MADE IN HAMILTON
19TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL

SITE 33
TUCKETT & BILLINGS TOBACCO
MANUFACTORY, 1866

In the mid-nineteenth century this part of downtown was riddled with the small shops of local artisans. One of these was the Tuckett & Billings Tobacco

Manufactory located on the north side of King Street about half a block east of Bay Street. George Tuckett learned cigarmaking in the local shop of Alfred Quimby, where he became a member of the local cigarmakers' union. In 1866 he teamed up with bookkeeper John Billings, to start a tobacco plant on this site. Their initials became the trademark for the popular "T.&B. Tobacco".

Billings retired in 1880 and Tuckett continued the business with the help of his son. In 1890 the company moved production to a large new plant on Queen Street near York Boulevard. The King Street plant stayed in operation as the Tuckett Cigar Factory for a number of years after the new plant opened.

Many Hamiltonians still remember the Queen Street plant pictured here. At times, this plant employed over 600 men and women, many of them from the surrounding neighbourhood. In 1891 cigarettes were added to the plant's product line. This plant closed in 1966 after the operations of the Tuckett Tobacco Company (by then part of Imperial Tobacco) were moved to a modern plant in Guelph.

Tuckett was exceptional among 19th century employers. His employees worked a nine hour day at a time when other factory workers were putting in 10 or 12 hours. He awarded his workers bonuses on the basis of merit. He shunned the strict system of fining common in most other tobacco factories. He gave long-time employees deeds to city lots and enough ready cash to build their own homes. The trust he gained in Hamilton's working community was evident when he was invited to help arbitrate an 1883 dispute between two rival cigarmakers' unions in the city.