America’s Golden Age of Tobacco in Old Photos

Lynchburg has a long history in American tobacco history.

In 1785, John Lynch, the founder of this mountain city, built his first tobacco leaf warehouse here. Just a year after the Civil War ended, Lynchburg became the world's largest loose-leaf tobacco trading market. The central Virginia region cultivated and sold dark-fired tobacco, which was fire-cured and available in late autumn. During this time, the tobacco leaf warehouses in downtown Lynchburg were filled with buyers, tobacco farmers, and bundles of tobacco leaves.

However, with the decline in smoking behavior and the decrease in demand for the tobacco industry, the tobacco leaf warehouses in Lynchburg eventually closed. The last "surviving" warehouse, known as the New Farm Warehouse, located on the eastern section of U.S. Route 460, also closed in 1996.

In November 1959, William Woolger's son, a tobacco farmer from Moneta, proudly showed off the dark-fired tobacco he helped transport to Lynchburg.

On August 16, 1979, workers on a Virginia tobacco farm took a break in the shade, sitting on a truck loaded with freshly harvested tobacco leaves.

For this photo, the only known information is that it was taken on August 14, 1959.

On December 18, 1870, A.C. Reynolds, the supervisor of tobacco leaf re-drying, checked the re-drying quality after processing for half an hour in a pipeline that extended half a block behind him.

In 1897, workers posed for a photo in a warehouse during a tobacco leaf auction in Lynchburg.

On December 18, 1970, three nearly fifty-year-old workers at the Hermos Products factory were capping a large barrel of tobacco leaves. This barrel would then be transported to the aging area.

On August 6, 1981, Lucas Nazareth sealed the purchased packaged tobacco leaves, preparing to transport them to the "Golden Leaf Warehouse" located in Brookneal. Note the slogan behind him: "Proud of Tobacco."

On July 20, 1982, in Campbell County, Walter Bass drove a tractor through the tobacco fields. Workers were spraying growth inhibitors on the tobacco plants.

On August 22, 1983, 7-year-old Kristi Kirby, 9-year-old Allen Kirby, and 9-year-old Danny Cassidy waited at the "Golden Leaf Tobacco Warehouse" for their parents who went to sell tobacco.

http://www.eastobacco.com/pub/web/ycwh/ycwy/201608/