Rekindled: The Tobacco Queen of Texas (Part 7)

A Legacy of Tobacco in East Texas

Gary Borders wrote a fabulous piece on The Tobacco Queen of Texas which you can find online here. I'm not going to creatively try to re-hash what he has done so well. Instead, I have posted the bulk of his article below for you to read. It's such an interesting topic and makes for a scandalous read.

What follows below are various articles from the Webb and Taylor tobacco venture in Nacogdoches, the Webb-Duke marriage scandal, and what followed. What do you think really happened?

Charters of the following corporations have been approved and filed for record in the state department: The Texas-Cuba Tobacco company of Nacogdoches. Capital stock, $150,000. Purpose, growing and selling fruits, vegetables and tobacco and the preparation of such products for market. Incorporators, Charles F. Taylor and A. L. Webb of Chicago, W. Garrison of Garrison, L. F. Shelfer and J. G. Smith of Nacogdoches.

Texas Cuba Tobacco Company of Cuba, Nacogdoches County; capital stock $150,000; purpose, growing and selling tobacco, fruits and vegetables. Incorporators. Charles F. Taylor, L.H. Shelfer, J.G. Smith of Houston."

Nacogdoches' Tobacco Boom - Investment and Innovation

"New Orleans, Nov. 12. - General Passenger Agent L. J. Anderson, of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, has returned from Chicago, bringing with him Mr. Taylor, of the firm of Taylor, Webb & Co., of Chicago, who will complete the details for the Nacogdoches, Tex., tobacco raising enterprise to be started there immediately. Mr. Gilbert Shaw, retired president of the American Trust and Savings Bank, of Chicago, will be the president of the syndicate. Mr. Anderson says that about $3,000,000 will be immediately invested in the Nacogdoches tobacco industry. He also announces that Mr. John T. Patrick, general industrial agent of the Seaboard Air Line is to become the chief of the Southern Pacific's industrial bureau.

Miss Alice Webb of Taylor, Webb & Co., that is operating a tobacco plantation at Redfield, near Nacogdoches, is also in town today and called at the general passenger department of the Southern Pacific. Miss Webb is more enthusiastic than ever over the Texas tobacco question and expects that by next fall her company will have a colony of Dutch tobacco growers located at Angelina County. "A farmer that can raise first-class cabbage can raise A1 tobacco, and every one knows what the Dutch can do to a cabbage patch or anything else that grows from the ground."

Chicago Business Woman Married to B. L. Duke

The marriage of Miss Alice L. Webb, junior member of the firm of Taylor, Webb & Co., Investments, 218 La Salle Street, Chicago, to B. L. Duke of New York City, was announced yesterday in Chicago. The wedding took place on Tuesday night. The Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst officiated.

Mrs. Duke is the daughter of the late William H. Webb, a corporation lawyer of New York, and is a cousin of Dr. Seward Webb.

The bridegroom is one of the controllers of the American Tobacco Company and has extensive holdings in Durham, N. C. Mrs. Duke herself is the President of the Texas-Cuba Tobacco Company. The couple will leave in a few days for a long trip abroad.

Bridegroom Was Divorced from His First Wife Last March. NEW YORK, Dec 22- B. L. Duke, son of millionaire Washington Duke of Durham, N C, and brother of James B. Duke of this city, the president of the American tobacco company, was married last night to Miss Alice Webb at Dr Parkhurst's church on Madison ave.

Mr Duke obtained, a divorce from his former wife, Minnie, last March, upon the ground of abandonment. A supplementary suit for absolute divorce was brought and a verdict in favor of Mr Duke was rendered in five minutes, a settlement of $100,000 being made on Mrs Duke. This was paid in cash by the husband.

B. L. Duke's bride is the junior member of the firm of Taylor, Webb & Co, Investments, of 204 La Salle st, Chicago. She is a daughter of William H. Webb of this city and a cousin of Dr Seward Webb. She is also president of the Texas-Cuba tobacco company. The bridal couple will start soon on a long trip abroad.

