Did you know that a Confederate Soldier created the world’s first bubble gum card? Well, he did. His name was Major Ginter, and he was a fascinating man. Lewis Ginter was born and grew up in New York City, but when he was a young man he came to Richmond, Virginia to seek his fortune. Like so many “Galvanized Virginians” before him, he fell in love with Richmond and decided to make it his permanent home. New York’s loss was Richmond’s gain, because Ginter had a natural instinct for business. He was shrewd but fair. It was an unbeatable combination. He worked long hours; everything he touched turned to gold. It wasn’t long before Ginter became one of Richmond’s richest and most prominent merchants.
When the war broke out between the North and South in 1861, Ginter’s heart and sword belonged to Richmond. He promptly closed his store and enlisted as a private in the Army of Northern Virginia. He served under Stonewall Jackson and distinguished himself on the battlefield. By the time the war ended, he had risen to the rank of Major. He was also flat broke! Like all true Southerners, he had nothing because he had given all he had to the cause. Ginter said to himself, “I’ve lost all my property, but I’ve still got my head on my shoulders. I made and lost one fortune. Now I am going to make and keep another.”
Ginter charmed a bank into giving him a loan with nothing for security but his reputation. He plunked down the money to buy a tiny tobacco company. The company was just a rickety, old wood warehouse stuffed with big, brown leaves freshly picked from the fields of North Carolina and Virginia. Ginter needed to turn a large pile of tobacco weeds into cash. How could he get the public to buy the stuff? He put his clever Yankee mind to work, and the wheels began to turn. The answer came in a flash! Plenty of tobacco was getting smoked, but every time a man wanted to smoke a cigarette, he had to roll his own. Rolling a cigarette was an art; some men never could master it. First, you took a piece of flat, thin paper from a case. Next, you poured just the right amount of ground tobacco from a drawstring bag onto the paper. Then, you carefully and evenly rolled the paper around the tobacco and licked the edges to make them stick together. It was a tedious process, and a lot of good tobacco was wasted. The finished product often looked so bent, straggly and uneven that it wasn’t fit to smoke. There was many a slip between the roll and the lip. Ginter said to himself, “My company will roll the cigarettes. We will measure out exactly the right amount of tobacco and seal it inside the paper. Each cigarette will be exactly like the others. Then we’ll put twelve of them in a box and sell the pack.” Ginter’s idea was an instant smash hit, but he figured out a way to improve it. He printed pictures of twelve different flower arrangements in color on small squares of cardboard and slipped one picture into each package of cigarettes. He told his customers to collect the set of twelve pictures. They loved the idea. Ginter invented a unique product and a unique way to market it. His two ideas made him a millionaire many times over.
This all came about because a Confederate soldier invented the cigarette and marketed it with the world’s first bubble gum card. He was a member of Winchester Hiram Lodge No. 21, in Winchester, Virginia.
All content on this site is the property of Oakley Lodge #668 F&AM, unless otherwise noted. ©2007