he valued the ‘personal touch.’” Edward Dupree Allen left Canadian Leaf in 1970. In all, he spent nearly fifty years working in one of Canada’s most controversial industries before retiring to a farm in Delmer. He passed away from lung cancer on April 27, 1988. Author Paul Allen is a retired high school teacher who makes his home in the Ottawa area.
but in the early days, ignorance was bliss. “My father grew one of the first flue-cured tobacco crops in the Tillsonburg area in 1927,” says Allen. “He became a buyer for Canadian Leaf in 1930, and was named president when the new Norfolk Leaf ‘super’ plant subsidiary opened in Tillsonburg in 1962." With its modern processing equipment and large receiving bays, it was probably the finest leaf packing and processing plant in the country. It even had a rail spur that allowed easy connection to Macdonald Leaf in Montreal, their biggest customer. The story of how the plant came into existence, and how Tillsonburg displaced Chatham to become Ontario’s tobacco centre are just some of the interesting tidbits you’ll find in Allen’s book. You’ll even find a nostalgic reference to Tillsonburg’s Arlington Hotel where in 1943, the Shrine Club charged $2.00 for a roast beef dinner on ladies’ night. “A lot of the content in the book was drawn from cassette tape interviews my father gave to a professor in Virginia prior to his
death,” says Allen. “I was able to listen to my dad’s voice and put together a timeline of his life.” Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the elder Allen’s experience—from his dealings with industry colleagues to his unpretentious approach to management. “My father made it part of his daily routine to walk the processing line in the factories in Chatham and Tillsonburg,” writes Allen. “Often he would sit and eat among the seasonal workers in the cafeteria instead of eating in the small executive lunch room. He’d say, ‘Let’s get out of the Kremlin and go where the real people are.’” In particular, Allen remembers his father’s extensive Christmas card list and the practices he developed to remember his employee’s names and family members. “He refused to have his Christmas cards professionally printed, preferring instead to hand write the addresses, sign and include small personal greetings,” says Allen. “It would take him two weeks, working three to four hours a night, five to six days a week to get the cards ready. But
When Tobacco Was King is available locally at Annandale National Historic Site and Coyles Country Store.
19
DTMag Fall 2019 FINAL 2.indd 19
2019-09-24 3:47 PM
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online