Talks of Growing Tabacco in Texas

Charles F. Taylor of Chicago, who was here yesterday to file the charter of the Texas Cuba Tobacco company, spoke with much enthusiasm in regard to the tobacco producing possibilities of the Nacogdoches country. He said he was satisfied it would produce a finer quality of tobacco than Cuba and yield more per acre.

Mr. Taylor represents the firm of Taylor, Welch & Co. of Chicago, who, in addition to their holdings around Nacogdoches, have large interests in Texas which will be developed and brought to the front.

He said in speaking of the tobacco enterprise at Nacogdoches that the capital stock of $150,000 was sufficient for the present, but at the end of the third year $300,000 would be employed, and at the end of the fifth year $1,000,000.

The company will not only grow tobacco on a large scale, but will be supplied with all the machinery and facilities for preparing it for market. Mr. Taylor went from Austin to Houston and will visit Nacogdoches and Little Rock, Ark., before his return to Chicago.

Speaking in a general way to Secretary of State Curl, he said: "The possibilities of Texas are simply immeasurable. I am delighted with the state and am also delighted with the people."

Miss Webb Talks Interestingly of Nacogdoches Tobacco Farm

TRUST TRIED TO THROTTLE

Industry-A Sensational Charge Against Dr. Whitney, Chief of the Bureau of Soils.

Miss Alice L. Webb, president of the Texas-Cuban Tobacco company, known as the "Tobacco Queen," was in the city yesterday from Nacogdoches en route to Beaumont, where she will appear before the chamber of commerce of that city to day with samples of the tobacco grown on her plantation, Redfield, which is five miles from Nacogdoches on the line of the Houston East and West Texas railroad.

Miss Webb, who has the backing of some of the most extensive financial institutions in the country, and whose home is in Chicago, became interested in the Texas tobacco industry about a year ago. She was a guest at a banquet which was attended by Mr. Samuel F. B. Morse, formerly of this city, now of New York, and during that banquet a number of addresses were delivered relative to the Importance of the undeveloped resources of Texas.

Among other things a great deal was said concerning the quality of tobacco that could be grown in the vicinity of Nacogdoches. It was stated that a leaf equal in every way to that grown in Cuba could be produced in this vicinity.

Miss Webb had never had any experience in the culture of tobacco, but she was a thorough business woman and she began ruminating upon the suggestion. She concluded that if the statements were true, there was a vast amount of money to be made by growing Texas Tobacco.

She investigated the proposition with the result that she purchased 750 acres of tobacco lands held by Mr. Morse, and then she began active work toward the development of the proposition. With unlimited capital at her command, all the thing needed was push coupled with common sense. She is the embodiment of both.

The Future of Tobacco in Nacogdoches

"The Texas-Cuban Tobacco company has been chartered under the laws of the State with a capitalization of $150,000. Miss Webb stated yesterday that a proposition had been submitted to the company looking to making a $1,000,000 incorporation of it of the 750 acres in the tract, 100 has already been placed in cultivation.

This represents an outlay of something like $60,000, which has been utilized in the clearing and breaking of the land, the erection of warehouses, tenant sheds and the like. The remaining portion of the land will be put in cultivation as soon as it is found to be practicable. In addition to the 750 acres which Miss Webb owns outright, she, with her associates, have options on 5000 acres, all of it situated in that vicinity."

"Up to five weeks ago," stated Miss Webb, "the people of Nacogdoches did not know what hey had. I went before a meeting of business men and made a revelation to them. They had not paid any attention, only in a general way, to the work being carried on right in their midst. I told them that I did not want their money, but that I needed their cooperation. I told them that I did not want even that until they should go out and see what had been done. They realized that they had been sleeping on a gold mine. Since that time they have been awake and now they are pushing the proposition for all it is worth."

Government Roadblocks and the Fight for Texas Tobacco

"You ask about the work of the government concerning the Nacogdoches tobacco proposition" (and Miss Webb smiled). "Do you know that Dr. Whitney, the chief of the bureau of soils at Washington, kept millions of capital out of Texas when he gave the order to his assistant at Nacogdoches not to permit Mr. Taussig, president of the Havana Tobacco company of Quincy, to inspect the tobacco grown in Texas?

