The Macdonald Tobacco Company was established in 1858 by
William C. Macdonald and his brother Augustine. While the use of tobacco products was growing in popularity, the
American Civil War afforded the fledgling company an opportunity that brought enormous financial success, leading to Macdonald Tobacco emerging as the preeminent tobacco company in Canada. Since the northern U.S. faced a tobacco shortage due to the Civil War conflict (as tobacco growers were located in the south), Macdonald Tobacco bought tobacco leaf from the
Southern United States and transported it via ocean cargo vessels to Montreal. Macdonald Tobacco processed the tobacco leaf into a finished product, then sold it to the tobacco-starved market in the northern U.S. By the early 1870s, the company had over 500 employees. During this period, William Macdonald bought out his brother's stock position. Deeply proud of his
Scottish heritage, William Macdonald imprinted a Scottish
Lass on the product packaging for nearly a century. Macdonald actually disliked tobacco, and upon his death in 1917, he bequeathed his company to Walter and Howard Stewart, the two sons of company manager David Stewart. Walter Stewart, who took over as president, replaced
pipe tobacco with "roll your own" cigarettes. In 1922, packaged cigarette production was added, quickly becoming the mainstay of the business. During the 1960s, (1920–1984) expanded the business into the manufacturing of
cigars. The Macdonald Tobacco Company remained in the Stewart family until 1974, when David M. Stewart sold it to the American tobacco giant
R.J. Reynolds, which – in light of the uncertainty created by the
Quebec sovereignty movement – relocated the head office to
Toronto, Ontario. Most of those assets were later purchased by
Japan Tobacco. ==References==