Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1915 — When Tobacco Was Money. [ARTICLE]

When Tobacco Was Money.

’When I was a lad living in Huntsville, Mo., tobacco raising was the big industry of the country, and the weed was largely used as legal tender,” remarked M. C. Tracy, who is now a resident of Macon. “I well remember, along in the fifties, of seeing great stacks or bundles of tobacco piled up on one side of the. Huntsville American office. That was. along in 1856. The tobacco represented receipts on subscriptions. Each bundle contained 10 pounds of tobacco, and was good to make the* subscriber solid with the paper for one year. The tobacco was weighed in the office and the subscriber was credited with 10 cents a pound, themarket price. The tobacco offered the editor was of the finest quality and used only for cigars. There was a large factory in Huntsville, where a great many slaves were employed in getting the tobacco ready for the market. The editor sent his tobacco off along with that of the shippers and received his money when they did.

“Back of the newspaper office was a pen, where the editor would keep pigs and small stock taken on subscriptions. There was but very little money in the country, and such things as the farmers raised passed as legal tender. A newspaper office was practically a warehouse for country products. “The most remarkable payment on newspaper subscriptions, perhaps, was that tendered by a subscriber to the old Bloomington Gazette, somewhere in the forties. The subscriber had a large, flat tombstone which had been erected at the head of some of his ancestors’ -graves. He had long forgotten who the ancestors were, and as the editor needed a smooth stone to mix his ink on, he found the reverse of the monument to be just the thing and he promptly credited the subscriber with his subscription for the stone, and both felt the richer by the trade.”— Macon (Mo.) Cor. Kansas City Star.