Life in Livingston, Montana
Circa 1890
|
Saturday night in Livingston, the noise of the crowd circulates around the barroom. Up front, by the window, a group of men dressed in fine suits are playing poker. Having drawn a third ace, a gambler from back East, reaches for a cigar, confident in his hand.
Two ladies passing outside in a surrey catch his eye as the dealer gives his opponent three cards. He smiles. The cards are dealt and the gambler's aces fall to a full house, kings over fives.
"Bartender!" he calls out, stressed by the loss of the fourth $100 hand. "I need a match."
The bartender obliges; the gambler's cigar begins to glow. From the familiar springer spaniel on the band, all can see the man is smoking a Montana Sport. At two for a quarter, they are expensive, but the gambler can afford them.
|
 |
Charles Garnier Sr. founded the company that made the Montana Sport,
one of the finest cigars to be found anywhere. Charles Jr. ran one of
Livingston's largest businesses in the early 1900s.
Three cigar manufacturers, two flouring mills, three brick yards, and several breweries all produced local goods for a mostly local market. Housewives baked her bread with local flour. The downtown buildings constructed with local brick by laborers who wore locally made overalls.
At any of the bars, men drank beer brewed within shouting distance. Most of Livingston's early-day light industries have since disappeared.
 |
Of those early industries, the Garnier Cigar Company is most noted, probably because Charles Garnier Sr. himself is a noted man. Charles was one of Livingston's prominent businessmen, the city's treasurer and eventually mayor for six years.
Charles Sr. established his Garnier Cigar Company in July of 1886. His factory produced only one cigar, the Montana Sport, remembered for its sad-eyed springer spaniel trademark. The Garnier Montana Sport Cigar was a premium product made from the finest Havana, Sumatra and Connecticut tobacco.
His factory handmade 40,000 cigars a month with a crew of 50 men, a payroll second only to the Northern Pacific Railroad shops.
|
|
In September of 1887, the Garnier Cigar Co. was destroyed by fire, like so many of the businesses in those early days. But it was "at once rebuilt" on North Second Street in the location where the American Bank, formerly First Security Bank, now stands.
To turn out these fine cigars, "Nimble fingers of experienced workmen convert the product into commercial shapes," said the Livingston Enterprise newspaper in 1900. "The tobacco must be cared for with the same patience a mother exercises over an infant."
The Enterprise reported in 1933 that the cigar company was the oldest business in town that had been continuously operated by one man. The business began to dwindle in the years after Garnier Sr. died, because good cigar makers were hard to find and the unprofitable economics of shipping the tobacco great distances.
|
 |
Around the corner from Garnier, a man by the name of C. H. Manley operated
another cigar factory on Main Street. Manley's factory also must have been
fairly large because one published report in 1887 notes tobacco cases "piled
nearly to the ceiling" as a fire started there, 4th of July, 1887.
Firemen forced their way into the buildings and were able to extinguish the
blaze costing $1,000 damage. Manley was absent. The business continued to turn
out cigars, but it faded away with the others sometime in the years following.
A third cigar company was started by James Shipton, a native of England who
emigrated to Canada in 1866. He received his apprenticeship in the art of
manufacturing cigars in Canada. From there he traveled for several years
throughout the United States and Canada and finally settled in Livingston,
Montana to set up shop in 1890.
The 1900 Livingston Enterprise Souvenir Edition reported that Shipton "at
once engaged in the wholesale and retail cigar business, carrying a complete
line of smokers' supplies." His brands were the Livingston Favorite
and the J.S.
 |
Call or Write for Prices and Ordering info
Garnier Cigar Co.
Robert L. White
"Montana Bob"
2 Rancho Plente
Livingston, Montana 59047
406-222-1046 |
design: Art Studio Graphics