This was the order given when Dr. Whitney saw, Mr. L. H. Shelfer, the former soil expert, and Mr. Taussig step off the train. Mr. Shelfer had resigned his position with the government when he found that the official report was to be held back in order to give time to organize a company to throttle this whole industry, The correspondence to verify my statements are now in my possession.

I recognized the finger of the tobacco trust people all through this transaction. "It was quite amusing to me when I read that Dr. Whitney had gone before the committee to ask for funds to carry on the tobacco experiments at Nacogdoches. If Secretary Wilson will but honor us with a visit at Nacogdoches, we will take him out and show him that we are putting in a whole farm in shade tobacco, and that the experimental stage is past.

The Tobacco Trust’s Grip and Texas’ Untapped Wealth

"There were reasons why the tobacco trust should have tried to throttle this Industry. Do you know that the trust today' owns every foot of tobacco land in Cuba? It is a fact. Do you suppose they are asleep, or that they could not realize that the development of the Texas tobacco lands would have been a death blow to them unless they themselves were control?

There are about 300,000 acres of this tobacco land to this entire country. The soil fertilizes itself with a natural marl fertilizer, which is from a half foot to a foot and a half, under the ground, and this marl is turned up and fertilizes the land. It could be mined and shipped as a fertilizer. It is the greatest thing I have ever seen. It is the same thing that can be found in Cuba.

"Speaking of tobacco as a money making industry, look at the princely incomes of Spain from this industry. That is the reason Spain fought Cuba so long and fought this country before she would give up that country. You will find in that country small patches upon the mountain sides no larger than that table there, and here the native works and from this he makes his livelihood. But the trust gets the princely income now. Just think of the duty that the tobacco users of this country pay on tobacco that comes from Cuba-$1.95. That is what they pay on the high grade Sumatra leaf.

Nacogdoches - The Future Goldmine of American Tobacco

"Now here is what we can do at Nacodgoches. We can grow from seed to leaf in the open at a cost of 12 cents a pound and can sell for 28 cents per pound. To shade tobacco it costs about $350 per acre the first year to grow shade tobacco, and we can produce anywhere from 1200 to 1500 pounds to the acre.

We can sell this-and it is as fine as the very finest Summatra-for from $1.50 to $3.50 per pound. Figure it out yourself, and you will see that something in the neighborhood of $600 can be cleared on an acre of ground the first year, above the cost of shading. It would not cost that much the second year because you have your sheds. A small farmer can grow tobacco in five-acre tracts and we will furnish him the seed and take all he grows and he can clear above the cost to produce something like $500 per acre. What do you think of that for a proposition?"

Miss Webb is so thoroughly imbued with the tobacco industry that she could talk for hours and say something new and interesting with every breath. She is heart and soul in the proposition and will surely make a success of it. She is one of those pushers who knows nothing of failure, and having the lands upon which the finest tobacco in the world can be grown and the unlimited capital to back her, there is no such word as fail.

And her success means the opening up of a very rich industry right at the doors of Houston. The tobacco she had with her yesterday was as fine as any leaf ever grown, so pronounced by tobacco experts who have examined it.

MAY PROBE DUKE AFFAIR - DISTRICT ATTORNEY JEROME LIKELY TO INVESTIGATE

New York, Jan. 9-Announcement was made last night on what seemed to be authoritative information that the district attorney's office will take up the case of Brodie L. Duke, who yesterday was placed in a sanatorium after having been separated from his wife whom he married only a few weeks ago. For several days numerous detectives have been working on the mysterious case, and sensational developments are promised.

District Attorney Jerome said that he would do every thing in his power to clear up the entire matter. Mrs. Duke and her associate, Mrs. Agnes Desplaines left the Park Avenue Hotel yesterday and are now at a hotel in the upper part of the town. Both the women were served with subpoenas yesterday, ordering them to appear before the grand jury today, but the reason for this move was not made public by the district attorney's office.

