Glass snuff jar
“Grandma Delia, Mama’s Mama sent me over to Bigfist’s Gulf Station one time to get her a Jar of Bruton Snuff. John and Mary Nelson had the Gulf Station and Mary ran the Post Office on the other end. Bigfist was a Veteran from WW1 and he drank a lot. Me and Harold pulled him off the Railroad tracks many times behind Jimmy and Birdie’s Calfe, where he had passed out. John or Bigfist was as nice as could be when he was Sober. (I guess he liked Johnny Cash’s singing too.)
We had several snuff glasses because of Grandma Delia and she stayed with us a lot, Mama being paralyzed in her left side from a stroke when I was about a month old. Grandma had 16 kids in all. Her first Husband died before I was born, so she married Mama’s Dad, Hugh Passmore. I never knew Hugh either, just that he was a Railroad Man, Foreman from Asheville to Murphy.
Mama and Daddy joined the Church at Topton Baptist years ago and Mama was the best Christian I’ve ever known.”
—Ken Roper
My cabinets have quite a few snuff jars in them. We use them for drinking glasses and they seem especially handy to use in the bathroom for brushing teeth and taking vitamins.
My collection came from various places over the years. A few from Granny, a few from Miss Cindy, and a few from various thrift stores, yardsales, and old dump sites.
The acreage surrounding our house contains quite a few old dumps from past generations of my family.
Several years ago, we were digging at one from the time of my great grandmother Carrie who we called Big Grandma.
I found six snuff glasses sitting side by side under a pile of leaves and other debris. None were broken and each still had its metal lid attached. Someone set them down in a box or paper bag and over the years the container rotted away leaving the jars sitting neatly side by side under the leaves waiting for me to find them.
Last night’s video: EASY Pork Roast with Kraut, Mashed Potatoes, Corn We Put Up, Bread n Butter Pickles, & Cornbread.
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O,h my. I have one of my grandma Lizzie’s snuff jars with a metal lid that looks just like the one in your picture. It was probably Garrett snuff. Grandma has been gone since 1951 and I don’t know how old the jar is. Momma used it to keep her baking soda in it since the lid fit nice and tight. The jar is now kept in Grandma’s dresser that I inherited. That dresser was built in 1844. Grandma and Grandpa, as newly weds in 1894, bought it from a lady in Ft. Worth who was closing her hotel and selling all the furniture. It came across Texas in a covered wagon and has rope burns on the back of it to prove it. I love my old stuff! Take care of those old jars of yours.
What a thrill it must have been to find those jars, all lined up and waiting, Tipper 🙂
O my side of the family, I really remember anyone dipping snuff. Now on my husband’s side, his mamaw on his dad’s side she dipped snuff all the time. I don’t see hiw they did it. The powered stuff would have choked me to death. I remember the little boxes of it.
I remember I used to walk barefoot through clover in a neighbor’s yard
As a child I used to get stung whenever I walked barefoot in the grass (clover) in a neighbor’s yard.
I went home crying and my mother would take some snuff from her mouth and put it on the sting to ease the pain and stop the swelling.
As an adult I was out walking with my best friend and was stung twice next to my left eye. My friend drove me to a medical clinic a few miles away. My eye was swelling quickly. I don’t remember what the nurse put on it,
but it did not work as fast as my mother’s snuff did!
Both my parents took snuff all their lives. When I was about five years old my mother cleaned a small snuff can and filled it with Hershey cocoa mixed with sugar for my own “snuff” can,
I tasted the cocoa mixture but didn’t like it either. I just carried it around at home for a little while.
I have a little old snuff bottle that I use every year as a vase for violets and asters.
Great Grandma (b. 1888) dipped snuff up to the day she died at age 80. She never gave me any, which I considered a slight to my 9 year-old adult self. Great Grandpa (b.1884) however, was wilier. Tiring of my badgering, he gave me a sizable chaw of the plug of Day’s Work he always had in his shirt pocket. I knew I was supposed to spit, but didn’t know when. He just sat there rocking, watching me turn green. I’ve never touched it since. But I’ve always understood that for folks who worked as hard as they did as dirt poor cotton farmers, the need for the small pleasures of a dip or a chaw made complete sense.
I meant chewing tobacco that came in a bag or pouch. Either me or spell check kept messing up.
