Category: Uncategorized
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Tobacco Tags
When unscrupulous merchants placed cheap, lower-quality tobacco products in the empty wooden boxes of higher-end products to sell, tobacco manufacturers in the late 19th century faced a problem. Since all tobacco products essentially looked the same, how could they differentiate their plug and twist tobacco products from the competition? Manufacturers needed to find a solution…
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An Exaggeration of Nastiness
In 1842, on his first of two visits to the United States, Charles Dickens was appalled by the American habit of tobacco chewing and the resulting spitting in public as he traveled South and West. In his travelogue, American Notes, he wrote, “But in some parts, this custom (tobacco chewing and spitting) is inseparably mixed…
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C.A. Raine & Co.’s Trade Cards
Until the 1870s, color images were rare. Color was mostly limited to items that could be painted, painstakingly by an artist or artisan. For the public, the world of the printed image was black and white. After the Civil War, advances in printing, chromolithography, allowed for beautiful color images to be created cheaply. Signage, labels…
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Who was J.M. Brower?
“…J. M. Brower started me in the manufacturing of tobacco, giving me 1/3 net profit, the firm being C. A. Raine & Co. We continued business under many difficulties and without success until 1878, when Mr. Brower sold out lock, stock, and barrel.” -From Charles Anderson Raine’s Autobiography In his autobiography, Charles Anderson Raine makes…
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Treasures in The Valentine Museum
Remnants of the C.A. Raine & Co. tobacco manufacturing operation are difficult to find, as if the artifacts were scattered to the wind. As luck would have it, a group of caddy labels or crate labels survived and are now in the collection of the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Caddy labels were affixed to…
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Who was C.A. Raine?
I posted C.A. Raine’s autobiography earlier but , after a few questions from relatives, I want to post this quick summary of that longer document. -Dale Charles Anderson Raine or C.A. Raine (1834-1902) is my 3X great grandfather. Fortunately, he wrote an autobiography at the end of his life. Without it, most of the details…
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Dip, Twist, Chew, Smoke
When you think of chewing tobacco today, if you do at all, you might picture Red Man (now politely called America’s Best) or Beech Nut, loose-leaf tobacco pieces in a foil-lined pouch. When I was a kid in the 1980s, every local baseball field was littered with black wads of the stuff, spit out by…
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C.A. Raine’s Autobiography
This autobiography is an absolute gift to C.A. Raine’s descendants. –Dale Charles Anderson Raine (28 Jun 1841 – 4 Mar 1902) written in Danville, Va., 11 Feb. 1897. I am fifty five and a half years old – my physical strength is almost wasted – but all the faculties of my mind are as strong…
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Why?
My mom, maiden name Elizabeth Raine Gee, and me circa 1976. When I was about 12 years old, my mom gave me a copy of Charles Anderson Raine’s autobiography. As a kid who devoured history, I was fascinated to read about my ancestor’s life, especially his service in the Civil War. About 15 years ago,…