The Bellevue Hospital authorities have deposited with District Attorney Jerome, bonds, stocks, notes and checks, said to have a face value of $60,000, found in the pockets of Mr. Duke when he was taken into custody. Among them were bonds of the cities of New Orleans, Durham, N. C.; stock of the Commonwealth Cotton Company, and various bank stocks in Durham and other Southern cities. The face value of these securities was $40,000, with notes and a check bearing a face value of $10,000 in addition.

Among the documents in the case is the prospectus of the Texas-Cuba Tobacco Company, which is said to have thousands of acres of arable land at Nacogdoches, Texas. In connection with this enterprise further capital seems to have been necessary. Three promissory notes for $5000 each, said to have been made on Dec. 5 by Mr. Duke to Miss Webb, four days before their marriage, and due in three, four and five months, are among those found on Mr. Duke.

Mr. Mallory, who says he has been Mrs. Duke's attorney, said he had an idea they were to be used in connection with the financing of the Texas-Cuba Tobacco Company, of which Mrs. Duke was president before her marriage. Among the effects of Mr. Duke were found letterheads of this concern which indicate that it had the confidence of certain persons to whom the company announces its reference by permission. The references of the corporation are E. A. V. Blount, president of the Commercial National Bank, Nacogdoches, Texas; G. B. Shaw of the National Life Building, Chicago, and F. L. Webster, cashier of the First National Bank of Van Wert, O.

Allegations of Startling Nature Made By Relatives of Tobacco Magnate

Houston, Tex., Jan. 12. - Considerable interest is attached here to the matrimonial troubles of Mrs. Brodie L. Duke, nee Miss Alice Webb, of the tobacco firm of Taylor, Webb & Co., Chicago, who was married to Mr. Duke. a few weeks ago in New York, after which Mr. Duke was taken in charge by his relatives and removed to a private sanitarium on the allegation that he was suffering from mental disorder.

It is alleged that he made over to Miss Webb considerable sums of money for the purpose of financing the Texas-Cuba Tobacco company, of Texas, holding a large acreage of tobacco land at Nacogdoches.

Miss Webb is well known here, having made this city her headquarters during her operations in connection with the aforesaid tobacco company. She is said to be the divorced wife of E. H. Powell, a wealthy southerner. She is an extraordinary woman of business ability.

The case is now being investigated by district attorney Jerome. Duke's brother is at the head of the tobacco trust and is largely interested. The holdings of the Texas-Cuba Tobacco company in Texas have become involved in the bankruptcy proceedings of D. J. Sully & Co., of which Mr. Morse was a member. The sum of $2000 was paid down for this property, the balance remaining unpaid.

For this reason, the property is in court and according to the allegations of Mr. Duke's family, he was picked out as the man of sufficient wealth to lift the debt and place the company on its feet.

Suit has been brought to annul the marriage, and sensational develop ments are promised.

A Controversial Past - Allegations and Scandals Surrounding Miss Webb

FEW WORDS FROM BRODIE - Detective Quotes Message Alleged to Have Been Sent by Husband. -

The accusations made against Mrs. Brodie L. Duke by New York detectives have drawn from persons who knew her in Chicago many stories of her career in this city. A Chicago man who has known the tobacco man's bride for twenty years discussed the case at length last night.

"Two years ago," said he, " a Kansas City man came to Chicago to look after some real estate deals and promote some schemes in which he was interested. He met Mrs. Duke, then Alice L. Webb, a woman of financial visions. Theaters, cabs, and suppers figured in their friendship, and when it was over he was several thousand dollars the loser.

"Several well known Chicagoans are shaking over the disclosures which may come out," continued the informer. Involved with Kentuckian. - "Ten years ago she was involved in Chicago with a Kentucky man named Masterson. They lived at the Leland hotel for some time as man and wife, and then went to the Grand Pacific.

It was in their flat in Thirty-sixth street in New York that the Kentuckian's wife, who had tracked her husband there to discover his crime, dropped dead in the elevator."

"I knew Mrs. Duke's father slightly," continued this man. "He was William R. Webb, a Buffalo lawyer. If the Buffalo Probate court could be reached you would find that the story upon which she has banked her career as a capitalist, the inheritance of $130,000, was a myth. Her father did not leave her a cent.

