Sunday, August 27, 2017

The Cereal Kings

It turns out that Sojourner Truth is buried by some famous neighbors.
 Charles William Post (or C.W. Post) was born in Springfield, IL on October 26, 1854.  He would attend college at what would later be known as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He stayed there for two years but never finished his degree.  He returned home to become a salesman and manufacturer of agricultural machinery.  During this time, he invented and patented many things including a plow, harrow and a hay stacking machine.
In 1885, he would suffer a mental breakdown from the stress of his job.  He moved down to Texas and joined a group of real estate developers in Forth Worth.  In 1888, he would start a development of his own in Forth Worth and that included two mills.  He suffered another mental breakdown and traveled the world looking for a cure.
He would visit the Battle Creek Sanitarium and met up with the Kelloggs.  He started his own company based on the food served there.
In 1895, he founded the Postum Company and started Grape Nuts.  In 1904, he started the Post Toasties line (which was like corn flakes).  After a long bout of illness, he would take his own life in 1914.  He would end getting buried in Battle Creek.
 At first, I thought this was a grave of one of the more famous Kelloggs, but he is fairly famous in his own right.
Frank Jonas Kellogg was known as "Professor" Kellogg and sold a product known as Professor Kellogg's Brown Tablets.  These were advertised as anti-fat tablets.  These tablets were later investigated by the precursor to the F.D.A. and the main ingredient was found to be poke, which was a Native American remedy for weight loss and also toxic.
He would die in 1816.
 Next up is the gravesite of slight more well known Kelloggs.
John Harvey Kellogg was born in Tyrone, Michigan in 1852.  He was the director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium which combined aspects of hydro-therapy, a European spa, hosptial and a high class hotel.  He was a major leader in health reform and was part of the "clean living" movement.  He also patented corn flakes with his brother William K. Kellogg.  He was student at the Michigan Normal College (later Eastern Michigan University) for a while.  He would later attend the University of Michigan and graduated from New York University with a medical degree.  He was prolific inventor and developed methods for making peanut butter and soy milk.
He is featured in the movie "the Road to Wellville" where he is played by Anthony Hopkins.  He would die in 1943.
 And then we get to the other Kellogg.
 The one with the famous "K".
 Not sure that is a good reward for waking up early.
 Will Keith Kellogg was born in 1860 in Battle Creek, Michigan.  He started out as a businessman selling brooms and then he moved back to Battle Creek to help his brother with the Sanitarium.  In 1897, he formed the Sanitas Food Company, with the focus on whole grain cereals.  In 1906, he would then form the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company which would eventually become the Kellogg Company.
In 1930, he founded the Kellogg Foundation and donated 66 million to it.  His company was one of the first to put nutrition labels on its food.  He also started the idea of including a prize with his breakfast cereal.  During the depression, he ordered his factory work four six hour shifts, this allowed more people to work.
In 1925, he built an Arabian horse ranch near Pomona, CA.  This land was eventually transferred to the State of California.
He would die in 1951 at the age of 91.
 A larger shot of the sundial.
In 1866, the Battle Creek Sanitarium opened as the Western Health Reform Institute.  In 1876, John Harvey Kellogg would become its superintendent.    In 1902, a new building was built on the site to replace the building which burned down.  In 1942, it was purchased by the US Army for use as a hospital.  Now it is a Federal Building.

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