Claude Allen Plug Tobacco Factory

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By 1857 Milton had five tobacco factories. No fewer, than thirteen tobacco warehouses, prize houses where the raw tobacco was packed into hogsheads, and tobacco plug and smoking factories appear on the 1893 Sanborn Insurance Map. By 1925 not one remained in business and most of the buildings had disappeared. Claude Allen's Plug Tobacco Factory on the east side of Bridge-Warehouse Street is the only existing factory building. The factory is a late nineteenth century vernacular Victorian one-story frame structure now used as a barn. Across the gable-end facade is a loading dock with a shed roof, and along the south side of the building is a lean-to storage shed. The only exterior ornament is the small, decorative louvered ventilator window in the upper facade. The interior is a large, unpartitioned space with machinery, work tables, plug molds and packing crates scattered about. The factory office, a miniature version of the factory, stands in the side yard.

Source: National Register of Historic Places Inventory--Nomination Form, Milton Historic District, 27 August 1973.

This may be the only tobacco factory standing in Caswell County.

For photographs of another Caswell County tobacco factory and background information on these once-prevalent industries go to Leasburg Tobacco Factory.

More photographs follow:

The manufacture of plug tobacco really took off in North Carolina after the Civil War. I see that Charles Jasper Allen (1827-1913) may have participated in that conflict (but not confirmed with respect to any primary source).

Charles Jasper Allen was born in Rockingham County, NC, but married Sarah J. Powers (1832-1910) in Wake County, NC. Their first child, Virginia Allen was born 9 March 1852 in Raleigh, Wake County, NC. So, when did Charles Jasper Allen move to Milton, Caswell County, NC?

The next child, Bettie Ann allen (1855-1941) was born in North Carolina, but I have not found the exact location. Was it Wake County or Milton?

While there are obvious problems with the following census record, it is the closest I found for this Allen family in 1860. The head of the household, presumably C. J. Allen, is shown as a "Tobacco Trader" and not a tobacco manufacturer. Note the $3,000 in person estate value, which in 1960 before the Civil War often suggested slave ownership (and farm operations).

1860 United States Federal Census Name: A C Allen Age: 33 Birth Year: abt 1827 Gender: Male Birth Place: North Carolina Home in 1860: Milton, Caswell, North Carolina Post Office: Milton Dwelling Number: 896 Family Number: 906 Occupation: Tobacco Trader Real Estate Value: 1000 Personal Estate Value: 3000 Household Members: Name Age A C Allen 33 S J Allen 27 [Sarah J. Powers Allen?] S J Allen 9 E Allen 7 [Elizabeth/Bettie Allen?] C Allen 4 [Charles Jasper Alllen, Jr.?] F Allen 1 [Florence Allen?]

If Charles Jasper Allen began the Claude Allen tobacco business after the Civil War his son Clifton E. Allen (1869-1936) would have been unborn or just a young boy, not coming "of age" until 1890. We do not know what he was doing in 1890 as the census records for that year were destroyed.

In 1900 he was living in his father's home in Milton with his occupation given as "Auctioneer" -- presumably, based upon what we know about his career, this was a tobacco auctioneer.

By the time of the 1910 United States Federal Census, Charles Jasper Allen was a "retired tobacconist." However, it does not appear that Clifton E. Allen assumed operation of the Claude Allen tobacco factory in Milton. The attached Clifton E. Allen obituary suggests his entire career was in the tobacco trade -- but as an auctioneer and buyer (not as a manufacturer).

At the time of the 1920 United States Federal Census, Clifton E. Allen, age 51, was living in the household of his brother-in-law Felix R. Gordon, single, and described as a "Tobacco Warehouse Auctioneer" and a Wage or Salary worker. His father had died in 1913.

In 1930, the census shows Clifton E. Allen working on his own account as a "Tobacconist/Buyer."

Clifton E. Allen died in 1936. Emily Jean Bradsher Scott was born in 1925. She may have remembered Clifton E. Allen in the 1930s, but he apparently had nothing to do with the Claude Allen tobacco factory.

"Cliff Allen was the man who operated the factory. Died in middle to late 1930s. I remember him wearing white linen suit and Panama hat." Source: Jean B. Scott 4 February 2018 post to the Caswell County Historical Association Facebook Page.

You provided the following, which is interesting: Lois Angle Love's nephew brought me an envelope with a tobacco plug in it - handwritten on the envelope was "Allen Factory, Cliff Allen's father". This in no way suggests that Ciff Allen had anything to do with the Milton tobacco factory.

Until more is known, I am using the working hypothesis that "Claude Allen" was a trade name and not a person. Perhaps the Milton tobacco factory should just be called the "Allen Tobacco Factory."