She was brought up in an orphan asylum and her claims to membership in a New York family 125 years old are preposterous. I do not believe that in all her Chicago career she has made $2,500. As a business woman she was not a success. She could not run a peanut stand.."

Powell a Hotel Steward. - The story circulated in Chicago that Mrs.Duke had lost $60,000 of her estate through Investing in a hotel conducted by her divorced husband, E. H. Powell, is also discredited. "Powell was a hotel steward," said this man, who knows her history. He told her he had large estates in Virginia. When they were married he was acting as steward in the hotel in Philadelphia.

"He took her to Portland, Ore., but their romance ended in Chicago, where she was awarded decree of divorce two years ago on grounds of cruelty and drunkenness. It was secured for her by Attorney Frank Draper in Judge Chytraus' court."

Shadows, Schemes, and Unpaid Debts - The Complex Web Around Mrs. Duke

Charles F. Haas, head of the Haas detective agency, 24 La Salle street, just across the hall from the Webb-Taylor company, of which Mrs. Duke is president, knows her well. He had a bill against her for $88 for shadowing a man whom Mrs. Duke was anxious to get into a business deal.

The scene was the Auditorium hotel. Haas personally and by paying a man $5 a day for several weeks watched the movements of the man. Haas paid the bills and waited in vain for his bill to be honored by the president of the "investment" company. One day he saw Charles F. Taylor, Mrs. Duke's partner, wearing a new suit of clothes.

"I want my money." said Haas to Taylor, "or I will tear those clothes off your back."

"Pay him, Charlie, dear," advised Mrs. Duke. Taylor gave all the money he had, $45. When Mrs. Duke left Chicago last summer Haas secured an attachment against the hin furniture in her flat at 5427 Forty-second street.

Shaw and the Tobacco Company. - Detective Haas asserted last night that he believed Gilbert Shaw, president of the E. E. Naugle Tie company, 159 La Salle street. whose name was used "by permission" in the prospectus of the Texas-Cuba Tobacco company, the last scheme floated by Mrs. Duke, had invested $8,000 or $10,000 in the stock of this concern.

This is denied by Mr. Shaw, who claims he knew Mrs. Duke for twelve years, and that she repeatedly had tried to interest him in her schemes without success. The first scheme which Mrs. Duke proposed to Mr. Shaw was the Redlands Timber company of California.

Another scheme in which Mrs. Duke attempted to interest capital was that of a revolving fan. Her attempts in this line were made in Syracuse, N. Y., where she is said to have secured several thousands of dollars on from business men. A New York telephone company holds a bill of $69 against her for toil service to Texas last summer.

Reports a Message by Phone. - Charles F. Taylor, according to Detective Haas, yesterday afternoon received a telegram from Mrs. Duke, which read:

"I received a telephone message from Duke today in Flushing. He said: 'You haven't forgotten Brodie, have you? Well now, listen to what I say. Don't you care what the newspapers say or what the lawyers do. Stand pat and we will come out alright. When I get out I will rip the boys up the back.' "

Taylor, when seen yesterday in his offices, sat by the side of a steamer trunk and a suit case as if he was prepared to travel. He denied, however, that he would leave Chicago.

"Things will come out all right," he said. "These newspaper stories about Mrs. Duke are all lies."

Legal Scrutiny and a Desperate Bid for Duke’s Freedom

District Attorney's Office Attempts to Shed Light on the Situation Through Witness. - New York, Jan. 10. - [Special. ] -

The noise about the fortunes of Brodie L. Duke and his bride began to subside today. The Duke family lawyers, Nicoll, Anable, and Lindsay, said they learned nothing new or of general interest about the past of Mrs. Powell Masterson Harman Hopkinson Duke, who, as Miss Alice L. Webb, was married on Dec. 19, in the Madison Square Presbyterian church, to the man now a sufferer from alcoholic dementia.

