticpipe]

Oops, my wife just noticed my mistake in saying we were great, great grandparents. Don't know if we'll make that, but we are great grandparents. I gotta read this stuff closer, or at least think before posting in response.

 

[foggymountain]

My grandmother was the daughter of the guy who owned the town brewery in eastern Europe. I was always proud of her for that. She had me drinking dark beer with sour cream on top. It didn't quite work. I think their sour cream was more liquid.

 

[huntertrw]

Orley:
I am certain that as grandparents you and your wife are great!