Bloch Brothers Tobacco (Wheeling, WV)

Welcome to episode three on Wheeling, West Virginia, where we're going to talk about Block Brothers tobacco. We have a fascinating story of a business that started as a dry goods grocery store and ended up as one of, if not the, leading brand of chewing tobacco in the country. They became famous in the Midwest, and really across the country, for one of the most effective marketing campaigns ever, and also had the exact opposite approach to labor relations as the steel industry in the same exact town.

We are excited to talk about this company, less because of what they actually made - like tobacco is what tobacco is - but because this may bethe epitome of what we're talking about when we talk about anchors and how companies interact with cities and employees and how it gets passed from generation to generation.

Block Brothers still exists in Wheeling today under the ownership of Swisher International, making it now almost 140 years old.

Background (1:28)

Chapter 1: Rivers & Randomness (12:35)

How a random series of events led to Bloch Brothers Tobacco being born

Chapter 2: Ahead of the Curve (29:11)

How the tobacco industry and Bloch Brothers treated labor very differently for the times

Chapter 3: Mailed It (50:12)

How Bloch Brothers leveraged their unique understanding of their customers in their marketing

Wrap-Up & Takeaways (1:11:24)

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Resources

• Background & Chapter 1

  • Key Dates for Bloch Brothers Tobacco

  • Historic South Wheeling National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

  • Samuel Bloch - Wheeling Hall of Fame Induction

  • South Wheeling Historic Walking Tour Guide

  • Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company - The West Virginia Encyclopedia

  • Jesse Bloch - Ohio County Public Library

  • JESSE A. BLOCH, WHEELING - Published by The West Virginia Biographical Association, 1928

  • Jesse Bloch Political Ad, Autumn 1918, Ohio County Library

  • Bloch Brothers' 75th Anniversary, Ohio County Library

  • History of Greater Wheeling and vicinity, a chronical of progress and a narrative account of the industries, institutions and people of the city and tributary territory, 1912

  • Wheeling Cigar and Tobacco Industry, 1886, Ohio County Library

  • The Role of Lectors in Cuban Cigar Factories

  • The Fame of Mail Pouch, The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer Fri, Jun 09, 1899

  • Bloch Brothers Dry Goods Store Ad, The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer Wed, Apr 07, 1875

  • Bloch Brothers Dry Goods Store Ads, The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer Mon, Jul 05, 1875

  • Transfer Made: The Firm of Bloch Bros. Sell Out to the New Corporation, The Daily Register, Thu, Mar 05, 1891

  • Big Men & Industries of West Virginia: Mail Pouch Tobacco and Bloch Brothers, The Wheeling Intelligencer, Thu, Feb 02, 1922

  • Bloch Brothers Tobacco Works [Mail Pouch], Ohio County Public Library

  • Mail Pouch Ad, “Save the Flags on Back of Bags”

  • SAMUEL BLOCH DIES; TOBACCO FIRM HEAD; Wheeling, W. Va., Business Man Began Career as Wholesale Grocer--Had Lived Here, NYTimes

  • The History of West Virginia, Old and New, Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 475, Ohio

  • The Bloch Family, West Virginia University Library

  • OBITUARIES: Former USGA President Bloch Dies at 84

  • 1884 Flood Index, Ohio County Library

  • The Flood of 1884, Ohio County Library

  • Stogie Town, Archiving Wheeling

  • The Wheeling “Stogie”, John Bowman (out of print)

  • Origins of the word “stogie”

  • Marsh Wheeling Stogies, Ohio County Library

  • Buckle of the Stogie Belt, Archiving Wheeling

  • Solomon Bloch Obituary, Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

  • Lunch With Books: "A History of Bloch Brothers Tobacco" presented by Stuart Bloch - April 27, 2010

  • The Tobacco Industry in Wheeling, 1931, Ohio County Library

  • Samuel S. Bloch, Founder of Bloch Brothers Tobacco Co.

