Local 162 of the Cigar Makers' International Union was founded in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1881. The local met on the top floor of the Findeisen-Greiser furniture store for many years and reached a peak membership of 94 members in 1905. Most of the union's members worked alone or employed an apprentice or two in their own shops. An important function of the union was the distribution of union labels. Each cigar maker owned his own brand name and a good cigar maker could produce 400 to 500 cigars per day. By the turn of the century, machine rolled cigars began to compete with the more expensive hand-rolled varieties. Membership in the union declined gradually, with only two members remaining by 1952. The papers of one of the union's last members, Peter Rutten (1893-1969), are included in the collection. Rutten entered the trade at age ten in 1903 and continued to produce hand-rolled cigars until his death in February 1969.
