Mick Hellwig is a friend to Snuff & NicotineRush.com. He is a frequent contributor at SnusCentral.org. The following was reprinted here with his blessing.

Nasal Snuff – Another Smokeless Tobacco

Nasal snuff is a finely ground tobacco powder. Meant to be inhaled via the nostrils, but not into the sinus or lungs. It just sits in your nostrils and nicotine is absorbed through the mucous membranes in your nose.

Snuff was first used, that we know of, by the Mayans. Brought to Europe by Columbus, and used at first by royalty, then slowly filtered down to the masses. Snuff was at one time as popular as pipe smoking. Kings, Queens, miners, farmers and U.S. Presidents have all used snuff. There are still, unused, snuff boxes in the U.S. Senate Chambers. Roderick, the owner of Toque Snuff has done a great deal of work putting together a history of snuff. Instead of me trying to paraphrase it, please go read it for yourself.

Snuff comes in many flavors, grinds, moisture, and preparation methods. Super fine to super coarse, wet to bone dry, fermented to air cured. The only way to find what you like is to try’em all. I suggest starting with a German snuff, Poschl or Bernards, both are easy to take and forgiving of mistakes. One good snort of an American Scotch snuff probably has ruined more new snuffers than anything else. Which brings up my first piece of advice…DO NOT SNORT! It’s not cocaine, people. Gently bring the snuff to your nostril and sniff. The goal is to get it into your nostrils, not into your sinus or lungs.

The very first time I tried snuff,  I sniffed hard and I still swear the snuff went clean up behind my eyeballs. Within seconds my eyes were watering, as well as my nose, and then I sneezed. A handful of brown snot is not a pretty sight. Second piece of advice keep a hankie or Kleenex handy when snuffing. Some snuffs need it, some don’t, again you won’t know until you try them.

This brings us to blowing your nose. Do it as often as needed. Listen to your nose. If it wants to be cleared out, do so. If not don’t force it. I sometimes can go for hours without a good cleaning, other times the snuff only lasts for a couple of minutes. Should one pick their nose? That’s up to you, but please do it in private. No one wants to see that.

Is snuff safe? Well, maybe. There are conflicting reports. Most reports I have read that say it will cause cancer are based on studies that include American moist (lip) snuff. I have never seen a case of nose, throat or lung cancer attributed to nasal snuff alone. There is a report of an Englishman getting cancer and suing back in the 1800’s but that has since been proved false. He was mad at his snuff supplier for something. Also there is the guy who got ear cancer after putting snuff in his ear for decades. So is it safe? It’s got to be safer than smoking and is generally considered as safe as Swedish snus. Just avoid snuffs made by unknown makers in small 3rd world villages.

How does one use snuff? There are many methods. The traditional methods are the pinch, where you pinch a bit between your finger and thumb. Also the anatomical snuffbox, which is when you tap a bit out on the depression formed on the back of your hand right behind your first knuckle. (Hold your hand flat, palm down, now bend you fingers…see it?) Other methods include bullets, snuff machines ( not for the faint of heart) and my personal favorite, wrap your forefinger around the end of your thumb and place the snuff in the cavity, then sniff.

One other method is practiced mainly by older Southern ladies, and is actually where we get the term dip as applied to tobacco. First get a can of American Sweet or Scotch snuff, then find a hickory tree, pull a twig off, either chew or carve with your trusty pocket knife ( you do have a pocket knife, right?) to get a slightly fuzzy end, moisten the twig, dip it into the can of Carhart’s Sweet and put it in your mouth. You can also use Scotches like Skoal and just dump some into your lower lip. I think this is why American brands are sold in 1.15 or 4.65 ounce containers; European snuff mostly comes in 10 or 25 gram containers.  Either of these methods kind of skips the whole nasal part, I don’t recommend them, but they are possible.

Finally, where to buy snuff?  There are many online snuff shops. Recently a lot of European shops cannot sell to the US, due to credit card processors declining to allow international purchases of tobacco products. 90% of my snuff dollars go to Tom at NicotineRush. Huge selection, he has most of the commonly available snuffs, and getting more all the time. Shipping is fair and quick. On another forum his nickname is “Two Day Tom”. I once placed an order on Monday morning at 7 AM. At 7:30 AM I had e-mail confirmation that the order had shipped, and the box was in my mailbox Wednesday at 1:30PM. I have never had an order from NicotineRush take longer than 3 days to my house in Ohio. Plus, Tom is just a plain nice guy and a gentleman who takes his customers seriously. He even gives a free sample of random snuff out with every order. Giving you a chance to try snuffs brands you may not have thought you might like.

