The Kellogg brothers, John Harvey and Will Keith, were born in Battle Creek, Michigan in the 1850s to a family that had faced hardship and tragedy. Their parents joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church and embraced its principles of preventative healthcare and abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and meat. This upbringing helped lay the foundation for the Kellogg brothers to one day create one of the world's most successful food companies based on health and wellness.

1. COMPANY
100 YEARS

2. BATT LE CREEK ':;ANITARIUM fOOD CO.
THE ORI61NAL AND GE.NU INE
BATTlE CREEK fOOD J~~~I~_

3. EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS
Ifeel kind ofblue.Am afraid that I will always hea poor ma n tbe way things
look now.
-Will Keith Kellogg,
diary entry from September 27, 1884'
B In 1849, John Preston and Ann's two­EST KNOWN FOR its panorama of
year-old daughter died from acereal foods, Kellogg Company is
misdiagnosed case of lung inflammation.one of the few successful food
That tragedy, coupled with previousbusinesses in the world that can trace its
unfortunate encounters with traditionalorigin back to a philosophy that urged
frontier doctors, opened the way for thepeople to improve their health. More than
100 years ago, two brothers, WLlJ Keith Kelloggs to seek comfort and guidance
Kellogg and Dr.John Harvey Kellogg, who through alternative medical treatments
followed the dietary and health-related
tenets of the American Seventh-day Adventist faith,
helped set the foundation of the giant cereal company
in Battle Creek, Michigan.
In the early part of the 19th century,living
conditions were filled with health-related hardships.
Both the rich and poor were helpless to prevent or
combat fatal diseases that took away many in their
families. Doctors often prescribed cures as frightening
as the afflictions themselves, and child mortality rates
were high. It was during this time that the Kellogg
family was plagued by misfortune, when John Preston
Kellogg, Will Keith 's and John Harvey's father, lost his
first wife and four of his 16 children to illness .
In 1834,John Preston-a Massachusetts native-had
settled 60 miles northwest of Detroit with his first wife,
Mary Ann,who had blessed him with five children.
Unfortunately,she had contracted tuberculosis and
passed away in September 1841 ,leaving her husband to
take care of the family.Six months later, John Preston
married Ann Janette Stanley,and by the end of the year,
the Kellogg family moved westward to a farm in Tyrone
Township in Michigan 's livingston County.
promoted by the Seventh-day Adventist
Church.' TIle church's philosophy of preventive
heaJthcare,induding sitz baths;steam baths;hot and
cold "vertical rain douches" (showers); cold wet sheet
packs;and cataract douches.' John Preston and his wife
soon converted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church,
embracing its practices of abstaining from profanity,
caffeine, meat, tobacco,and alcohol,whil e promoting
hard work, self-denial, and diligence to achieve success.
Shortly after their conversion, Ann's fifth child and
john Preston's tenth,was born on February 26, 1852,
ABOVE: Wearing a p1ug-style top hat, Will Keith Kellogg, also known
as W. K., is pictured here at age 16 or 17 in Kalamazoo,
Michigan. (Photo courtesy of Kellogg Company Archives.)
OPPOSITE: This cartoon by James T. McCutcheon originally
appeared in the Chicago Tribune and captured the atmosphere of
the 1900-1905 "cereal boom," wtlen dozens of companies
competed to manufacture the best cereal. (Illustration courtesy of
Kellogg Company Archives.)

