Montgomery County, world tobacco king

In the eighteen-nineties, Spain inflicted restrictions upon Cuba’s tobacco trade. Coupled to US protective tariffs, this left open an opportunity for other areas to flourish in the business. In Texas was the primary opportunity. An 1893 document stated, “Montgomery County is the initial point where the successful test will be made in growing Cuban tobacco, and which from the peculiar adaptability of its soil, is to become the centre of the great tobacco industry of Texas” (J.S. Daugherty, Texas, The Lone Star State Book).

Herein lies a story of our county’s enterprising mindset. Witness the stark headlines from Conroe’s Grand Lake Association Company: LOOK! LOOK! Fifteen Hundred Dollars in Gold! This is worth your consideration! We will give $1500 in Gold for the best three hundred pounds of Tobacco grown upon land bought from us at or near Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas. Following were the rules which the Grand Lake Association laid down for the contest, to be decided at “some suitable place at Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas”: First, there must not be less than twenty persons contesting for the premium; “these must present their names before September 1, 1895, at our office at Conroe, Texas.”

Second, the tobacco must be raised upon land bought from the Association, with a down payment of not less than $750. Third, the tobacco entered would become the association’s property “without any compensation whatever after it has been passed by the judges.” Fourth, the judges would be selected from the Editor of the Texas Ranch and Farm journal out of Dallas, the President of the Texas Horticultural Society and the President of the State Agricultural Society. Though Conroe was in the hunt, it was the community of Willis that became tobacco king. At its apex, Willis sported eight cigar factories while the town secured awards for its prime quality product at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 and at Paris in 1900.

Montgomery County’s reign as world tobacco king was grand, though short-lived. Reasons for the decline included the difficulty of curing and drying the crop and the prohibitive cost of marketing. Furthermore, the Spanish-American War of 1898 rendered the US the new protector of Cuba, resulting in a loss of Montgomery County’s competitive advantage.