Profile of the Day: Will Keith Kellogg

Do you enjoy a bowl of corn flakes for breakfast? On this day in 1860, Will Keith Kellogg, breakfast cereal inventor and founder of the Kellogg Company, was born in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Image: Kellogg’s corn flakes / State Library and Archives of Florida, Flickr

Kellogg began his career selling brooms before joining his older brother, John Harvey Kellogg, to help run the Battle Creek Sanitarium. His brother was a doctor and together, the brothers worked on developing a better, easily digestible nutritious meal for the sanitarium’s patients. After some experimentation, the brothers pioneered the process of making the first dry, flaked cereal.

Seeing the commercial potential, Kellogg wanted to keep the process a secret. However, his brother John disagreed and allowed clients and guests to tour their facilities and observe the process. One visitor was C.W. Post, who copied the process and started his own company, which would become known as Post Cereals and later General Foods.

Angered by this, Kellogg left the sanitarium to start his own company. A gifted marketer, Kellogg promoted his corn flake cereal as a healthy breakfast food. Soon the company’s profits soared and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes became a household name.

In 1934, Kellogg started the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and donated more than $66 million to it. The foundation would become one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the country.

How are you related to Will Keith Kellogg? Explore his family tree and discover your connection to the breakfast cereal pioneer.