Tobacco is a dirty weed. I like it.
It satisfies no normal need. I like it.
It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
It takes the hair right off your bean.
It’s the worst darn stuff I’ve ever seen...
I like it!
Graham Lee Hemminger-1915
THE BIRTH OF THE TOBACCO LEAF
It isn’t known just when the first tobacco plant appeared upon the earth.
Ancient legends among the early American Indians try to explain these origins.
There is an ancient Huron Indian myth stating that tobacco was in the beginning when the land was barren and nothing was able to grow.
This was a time when many people were dying from hunger!
This ancient legend states that the "Great Spirit" sent a woman to earth whose purpose was to save the human race.
The woman traveled for many, many miles across the land.
When she would touch the ground with her right hand, the potato plants would spring forth.
Wherever she touched the ground with her left hand, great, giant stalks of corn would shoot forth from the earth in abundance as far as the eye could see.
When the earth was abundantly filled with these wonderous plants, this messenger from the "Great Spirit" sat upon the ground and rested from her labors.
When she arose, there was a new type of plant growing from the exact spot where she had been sitting—the tobacco plant!