American History, Family Similarity and Really Great Wood: The Beginning of WholesaleTobaccoSticks.com
Some stories begin in one place, but this one starts in two: a tobacco farm in northwest Tennessee’s Oakwood community, and another near Snow Hill, North Carolina. These two farms, separated by hundreds of miles but connected by similar farming traditions, would eventually inspire the creation of this labor of love to preserve one of the great unsung heroes of American agricultural heritage. That project turned in to what is now WholesaleTobaccoSticks.com. This is a story about family heritage, American toil, and finding beauty in the tools that helped build a unique component of our nation’s farming legacy.
The Ole Tennessee Tobacco Farm
My earliest memories are colored by the rich earth of our family farm in Oakwood, Tennessee, where (I now know) the soil was perfect for growing tobacco. The farm, which had been in my father’s family for a long while, sat right along the Kentucky border, neighboring what is now Fort Campbell army base. Though I was only six when we left, certain memories are etched permanently in my mind, as vivid as the day they were made. I remember a little pond I would catch crawfish in (or is it CRAYfish?), picking wild blackberries along fence rows, and a cave on the property that had a creek that disappeared into it.
The proximity to Fort Campbell added an unusual dimension to farm life. Army helicopters on training flights were a constant presence in our skies, their rhythmic chopping becoming as familiar as the sound of tractors in the fields. I remember one particularly memorable day when several paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division (if you aren’t familiar with this division, Google them and their rich history!), blown off course during a training exercise, landed in one of our fields near the house. They made their way to our house and sat on the porch, just chatting and talking, while waiting for a couple large trucks to come pick them up – a perfect example of how farming life and military life often intersected in our corner of Tennessee.
The Red Smokehouse: Heart of the Farm
I remember those paratroopers specifically asking about the old red barn that was in front of our house, and right beside the main highway. Standing just a handful of yards away from the highway right-of-way, it was always a conversation piece with its traditional old barn architecture, and the giant “SEE ROCK CITY” painting on the roof. And if you don’t understand that reference, you should also Google “Rock City Barn Signs” for another fun read…. Years later, I would learn that barn was actually a smokehouse – a crucial structure in the tobacco curing process. At certain times of the year, smoke would billow from this building for days on end while farmers cured their tobacco leaves inside. I remember many times, even at my young age, when well-meaning passerbys would bang on our door to tell us our barn was on fire, not knowing it was designed to have smoky fires inside of it for days on end. What I didn’t realize then was that those leaves were hung on tobacco sticks, the very items that would later become part of a preservation mission (and why you are even reading this article now!).
The smokehouse became something of a landmark in our community. It also wasn’t unusual for people to knock on our front door when they saw smoke rising from the building, asking if they could have “just a few leaves.” My parents usually agreed, and thought it was pretty cool that they had such a desirable resource out in front of the house: freshly cured tobacco leaves.
My grandfather’s journey took him away from the farm when he was a young adult. Still somewhat of a family mystery, my “grew up barefoot and broke” grandfather who had never even seen a proper city, got accepted into the Naval Academy in Maryland, leading to a career that would see him become an instructor there and later an executive traveling across the United States for Hester Batteries. But like many who grow up on farms, the pull of the land remained strong. He eventually returned to that farm, bringing my parents and my newly-born self with him!
Parallel Lives: The North Carolina Connection
Miles away in Snow Hill, North Carolina, another family’s story was unfolding that would eventually intertwine with mine. My wife’s grandfather, Robert Beaman, also grew up on a tobacco farm, working the fields in his youth. Like my grandfather, he too chose service, joining the Army which taught him engineering. His path then led him to Huntsville, Alabama, where he joined the aerospace industry and earning many fine achievements. From being a member of Werner Von Braun’s team that took humans to the moon, to working on the Shuttle program, he was later recalled as a “ substantial force” in the programs he was a part of.
