Exploring Iowa's history with cigar manufacturing

The shop was referred to as a “buckeye,” a term used before the Cuban Revolution to describe a small cigar factory, according to Cigar Aficionado. The term came from the factory’s use of tobacco from Ohio, the Buckeye State.

Despite the small shop size, it was ranked 13th of 22 other industries in the state, according to research from the University of Iowa. At the same time, the western hemisphere of the state was beginning to take advantage of the growing industry as well.

By 1868, John W. Peregoy in Council Bluffs opened a shop. Between 1862 and 1876, nine more cigar manufacturers opened for business in Des Moines.

For the most part, the cigar manufacturing shops were short-lived, small, and only employed between five and 30 workers. But, others found success and eventually turned into factories, specifically in Davenport, according to the university.

Nicholas Kuhnen, who started in Davenport in 1854, eventually expanded his business into one of the largest cigar factories in the state. By 1882, he employed nearly 300 women and men.

Ferdinand Haak, a local competitor, opened a shop in 1869 and by the 1880s employed 60 workers and produced 2 million cigars annually, according to the book A History of Cigars in Davenport, Iowa by Tom Quinn and Merle Vastine.

D. D. Myers of Dubuque opened his business in 1869 and by 1880 upgraded into a three-story business building and a similar-sized factory.

Cigars got their start here before the Civil War with entrepreneurs — mostly German immigrants — bringing tobacco in by rail in bales, boxes, and barrels from southern Illinois, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

Once here, the big leaves were torn into strips that were wrapped around other pieces of tobacco and placed moist into molds that were pressed and dried to give the cigar its uniform shape. The cigars were then packed into colorful boxes and shipped across the country. The early boxes were wood, usually covered in paper with lithograph pictures, along with the manufacturer’s name.

From 1861 through 1960, Davenport saw about 240 cigar manufacturers come and go, some small and lasting only a year or two, some large, lasting more than 50 years. At one time, Davenport was a cigar capital of the Midwest.

At its high-water mark in 1910, there were 34 manufacturers easily employing more than 1,000 people in total. The heyday in Davenport was from 1900 through the mid-1920s. In 1902, for example, the city had 60 cigar factories.

Two of the best-known manufacturers in the city were the Ferd. Haak company, located in what is now Tri-City Equipment, a big red stone building at 527 W. 4th St., and the Peter N. Jacobsen Cigar Co., located in a building at the southwest corner of 4th and Harrison streets, that now houses H&R Block and the public defender’s office.

In 1925, the Peter N. Jacobsen Cigar Co., one of the bigger establishments, made 250,000 cigars per week, employing about 250 workers.

Another manufacturer whose building still stands was M. Raphael & Sons, most recently known as Raphael’s Emporium Antiques, 628 Harrison St. By 1945, there were just two cigar manufacturers left in Davenport, and the last one, F.C. Gremmel Co. at 908 W. 2nd St., closed in 1961.

Alma Gaul contributed to this report.