Schumacher—the Oatmeal King

AKRON & SUMMIT COUNTY
Karl H. Grismer,
Summit County Historical Society,
Akron, Ohio c. 1950 p 174-179

Schumacher—the Oatmeal King

     A German immigrant was one of the first persons in Akron to prosper because of the Civil War. He was Ferdinand Schumacher, soon to become nationally famous as the "oatmeal king."

     A short, sturdy man, with a large head and deep-set eyes, Schumacher had come to the United States in 1850 from his home in Celle, Hanover. At that time he was twenty-eight years old. He lived a year on a farm in Euclid, near Cleveland, and then came to Akron. Here he ran a notion store on Howard Street for a while and later opened a grocery on Market Street.

     Schumacher was fond of oatmeal. He had always eaten it for break­fast back in Germany and wanted to keep on eating it after he came to America. But he learned that the only oatmeal obtainable was im­ported—and expensive.

     Being a frugal individual, Schumacher refused to pay the prevail­ing high price for his favorite cereal. He decided to make some himself —he had watched it being manufactured in Germany and was familiar with the process.

     Taking a panful of oats, he toasted them carefully an hour or so over a slow fire until they began giving off a sweet nutlike odor. Then he rubbed off the hulls and chopped the groats into tiny cubes. Next, he took several large handsful of the meal and cooked it in a heavy iron kettle, slowly, for several hours, stirring it often to prevent scorching.

     Schumacher could hardly wait until the oatmeal was thoroughly cooked. Towards the end, he lifted the lid every few minutes and sniffed the rising vapor. It smelled heavenly and he could wait no longer. He pushed the kettle off the fire, dished out a bowlful, added cream and sugar, and sat down to eat.

     The cereal was delicious—as good and perhaps even better than any he had ever eaten in Germany. Schumacher was delighted—now he could have all the oatmeal he wanted, at practically no cost.

     At first Schumacher made only enough oatmeal to supply his family's needs. But he bragged about his feat to fellow Germans who traded at his store. Their appetites whetted, they demanded that he make some for them. So when he prepared his next batch of oats he filled a glass jar with meal and placed it on sale at his store. It was gone in no time.

     Thereafter Schumacher found it profitable to make more and more oatmeal. But no one knows exactly when he started manufacturing it on a large scale. Some say he had a little oatmeal plant on N. Howard Street as early as 1856; others say he did not open the plant until 1859.

     In any event it is certain that Schumacher was a long, long way from being an oatmeal king when the Civil War began. It is doubtful whether his production at that time exceeded a few barrels a day; quite possibly it was much less.

     But in 1861 the thrifty Schumacher got a break—a tremendous break. He got it through one of his best friends, a fellow German who also had fled from oppression in his fatherland. He was Erhard Stein­bacher, grocer and druggist.

     Born in Bavaria and educated at Heidelberg, Steinbacher had first come to America in 1844. He lived in Cleveland and Akron several years and then went back to Germany. Finding conditions even worse than when he was there before, he quickly returned to the United States. He got back in time to join the Forty-niners in the California gold rush, being one of the first members of the Akron Mining Company.

     In California, Steinbacher made a stake, part of it in the gold fields and the remainder in merchandising. Returning to Akron in 1851, he built a three-story brick building on the south side of Market Street a little east of Howard, a building which in 1952 was still standing, one of the oldest in the business section. He also invested heavily in land and in his building opened a grocery and drug store. It became one of the leading stores in Akron.

     Becoming an ardent Republican, Steinbacher had many influential friends in the party and when the Civil War started was authorized by the quartermaster general to purchase supplies for the army in this territory. He placed huge orders for flour with local mills and before the war was many months old, all were running at peak capacity.

     In making his purchases, Steinbacher did not forget his good friend Schumacher. He insisted that the army buy oatmeal to serve the soldiers for breakfast—it was much tastier and more nourishing than any other cereal which could be obtained, infinitely better than cornmeal. That stuff, he declared, might be good enough for Southern rebels but cer­tainly not good enough for fighting Yankees.

After weeks of arguing, Steinbacher's German persistence won and the quartermaster's office reluctantly agreed to take a sample order of a hundred barrels. Just a hundred barrels—from an army standpoint, hardly an order worth mentioning. But for Schumacher, the order was stupendous.

     He was doubtful at first whether he could produce such a stagger­ing quantity in time to meet the delivery date. But he realized that this was an opportunity he might never have again. So he hired extra men and kept his plant operating night and day, seven days a week. Because of the war emergency, laws against working on Sunday were forgotten.

     After the oatmeal was shipped, Schumacher anxiously waited to learn how it would be received in the army camps. He knew that few soldiers had ever eaten the cereal and was afraid many would refuse to taste it, just because it was something new. But his fears were un­justified. The soldiers liked it. Army orders for oatmeal began pouring in.

     To supply the demand, Schumacher increased the capacity of his mill time and again and installed modern machinery. Pridefully, he called his plant the German Mill.

