Charles William Post was born on October 26, 1854, and died on May 9, 1914. He was an American businessman who started a company that later became Post Consumer Brands.
Early life and education
Post was born on October 26, 1854, in Springfield, Illinois. He was the son of Charles Rollin Post and Caroline Lathrop Post. He grew up in Springfield, which was the place where Abraham Lincoln, who was president of the United States during Post's childhood, lived.
Post completed public school in Springfield and then attended Illinois Industrial University. He stayed there for two years but left without earning a degree.
After spending a short time in Independence, Kansas, Post returned to Springfield. He lived there for more than ten years, working as a salesman and manufacturer of farming equipment. During this time, he invented and received patents for several farming tools, including a plow, a harrow, and a hay-stacking machine.
In November 1874, Post married Ella Letitia Merriweather. They had one daughter, Marjorie. Ella supported her husband throughout his career and cared for him when he was sick. As Post became wealthier and spent more time away from Ella, who often became ill, their relationship became less close. In 1904, against Ella’s wishes, Post separated from her and married his second wife, Leila Young, who was his 27-year-old secretary, in November 1904. Marjorie, who remained close to her father, later said that her mother died of "a broken heart" after Post divorced her and married his secretary. To try to make his daughter closer to his secretary (who would soon become his wife), Post hired her to be a travel companion for Marjorie. When Marjorie discovered this trick, she deeply resented Leila.
Career
In November 1885, Post experienced a mental health crisis due to the stress and heavy workload from his job as a farm implement manufacturer. Post left his previous life behind and moved to Texas in 1886. There, he joined a group of real estate developers in Fort Worth who were trying to create a new community on the eastern edge of a town named Riverside. In 1888, Post started his own real estate project in Fort Worth on 200 acres (81 hectares) of land he owned. He designed streets and homes and built two mills.
The stress of this work led to another mental health crisis in 1891. Post traveled widely in search of a cure and became interested in the science of digestion. After visiting Europe, Post went to the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, a facility run by John Harvey Kellogg, the brother of Kellogg Company founder Will Keith Kellogg. Post was accused of copying several of Kellogg’s recipes, including Kellogg’s Caramel Coffee Cereal (Post’s Postum), Cornflakes (Post Toasties), and Malted Nuts (Grape-Nuts).
In 1895, Post founded Postum Cereal Co. His first product was Postum, a cereal beverage. In 1897, he introduced his first breakfast cereal, which he named Grape-Nuts because of its fruity smell during production and its nutty texture. In 1904, he launched a brand of corn flakes, initially called Elijah’s Manna, which was later renamed Post Toasties in 1908. The British government blocked Post from using the name "Elijah’s Manna" in the United Kingdom, calling it disrespectful.
In 1906, Post used earnings from his food products to invest in Texas real estate, buying a large 225,000-acre (91,000-hectare) area in Garza and Lynn Counties. He designed a new town called Post City, planted shade trees, laid out farmland, and built a hotel, school, churches, and a department store for the new county seat.
In 1907, Collier’s Weekly published an article questioning claims in Post’s advertisements that Grape-Nuts could cure appendicitis. Post responded by criticizing the article’s author in advertisements, leading Collier’s Weekly to sue for libel. The case was decided in 1910, and Post was fined $50,000. The ruling was later overturned, but Post’s advertisements no longer made such health claims.
Post strongly opposed the labor union movement and was noted by the National Association of Manufacturers for his opposition to strikes, boycotts, and other workplace conflicts. He supported the open shop system but also offered high wages, bonuses, and benefits to employees. Near Battle Creek, he built model homes that were sold to workers under specific conditions.
Death and legacy
By the end of 1913, Post's health worsened, and he stopped making public appearances. In early March 1914, doctors thought he had appendicitis, and he was taken by train from California to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Surgeons William Mayo and Charles Mayo, who were considered the best doctors in the country at that time, performed surgery on Post between March 5 and 10, 1914. However, his stomach pain did not go away, as reported in the book American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post.
Post returned to his home in Santa Barbara, California, but his stomach pain continued. On May 9, 1914, at the age of 59, Post became very sad and hopeless because of his ongoing illness. He ended his life by shooting himself. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek.
Post's 27-year-old daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, inherited his company and most of his large fortune, one of the biggest in the early 20th century.
Marjorie later married financier Edward Francis Hutton and owned a 177-acre estate on Long Island's North Shore called "Hillwood." In 1951, she sold the estate to Long Island University for $200,000. The university created its residential C. W. Post College in 1954 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of C. W. Post's birth. The college was first called the C. W. Post Center and later the C. W. Post Campus. Today, what was once C. W. Post College is mainly a commuter campus named LIU/Post, with about 8,500 full- and part-time students and over 100,000 alumni.
A World War II Liberty Ship, the SS C. W. Post, was named in his honor.