The J. E. Shepard Co. established itself as a leader among South Windsor’s tobacco growers. Jean E. Shepard Sr. founded a small company to grow, sort, and sell product in Ellington, later moving to South Windsor. The company enjoyed phenomenal growth, and in its peak year, in 1955, it had 650 acres in production and processed more than one million pounds of tobacco. Also in 1955, the Shepard family started the NuWay Tobacco Company to produce homogenized leaf cigar binder. Tim Shepard explained: “It’s a process of taking tobacco by-products from the cigar manufacturers—all the tobaccos they use, so it’s good tobacco. It’s not the junk. … And you grind that into a talcum powder consistency and mix it up with gums like guar gum, methyl cell gums, and a slurry out of it, cast it on the belt, run it through dryers, and bring it off in a sheet form.” In 1960, the company opened a plant on Sullivan Avenue that employed close to 100 workers at its height. The above image shows the Shepard farm around 1930.
Image: J. E. Shepard Collection, 1998.32.542B