There was some activity in the case in the district attorney's office where Assistant District Attorney Lord examined a massage man, who made a long rambling statement about a spree that preceded the marriage. About the only thing that looks like evidence possible to use, relating to a criminal charge, was that on Dec. 18, the day before the wedding, the woman, in the presence of at least three persons, is said to have declared her self the daughter of William H. Webb, a late millionaire shipbuilder.

It might be something of a strain to apply to this declaration the section of the penal code, which declares it to be a felony, punishable by ten years' imprisonment, when any person falsely personates another or marries, or pretends to marry, or sustain married relation toward another, with or without the connivance of the latter."

For reasons best known to the bartender of the hotel Winton, it is the opinion of members of the district attorney's staff, who have investigated the case, that none of those present at the festivities, which preceded and followed the wedding, could tell, even if moved by the purest desire to tell the truth, exactly just what occurred.

Mrs. Duke has succeeded in throwing off her track the detectives employed to shadow her ever since her marriage to Duke. From her hiding place she is making desperate efforts to have her husband released from the sanitarium at Flushing, L. I. Through her friends she employed counsel, who will take steps at once in habeas corpus proceedings to obtain the release of Duke.

The Businesswoman of Chicago - Alice Webb’s Ventures

Chicago, Jan. 9. - Mrs. Brodie Duke, formerly Miss Alice L. Webb, is known in Chicago as a member of the firm of Taylor, Webb & Co. Her partner is Charles L. Taylor, and the concern deals in tobacco lands. She is also president at of the Texas-Cuba Tobacco Company of Nacogdoches, Tex. In Chicago Miss Webb lived at 427 Forty-Seventh street with her maid. She was said to be the wealthy divorced wife of E. H. Powell, a Southerner.

Today her partner, Mr. Taylor, said, "Mrs. Duke is the daughter of William H. Webb, who was a wealthy corporation lawyer of New York. When her father died, ten years ago, he left her $100,000, and she engaged in business. She did not care for society, and proved to be a very shrewd business woman. She told me that her first husband, Powell, had squandered her fortune.

"Since forming the partnership I have been associated with Miss Webb in many business ventures."

Is an Extraordinary Woman. Taylor, who was formerly Chicago agent for an insurance company of Iowa, family in South Chicago. laughed at the idea that the firm was not all that it was represented to be. He said: "Mrs. Duke is an extraordinary woman and attends strictly to business. I never heard her say any unkind thing to any one. She is not handsome or even good looking. Anybody who goes against her will meet his match. I have known her fourteen years and have been in business with her two years."

Mr. Taylor said further: "I can safely say that Mrs. Duke has made fully $1,000,000 in investments since I have known her. Outside of the fact that we may be involved in our land deal in Texas our firm is O.K. We purchased 735 acres of ground at Nacogdoches, Tex., from Col. S. F. B. Morse and paid $2,000 down. He is the ex-traffic manager of the Southern Pacific Railway Company.

It developed after the failure of Daniel Sully, the cotton king, that Morse was his partner and that the property was included in the assets. This brought this property into court and it is still there.

"All our transactions have been bona fide. I don't know Duke and did not know Miss Webb was going to marry him. I never knew any of her private business."

The Troubling Story of Brodie L. Duke and Miss Alice Webb

Beaumont, Tex., Jan. 9.-Announcement of the committal of Brodie L. Duke to a sanitarium in New York city on account of alleged impaired mental condition, and the probable investigation by District Attorney Jerome into the circumstances surrounding Duke's marriage to Miss Alice Webb several weeks ago, has aroused intense interest throughout this section of the South.

Miss Webb, the present Mrs. Duke, who acquired the appellation of "Tobacco Queen," obtained considerable notoriety here several months ago in connection with the promotion and organization of the Texas-Cuban Tobacco Company of Nacogdoches, Tex., in which she was a central figure. This concern was formed with a capital stock of $150,000, of which $115,000 was paid in. An option on 900 acres of land surrounding Nacogdoches had been obtained, on which the promoters proposed to grow tobacco on a large scale.

Twenty acres of this tract was put under cultivation to demonstrate the claims of the concern, but beyond this nothing was done. A short time ago the product of this experiment, together with equipment, was sold at sheriff's sale, being bought in by the Florida-Havana-Sumatra Tobacco Company of Florida for $350.

