Charles V. Wantz

The Wantz Building, where Charles Wantz ran his successful tobacco store and cigar-making factory, still stands on East Main Street near the center of Westminster’s business district although it no longer houses the firm. Between 1876, when Wantz began his cigar business, and 1896, when it was featured in a trade magazine called “Tobacco,” his tobacco products gained in popularity thanks to his remarkable marketing skills. The humorous envelope advertisement on this page must have made his firm memorable, as did his store’s interior décor. People flocked from far and wide to see more than 8,000 cigar labels

which papered the walls. During the latter part of the 19th century, lithographic firms produced labels for cigar manufacturers that were often very attractively designed. Wantz saved them and had them artistically applied to his store walls. It took two workmen three days to do the papering. Once inside the unique shop, visitors who smoked or chewed tobacco may have become Wantz’s customers.

The cigar brands he sold were primarily ones he made – My Own, Fragrant, Diamond

Crown, Victoria, and Superb. Prices ranged from $15 to $150 per thousand. A few other

imported brands were also on the shelves, likely ones from Cuba. The store sold other

tobacco products too - cigarettes made by the American Tobacco Company and the

National Cigarette and Tobacco Company plus plug tobacco made by B. F. Gravely

and twists made by R. J. Reynolds. Those were the days when a man was often

pictured with a cigar hanging out of his mouth, and the federal government didn’t

require warnings on tobacco products.

Cigar smokers were encouraged to return to shop at Wantz’s store by his generous

offer of a free breech-loading shotgun to anyone who purchased 1,000 cigars. Over the

years he reportedly gave away 5,000 guns representing sales of 5,000,000 cigars