Lots of folks used snuff jars back when I was a kid late 50’s & 50’s. For drinking water, milk, tea or whatever they were drinking.
My granny, on my mama’s side, and her sister dipped snuff. My mama never did, thankfully lol. Those are precious memories. ♥️
Both my grandmothers dipped snuff. One of them would send me to the woods to get her twigs from black gum bushes to use in dipping. The other one put a portion in her lower lip. My wife’s mother lived with us for 18 years and dipped for at least 15 of those years. She went to visit another daughter for one Summer and watch after her two young children while both parents worked. She had a full case of 24 cans and heard children saying, “Give me one, “Baby.” She looked out to see what was going on and the 3 year old had the case and had already given away over half of it to neighborhood kids. I often tell that I’ve only met one woman meaner than my wife. That was her mother. Doctors had told her she had 3 or possibly 4 months to live. She moved in with us for us to care for her. When she realized how much it bothered me to have her there she was so mean she lingered 18 years. Now, that was mean.
I laughed out loud! 18 years! Good lord!
Many of the older women in my community, and in my family, dipped snuff. They all had their favorite brands. My Ma loved her Rooster snuff, (about the strongest kind) and she would send me to the store for it. Her sister preferred Bruton sweet, and while they sometimes bought a small round tin, the glass container was a better bargain, and could be used at the table.
I smile when I think of the dainty way Ma would tuck a dip into her lower lip, then use her lace trimmed hanky to make sure none escaped from the corner of her lips. A lady was expected to dip snuff, but never would she be sloppy about it!
My Grandmothers used snuff and I have some of their old snuff glasses which I treat as precious because they used them.
My Grandmothers were born in the late 1800’s, one had 11 children and the other 6. I remember my Daddy’s Mother used to dip snuff with a twig that she had chewed the end to be soft.
I was at my yearly wellness doctor appointment a couple years ago and my doctor had a young woman doctor who he introduced to me. I can’t remember why the subject came up but they always ask do you smoke and I said no, not much of that in my family but my Grandmother dipped snuff. I was shocked when this young woman doctor said what is snuff? It took me a minute to realize how old I was and how young she was:) Then I told her it was tobacco, the consistency of Hershey’s cocoa, but people dipped it, chewed it, and usually had a spit can that they spit it out in. I remember old movies portraying the European royal families of the early 1700’s showing them sniffing snuff.
Your pork roast supper looked delicious!!
My grandma and a lot of my aunts rubbed snuff. But I only remember the small round tins they came in. Never seen a snuff jar.
Dipping snuff was a very familiar site when I was growing up. I don’t remember seeing it in jars but small metal containers. I remember seeing it more when we were barning tobacco, some of the older ladies at break time would get out a little can from a pocket and help themselves. I was really young, and I didn’t know what it was, so I asked mama one day and she said it was “dip.” Well, the next time daddy went to the store on a dinner break at the tobacco barn, I told him I wanted some “dip.” He looked kind of funny and said, “you want dip for dinner?” I had started calling potted meat, “dip.” After he explained what it was, I didn’t call potted meat “dip” anymore. 🙂 That was a lifetime ago. Sweet memories.
Both my grandparents, mama and daddy’s parents, had snuff glasses. I still have some in the cabinet, that belonged to mama’s daddy. Her mama used twist Tobacco.
I keep learning. Never heard “pounce” until today. New word for me. Was never around much snuff dipping. I remember a few neighbor ladies who dipped and could spit a stream into the fireplace. One of my dad’s aunts dipped Tube Rose snuff…”If your snuff’s too strong, it’s wrong. Try Tube Rose! Try Tub Rose.” It was a catchy jingle; almost as good as “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot…”
I have a set of these snuff glasses and have given away several sets. They all came from my parents’ shed but I have no idea where they got them. They were not snuff users. It is interesting that some of the glasses are cloudy and some sparkle like new. I wonder if the cloudy ones were buried in the ground at one time.
Great post. My grandparents had decorative jars with lids hidden underneath the furniture for their snuff spit jars. As a small child I would crawl on the floor and look for these jars. At the time I thought they were lost treasures hidden just for me to find. Quite surprised when I got older and found out their true purpose. Thanks for sharing.
