Will Keith Kellogg
Compiled by D. A. Sharpe
Will Keith Kellogg,
affectionately known as W. K., is my half-fifth
cousin, three times removed.
Our ancestor in common is Joseph Kellogg, Will's fourth great
grandfather through Joseph's second wife, Abigail Terry. Joseph and his first wife, Joanne Foote,
represent the line through which I descend. They are my seventh great grandparents.
Will Keith Kellogg was a
businessman, and founder in 1906 of the Battle Creek Toasted Corn
Flake Company (now the W. K. Kellogg Company). That's the cereal company that is famous
on the shelves of America's grocery stores and around the world! He married Ella O. Davis.
Source: http://kinnexions.com/kinnexions/cousinsj.htm#FKellogg
"W. K. Kellogg
started out selling brooms as a young businessman then moved to Battle Creek,
Michigan to help his brother John Harvey Kellogg
run the Battle
Creek Sanitarium. There in one of the labs they produced the first flaked
cereal. W.K. Kellogg saw this as a great business opportunity and wanted to
keep the production of the product a secret, John Harvey disagreed and allowed
anyone in the sanitarium to come see the flaking process. This allowed a fellow sanitarium guest,
C. W. Post to see the process, thus inspiring him to start his own company,
which became Post
Cereals and later General Foods.
C.W. Post then made his first million dollars off the sales of his new
product; this upset W.K. Kellogg. who then left the sanitarium to create his
own company."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Keith_Kellogg
"Will Keith Kellogg
lacked a formal education beyond the sixth grade. When he died Oct. 6, 1951, at
the age of 91, he had amassed a fortune and enriched the lives of people in his
hometown, and millions of people around the world. Will Keith Kellogg, creator of the
cereal company and the foundation that bears his name, led three professional
'lives' while making his mark on Battle Creek, Michigan and the world.
"The world-renowned
benefactor and cereal industry leader began as a clerk at the Battle Creek
Sanitarium, also known as the San.
It was there, searching for a vegetarian diet for patients, that he
discovered cereal flakes. His first
job was as a stock-boy, followed by the life of a traveling broom salesman in
his late teens. He finally went to
work as a young man in the San, where his older brother, John Harvey Kellogg,
was physician-in-chief. Will
Kellogg was bookkeeper and manager of the world-famous hospital, which put
virtually any task outside of medicine under his purview.
"For years he
assisted his brother in research aimed at improving the vegetarian diet of the
San's patients, especially the search for a digestible bread-substitute by the
process of boiling wheat. They
never achieved their basic purpose, but stumbled on a major dividend. In 1894,
Will Kellogg accidentally left a pot of boiled wheat to stand and become
tempered. When it was put through
the usual rolling process, each grain of wheat emerged as a large, thin
flake. Will persuaded his brother
to serve the food in flake form, and it was an immediate favorite among the
patients.
"Soon it was being
packaged to meet hundreds of mail order requests from persons after they left
the San. Because John Kellogg had
little interest in such matters, his brother added another task to his long
list of responsibilities: that of managing the burgeoning packaged food
enterprise. Using his sense of
economics, an understanding of marketing techniques and hard work Kellogg
constantly increased production, advertising budgets and sales. He expanded his business to Australia in
1924, guided the cereal company through the Depression (the 1930's), he
increased advertising, while others cut back, and brought Kellogg's cereal into
England in 1938.
"W.K.
Kellogg, who at age 46 founded the Kellogg Company, was never comfortable with
his riches. In the 1920s, when many
captains of industry were building castle-sized summer "cottages"
with 40-car garages, Kellogg lived a comparatively modest life. Even as a
millionaire, he resided for years in a two-story stucco house on 256 West Van
Buren Street in Battle Creek Michigan.
"As a father, he
feared the pitfalls of unearned wealth.
None of his children would ever become rich through inherited
money. Explaining his tight rein on
the family purse, Kellogg once wrote, 'I want that my sons develop into
conscientious and truthful men.' As
his wealth grew, Kellogg gave generously to charitable causes, many involving
children. By establishing the W. K. Kellogg
Foundation, W.K. Kellogg sought to focus his philanthropy. In 1934, W.K. Kellogg donated more than
$66 million in Kellogg Company stock and other investments to establish the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
"Kellogg was
fiercely competitive, but also quiet, reserved, somber and an introvert. Still, over the years, his support of
charitable causes was enormous and varied.
He became convinced that the most good could be accomplished by helping
young people. So in 1925, he
established the Fellowship Corporation. The Fellowship Corporation helped to
build an agricultural school and a bird sanctuary, and to establish an
experimental farm and a reforestation project. Kellogg also donated nearly $3 million
to hometown causes, such as the Ann
J. Kellogg School for handicapped children, a civic auditorium, a junior
high school, and a youth recreation center.
"President Herbert
Hoover named him a delegate at a White House
Conference on Child Health and Protection. He returned from the conference
determined to help. As a result, in
June 1930, the W.K. Kellogg Child Welfare Foundation was born. A few months later, he broadened the
focus of the charter, and renamed it the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
"Through his
philanthropic work, Mr. Kellogg demonstrated great compassion and caring and
acted on his belief that the most good came from helping people to help
themselves--giving them the opportunity to do what is important to them. Kellogg worked at the Foundation until
just before his death. His grave in
Oak
Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek, Michigan, is marked by a simple monument of
stone. But his legacy lives on."
Source: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/kellogg.htm
In 2006, the W. K.
Kellogg foundation was listed as the fifth largest foundation in terms of funds
invested in the United States, having a value of something over seven billion
dollars.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/06/25/business/20060626_BUFFETT_GRAPHIC.html
It is with a great and
wonderful sense of blessing to be in a family that included a man of such
generous and Godly generosity as did Will Keith Kellogg.
Compiled by
Dwight Albert (D. A.) Sharpe
805 Derting Road East,
Aurora, TX 76078-3712