Snus and Snuff both have fascinating historical connections. Being a history buff I love that facet of them. The thought of being able to sniff the same or quite similar recipes as George & Martha Washington or Ben Franklin really gets my mental juices flowing. Even Popes have snuffed. My personal heroes all lived during the founding of America as a nation, and I love having something tangible in common with them. My other passion in life, beyond tobacco is firearms. While I can’t buy one of George Washington’s flintlocks, I can buy a SP style snuff from Wilson’s Of Sharrow that is possibly made from the same recipe book as the SP snuff that Mr. Washington used.

Snuff said for now….

Mick Hellwig
WHAT I THINK at SnusCENTRAL.org

History of Snuff and Tobacco in Montgomery County

Conwood Company has gone thru hard times and good times, learning, adjusting and prospering.  Conwood has in Garrett Snuff, the oldest continuous trade-mark in the United States, one of ten trade-marks recorded on October 25, 1870, the first day the US Patent Office began granting trademarks.

The origin of the company known as Conwood stretches back over two hundred years.  As a comparison, The Leaf Chronicle reports that it was first published in 1808, while Garrett Snuff had already been in production for 26 years.  The history of Conwood encompasses the beginning of the American commerce after the Revolutionary War.  The taste for tobacco developed by the scavenging soldiers during the Civil War and the need for smokeless tobacco in defense plants during World War II led the demand for tobacco.

The history of Conwood tells us a lot about people, unusual people and ordinary people in unusual circumstances:

• William E. Garrett, Jr. sold the 113-year-old Garrett Snuff for one dollar.
• James B. Duke worked so hard to develop his company and yet was the only man who knew how to dismantle this tobacco industry.
• Mrs. Henrietta Garrett’s will was never found yet the 26,400 would-be heirs, including the State of Pennsylvania and the United States Government, pressed claims to the $21,000,000 Garrett Snuff fortune.
• The Night Riders burned out their neighbors for dealing with the tobacco trust.

Locally, brothers Victor and Whitey Albright were an important part of Conwood from the 1930’s thru the 1980’s.  It is reported that Martin Condon asked the business teacher at Clarksville to name her brightest business student and she replied Victor Albright.  Mr. Condon hired Mr. Albright when he graduated from high school and he rose through the ranks to achieve the position of Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of Conwood from 1952 thru 1975.   Whitey Albright served as Office Manager of Conwood for many years.  Mr. Joe Gootee, father-in-law of Mr. Sam Winters, was a supervisor of manufacturing for many years.

The Activity Building and the Sanctuary of the First Baptist Church were constructed on property that was conveyed to the church by the American Snuff Company.  The leaf department offices of the snuff plant were located where the Activity Building is now.  During the Civil War, the leaf department buildings were used as a hospital for the wounded. During the time of the Night Riders, guards armed with “W.W. Greener” shotguns and Winchester rifles were posted on the roofs of the warehouses when the Night Riders threatened to burn down the building.  On Bended Knee provides many details of this turbulent history of the tobacco industry.

A Timeline:
1782
John Garrett II established the first Garrett snuff mill on Red Clay Creek in Delaware.

1824
George Garrett entered the family business and changed the firm’s name to Levi Garrett and Sons.  Levi Garrett dies in 1833 and George Garrett sold his shares to William Garrett.

1857
William Garrett brought his sons, Walter and William Jr., into the business and changed the name to W. E. Garrett and Sons.

1890
By 1890, a determined young man was a rising player in the tobacco industry.  Eight years after he entered the cigarette industry, Buck Duke merged with four other manufacturers to form the American Tobacco Company.  He entered the snuff business with reckless abandon, selling products at a loss to drive other companies out of business.

1895
Walter and William Garrett broke with tradition in that neither son had an interest in the snuff production.  William E. Garrett Jr. sold W.E. Garrett & Sons to Henry Moore, George Wilson and John Gilmore, three employees, for one dollar.  The business that had grown and prospered through the Garrett family for 113 years was no more.  Within three years this company became the cornerstone of the Atlantic Snuff Company.

1900
Mr. Duke formed the American Snuff Company which included the George W. Helme Company, the Atlantic Snuff Company, Stewart Ralph & Company, Bruton & Condon and Ivy Owen and Company.

