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John Harvey Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg ggbain.15047.jpg
Kellogg circa 1913
Born (1852-02-26)February 26, 1852
Died December 14, 1943(1943-12-14) (aged 91)
Alma mater New York University Medical College at Bellevue Hospital (M.D., 1875)
Occupation Physician, nutritionist
Spouse(s) Ella Ervilla Eaton (1853–1920), married 1879
Children 8 adopted
Relatives Will Keith Kellogg, brother

John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was an American medical doctor, nutritionist, inventor, health activist, and businessman. He was the director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. The sanitarium was founded by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It combined aspects of a European spa, a hydrotherapy institution, a hospital and a high-class hotel. Kellogg treated both the rich and famous and the poor who could not go to other hospitals.

He directed the sanitarium until his death in 1943. Kellogg also helped to establish the American Medical Missionary College. The College, founded in 1895, operated until 1910, when it merged with Illinois State University.

Kellogg was a major leader in progressive health reform, particularly in the second phase of the Clean living movement. He wrote extensively on science and health. His approach to "biologic living" combined scientific knowledge with Adventist beliefs, promoting health reform.

Kellogg was an early proponent of the new germ theory of disease, and well ahead of his time in relating intestinal flora and the presence of bacteria in the intestines to health and disease. The sanitarium approached treatment in a holistic manner, actively promoting vegetarianism, nutrition, exercise, sun-bathing, hydrotherapy, and abstention from smoking tobacco and drinking alcoholic beverages.

Many of the vegetarian foods that Kellogg developed and offered his patients were publicly marketed: Kellogg is best known today for the invention of the breakfast cereal corn flakes, with his brother, Will Keith Kellogg. His creation of the modern breakfast cereal changed "the American breakfast landscape forever."

Personal life

John Harvey Kellogg - aged about 29 - Project Gutenberg eText 19924
Kellogg in 1881, aged about 29

John Harvey Kellogg was born in Tyrone, Michigan, on February 26, 1852, to John Preston Kellogg (1806–1881) and his second wife Ann Janette Stanley (1824–1893). His father, John Preston Kellogg, was born in Hadley, Massachusetts; his ancestry can be traced back to the founding of Hadley, Massachusetts, where a great-grandfather operated a ferry. John Preston Kellogg and his family moved to Michigan in 1834, and after his first wife's death and his remarriage in 1842, to a farm in Tyrone Township. In addition to six children from his first marriage, John Preston Kellogg had 11 children with his second wife Ann, including John Harvey and his younger brother, Will Keith Kellogg.

John Preston Kellogg became a member of several revivalist movements, including the Baptists, the Congregationalist Church, and finally the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He was one of four adherents who pledged substantial sums to convince Seventh-day Adventists Ellen G. White and her husband James Springer White to relocate to Battle Creek, Michigan, with their publishing business, in 1855. In 1856, the Kellogg family moved to Battle Creek to be near other members of the denomination. There John Preston Kellogg established a broom factory.

The Kelloggs believed that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, and that formal education of their children was therefore unnecessary. Originally a sickly child, John Harvey Kellogg attended Battle Creek public schools only briefly, from ages 9–11. He left school to work sorting brooms in his father's broom factory. Nonetheless, he read voraciously and acquired a broad but largely self-taught education. At age 12, John Harvey Kellogg was offered work by the Whites. He became one of their protégés, rising from errand boy to printer's devil, and eventually doing proofreading and editorial work. He helped to set articles for Health, or how to live and The Health Reformer, becoming familiar with Ellen G. White's theories of health, and beginning to follow recommendations such as a vegetarian diet. Ellen White described her husband's relationship with John Harvey Kellogg as closer than that with his own children.

Kellogg hoped to become a teacher, and at age 16 taught a district school in Hastings, Michigan. By age 20, he had enrolled in a teacher's training course offered by Michigan State Normal School. The Kelloggs and the Whites, however, convinced him to join his half-brother Merritt, Edson White, William C. White, and Jennie Trembley, as students in a six-month medical course at Russell Trall's Hygieo-Therapeutic College in Florence Township, New Jersey. Their goal was to develop a group of trained doctors for the Adventist-inspired Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek. Under the Whites' patronage, John Harvey Kellogg went on to attend medical school at the University of Michigan and the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City. He graduated in 1875 with a medical degree. In October 1876, Kellogg became director of the Western Health Reform Institute. In 1877, he renamed it the Battle Creek Medical Surgical Sanitarium, cleverly coining the term "sanitarium" to suggest both hospital care and the importance of sanitation and personal health. Kellogg would lead the institution until his death in 1943.