4. 14 KELLOGG COMPANY: THE FIRST 100 YEARS
and named John Harvey Kellogg .In 1856, the growing
Kellogg family moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where
the Adventist church had established its headquarters.
John Preston opened a broom factory and named it I.P
Kellogg & Son. The family also joined the Underground
Railroad movement to help escaped slaves reach
freedom in Canada.
On April 7, 1860, john Preston's 14th child and the
seventh son in the family-Willie Keith Kellogg-was
born in Battle Creek. He changed his first name to "Will"
at 38 years of age and became known as "W K:' TIle 5­
foot-7Y,-inch W K.grew an affinity for the number seven
and preferred hotel rooms on the seventh floor with
room numbers that ended in his favorite digit '
Swept Along the Path of Faith and Health
The "frontier" had been pushed farther westward by
the 1850s,and life in the Midwest meant long days filled
with hard work for both adults and children. In fact, W K.
reported that he "never leamed to play.'" However,even
his biographer, Horace B. Powell, surmised that the cereal
company's founder overdramatized his parents'sternness.
When he became successful, his perceived lack of childhood
fun motivated W K.to promote children's programs.
W K. attended both public schools and the Adventists'
"select" programs ,but he received only minimal formal
education. His teachers thought he was "dim-witted;' but
ABOVE: The parents of John Harvey and Will Keith-John Preston
Kellogg and his second wife, Ann Janette-became members of
the Seventh-dayAdventist Church and followed the denomination's
strict tenets.
BELOW: In 1860, W. K. Kellogg was born in this homestead at
West Michigan and Cass streets in the small community of Battle
Creek. He later built a hotel on the property called "The Inn."
(Photos courtesy of KelloggCompany Archives.)

5. CHAPTER ONE : EMERGING FROM THE SHAD OWS 15
at the age of 20, an eye exam discovered a possible
reason for his academic troubles.He was nearsighted .
W.K.'s dedication to hard work began as a child.
At age seven, he started working in his father's broom
factory and on the family farm . At 14, he became a
traveling broom salesman and traveled to Dallas in
1878 to oversee the Texas broom factory owned by
Adventist Elder James White. White and his wife , Ellen,
had served as two of the founders of the Seventh-day
Adventist denomination.Sister White was the
prophetess of her church, claiming to have had
upwards of 2,000 divine visions."
In 1863, White had a vision that showed her the
elements of a proper diet-two meals a day without
meat. She had visited the Dansville, New York,health spa
of Dr.Jam es Caleb Jackson ,who had treated several
ailing Adventists.In 1866,the Adventists decided to
create their own health spa in Battle Creek called the
Western Health Reform Institute to promote
"hydrotherapy"-an alternative form of medicine that
treated illnesses through therapeutic baths and the
consumption of large amounts of water.
John Preston Kellogg soo n became the largest
shareho lder of the charitable institution and was
ABOVE: In 1866, the Seventh-dayAdventists created their own
health spa called the Western Health Reform Institute on the
outskirts of Battle Creek to promote their principles. The
institute later became the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
LEFT: James and Ellen White founded the Seventh-day Adventist
denomination in the mid-1800s-a religion whose dietary
tenets were closely followed by the Kellogg family. (Photos
courtesy of Kellogg Company Archives .)
appointed treasurer. His IOyear-old son,John Harvey,
helped him work on the accounts and became the
"printer's devil"-an apprentice in a print shop-for the
Whites' publication, The SecondAdvent Review and
Sabbath Herald. In a prelude to his later prolific
writings, the young KelJogg joined the publication's
editorial department and was editing the entire journal
by age 16.
Although the Western Health Reform Institute had
a promising start-it had added several two-story
cottages to its original farmhouse building-it fell on
hard times in 1872 ,when few paying customers
remained. With hopes of expanding the institute,James
and Ellen White agreed to sponsor 21-year-Qld John
Harvey's medical training.
John Harvey enrolled at Universityof MichiganMedical
School and completed his training at BelJevue Hospital
Medical College in NewYork City,where he published
his first health guide, The Proper Dietfor Man,in 1874.