  • Historical Marker - Mail Pouch Tobacco "Chew Mail Pouch - Treat Yourself to the Best" — Wheeling National Heritage Area

  • Bloch Legacy Continues, The Intelligencer, Nov 5, 2017

  • Bloch Brothers Acquisition History

  • Augustus Pollack - Crown Stogies - Ohio County Library

  • Legendary Locals of Wheeling, By Seán Duffy and Brent Carney

  • Wheeling (WV) (Images of America)

  • The Jewish Community, City of Wheeling, WV

  • Jewish Communities on the Ohio River: A History

  • Low River on the Ohio at Wheeling

  • Ohio River at Wheeling, National Water Prediction Service

  • The Great Flood of 1884 in the Ohio Valley: The Rise and Fall of the Waters From Pittsburgh to Cairo, With Accounts of the Destruction of Property, ... and Important Information and Statistics

  • Rescued Wall Hosts A Flood Of Memories

  • Ohio County Public Library, Brown Photograph 38: Flood of 1884

• Chapter 2

  • Workmen’s Comp Act 1913 - WV

  • How the U.S. Supreme Court Deemed the Workers' Compensation Grand Bargain "Adequate" Without Defining Adequacy

  • A Brief History of Workers' Compensation

  • WORKERS’ COMPENSATION Originally Authored in 1996 by Administrative Law Judge Henry Haselbacher Timothy G. Leach, Esq. C. Scott Masel, Esq.

  • Swisher International Profile - IAM District 54

  • Gorby, William Hal, "Saints, Sinners, and Socialists on the Southside: Polish Catholic Immigrant Workers, Politics, and Culture in Wheeling, West Virginia, 1890-1930" (2014). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 252. 

  • Flag Presentation at Bloch’s, Wheeling Sunday Register Sun, Dec 24, 1893

  • A Labor of Love: The Reuther-Wheeling Labor History Archive

  • BCTGM News - Spring 2023 - Oldest Local - Bloch Bros. 

  • Biography: Augustus Pollack

  • Adventures in Archives: History Mysteries Solved (Pollack Stogie Employees Photo)

  • Tobacco Workers Union, (Wheeling, W.Va.), Minutes, West Virginia & Regional History Center

  • BLOCH WILL ARRIVE FOR SUFFRAGE VOTE; West Virginia Senator Rushes by Special Train to Cincinnati and Goes On.SUFFRAGISTS WIN DELAY Prevent Vote by Anti Who Had Moved to Illinois and ForceAdjournment Till Today., NYTimes

  • Radical Ratification: Wheeling’s Role in the 19th Amendment, Weelunk

• Chapter 3

  • “CHEW MAIL POUCH TOBACCO, TREAT YOURSELF TO THE BEST” (Mail-in program)

  • Trading Stamps Josiah Baker, Vanderbilt Law Review

  • Trading Stamps: A Long History, James J. Nagle, NYTimes

  • Green Stampede: The Redeeming History of Trading Stamps, Joseph P. Mastrangelo, Washington Post

  • Vintage Tobacco Coupons and Vouchers

  • Big Mail Pouch Wall Sign - Ford City, Pennsylvania

  • History of the old Mail Pouch ghost sign in Jonesborough, Tennessee

  • The Barn Painter Hardcover – January 1, 2004 by Harley E. Warrick (Author), Roger Warrick (Illustrator)

  • Art & Advertising of Mail Pouch (not in print)

  • [20] Elkhart Co, IN - Mail Pouch Barn (14177 IN-120 Bristol, IN)

  • Surgeon General’s warning: “It’s Mail Pouch Tobacco. Treat yourself.”, American Dirt

  • We called ourselves barn massagers, walldogs or barn lizards, AppalachianHistory.net

  • Barns turned billboards, Lancaster Online

  • A Real American Idol Celebrates 100th: Mail Pouch, By Jack Goddard

  • Harley Warrick - Last of a Breed - Wheeling WV Mail Pouch Tobacco

  • Installing the Mail Pouch Barn at the American Sign Museum

  • The Side of a Barn: Indiana’s Mail Pouch Tobacco Signs, Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History

  • Mail Pouch On the Road with Charles Kuralt - 1975 Documentary Ohio State University Wheeling History

  • We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life

  • The Barns Remain but the Artists are Forgotten!

  • Mail Pouch Barnstormers

  • Harley Warrick - The Barn Painter

  • Harley Warrick Interview

  • Harley Warrick and the Mail Pouch Barns

  • ZIM (1977) - Maurice Zimmerman, An Original Mail Pouch Barn Painter

  • Maurice Zimmerman – An Original Barn Painter

  • Mail Pouch Barns of West Virginia

  • Mail Pouch Barns: A Fading American Icon

  • Advertising barns : vanishing American landmarks - (hard copy)

  • How Wheeling’s Mail Pouch Changed Advertising

  • THE LEGACY OF MAIL POUCH TOBACCO BARNS: ICONS OF AMERICAN RURAL LANDSCAPE

  • Highway Beautification Act