The John Anderson Tobacco Emporium of New York is an interesting story in and of itself, with both a famous clientele and a whiff of scandal in the form of the unsolved murder of a teen aged girl who worked at the tobacco shop in the late 1830s. Born in New York City in 1812, John Anderson first apprenticed as a wool-puller and later as a bricklayer. By his mid-twenties, he had saved enough capital to begin his own small tobacco business in Lower Manhattan. He opened his first shop at 319 Broadway, near Reade Street. The business, John Anderson & Company Tobacco Emporium continued to grow. His tobacco shop attracted some of New York City’s leading writers, journalists and politicians. At the time of the Mexican War in the late 1840s, the patronage of U.S. Commanding General Winfield Scott was to make Anderson’s fine-cut chewing tobacco “Solace” into a household name. Anderson was the first to introduce the practice of wrapping fine cut tobacco in foil. The foil wrapped tobacco was sold in a paper wrapper that fit easily into the pocket of a jacket.
The largely male clientele of John Anderson & Company Tobacco Emporium were greeted by a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh as they entered the shop. More importantly, they were also met by an attractive young sales clerk. Mary Rogers was 17 when she began working at
Anderson’s tobacco shop in 1838. Anderson hired her (allegedly) because her “dainty figure and pretty face” brought many admirers into the store. One customer wrote that he spent an entire afternoon at the store only to exchange “teasing glances” with her. Customers at the tobacco shop included some of the most famous writers in town, including Edgar Allan Poe, James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving. However, in 1841, Rogers mysterious disappearance and death resulted in national notoriety.
Amy Gilman Srebnick, author of The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York, states that on Sunday, July 25, 1841, Mary went out after church to visit her aunt, Mrs. Downings. That afternoon a severe thunderstorm hit the area and when Mary didn’t return that evening her mother assumed she had stayed with the Downings to wait out the storm. Later it was learned that the Downings had not seen Mary and further her aunt had not been expecting her. A few days later, the battered body of the young woman was found on the shore of the Hudson River. The coroner found finger marks had been found on her throat, suggesting she had been strangled. One of the first suspects was Daniel Payne, Mary’s boyfriend at the time of her death. Payne, however had a solid alibi, having spent the day with his brother. As time went on with few clues and no suspects, the New York papers put the blame on a poor investigation by the police. New York at the time had only an assortment of constables, night watchmen and magistrates but no real professional police force. The murder remains unsolved. Anecdotally, it was believed Edgar Allan Poe used the facts of the case as the basis for his short story The Mystery of Marie Roget. Anderson was brought in for questioning but subsequently cleared of suspicion.
Whatever the case, the notoriety did not hurt the tobacco shop or diminish interest in the products. John Anderson sold a famous brand of tobacco called ‘Solace’ which was a very popular chewing tobacco and he also sold cigars and smoking tobacco. Besides the small paper wrapped foil packages, Anderson’s ‘Solace’ product was packed in distinct and eye-catching box which were blue with gold print. Inside the box lid was usually decorated with an historic scene. Some of these boxes still survive as collectible “Tobacciana” items.
In addition to ‘Solace’ Anderson tobacco made ‘Honey Dew Fine Cut’, a product about which the Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review of 1846 (Volume 14) said:
“Anderson has effected many valuable improvements in the machinery employed in his business. The advantage of knives, propelled by steam, for the cutting of tobacco, is obvious—the revolutions being performed with perfect regularity and precision, a long silken cord is produced, which the old, laborious, but unscientific method, could not effect. The manufactory is divided into fourteen apartments, each apartment being devoted to a distinct branch of the business. I was not a little surprised on learning the amount of labor required in depriving tobacco of its impurities, preparatory to cutting and curing. Mr. A. assured me that one great reason why so much inferior tobacco is offered for sale, is owing to inattention, or want of knowledge in the preparation... analyzed a quantity of Mr Anderson’s Fine Cut Honey Dew and certified it pure tobacco.”
It likely that Honey Dew Fine Cut (like Solace) was made to be chewed, however it would not be out of place to either smoke or chew the tobacco from the same package.
Soldiers obviously enjoyed tobacco both ways. Plenty of accounts support this. However, if a soldier got a luxury treat such as a package of pure tobacco from a high end New York shop like it appears this is supposed to be...well that was likely to be hidden so it did not have to be shared. A period account from a soldier in the 5th New York stated, “…if there was any exception to the generosity (of sharing gift boxes from home) it was tobacco...that was jealously guarded. It was said that many a man who was the fortunate recipient of a package or plug from home would carefully secrete it and walk a half mile or more to a friendly patch of woods where he might take a chew unobserved. If known to be the possessor of such a luxury his stock would be exhausted before he was one hour older.”
The income from the Anderson Tobacco Emporium was invested mainly in real estate, and the great appreciation in value of property with the growth of the city brought him a fortune of several million dollars. Anderson supported the Union cause by providing a donation of sixty thousand dollars to the Mayor of Jersey City, N.J. to furnish their allotment of volunteer troops early in Civil War. In addition, John Anderson & Company sent shipments of tobacco to the Union troops besieged at Fort Sumter, who were reported to be in want of tobacco. Anderson tobacco products were also sold by Sutlers. Andrew Foulke was appointed as a Regimental Sutler in the Army of the Potomac and he invested in saleable inventory and a rig to haul it then took to the road following the Union Army. Included in his inventory were packages of ‘Solace’ which can be identified for sale on the counter in the famous image of “Andrew Foulke, Sutler” taken in 1863 near Brandy Station, Virginia.
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William A. Johnson – Lincoln’s Barber And Valet
With the observance of the 153rd anniversary of the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 2016, I offer the following true story –
When President-elect Abraham Lincoln came to Washington, D.C. from Springfield, Illinois in 1861, he brought with him 26-year-old William H. Johnson, a free black man. Johnson served as Lincoln’s barber and valet.
When President Lincoln was invited to speak at the November 19th, 1863 dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery at Gettysburg, he decided to bring Johnson with him. On the train, Lincoln complained of feeling weak. In Gettysburg, the President had to endure much activity, including a very long and tiring ceremony in the National Cemetery. On the train back to Washington, Lincoln became feverish. Johnson sat up all night with the President, keeping him cool with wet towels on his face. Three days after arriving back in Washington, a red rash appeared on Lincoln that eventually developed into scattered blisters. He was examined by Dr. Washington Chew Van Bibber, who diagnosed a case of Varioloid (the 19th-century name for Smallpox). The illness kept Lincoln from attending to official business for 25 days. Johnson, also developed Smallpox, sickened
His headstone reads: WILLIAM H. JOHNSON and underneath his name, a word that would make both him and Lincoln proud – CITIZEN.
American Digger Magazine’s
and died two months later. Lincoln secured a gravesite for him in what is now Arlington National Cemetery and paid for his funeral expenses.
He is buried in Section 27, Lot 3346.
Historians disagree if the word CITIZEN was ordered by President Lincoln, or was included later as a way of denoting a civilian burial rather than a military burial. Either
January 7-8, 2017
way, I am sure that Lincoln would be pleased, since he strongly disagreed with the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the United States Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, voted 7-2 that –
“No black person can be a citizen of the United States.”
The 14th Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, granting full citizen-
ship to “all persons born in the Unit-
ed States” which included former
slaves and free blacks, proved them