     By mid-1862 Schumacher's reputation as a reliable manufacturer was thoroughly established, and he was asked to start producing pearl barley, badly wanted by the army. Complying with the request, he built a separate mill on S. Summit Street, near the depot, which he called the Empire Barley Mill. It was completed and in operation before the end of 1863. Thereafter smoke belched from its chimneys twenty-four hours a day until the war ended.

     There is no doubt but that Schumacher profited richly from his war orders. When the conflict ended he was rated as being the wealthiest man in Akron.

     But he had not pocketed all the profits. He had been smart enough to realize that his plants would be idle at the close of hostilities unless he built up a civilian demand for his products. So he had used much of his gains to employ salesmen to call on stores in Cleveland, Cincin­nati and other large cities, and he had wisely allotted a good share of his production to the developing civilian market. Because of these precautions, his plants did not become idle when war orders ended.

     Soldiers who had first eaten oatmeal in the army continued to want it when they got back home and the popularity of the cereal increased. By 1870 Schumacher was recognized as the leading cereal manufacturer of the nation. When the original German Mill burned down on Feb­ruary 27, 1872, he immediately built a much larger, better mill alongside his Empire Mill on Summit Street; it also was called the German Mill. Other buildings followed, including a fine office building at Mill and Broadway, a large drying house, and the enormous eight-story Jumbo Mill on Broadway.      Schumacher, the German immigrant, had made good.

Flour Mills Work Overtime

     Owners of flour mills also prospered amazingly during the 1860s. Never before had they received such tremendous orders.

     During this period the famous Allen Mills leaped to the fore. They were the descendants of J. & J. Allen & Co., organized in 1856 to convert the Perkins Woolen Mill plant into a flour mill. The concern was headed by Alexander H. Commins, son of Dr. Jedediah Commins, and Albert Allen, a nephew of Jacob and Jesse Allen.

     Able and aggressive, these two men soon got more business than they could handle in the woolen mill building and in 1862 took over the Center Mill, built in 1839, and five years later purchased the famous Stone Mill, at the foot of Mill Street. At this time the name of the firm was changed to Commins & Allen. The Stone Mill was renovated from top to bottom, large additions were built, new machinery installed, and the water power was supplemented by a 125-horsepower steam engine which ran five of the eleven sets of buhrs.

     The Commins & Allen Mills grew steadily and had a capacity of 300 barrels of flour a day at the time of Commins' death on August 17, 1880.

     The growth of the company was due in no small degree to the deep friendship which existed between the partners, and the confidence they had in each other. When Commins' will was read, it was learned that he had made Allen sole executor of his estate, to serve without bond.

     The closest competitor of Commins & Allen for many years was Chamberlin & Co., headed by Philo Chamberlin, one of Akron's pioneer promoters who had served as mayor in 1848. A shrewd operator, he engaged in all sorts of enterprises, ending his career many years later as part owner of a fleet of Great Lakes steamships.

     Chamberlin started his milling operations in 1843 when he bought an interest in the City Mills. In 1862 he bought the Aetna Mills, just west of the foot of Furnace Street, which had burned in 1852 and been rebuilt. During the mid-1870s Chamberlin became preoccupied with his affairs in Cleveland and sold his interests to his associate, George M. McNeil and James N. Baldwin, who formed the firm of McNeil & Baldwin. They put in machinery for making flour by a new process and by 1880 were turning out 200 barrels a day.

     Schumacher, the oatmeal king, also was a leading manufacturer of flour. He purchased the Cascade Mills, on the Cascade Mill Race at North Street, in 1868 and spent a small fortune installing the finest water power machinery ever used by an Akron mill. The giant mill wheel was 36 feet in diameter and weighed 37 tons. When the plant was completely renovated and greatly enlarged it was rated as one of the finest mills in the state.

     For many years all shipments of flour and cereals from Akron mills were made in barrels. By 1880 more than 500,000 were used annually. To make them, more than 125 coopers were employed by the five leading barrel factories. Many of these coopers were Germans who had learned the trade in the Old Country. Literally hundreds of present day Akron­ites are descendants of those craftsmen.

     In 1880 the principal barrel firms were headed or owned by C. B. Maurer, T. J. Walker, Lapp & Riner, George Roth and Edward Zschech.

     Beginning about 1870 many wholesale grocers throughout the country started demanding that the millers supply them with flour in less than barrel lots. They insisted that at least part of their orders should be shipped in 48 and 24 pound paper sacks.

     To supply the sacks required, the Akron Paper Company was organ­ized in 1872 by Thomas Phillips, George W. Crouse and John R. Buchtel. Later the concern was incorporated as the Thomas Phillips Co. Many of Akron's leading business men were stockholders. A brick mill was erected on W. Exchange at the canal. By 1880 three and a half tons of old rope were being used daily by the firm to produce the manila paper used for the sacks. The concern's output of about 700 tons of paper a year was valued at $160,000. Seventy hands were employed. The mill burned in February, 1891, but was immediately rebuilt.

     Establishment of the Schumacher mills and booming business for the flour mills merely started the parade of prosperity-breeding developments from which Akron Benefited during the Civil War.