Word: conestoga
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...drivers of the old Conestoga wagons were inveterate smokers, and when the government first laid a tax on tobacco, these old wagoners were worried for fear they would have to give up their beloved smokes because of the high prices which the tax made necessary. George Black, a cigar manufacturer at Washington, came to their rescue with a cheap 'roll-up' which he sold at four for a cent. These 'smokes' immediately became popular with the wagoners who first called them 'Conestoga Cigars' which was later corrupted into 'stogies' and 'tobies...
...TIME also might be wronger but not much in stating that "To Conestoga went teamsters hauling lumber, tooling the team with one hand, while they rolled a cigar with the other." I would suggest to son Jimmie that he have a movie made showing such a stunt (if it can be done) and show it in the . . . slot movie machine to be put on the market by Mills-Globe...
...Englanders, being true devotees of the weed, generally brought with them a supply of the Connecticut leaf which they would take to the cigar maker in Wheeling to be rolled into cigars. . . . The New Englanders mostly traveled in Conestoga wagons which was shortened to "stogie" by the Virginians and the travelers became known as the "stogie fellers" and the product of their tobacco as "stogies...
...Reader Parker could be wronger, but not much. The Conestoga wagon was made in Conestoga, Pa., which had been named for the Conestoga Indians. To Conestoga went teamsters hauling lumber, tooling the team with one hand while they rolled a cigar with the other. Later Conestogas, or stogies, became favorites of the wagon trains freighting from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, where the drivers would sell the supply they had rolled along the way. Hence, Pittsburgh stogies. Wheeling came in on the freight...