The John Weisert Tobacco Company, located at 1120 to 1132 South 6th Street, produced smoking tobacco and plug cut under scores of labels including Orphan Boy, Big John, Granulated 51, Harp Plug Cut —“Smoke or Chew”—and the felicitously-named Joysmoke, sold as tobacco for cigarettes, cigars or the pipe. Founded in the 1850s, Weisert Tobacco operated until the late 1980s under the helm of the founder’s great-grandson, Walter Weisert, and until the end was the last remaining tobacco company in Missouri. The once-flourishing Christian Peper Tobacco Company, founded 1852, had their offices at 707 North First Street in Laclede’s Landing. This building, now the offices of the Metro Transit System, once stored the leaf for the company. Its plank floors were slanted so workers could roll large barrels of cured tobacco down toward waiting cargo ships on the Mississippi. In 1906, according to the Laclede’s Landing website, the company produced a series of racy cards for their Turkish brand Kadee 

The site was orginally the home to a Convent and orpanage run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The John Weisert Tobacco Company bought a leasehold interest in 1895, built and operated their tobacco business from the 1120 South Sixth Street address until the mid 1970's. 
 
The North Buiding, a classic heavy timber structure, was built in 1902 and housed the drying, stemming/seeding and packaging operations.  The South Building, a concrete mushroom capital columned building, was added in 1924 for warehouse space.
 
The building has been historically renovated and was added to the National Register of Historic places in 2004.
 
In the heyday of tobacco, the Weisert Company produced a variety of brands including Orphan Boy, Big John, Insert, Old Home Town, and Harp to name just a few.
 
The Weisert Tobacco Company supplied quality cigar, cigarette and plug tobacco to the growing midwest population at the turn of the 19th century.

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The Quapaw Indian Agency was a territory that included parts of the present day Oklahoma Counties of Ottawa and Delaware. Established in the late 1830s as part of the Cherokee Nation, the agency was disbanded in 1890 by the Oklahoma Organic Act and attached to an Indian Territory. Another Indian reserve, the Miami Indian Agency based in Miami, Oklahoma was disbanded at the same time. The area that became known as the Quapaw Agency Lands contained 220,000 acres and was located in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma where that state adjoins Missouri and Kansas. This area was settled prior to 1874 by 24 Indian groups. These range from full Indian tribes down to the remnants of several larger Indian groups whose main body settled elsewhere.

History
Among the tribes who settled peacefully in these lands were people of the Algonquin and the Iroquois tribes who, in the time of Samuel de Champlain, were great enemies. Here also, plowing and harvesting their fields together and sharing each other's native ceremonials, was a tribe of the mighty Sioun nation, as well as one of the Lupuamian nation. Within the memories of their grandfathers, these old and powerful tribes had owned many hundreds of thousands of acres in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Oregon.

Since early territorial days of 1867 an agency had existed to the benefit of these Indians. This was in order that members of these tribes could be in contact with the agent of the federal government. But not all of the business handled by the agent was tribal business. The Indian Agent often found himself being the mediator in settling neighborhood and family disputes, as well.

Because the land was originally given to the Quapaw Tribe, it became known as The Quapaw Agency Lands. Prior to this, it and other nearby areas had been known as The Neosho Indian Agency, The Shawnee Indian Agency and the Seneca Indian Agency. It was originally located four miles west of Seneca, Missouri, and later moved to Wyandotte in the Indian Territory. In 1920, two agencies were established; the Seneca and Quapaw. In 1922 they were combined and became the Quapaw Agency.

Due to the close proximity of their reservations, there were many intermarriages between the tribes and several of the tribes eventually merged. Therefore, some of the individually listings will lead the researcher to the tribal name they are known by today.

Primary Tribes
Eastern Shawnee, from Indiana, and Ohio
Miami, from Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
Modoc, from the California-Oregon border
Ottawa, from Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois
Peoria of the Illinois Confederation, from Illinois,
Quapaw Tribe, from Arkansas along the western bank of the Mississippi River
Seneca and Cayuga of the Iroquois Confederacy, from New York
Wyandotte, from Ohio