In fact, for many years, the aristocrats of the working class in Jacksonville were the cigar makers, who were present in the city at least as early as 1843.
Benjamin Pyatt is credited with being the city”s first cigar maker, and a nephew and one-time employee of Pyatt — Robert T. Cassell — became one of Jacksonville’s best-known cigar manufacturers.
In 1932, Cassell celebrated his 50th anniversary of opening a cigar factory.
“The Cassell cigar store has been headquarters for the man in the city and the man from the farm,” wrote a Journal reporter in 1932. “Here can always be found a clientele who are ready to welcome the candidate for office, discuss the pros and cons of matters political, the latest doings in the world of sport and affairs of general moment.”
Cassell learned the cigar-making business while working for W.H. Romerman and then B. Pyatt & Son in the 1870s and the early 1880s. On April 1, 1882, Cassell and his brother, Lyman, bought Romerman’s old business from Buker Martin.
At first, the Cassell brothers made cigars in a back room on the second floor of a building at 214 S. Main St., where a city parking is now located.
The business moved a couple of times before establishing its headquarters at 6 W. Side Square, next to Ayers bank. in 1896. The Cassell cigar store remained in that location until 1927, when the J.C. Penney Co. remodeled the Cassell building and an adjacent structure for a department store.
The Cassell firm made many brands of cigars, most notably the “Short Run” and the “Big Run” brands. When the Cassell brothers began their business, they made the “Cheerup,” a 5-cent cigar.
Later, the “Leading Lady,” another 5-cent cigar, replaced the “Cheerup,” and in 1884, the Cassells began making “Big Run” cigars.
The “Big Run” box label illustrated different modes of transportation, including the sailing ship, steamboat, express train, bicycle and the automobile.
The Cassell cigar store moved back to South Main Street when the firm’s building on the square was remodeled in 1927.
In January 1936, Cassell went to his cigar store, became ill, returned home to 401 W. Beecher Ave., and died. He was 74.
Cassell displayed two mottoes in his cigar store that express his feelings about tobacco and the life of a businessman.
The inscription about tobacco read: “When all things were made, none were made better than tobacco; a lone man’s companion; a bachelor’s friend; a hungry man’s food; a sad man’s cordial; a wakeful man’s sleep; and a chilly man’s fire. There is no herb like unto it under the canopy of heaven.”
Titled “What Next?,” Cassell’s other motto read: “I have been here in business a long time. I have been cussed and discussed, boycotted, talked about, lied about, lied to, hung up, held up and robbed, and the only reason I am staying in business now is to see what the hell is going to happen next.”
This Way We Were story was first published April 16, 2007.
Resource: http://myjournalcourier.com/news/90962/recalling-the-hey-day-of-cigar-makers
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