KELLOGGS—THE WORLD’S FIRST READY TO EAT CEREAL COMPANY

William Keith Kellogg was born in 1860 in Battle Creek Michigan. He was to found one of the great food companies in the 20th century. But not before a lot of wandering in search of a dream. Kellogg had been working at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where his brother was chief physician. He and his brother experimented for years to find a substitute for digestible bread in the patient’s diet. In 1894 he accidentally left a pot of boiled wheat to stand and become tempered. When it was put through the usual rolling process, each grain came out as a large thin flake. After drying they tasted it and served it to the patients. It was an instant success. They of course added milk to the flakes.

The flakes soon were packaged and sent, as ordered, to patients that had left the “San” and their orders increased dramatically. “Will” founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Co., which was the world’s first ready-to-eat cereal company, in 1906. They were very open about showing others their process and one patient, a man named Post, copied the process and formed his own company called the Post Cereal Co. They became fierce rivals and are to this day, as Kellogg’s and Post.

William lived very frugally all of his life even though he became fabulously wealthy. He formed many charity organizations in his time and gave away more than 60 million dollars (which now would amount to billions). Today the W. K. Kellogg Foundation still is very active in many medical and charitable efforts around the world. It was in the Depression that he did his personally-most-rewarding work with the poor and the sick. President Herbert Hoover honored him in many ways at the time. So every time you see a box of Corn Flakes and Tony the Tiger, remember where that product got its start. They’re still the same delicious flakes they always were.