John Harvey Kellogg married Ella Ervilla Eaton of Alfred Center, New York, on February 22, 1879. The couple maintained separate bedrooms and did not have any biological children. However, they were foster parents to 42 children, legally adopting 8 of them, before Ella died in 1920. The adopted children included Agnes Grace, Elizabeth Ella, Harriett Eleanor, John William, Ivaline Maud, Paul Alfred, Robert Mofatt, and Newell Carey.

Graves of Clara Kellogg Butler (1863–1951), John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943), Ella Eaton (1853–1920), and John William Kellogg (1883–1907) at Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek
Kellogg's grave (second from left) at Oak Hill Cemetery

In 1937, Kellogg received an honorary degree in Doctor of Public Service from Oglethorpe University.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Will Durant, who had been a vegetarian since the age of 18, called Dr. Kellogg "his old mentor", and said that Dr. Kellogg, more than any other person since his high school days, had influenced his life.

Kellogg died on December 14, 1943, in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek. In his will, Kellogg left his entire estate to the Race Betterment Foundation.

Breakfast cereals

Christian herald (1913) (14763389064)
Early cereal advertisement 1913

Around 1877, John H. Kellogg began experimenting to produce a softer breakfast food, something easy to chew. He developed a dough that was a mixture of wheat, oats, and corn. It was baked at high temperatures for a long period of time, to break down starch molecules in the grain. After it cooled, Kellogg broke the bread into crumbs. The cereal was originally marketed under the name "Granula" but this led to legal problems with James Caleb Jackson who already sold a wheat cereal under that name. In 1881, under threat of a lawsuit by Jackson, Kellogg changed the Sanitarium cereal's name to "Granola". It was used initially by patients at the Sanitarium, but slowly began to build up a following among former patients. In 1890, John formed the Sanitas Food Company to develop and market food products.

The Kelloggs are best known for the invention of the famous breakfast cereal Corn flakes in 1894. During their first year of production, the Kelloggs sold tens of thousands of pounds of flaked cereal, marketing it as "Granose". They continued to experiment using rice and corn as well as wheat, and in 1898 released the first batch of Sanitas Toasted Corn Flakes. A modified version with a longer shelf life was released in 1902. By that time, both "Granose Biscuits" and "Granose Flakes" were available.

Peanut Butter Texture
Peanut Butter

Will Kellogg continued to develop and market flaked cereal. When he proposed adding sugar to the flakes, John would not agree to the change. So, in 1906, Will started his own company, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. This marked the start of a decades-long feud between the brothers. Will's Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company would eventually became the Kellogg Company, while John H. Kellogg would be denied the right to use the Kellogg name for his cereals.

John Harvey Kellogg was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 for the discovery of tempering and the invention of the first dry flaked breakfast cereal, which "transformed the typical American breakfast".

Peanut Butter

John H. Kellogg is one of several people who have been credited with the invention of peanut butter. Some form of nut butter, likely made with peanuts, was served to patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium before October 1895, when Kellogg wrote to Ellen White that "some very excellent preparations from nuts" had entirely replaced butter.

Kellogg did not patent peanut butter explicitly, and later stated that this was intentional: "Let everybody that wants it have it, and make the best use of it". Kellogg did apply for two patents relating to "nut butters" in 1895, before anyone else did so.

By 1898, the Kelloggs were marketing a wide variety of nut-based foods through the Sanitas Nut Food Company. Kellogg marketed nut butters as a nutritious protein substitute for people who had difficulty chewing on solid food. Because peanuts were the least expensive nut available, they rapidly dominated the nut butter market.

Soy milk (2)
Soy milk with soy seeds

Other foods

In addition to developing imitation meats variously made from nuts, grains, and soy, Kellogg also developed the first acidophilus soy milk, which was patented in 1934. Kellogg also sold yogurt, soy flour, and soy bread.

In 1896, J. H. Kellogg introduced but did not patent "Nuttose", the first commercially produced alternative to meat. Nuttose was made primarily from peanuts and resembled "cold roast mutton". By seasoning or marinating, Nuttose could be made to taste like fried chicken or barbecue. Served with mashed potatoes and vegetables, it could mimic a traditional American meal.

On March 19, 1901, Kellogg was granted the first United States Patent for a "vegetable substitute for meat", for a blend of nuts and grain cereals called "Protose".

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