For sale is a late 1800s P.J. SORG & CO. TOBACCO CUTTER from the P.J. Sorg Tobacco Company, Middletown, Ohio. This rare general store cast iron Tobacco Plug Cutter is in exceptional condition and is mounted a thick cherry wood beveled presentation stand. This cast iron cutter is marked with a December 11, 1883 patent date. On cutter handle it reads “SPEAR HEAD” on one side and “SAW LOG” on the other. This company manufactured of Spear Head Plug Tobacco. This rare and distinctive cutter with an oval gear looks great from all angles. Cutter measures about 18 inches in length and 4 inches wide. The cutter stand 9 1/2 inches tall when the blade is in the closed position. The wood stand measures 21 inches long, by 6 1/2 inches wide, by 6 1/2 1/2 inches thick. A first rate tobacciana collectible.
Around 1870, Captain Robert Wilson, George Jacoby, John Auer, and Paul J. Sorg founded the first tobacco factory along the Miami and Erie Canal in Middletown, Ohio. In 1877, Sorg withdrew from the firm and founded the P. J. Sorg Tobacco Company. His factory grew until it covered a city block with buildings three to five stories high. The factory was equipped with presses, packers, and other tobacco-processing equipment. By 1888 the factory employed 700 people. In 1888, Sorg sold the factory to the Continental Tobacco Company, later known as the American Tobacco Company, which controlled many of the tobacco factories in the United States. After an anti-trust lawsuit by the federal government, the company was ordered to break up. In 1912, the Middletown factory became part of the P. Lorillard Tobacco Company.