Miss Webb is also said to have been a principal factor in the promotion and organization of a similar company in Connecticut, which went out of business in the same manner as the Texas-Cuban Tobacco Company several months before.

Fraud Allegations and Denial - Taylor's Arrest Over $3,000 Tobacco Investment Scheme

Taylor was arrested at his office in the Continental Bank building yesterday at noon by Detectives Morgan and Connors. It is charged that he secured the $3,000 from Blount in Texas last May, which he was to invest for him in tobacco stocks. Taylor got the money from him, it is said, by representing that he owned a tobacco plantation in the state valued at $82,000. He was indicted by the grand jury in Nacogdoches recently, and the police of this city were notified to arrest him.

He declared at Central station last night that he was being persecuted through the tobacco trust and that the statements made against him when he was indicted were perjuries. "The charge will not stand if I am tried," he asserted, "and I will be released." He said that he had not swindled Blount, but had invested his $3,000 safely in the PA Texas-Cuba Tobacco company, where it been would bring good returns.

Blackmail Claims and Legal Battles - Taylor's Defense and Mrs. Duke's Struggles in Jail

Taylor charges that his arrest is blackmail, and that the tobacco trust is taking this means to throttle their business in Texas, where it tries to crush out any one who interferes with its business. Taylor is secretary of the Texas-Cuba Tobacco company, of which Mrs. Duke is the president, and is married. He lives at 8957 Exchange avenue.

Mrs. Duke Still in Jail. NEW YORK, Feb. 6. - Mrs. Brodie L. Duke spent a large part of today in the Center Street police court. Her counsel made a determined but unsuccessful effort to have her released from the Tombs, where she has been confined for the past two weeks on a charge of larceny preferred against her by the authorities of Nacogdoches county, Texas.

When Magistrate Pool decided to hold her another day awaiting final information from the Texas authorities, Mrs. Duke was overcome with disappointment and anger. She cried bitterly and swooned as she was being of led back to prison.

During the hearing Magistrate Pool expressed suspicion as to the character of the proceedings against Mrs. Duke in Texas, and said that definite information must be e obtained from there at the earliest moment, otherwise he would discharge the defendant. "I have no faith in those Texas fellows," he declared.

Forced Sale of Tobacco Crop - Taylor-Webb Company’s Assets Auctioned to Settle Debt

Sold Under Order of Court to Satisfy a Labor Claim.

Special to The Statesman.

Nacogdoches, Tex., Aug. 5.-The entire tobacco crop of the Taylor-Webb company, consisting of 750 pounds of tobacco in barn and five acres growing in the field, was sold today as perishable property by order of a justice's court. The order of sale was sued out by Henry Millard to satisfy a debt Millard held against the company for labor and teams furnished in cultivating the crop and making improvements on the farm. The tobacco brought $350 under the hammer and was knocked down to the Florida Havana Sumatra company.

Florida Company Takes Over Redfield Plantation - A Key Development in Tobacco Controversies

Florida Company Obtains Control of Famous Farm.

(Houston Post Special.) Nacogdoches, Texas, March 17. - The Florida Havana and Sumatra Tobacco company of Quincy, Fla., which is the same as Tausig & Co. of Chicago, leaf tobacco dealers, have just closed a lease and come into control of the entire Redfield tobacco plantation, so famous in the Taylor-Webb and S. F. B. Morse controversies. Twenty-five acres will be grown under shade this year for fine wrappers. The shade will be $250 per acre.

Redfield Property Sold - Dispute Over Ownership Claimed by Mrs. Duke

CLAIMED BY MRS. DUKE. SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE GLOBE-DEMOCRAT. NACOGDOCHES, TEX.,

June 22.-John Sanborn of Sterling, Ill. has purchased from S. F. B. Morse the Redfield tobacco plantation which Mrs. Webb-Duke claimed to have purchased, and which has been so widely advertised in connection with her case. The farm has 750 acres, and was sold at $25 per acre.

Experience the Legacy of Texas Tobacco at La Havana

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