While Mr. Duke prospered, the tobacco farmers did not.  In 1904, farmers in Western Kentucky and Tennessee formed the Dark Tobacco District Planters Association to do something about low tobacco prices paid for tobacco grown in the Black Patch.  Those farmers who did not join the Association were called “Hill Billies” and continued to do business with the American Tobacco Company.  Members of the Association formed a group called the Possum Hunters Organization, the purpose of which was to intimidate the “Hill Billies”.  As most of the intimidation occurred at night, the Possum Hunters became known as the Night Riders .  They numbered in the thousands; their greatest activity was in 1906-1909, farmer against farmer.  Factories and barns were burned, plant beds scraped of plants, men were beaten and killed, including one father of 11 children in Henrietta.
In spite of the violence, little, if anything was accomplished.

1907
Teddy Roosevelt, the “Trust Buster” and the United States Government filed suit against the American Tobacco Company for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.  Four years later, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Buck Duke’ tobacco empire.  The Circuit Court of Appeals, which was assigned to complete the dissolution, was forced to rely on Mr. Duke himself for specifics of the organization.

The American Snuff Company was divided into three smaller companies: a smaller new American Snuff Company, Weyman and Burton (now U.S. Tobacco) and George W. Helm.  The division was based on specific brands.  Martin J. Condon had first choice and chose Garrett Snuff.  Mr. Condon and the American Snuff Company had manufacturing plants in Memphis and Clarksville with prizing and storage facilities in Hopkinsville and Mayfield, KY, and Springfield, TN.

1912
American Snuff Company moved its offices from New York to Memphis.
It prospered under the direction of Martin J. Condon and James Harwood thru the 1930’s.  The Wall Street Journal had called the American Snuff Company “depression proof” but the business could not totally escape the hard-times of the depression.  Snuff manufacturing was almost 41,000,000 pounds in 1930 but in 1932 had dropped to 36,000,000 pounds.  Being responsible and forward thinking, Martin Condon decided to broaden the product lines to include sweet flavored snuff, a decision that resulted in sales surpassing the pre-depression times.  The men of American Snuff made nothing but snuff from 1912 thru 1952, constantly improving and refining the production methods to reduce labor, energy and transportation cost.

1940
World War II boosted its sales as “smokeless tobacco” was the only tobacco products allowed in defense plants and the Britons used it during the blackouts.  After World War II, sales again declined and the American Snuff Company was again determined to adapt and grow, this time by diversification.
1950
The American Snuff Company purchased Taylor Brothers Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, NC.  Taylor Brothers manufactured twist, plug and loose leaf chewing tobacco allowing the American Snuff Company to gain wider distribution and increased sales.

1957
The American Snuff Company purchased Hot Shot insect repellent.  The company was able to expand sales of Hot Shot from $400,000 in 1957 to almost $4,000,000 in only two years.

1961
The American Snuff Company purchased Blevins Popcorn Company.  In 1948, Blevins started the “Presidential Popcorn Poll”, allowing movie goers to request a Republican or Democrat box for their popcorn.  The popcorn poll predicted Truman would defeat Dewey, a result that surprised more sophisticated pollsters.  For 20 years, the popcorn poll accurately predicted the results of the presidential elections.

1966
As the American Snuff Company was now a diversified company, the name was changed to Conwood Corporation.

1967
Conwood purchased the Scott Tobacco Company of Bowling Green, KY, a maker of hand-rolled twist tobacco.

Along the way, Conwood developed the foil pouch used in packaging loose leaf chewing tobacco, produced a popcorn package that served as it’s own popper and pioneered the first plastic cans used in packing moist snuff.

Conwood paid dividends every year from 1901 through 1985 when the company was purchased by the Pritzker family of Chicago for $408 million and taken under private ownership.

2006
In April, 2006, Reynolds American entered into an agreement with the Pritzker business interest to purchase Conwood Company, L.P. for 3.5 billion dollars which will return Conwood to a publicly held status.

Buildings
Warehouse F was the original building of the Stewart Ralph Snuff Company, built in 1900 and the Orgain-Manning lumberyard was directly across the street.

The Cure Building was built in 1904, the Smith Warehouse in 1909 and the Rehandling House in 1911. The Smith warehouse was demolished in 2004 to allow for the construction of a new 43,00 square foot manufacturing facility.

In 1982, Conwood purchased the old A & P Store to house a threshing and cutting line for moist snuff.

We thank Bryce S. Sanders, Jr. for providing this synopsis of the tobacco history.  He is well prepared for doing this in that he began working in the snuff industry in May of 1972 and now serves as Manager of Clarksville Branch of Conwood Company, LP.