My grandma dipped snuff. I remember her have some of those small jars. I think she sometimes got the kind in a little tin. When I was in grad school in Chapel Hill in the late 70s, I volunteered in the hospital gift shop. This was before the sale of tobacco products was banned at the hospital. I was surprised to see that snuff was sold there, in the little tins. It was mainly elderly ladies of color who bought it.
my grandmother used to send me into the store for her snuff. all I can remember is that it had the name “rose” in it.
My Daddy was raised on a farm in north Alabama. His mother, Mommy Balch, dipped snuff and saved the glasses. All of the grandkids used them. I still have two and
think of her every morning when I drink my milk from them. I also have her dough bowl that she wore a hole in. I treasure these keepsakes that remind me of my childhood.
This post brings back memories. There was a “dried up” (as my daddy would say), small old lady in our community in the 50’s who dipped snuff. Miss Ida kept it and her coins that were tied in a knot in the corner of a “hankerchiff” both in her blouse. She didn’t carry a purse but slipped the handkerchief and small can of snuff inside her blouse between the buttons. They didn’t slip down because she wore an apron tied at the waist. I have several small snuff glasses I think I bought at an estate sale and have had some of the brown bottles.
Years ago, I found an old snuff jar glass by a creek in the hollow near my house. I bought it home, washed it up and have used it ever since. We have plenty of nice store-bought glasses, but I like using that old snuff jar or a pint Mason jar.
Pappaw (my mother’s dad) used Bruton snuff. Mammaw and Pappaw had several of those glasses as well as plastic ones that came in Quaker Oats containers. Those were some of my favorites to drink from. We also have quite a collection of little glasses (like the size of juice glasses) that jelly or jam came in. Most of the ones in our cabinet have Winne the Pooh characters on them.
My maternal grandma dipped snuff, the Brunton in the little metal cans. I do not recall ever seeing a snuff jar to know it was one. But I expect I did see some used as glasses since that was why they were marketed that way – to reuse. Remember when there was a glass, or a wash cloth, in a box of detergent?
I can’t remember who she was but Uncle Wayne referred to some lady a “snuff eating Jezebel”. Uncle Wayne was a treasure trove of off color words and phrases. He was in the Army from 1939 until August of 1945 including the entirety of WW2 in Europe. He learned a few things.
I have about a dozen snuff jars. They are my small glasses for juices and milk. My grandmother dipped as did one of my aunts. They were so neat and clean with it…I never saw any sign that they were dipping on their lips or chin. I wish I still had the little silver tops, but all I have are the glasses. If my memory is correct, which it probably isn’t, they had a yellow label…. Don’t remember the brand. Wish could see one of the labels. Seems like there was a rose on it.
I never used snuff nor has my husband, thankfully. Some of my mom’s people did, but I remember theirs came in either small tins or pouches. The pouches was chewing tobacco, that much I know for sure since I remember asking them about it. I had no idea snuff was a little different from chewing tobacco until I looked it up. Plus I never knew snuff came in jars until now and I did some additional research because I was confused exactly how the glass jars were used for snuff. I’m glad it was just used as a storage container to keep it dry. Plus I learned that the Chinese used snuff since tobacco use was not allowed in any other form but finely dried as snuff to sniff for medical purposes. But most still became addicted to it. Their small jars are very ornamental in design so mostly the royalty owned the beautiful jars. I would have never researched this if you hadn’t post about the snuff jars, Tipper. You always post so much about our culture that it sometimes cause people like me to investigate further. You play a big part in continuing our education in cultural things. Thank you!
Haven’t thought a out snuff in a decade ago…lol…had friends who Grandmother dipped and that was a sight to behold. I have never had kraut and pork, but sounds like something I need to try. Looking forward to today/s read. Still praying for Granny and you guys and those new ones that have yet to show their beautiful faces. God Bless you all.
What memories, my grandmother dipped Garret Snuff, I remember well the snuff glasses and the amber colored snuff bottles, granny had a small snuff can and would refill it out of the glass or bottle, she would put the little can in her apron pocket. She died when I was about 15 years old and I loved her very much.
