C. W. Post



C. W. Post also known as Charles William Post (October 26 1854 - May 9 1914), was an American breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry.

Biography
C. W. Post visited the Battle Creek Sanitarium operated by John Harvey Kellogg for his failing health. There, he was inspired to start his own cereal company based on the products used at the sanitarium.

In 1895, he founded Postum Cereal Co., with his first product, Postum cereal beverage. He was in the vanguard in the use of print advertising, and is said to have invented the cents-off coupon. Post's first breakfast cereal premiered in 1897, Post named the product Grape Nuts cereal because of the grape like aroma noticed during the manufacturing process and the nutty crunch of the finished product.

In 1908, he followed up the Grape Nuts label with a brand of corn flakes product first called Elijah's Manna that was later renamed Post Toasties.

C.W. Post's business produced one of the largest fortunes of the early 20th century. He married Ella Letitia Merriweather. Their only child, Marjorie Merriweather Post, married Edward F. Hutton, and owned a 177 acre estate on Long Island's North Shore called Hillwood. Marjorie sold the estate in 1951 for 200 thousand dollars to Long Island University, which founded C.W. Post College in 1954 on the 100th anniversary of C. W. Post's birth. Currently the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University has about 8,500 full and part time students with an alumni of over 97 thousand students.

He also attempted to develop a Utopian community in Texas, later named Post, Texas in his honor which became the county seat of Garza County, Texas.

In late 1913 and early 1914, Post's health deteriorated to the point that he canceled public appearances, which prompted speculation in the press regarding his well-being. In early March, the president of the Santa Fe Railroad arranged for Post to be rushed in a nonstop train ride in a private car from California to Rochester, Minnesota, where he was operated on for acute appendicitis on March 10. The operation was a success and he was allowed to return to his home in Santa Barbara, California, to recuperate. Post died in Santa Barbara on May 9, apparently by suicide. His twenty seven-year-old daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, inherited his company along with his vast fortune.