E 



board. There were good farmers among them and they 

 improved the methods of hmited tobacco cultivation in 

 the area, bringing in seeds of the excellent type growing 

 in Kentucky and Tennessee. The plant was grown and 

 cured only for personal use until about 1820 when it 

 began to be commercially cultivated on a small scale in 

 what is now Howard County. 



The culture spread to other areas. Emigrants from 

 Virginia planted tobacco in Pike County in 1822. In 

 1824 the St. Louis Enquirer reported that "38 hogsheads 

 of Missouri tobacco were sold in New York City at the 

 highest price, being pronounced superior to any other 

 description of tobacco in the market!"- an item which 

 also appeared in the Missouri Intelligencer. Similar re- 

 ports were coming in from the markets at New Orleans, 

 Philadelphia and Baltimore. Within a decade tobacco 

 had become the staple crop in Charlton County. 



xplorers sooth redskins with tobacco 



Some years before this, when Missouri was still called 

 Louisiana, St. Louis was the starting point for expedi- 

 tions to the greater areas of the West and Northwest. 

 Lewis and Clark made their winter headquarters near 

 that settlement in 1804 before beginning their memora- 

 ble exploration. 



In their essential stores they carried tobacco in twist 

 and in cured leaf. On the road back Clark's men ran out 

 of the valuable supply. Chewers among them were re- 

 duced to the bitter "bark of wild crab"; smokers to "the 

 inner bark of the red willow." The victims of scarcity 

 could hardly wait to reach the places where tobacco had 