Despite his transition from farmer to NASA engineer, Robert Beaman (aka Poppie) never lost his connection to the land. Behind his Huntsville home, he maintained a very impressive garden. My wife and her family spent MANY hours there every year. From digging potatoes and peanuts to picking amazing strawberries and tomatoes, Poppie taught his children and grandchildren very important life lessons while getting their hands dirty. Lessons that he, inevitably, started learning while working that North Carolina tobacco farm as a young man.
The Legacy of Tobacco Sticks
Years before his passing, I had randomly acquired some authentic tobacco sticks from a Tennessee farm. I saw a post on Facebook marketplace and just thought they were so cool, despite knowing the depth and heritage that they represent. But looking at these pieces of agricultural history, I started to see more than just weathered wood – I saw the representation of labor that helped provide for families. From the people that sawed or split them, to the hands that loaded them with rich leaves, to the time spent being loaded on wagons that would carry them to and from the barns and smoking houses, I knew there was a lot to unpack. I also noticed that many were made of different woods. I could not tell which woods just looking at the dirty and stained exterior, but I wanted to explore the varieties deeper. I carefully planed down some of those sticks to expose the true character and color, and was shocked with what I found from a seemingly random stack of those old sticks. The mixed species of woods – oak, walnut, pecan, pine, cedar, hackberry, poplar, and many others…. The mix and variety created stunning variations when all together, especially when you counted the weathering and color changes from the years soaking in tobacco leaf oils, dirt and sweat, and smoke from the curing process. It was amazing.
A Connection to the Past
I am not much of a woodworker, but I knew I had to try to make SOMETHING with this treasure. I watched a few YouTube videos on basic woodworking, and got to work. I started with a cutting board, and then decided I needed to build something for Poppie… I got the idea from one of his sons to make a small end-table that would sit beside his recliner. When he received it, I could tell he was curious about the unique and varied coloring, and he was genuinely shocked when I told him that these were reclaimed tobacco sticks! All those years he spent loading those dirty, plain looking sticks, and he had no idea the beauty of them in a different use.
That table sat beside Poppie’s recliner until his passing. He once told me it was one of his favorite pieces of furniture, not just for its beauty, but because it reminded him of his upbringing on that tobacco farm in North Carolina. He used a few select words to describe how much he loathed that hard sweaty work as a youth, but he did it with a smile. The man who helped send astronauts to the moon found a little joy in a piece of furniture that connected him to his roots, telling me he never imagined those hard-worked tobacco sticks could be transformed into something so pretty.
The Birth of WholesaleTobaccoSticks.com
When I combine all of the research and interest I have had in the last several years about my roots from a tobacco farming family, it’s clear that tobacco farming isn’t just about the crop – it’s about the tools, the traditions, and the stories that connect generations. Every tobacco stick we source carries its own history, and its own potential for transformation. Some might have hung leaves in a smokehouse like the one I remember from childhood. They may have been stacked on a wagon for storage till the next season in a valley in North Carolina. But every one of them is now given new life, and hopefully new connections with new families as decor, furniture, or just a great conversation piece sitting in the corner of a living room somewhere.
While the farm of my childhood might now be a neighborhood, and Poppie’s NASA achievements might seem far removed from his farming roots, the legacy of the families and rural livelihoods lives on in these reclaimed sticks. Each one represents not just a piece of wood, but a connection to the agricultural heritage that helped build this nation.
A Mission of Preservation and Transformation
At WholesaleTobaccoSticks.com, our mission goes beyond simply supplying reclaimed wood. We’re preserving pieces of Americana history and placing them in the hands of craftspeople and collectors who can give them new life. Whether they become part of a beautiful piece of furniture, a decorative element in someone’s home, or even a functional item like a garden trellis, these tobacco sticks continue to tell their stories.
Every stick we source, every piece we save from being discarded, carries with it the potential to become something beautiful – just like that table that meant so much to a former tobacco farmer turned NASA engineer. It’s about connecting our agricultural past with our creative present, ensuring these pieces of history find new purpose in the hands of today’s craftsmen and artists.