In the 1860’s philanthropist Horace Norton, founder of Norton College, was given a cigar by Ulysses Simpson Grant, the 18th president of the United States. It is said that Norton decided not to smoke the cigar but to keep it as a memento of the meeting. In his death the cigar passed to his son and then, in turn, to his son’s son, Winstead.
In 1932 Winstead attended a Norton College reunion in Chicago. As he delivered a speech to the audience, he lit Grant’s cigar, remarking: “As I light this cigar with trembling hand, it is not alone a tribute to him whom you call founder, but also to that titan among statesmen who was never too exalted to be a friend. Who was – “Bang! The cigar exploded. It had taken some 70 years, but Grant had finally played his joke.
