From GREATER WHEELING AND VICINITY
By Charles A. Winegerter, 1912; page 523.
     
Contributed by Linda Fluharty.


BLOCH BROTHERS TOBACCO COMPANY.

     One of those thriving and well-managed concerns which contribute in very 
material fashion to the general prosperity and commercial prestige of the 
citv is the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company, a great industry employing fully 
five hundred people. Merely considered as furnishing employment to so many 
people, it is a factor of immense importance here, while the excellence of 
its product has added greatly to the commercial prestige of Wheeling. The 
concern has grown from small beginnings to its present proportions, its 
career covering a period of thirty years, and its continual progress and 
standing are due to the executive ability, tireless energy, engineering skill 
and genius in the broad combination and concentration of applicable forces 
possessed by the Messrs. Bloch. The Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company dates from 
the year 1880, in which year Samuel S. Bloch and Aaron Bloch instituted a 
small business, employing perhaps ten people.
     The company was incorporated in 1891, Mr. Aaron Bloch being made 
president; Mr. Samuel S. Bloch, vice-president; and A. O. Maxwell, secretary. 
The present officers of the company are: Samuel S. Bloch, president; Jesse A. 
Bloch, first vice-president; Harold S. Bloch, second vice-president; A. O. 
Maxwell, secretary. Since the year 1885 William M. Tiernan has held the 
position of superintendent. The original home of the Bloch Brothers Tobacco 
Company was at 1501-1503 Main street, the location at present being an entire 
block located between Thirty-ninth and Forty-first streets. The floor space 
covered by the factory comprises 283,700 square feet. In addition to the 
Wheeling factory they have factories in the states of Wisconsin and 
Pennsylvania for the handling of leaf tobacco. The Messrs. Bloch are pioneers 
in the manufacturing of ribbon cut tobacco, and their success is the logical 
outcome of the excellence of their product. As aggressive and enterprising 
business men of unusual capacity, they are well entitled to credit in this 
volume devoted to representative men of Wheeling and its vicinitv.