Me & My Missouri Meerschaum
Sunday, July 20, 2014
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| One of General Douglas MacArthur's trademarks was his corncob pipe. The Missouri Meerschaum Company, in business in Washington, Missouri, since 1869, made MacArthur's pipes to his specifications. The company continues to produce a corncob pipe in his honor. |
From our Ozark Mini to the stately MacArthur, our Genuine Missouri Meerschaum Corn Cob Pipes are the coolest, sweetest smoking pipes you’ll ever find. With a variety of sizes and shapes to choose from, you’re sure to find exactly the right pipe for your smoking pleasure.
Washington, Missouri has long been known as the “Corn Cob Pipe
Capital of the World.” And, in fact, The Missouri Meerschaum Company – the
world's oldest and largest manufacturer of cool, sweet-smelling corn cob pipes
– began the tradition for which Washington
became famous.
In 1869, a Dutch
immigrant woodworker named Henry Tibbe first began production of the corn cob
pipe. Legend has it that a local farmer whittled a pipe out of corn cob and
liked it so much he asked Henry Tibbe to try turning some on his lathe. Because
the farmer was well-pleased with the results, Henry made and sold a few more in
his woodworking shop. Tibbe’s pipes proved to be such a fast selling item, he
soon spent more time making pipes for customers than working with wood, and
began full time production of corn cob pipes.
In 1907 the H. Tibbe
& Son Co. became the Missouri Meerschaum Company. The word “meerschaum” is
derived from a German word meaning “sea foam.” Meerschaum is a Turkish clay
used in high grade pipes. Tibbe likened his light, porous pipes and their cool
smoke to that of the more expensive meerschaum pipes and coined the name
“Missouri Meerschaum” for his pipes. Tibbe and a chemist friend devised an
innovative system of applying a plaster-based substance to the outside of the
corn cob bowls. In 1878, Tibbe patented this process.
A nationwide
distribution system was eventually established for the sale of Tibbe’s pipes.
Other pipe firms also developed, so by 1925 there were as many as a dozen corn
cob pipe companies in Franklin County, Missouri – most of them in Washington. Today,
Missouri Meerschaum stands alone as the first and only surviving piece of this
living history. These gentle pipes are smoked and loved all over the world as
well as being used as souvenirs, often imprinted with the name of a city,
business, or event.
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| My Missouri Meerschaum |
Sometime in 1970 my mother went to North Carolina to visit
her brother Antonio de Irureta Goyena. She returned with three presents for me
(there was something for Rosemary and a Marshall Field’s dress for our then
only daughter Alexandra). The three presents were:
1. Marion Brown’s Southern Cookbook. “Alex
you always said I could not cook. Let me now prove you wrong with some recipes
from the book.” She did with Chicken a la Barbara
2. A
Missouri Meerschaum corncob pipe.
3. Two plastic pouches of Danish Borkum
Riff – Mixture with Bourbon Whiskey.
As I have written here I smoked a pipe
until 1994 when I simply lost interest.
Today while cruising facebook I found that
one of my friends (I have hazy recollection of her face being familiar) Jills
Ville had posted a picture of her corncob pipe with an interesting statement. Upon
seeing the image I was accosted by a terrible nostalgia for my mother and the
very day when she handed me my presents. In 1970 I was not too sophisticated in
my pipe smoking tastes and I was genuinely fond of the aromatic Borkum Riff she
gave me. Previously I had been smoking a sweet concoction called Middleton’s
Cherry Blend. It was only by the 80s that I smoked “better” blends that were
not sweet like Three Nuns, Edgeworth and Balkan Sobranie.
I am including in my scan of my corncob pipe
the brass Zippo for pipes. A strict connoisseur would have never used such a
device to light a pipe as the initial fumes would taste of Ronsonol. A true
connoisseur would use wooden matches. I include the Zippo because in the mid to
late 50s when I was studying at St. Edward’s in Austin, Texas
I would buy my mother a Christmas gift. Many times it consisted of a pre-Zippo
but similar Storm King. No matter how rugged my mother had the talent of
breaking lighters and wrist watches. My Rosemary inherited the talent for
watches.
Jills Ville says we have friends in common.
Most of them are punk and/or alternative scene musicians of the early 80s. She
tells me that she lived at The Plaza on Georgia Street. D.O.A. lived at the plaza
and I went there a few times. This is why this picture of Ville as a young woman
is familiar to me.
Of her corncob pipe she has written to me
via facebook messaging that she smokes tobacco in it at “Mojave
desert…joshua tree…i have a homestead there.”
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| Jills Ville |
I can only thank Ville for
this jolt of warm nostalgia on an almost cold and dying day in a July summer.
