Some time ago Hermon was kind enough to post to the list about raising tobacco. The tale brought memories back to me, including a story my grandfather used to tell of the "tobacco wars" in KY, his family had moved to Mason Co by the beginning of the 20th century. I have a picture of my grandfather standing in a filed of cotton with a pistol on his hip. Anyway, Hermon wasn't familiar with this, so I did some surfing on the web and didn't come up with much, but it was enough to "jog" my memory. At the turn of the century, Mr. Duke of the tobacco family had a monopoly on tobacco production in the US and drove prices down by being the ONLY entity to which tobacco could be sold. Vigilante committees were formed and neighbor burned out neighbor. My question, how serious did this get in Northern, KY? Does anyone else have stories to tell of this time? You had to know my grandfather to know how totally out of character that picture of him is. Mary Swanger Courtemanche