6. 16 KELLOGG COMPANY: THE FIRST 100 YEARS
LOOKING AT EARLY BATTLE CREEK
T E CITY OF Battle Creek
received its glorious
sounding name from a
relatively minor skirmish that
occurred on March 14, 1826, along
the banks of a yet-to-be-named river
that branched off the Kalamazoo
River in the Michigan Territory.
Under the command of Colonel
John Mullett, a group offive
surveyors had set up camp along the
river where it erossed Michigan 's
base line-the imaginary east-west
line through Michigan's lower
peninsula from which townships
were to be measured, creating maps
that resembled huge checkerboards.
On a cold winter day,Mullett
took two of his men northward,
leaving the others at the base camp.
The remaining two surveyors soon
encountered two Native American
men who instructed them to cease
destroying local foliage and leave the
area . After a skirmish erupted
between the two groups, and the
surveyors eaptured the two Native
Amerieans,the minor event led to
the waterway's distinctive name of
"Battle Creek River," though the
"battle's" surrounding area was
previously known as Milton
Township.
In the first two decades after the
War of 1812,the Michigan Territory
had been bypassed as settlers
followed the Ohio River into
southern Ohio, Indiana, and llIinois,
allowing those territories to achieve
statehood in 1803,1816, and 1818,
respectively.Most of Michigan's carIy
population was concentrated near
the French-founded village of Detroit
near the southeast comer of the
Lower Peninsula, while other
settlements were scattered along the
shoreline of the Great Lakes.
Initial impediments to
settlement of the state's southwest
region were the lack of roads and
inaccurate descriptions that claimed
the land contained mostly low
wetlands with numerous swamps,
lakes ,and poor soil that would not
be fruitful for farming.
Michigan's opportunity to grow
arrived with the opening of the Erie
Canal in 1825 .which created an all­
water route from the Great Lakes to
NewYork City,and the valiant efforts
of Territorial Governor Lewis Cass to
sell Michigan to the people back E.1St.
Intensive surveys of the state began
in 1825,when Congress granted the
Michigan Territory rights to build
roads. As these roads were
constructed,"Michigan Fever"gripped
the nation as numerous settlers
poured into the territory. An enticing
song, which included the lyrics,"Witll
little prudence any man, can soon get
rich in Mich-i-gan"was composed to
attract would-be settlers.I
Michigan became the 26tll state
in 1837. and the next year the
.,

7. 17CHAPTER ONE: EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS
OPPOSITE: From its humblebeginnings as a
small lumbertOIMl andfarmingcommunity,
BattleCreek grewinto a small citybythe
time of this circa1931 photoof Michigan
Avenue,the mainthoroughfare.
RIGHT: This circa1910 photowas taken
fromthe roofof the PostTavem. the hotel
that Charles Post built as a monumentto
his success. The roofofthe Presbyterian
church is on the right, and BattleCreek
Central High Schoolis inthe b~nd.
BELOW:A 1915 view of Battle Creek's
federal government sent the
remaining Pottawattomie Indians to
reservations west of the Mississippi
River. Meanwhile, by 1842, the
population of Milton Township
grew to 1,000 people with 10
stores, three mills, one factory, and
one machine shop. Seven years later,
the township's name was changed
to Battle Creek,and the village of
Battle Creek was incorporated the
following year.
Battle Creek also became a vital
stop on the Underground Railroad,a
covert effort to help fugitive slaves
escape to freedom. The escape
route ran through Battle Creek and
paralleled the Michigan Central
Railroad,which was a real railway
run by John Biddle,an abolitionist .
But the movement was forced to
operate covertly sinee many Battle
Creek residents opposed the
abolition of slavery.
Many settlers in Battle Creek
were Quakers,Congregationalists,
and followers of other Protestant
denominations who came to Battle
Creek from New England, including
New Yorkstate's so-called"burned
over district"known for its
numerous religious revivals.Erastus
Hussey,a Quaker settler from upper
New York,became involved in the
antislavery movement and operated
an Underground Railroad"station" in
Battle Creek. He later became one of
the 16 conunitteemen chosen to
draft the platform for the Republican
Party during a mass meeting in
Jackson,Michigan, in July 1854.
Sojourner Truth, a former
slave-tumed-abolitionist leader who
settled in BattIe Creek in 1'856,
became famous for speaking out
against slavery. The 6-foot-tall, pipe­
smoking woman traveled
throughout the East and Midwest
sharing her brutal experiences
with slavery. Three books about
her life were published before her
death in 1883 at age 86.