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About Gurski - History - Dairy Farming - Tobacco Farming
Uncovering the past at Merwin Brook Cemetery
Tobacco: a cash crop
Tobacco has been a cash crop in Connecticut since colonial times, whether it was grown shaded under netting or with no cover as in Brookfield.
In 1810, the first American cigars were made in South Windsor, which were known as “Long Nines.” By 1900, tobacco was one of the leading agricultural products of Connecticut. Tobacco is still grown in some areas of Connecticut today, shaded from the hot sun by tents of cheesecloth.
Some of the best cigar wrapper leaf in the United States has been grown in Connecticut, including Connecticut broad leaf and Havana Seed.
Brookfield had many farms in the early years of the 20th century, and many grew tobacco to augment income from dairy farming. Unlike tobacco grown under tents in the Connecticut River valley, Brookfield’s farmers grew tobacco that required no shading.
Shade growers originally put their tobacco under tents to approximate tropical growing conditions. The cloth tents protect the tobacco from direct sunlight and help build up humidity beneath the cloth that emulates the climate of countries such as Sumatra, now part of Indonesia.
Tobacco grown without netting was also harvested differently than shade grown tobacco, which requires that each leaf of a plant be picked individually throughout the summer, from bottom to top, as it ripens. Tobacco plants grown without netting ripened at the same time and were harvested at the end of the growing season.
Following their purchase of the farm on Obtuse Hill Road, Frank and Eva Gurski set aside five acres on which tobacco was grown for five years. It took a lot of hard work to raise tobacco, which was very labor intensive, Frank Gurski, Jr, grandson of Frank and Eva, said recently, but it was also very profitable. Proceeds from tobacco sales paid off the farm’s mortgage in just over five years.
Most of the tobacco grown on the Gurski farm and other farms in the area consisted of broadleaf that was used for cigars, which required no netting but did require maintenance.
The process of propagation began early each year. In February, tobacco plants were begun inside in mason jars where they remained until spring when they were hand planted in the field. The plants were harvested in September.
Fields had to be fertilized to ensure there would be a good crop, according to Robin Stack of New Milford, who remembers the many farms that raised tobacco in this area. The last crop of tobacco in New Milford was raised in 1953, he said.
Mr. Stack said an acre of land could yield from 1,200 to 1,700 pounds of tobacco.
By June 1, planting could begin. In the beginning, farmers planted by hand, but later used a tobacco setter, a low wagon pulled by horses. One person drove the horses and up to four others would sit low on seats at the back to set the plants in four rows at a time. A 50-gallon tank on the setter supplied the water needed for each tobacco plant. Mr. Stack said that in this way an acre of land could be easily planted in one and a half days.
Putting the tobacco plants in the ground was only the beginning of the labor. Mr. Gurski explained that the most arduous and time consuming task was pulling off suckers that grew on the plants after they had been topped so they would not get too large. The suckers, if not removed, would sap strength from the plants, he said.
At harvest time, family members would string the ripe tobacco leaves on strips of wooden lathes in the tobacco plot and then load them on the wagon for transport to the tobacco barn where they would be hung in four tiers to dry.
The Gurski family’s tobacco barn, which was located near the Merwin Brook Cemetery, had sides that consisted of hinged boards that could be open for maximum air circulation or closed if there was a lot of wind.
After the tobacco had thoroughly cured, it was taken off the lathes, sorted for length and color, and laid in wooden crates to be taken to warehouses in New Milford where it was auctioned off. Each bundle might weigh from 35 to 40 pounds.
The tobacco crop might have been sold to Stuart Halpine in New Milford where the late Harry Gurski, the oldest son of Eva and Frank Gurski, worked in a tobacco warehouse during his teenage years sorting tobacco. The family may also have sold its tobacco to a buyer by the name of Warner who had a warehouse in New Milford.
According to Mr. Gurski, a building that was once an auction barn owned by the Green family still stands in New Milford near the railroad tracks on Bridge Street.
When the Gurski family stopped growing tobacco, the tobacco barn became a storage barn for hay, which was used to feed the cows.
The barn collapsed several years ago following a windstorm. According to Mr. Gurski, there was nothing inside the barn to support it since the hay once stored there had been removed. Many photographs of the barn survive.
In this 1923 photograph, members of the Gurski family, from left, Eva, Frank Sr., Stanley, Frank, Jr., and Harry, stand in front of the tobacco barn. To the left behind them is the tobacco field.
The Gurski family’s tobacco barn in later years.
The tobacco barn prior to its collapse.
A wagon full of tobacco is shown on its way to a barn on Obtuse South Road.
A tobacco plant is exhibited at the Brookfield Historical Society museum.
Article written by: By Jan Howard
