The cigar manufacturer was one of the city’s early entrepreneurs, Dr. V. O. Thompson. Some of his brands were “Queen Sumara,” “Wachovia,” “Red Elephant” and “Rough and Ready.” Thompson was also a partner in a mens clothing business and the proprietor of V.O. Thompson’s Drug Store, which operated on Fourth Street across from the courthouse well into the 1920s.

Thompson’s was thehangout and gossip center for those in the know for many years until challenged by E.W. O’Hanlon’s Drug Store right across the street in the early 1900s.