 FOUNDER OF LA FLOR DE TABACOS DE PARTAGÁS Y COMPAÑÍA
ARENYS DE MAR IS A COASTAL town in Catalonia, about 40 kilometers from Barcelona and home to an important port on the Mediterranean Sea. This is where the tailor Jaime Partagás Gras wed Teresa Rabell Pallarola in 1815. Their firstborn son, Jaime, was born here on December 7, 1816, followed by a brother, Sebastián, two years later. It is unknown whether the father aspired for one of his sons to follow in his footsteps into the family trade, or if there were one or more occasions on which he spoke to them about a land where, as it was told, pure gold was used to pave streets and roof the houses. The truth is that the firstborn son, Jaime Partagás y Rabell, at just 14 years of age, surprised everyone by setting sail on July 29, 1831, and heading to “Cubita la Bella”, the dreamt-of Havana, in order to “make it in America”, a goal sought after by many at the time.
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 Over-Sea Railway Souvenir Program by George R. Chapin, 1912. "Flagler's Folly" is what they called it: A railroad across the Florida Keys. More than a few people thought that the financier and developer, at age 71, had stepped over the line to senility when he proposed the project. Skepticism was enormous despite Henry Flagler's reputation as the man whose railway, steamship, and hotel ventures had brought much of Florida from backwoods to modernity in a few busy decades. Flagler's rail network in the Sunshine State–the Florida East Coast Railway–was his most celebrated work, laying hundreds of miles of track and linking Florida's eastern and southern parts with the civilized world.
 Workers gathered in front of the Tampa Box Company on 7th Avenue and 17th Street in Ybor City between 1895 and 1905. In the early days of Tampa, you could stand on the banks of the Hillsborough River, and if the wind was blowing just right, you might smell the thick aroma of cedar permeating the air. As cigar factories from Palmetto Beach to West Tampa hummed with workers, several ancillary businesses sprouted to support the booming industry. Restaurants and boarding houses kept workers fed and housed. At the same time, other companies manufactured the equipment and tools necessary to produce quality hand-rolled cigars.
 Billy Sunday preaching on March 15, 1915, in a temporary tabernacle erected on what would become the site of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Illustration by George Bellows. Billy Sunday has been downtown preaching for the past couple of days, as I’m sure you’ve all noticed,” I began, pausing for the dismissive mumbling and laughter to clear the room. “Indeed, the aptly named Mr. Sunday has come to town to save your wretched souls…at least that’s what he says. Mr. Sunday has a bit of what you might call a colored past.
 He arrived in America with his father, Vincent, and two brothers in 1886. He was still experiencing the pain of losing his mother, Sarah, the year before. His father wanted to start a new life with his sons, and America was the place to do that. They first arrived in New York but soon after that settled in Tampa, knowing there were many jobs to find.
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