G 



rowth story 



Walworth County appears to have been the site where 

 tobacco was first grown by some enterprising settlers in 

 1844, though some authorities credit Fulton Township, 

 Rock County, in the late 1840's. Whichever the actual 

 site, the initial eflFort was not a commercial success. The 

 practical start of Wisconsin's fruitful tobacco industry 

 came in 1853. Two farmers from Ohio, Ralph Pomeroy 

 and J. J. Heistand, new in Wisconsin, sowed two acres of 

 Broadleaf near Edgerton in Rock County. When their 

 crop was ready for market they tied the leaves in conven- 

 tional "hands," baled the lot and sold it locally for 4V2 

 cents a pound. The buyer, being short of ready money, 

 bought on credit the first sound, commercial tobacco pro- 

 duced in Wisconsin. His intentions were good, but he fell 

 by the wayside and the sellers had to settle for 50 cents on 

 the dollar. Not discouraged, the two farmers produced a 

 larger and better crop — and sold it for cash. 



Wisconsin was ready then for the agriculture of to- 

 bacco as a commercial enterprise. A State of the Union 

 since 1848, it was rapidly developing settlements of 

 mixed populations. At first, there were Southerners who 

 reached the Territory through the Mississippi River 

 route, then Cornishmen —7,000 by 1850 — working Wis- 

 consin's lead mines since 1824, then Yankees and large 

 numbers of New Yorkers. A special census in 1836 indi- 

 cated a territorial population of 11,000. By 1840, the 

 number of settlers had tripled. Scandinavians began to 

 flock in and Irishmen, too. By 1850 the Irish were three 

 times as numerous as settlers from elsewhere in the 

 United Kingdom. A German minister, accompanied by a 



