History of Quaker Oats

In the 1850s Ferdinand Shumacher and John Stuart found oat mills. Shumacher the German American Cereal Company, in Akron, Ohio and Stuart the North Star Mills in Ontario, Canada. In 1870 Shumacher runs his first known cereal advertisement in the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper. In Ravenna Ohio in 1877 the first trademark for a breakfast cereal "a man in 'Quaker garb'" is applied for on 4 September by Henry Seymour, owner of the Quaker Mill Company. [Adams, Cecil. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mquaker.html The Straight Dope] Accessed 28 July 2006.]

In 1879 John Stuart and his brother Robert, join with George Douglas to form Imperial Mill and set up shop in Chicago, Illinois. In 1881 Henry Crowell buys the Quaker Mill Company, the following year he launches a national ad campaign for Quaker Oats. In 1885 Quaker Oats introduces the cereal box, making it possible to buy in quantities other than bulk. in 1888 The American Cereal Company is formed by the merger of 7 major oat millers. Ferdinand Schumacher is made President, Henry Crowell, is General Manager and John Stuart is Secretary Treasurer. In 1889 American Cereal Co. introduces the 1/2 oz. trial size. As a promotion they distribute one to every home in Portland, Oregon. The delivery of these 1/2 oz. packages were made with boys on bicycles. They further made these deliveries throughout the major cities. A second promotion involved placing dinner plates from a very desirable selection within the then regular (not round) boxes of oats.

1901 sees the formation of the Quaker Oats Company in New Jersey, with its headquarters in Chicago. In 1911 Quaker purchases the Great Western Cereal Company. Quaker introduces the first in a series of cookie recipes on the box in 1908.The iconic round box makes its first appearance in 1915. Later that year Quaker offers the first cereal box premium to buyers. By sending in one Dollar and the cut out picture of the "Quaker Man" customers receive a double boiler for the cooking of oatmeal.

In the 1920s Quaker offers a crystal radio made inside the round box, they also introduce "Quaker Quick Oats" an early convenience food. In the 30's Quaker is one of the many companies that uses the Dionne Quintuplets for promotional purposes. During the Second World War, FDA head Herbert Hoover promotes oats to the public in order to preserve wheat for use in the war effort.

In 1946 artist Jim Nash is commissioned to produce a head portrait of the Quaker Man, this is later the basis for Haddon Sundblom famous version in 1957. In 1972 John Mills designs the current logo.

In 1969, Quaker acquired Fisher-Price, a toy company.

In the 1970s, the company financed the making of the film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", obtaining in return a license to use a number of the product names mentioned in the movie for candy bars.

In 1991, Quaker Oats spun off its Fisher-Price division.

In August 2001, Quaker merged with PepsiCo, primarily for its Gatorade brand of soft drink. The merger created the fourth-largest consumer goods company in the world. Though the main prize of PepsiCo was Gatorade noncarbonated sports drink, Quaker's cereal and snack food division complements the existing Frito-Lay salty-snacks division.

Since the late 1980s, actor Wilford Brimley has appeared in television commercials extolling the virtues of oat consumption, typically to a young child, as to introduce the concept of oatmeal consumption as a long tradition.

In the 1990s Nickelodeon animated children's show "Rugrats", the biggest fear of one of the characters, Chuckie Finster (the scaredycat of the bunch), was "the man on the oatmeal box". In , Chuckie overcame this fear when he became Chuckie Chan. The song lyrics to his transformation included the line "He can stare into the eye/of the oatmeal guy!".

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