I only knew one older woman, my hubby’s great aunt, who dipped snuff. I don’t remember a snuff jar, but they make pretty drinking glasses. I watched your video last night and boy, did you make me hungry. I thought it was funny about your dad telling you that you peeled potatoes too thick. When I was first married, I was helping my mother-in-law peel potatoes for frying. She looked at me and said “stop peeling in shares.” She had to explain that she meant I was peeling the potatoes too thick and wasting them. I don’t know if “peeling in shares” is an Appalachian saying. I have never heard anyone else ever say it. I have always been careful to peel potatoes very thin since then.
Just so nobody gets confused, the lids in the picture don’t fit the snuff jar. They are screw type mason jar lids. They had a glass or porcelain cap inside. The metal lid was made of zinc. Daddy used to tell us, when we found them, to bring them home and bury them under his pecan trees. He said pecans needed zinc in order to fruit. We played house with the porcelain caps. They made perfect little plates.
Oh how wonderful, between snuff jars and jelly jars we had a good set of drinking glasses back in the day. My grandmothers sister Bonnie enjoyed her snuff and I was always amazed watching her dip into the jar.
My grandpa and his sister dipped snuff. They used to say that his sister, Aunt Myrtle, was levelheaded because the snuff ran out of both sides of her mouth.
Their snuff came in tins if I remember correctly. I always thought it was gross.
I never saw it in glass jars before.
Mommy chewed Apple tobacco that came in a square and smelled really good! I never saw her spit can or can’t remember it. I never saw tobacco in a jar either. Bobby dipped snuff in an orange box and spat himself silly with that stuff! Mommy told us to NEVER TELL ANYBODY about her chewing tobacco and because of that I thought a woman doing such a thing must be awful!!! Lol My brother retired from selling REDMAN chewing tobacco etc and made a nice living off it. I can’t stand anything to do with smoking or chewing or spitting of tobacco. My brother’s son WHOS the big Russian Lit professor at Virginia Tech once turned up a Pepsi bottle my brother used as a spit can and drank it!!! Lol he gagged up a lung!! I do have a few jelly jars and maybe a little meat jar from the past. Tipper, I’m a HUGE glass collector and I must say I’m a liking your tobacco jars from your grandma very much!!! They have a lot of family, spitting history and hidden habits to boot not to mention they’re pretty! I say you go with your interesting, adventurous self cause you’re on fire!!! Always something going on here that tweaks my buds!!!
I’m going to have to educate myself on snuff and snuff jars as I know nothing about this subject! Have a great day Tipper.
That was suppose to be pounced tobacco.
I Mean the chewing tobacco that comes in bags or the round plastic containers.
pouched?
Aaah!
I’m quick if you give me enough time! 🙂
“Pounced?” Never heard the term but I infer that it referred to loose chewing tobacco.
I only knew one older lady that would dip snuff and smoke a corn cob pipe. This was in the late 50’s when I was very young. Today is the first time I heard of a snuff jar, I do know of men that chewed tobacco to carry a small can with them. My neighbor smoked Prince Albert tobacco in a pipe and chewed Blood Hound plug tobacco. He was bad to lay his pipe on the front fender of a 49 Chevy pickup truck, I found it laying in the road several times. He finally lost it and never found it and stopped smoking, he said the other pipes he tried wouldn’t the same. It was a strong smelling pipe. We have several old trash dumps on my property and when I bird hunted I knew where my neighbor’s dumps were and would often stop long enough to dig around in them. I have found many various jars especially old Clorox jars.
My neighbor liked to tease my uncle and tell him plug tobacco was for men, pounce tobacco was for boys.
My dad diped Garret’s snuff which came in a silver metal container about 2 inches high, another metal container a little larger and the brown bottles which you see occasionally in antique stores. Over the 15 years we lived at Mudville he probably threw away a hundred or more in the trash dump.. There is now a house built at this site, I wonder if they covered these up and built over them. We would take the cork from the brown bottle and make a fishing float’
My brother at a very young age, about six years old started sneaking the snuff and dipping. Once our mother caught him and had him to sit in the summer sun for more than an hour with the snuff in his mouth thinking he would get sick, but he did not. He gave up dipping later and started chewing Red Man.
When I was young 4 years old or so I would take cocoa and sugar, mix it and pretend it was snuff, but never used the real thing. It was interesting to see the “old ladies” sneak a dip with a tooth brush or an elm twig which they had chewed to make it soft.
A birch twig gives your dip a wintergreen flavor!