GREEK TOBACCO MOGULS IN AMERICA Part 3 By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, June 26, 2004 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ The meteoric rise of the Greek Cigarette makers in the United States from the 1870s to the 1920s is often treated as a freakish economic boom for a small number of individuals with little long-term consequences for Greek American history.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In terms of strictly commercial history, these Greek tobacconists employed literally hundreds of their fellow countrymen here in North America.  Diaspora Greeks from not only North America but the Balkans, Asia Minor, North Africa, England, and elsewhere were also employed in this trade, and very often by the same companies.  Finally, and ...

GREEK TOBACCO MOGULS IN AMERICA Part 2 By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, June 19, 2004 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ Between the mid-1880s and the end of World War I, Greek-owned cigarette manufacturing companies sprang up in Philadelphia and Boston with the vast majority of these companies settling, ultimaely, in New York City.  Phenomenally successful, the Greek companies soon dominated the top-end of the fine cigarette market.  Specializing in hand-rolled, blended-tobacco cigarettes, Greek immigrants became immediately associated, in the American mind, with this new trade.  American Tobacco monopolies bought out the larger Greek companies as early as 1900.  For many historians these purchases signaled the end of the Greek rol...

GREEK TOBACCO MOGULS IN AMERICA Part 1 By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, June 12, 2004 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ The role of Greeks in the development of the international tobacco trade is one of the most unusual chapters in the history of the Modern Greek Diaspora.  Beginning in the mid-1800s, various Greek-owned companies held a commanding role in the production and sale of premium tobacco products in North America.  The manufacture of Egyptian-style oval cigarettes, made of the finest blended Oriental tobaccos, soon became the province of Greek merchants not only in Alexandria or Cairo, but also Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City.  These Greek businessmen spanned the gamut of individual owner-operated shops to international ...

GREECE'S FORGOTTEN LUCRATIVE TOBACCO ERA Published in The National Herald, August 22-28, 2015 Issue Authored by Anthe Mitrakos ------------------------------ We are excited to announce that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ ----------------------- KAVALA, GREECE – Greece is in modern days is surely known for producing a number of local goods like feta cheese, Chios masticha, and the best olive oil in the world. But not many people know that the country was once host to a booming tobacco production industry. In fact, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the economies of a number of Greek cities relied almost exclusively on the cultivation and sale of tobacco leaves, according to a Johns Hopkins University Press research paper by National Technical University of Athens Associate Professor Maria Renetzi.  In the ...