I recall last winter there were many advertisements asking for growers of special geneitically enhanced tobacco.  Supposed to be lower in some of the bad stuff or something.

Story was it shouldn't be grown in regular tobacco areas so it would not shed pollen to other tobacco, and southern Illinois doesn't have any other tobacco so it would be safe from cross pollination.

Don't know if that is what you saw or not, but I was surprised in reading that southern Illinois was considered a good tobacco growing area.  Evidently many years ago it was a common crop.

I did know a few people in my area years and years ago that grew it in the garden for their own use, as well as peanuts.  We tried peanuts in the garden one year, ground just was too heavy to dig the peanuts well, but we did grow a few.