Kellogg's Toasted Cornflake Co.
J.H. Kellogg
W.K. Kellogg
Battle Creek Sanitarium
Cereals
Even though James Caleb Jackson had invented breakfast cereal as we mostly know it, he was unable to turn it into an industry and bring it into the mainstream of American food consumption. The honor for that belongs to three individuals and the companies they created: John Harvey Kellogg and his brother William Keith Kellogg, and Charles William Post.
John Harvey Kellogg was born in 1852, the fifth son of John Preston and Ann Janette Kellogg. John Harvey's first job was in his father's broom factory in Battle Creek, Michigan, which he started at 10 years old after leaving school. John Harvey's father sent a large portion of the proceeds from the factory to support the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and in 1854 he became a printer's devil for an Adventist publication after James White, one of the co-founders of the Adventist faith visited the factory. John Harvey proved to be a skilled and intelligent worker, and soon was doing editorial work for the Adventists' main newspaper.
John Harvey spent much time with the Whites at his job in the print shop, and eventually grew to be extremely close with them. At the urging of the Whites, John Harvey attended the Hygieo-Therapeutic College in New Jersey, and continued on to study medicine at several other universities after his graduation.
Battle Creek Sanitarium
Eventually, John Harvey came to take charge of the Western Health Reform Institute, an Adventist institution, once more at the urging of the Whites. He was reluctant to do so however, and agreed to stay on for only one year (he ended up holding the position for nearly 70 years). Kellogg grew the Health Reform Institute(which he eventually renamed to the Medical and Surgical Sanitarium) to to become a massive place of health and wellness, and heading up the Sanitarium, he became the most well-known figure in turn of the century medicine. Similarly to Sylvester Graham's teachings, Kellogg's recipe for healthfulness advocated an avoidance of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco and promoted moderate exercise and a low calorie diet. It was absolutely revolutionary for the time and catapulted Kellogg to the forefront of medicine.One of the most important things to Kellogg's recipe for health was diet. He was likewise horrified at practices in the kitchen, and called at the time modern cookery "the greatest bane of civilization at the time". He served largely vegetarian meals at the Sanitarium, which were notoriously bland and often saw patrons sneak out of the Sanitarium to a local restaurant that served the culinary contraband they craved. The blandness of the food at the Sanitarium was not lost on Kellogg, and he experimented with ways to make vegetarian food less bland, which eventually led to the creation of Corn Flakes and Caramel Coffee, a drink highly favored by C.W. Post while he was a patient at the "San".
