Have you ever wondered who decided to call our town Havana?
The answer goes back to the early 1900s, when the railroad was helping transform the area and shade tobacco was becoming big business in Gadsden County.
According to local history, James Mathewson, a local schoolteacher, proposed the name “Havana.” The reason was simple: the shade tobacco grown around here was used for cigar wrappers, and the hand-rolled cigars made from local tobacco were considered comparable to those coming from Havana, Cuba.
The name stuck.
Havana was officially incorporated on December 5, 1906, and the town’s connection to tobacco would become a major part of its identity for decades.
Today, most people know Havana for antiques, art, historic buildings and small-town charm. But underneath all of that is a name that tells an important story about the crop that helped put this community on the map.
So now you know the answer…
James Mathewson named Havana. And he named it Havana because of the tobacco.
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