Mr. Charles William Post
C.W. Post
Founder of Post, Texas (1907)

This page is sponsored by Maxine Durrett Earl Charitable Foundation, Inc

Charles William (C.W.) Post, was born October 26, 1854 in Springfield, Illinois to Rollin and Caroline Post. From his very roots there was instilled within Charles the perceptiveness of an inventor, an adventurer and an industrialist. He was destined to become one of the country’s most renowned entrepreneurs and philanthropists. But like so many others during the Gilded Age of fast and furious expansion, his greatest achievements would not be truly appreciated until after his death that came in 1914.

Charles went to the Illinois Industrial University in Urbana, later to become the University of Illinois. He was thirteen years old at the time. He was anxious to make his mark and his fortune and school was a waste of time to him.

After his success in persuading his parents to allow him to leave school, he joined the Illinois Governor’s Guard. His term in the guard awakened in Charles the desire to travel. After he left the guard he met up with and formed a partnership with an old school pal, Charles Moody. They decided to explore the wild West. They headed for Oklahoma Territory and the plains of Kansas. Even in those days the life of being a cowboy held a certain fascination for a young boy. They traveled extensively across the Southwest in search of business prospects and their fortune.

On November 4, 1874, Charles William Post was to marry Ella Merriweather, his childhood  sweetheart. They were married at Pawnee, Illinois. She was twenty-one years of age, and he was twenty. The  took place in the home of her Uncle. She was a music lover and a dancer. Both were industrious and ambitious, the perfect couple for what lay ahead in their future.

The marriage seemed to add fuel to Post’s already tremendous energy, though his bride was rarely seen with him in public. She preferred to remain in the Post family’s rambling Victorian estate. Though unnoticed at the time, the once lovely bride was to slowly slip into depression and become a virtual recluse from society. This seclusion would later lead to an end of what Charles felt was the perfect marriage. With her beloved Charles constantly gone she gradually, became disconcerted in the relationship.

Beginning to show signs of health breakdowns and fatigue, Charles made the first of his major business decisions. He came to the realization that big profits in the farm implement business came from manufacturing, not selling. In 1880, the ambitious inventor was to give up traveling and the road for more prosperous ventures. With a business at home, Ella felt she and Charles could spend more time together. But it was not to be.

Charles decided to start manufacturing agricultural machines and to begin making improvements on the ones already in existence. He had a tremendous foresight and an ability to anticipate the future. With the help of a friend, A.L. Ide, he put to use his ideas and applied for a patent on an improved planter they manufactured October 11, 1878. The patent was granted.

He formed a manufacturing company. Capital for the expansion proved no problem for the diligent inventor. Many investor were family members and business people of the community who believed in his ideas and had faith in his now proven business abilities. "Post Capitol City Cultivators" was opened in his wife’s name, as her funds were used as security with which to establish the loan.

It was not long before the company was well known in the farm manufacturing industry and expansion was called for. The company was booming and the work load was increasing along with it. Between the years of 1879 and 1897, Post applied for and received patents on the following inventions:

Seed Planter, March 4, 1879
Steam Pump, September 9, 1879
Cultivator, April 4, 1882
Sulky Plow, November 28, 1882
Cultivator, June 28, 1883
Harrow, May 24, 1883
Hay stacker, March 25, 1890
Suspenders, November 7, 1893 and
Cooking Utensils, January 5, 1897

The Patent numbers can be found by contacting the U.S. Patent Office. Through these inventions he was to realize considerable revenue and prestige.
Other Post inventions, though not patented, included a new version of player piano, a paddle to be used to generate electricity from water power and a revised bicycle.

Supply was simply unable to meet the demand. More room and faster tooling was needed to meet the requirement. On November 10, 1885, Post entered into yet a larger factory. This one organized by a corporation called the Illinois Agricultural Works. Charles’ relentless creativity required his constant absence from home. It was not long before Ella became even more saddened in her marriage to Post. She lapsed even further away from the public and remained in their home, increasingly more detached. It seemed to her that even friends and acquaintances looked down upon her.

Soon his business became so successful that a local banker tried to take control of the company by means of a note. The note was to be signed by Post’s mother and father without the knowledge of their son. The parents had been induced to sign a mortgage on their homestead as additional security for the note on the business. Some believe this was the onset of the many nervous breakdowns he was to experience in his life. The quarrel between the banker and Post went on for many years, well into his Battle Creek years.

Charles felt the need to be involved in every aspect of each venture he was associated with. Soon overwork, constant strain and fatigue began to take its toll on his health. He found a temporary cure in the time he spent relaxing with Ella. He felt rest was all that was needed. Ella found sanctuary in what he felt was a temporary setback. They were finally able to spend a small amount of time together.

They worked on music rolls for his improved player piano. They sat for hours and cut the tiny holes needed in the rolls. During this same time he was to add two wheels of the same size to the already patented bicycle, which previously had a wheel of different sizes on opposing ends which added to the instability and was the cause of many injuries.

Slowly, and against the advice of his wife and doctors, he began adding work and returning to his usual rigorous schedule. It was only a short time before the results of the load caught up with him. Post suffered what was to be the beginning of many serious nervous breakdowns and ill health in 1885. He was forced to remain home and was not allowed access to any business dealings. Soon the company felt his absence and liquidation of the firm was taken by the bank. This forced him to relinquish his position with the company. This was the only major business failure he was to experience in his career.

It was many years before he was able to set the record straight on the matter of what really transpired in the business’s down fall. His complete recovery from this severe breakdown and collapse was extremely slow and required several months. Again, he devoted his time to inventions and relaxation.

His doctors informed him that as soon as he felt he was capable of travel, he should consider a move to a warmer and drier climate. Post chose to travel Texas. He roamed the range of the Llano Cattle Company’s Curry Comb Ranch in the High Plains as a cowboy under the name of Charles Williams. The solitude of the undeveloped West offered the freedom and the healing touch that he felt he needed. He slowly improved and expanded his range to other regions of West Texas. It is then, the reputed story goes, that he sat under a Mesquite Tree on the Caprock and looked down on the panoramic view and envisioned a beautiful City, an oasis in the desert. He saw streets lined with trees, wells brimming with cool water, grazing herds of cattle and a flowing sea of cotton bending in the breeze. This dream of a new world in the wilds would not be forgotten in his mind, it would remain forever … and eventually come true. ( Post, TX. vision)

C.W., along with his brother Carroll, struck out for the wild and adventurous country of Fort Worth, Texas in search of a future. A suitable location and business investment was found and the two returned to Illinois with the news and well thought out plans for the future of the entire Post family. A place to live and a means of support for the family had been found.

With the help of a group of real-estate investors, they purchase a 200 acre ranch on the outskirts of Fort Worth. Fort Worth was a booming cow town and Post saw the investment as a prosperous venture that offered little, or no mental or physical effort, but offered a tremendous return. In 1887 the entire family moved to Fort Worth, with the exception of Ella and C.W. They remained behind waiting for the expected birth of their first and only child in the fall. The rest of the family went to Texas and began Post and Company, a real estate business. Following the birth of their child, C.W. and Ella first went to California, to further his recovery.

In February of 1888 they joined the rest of the family in Texas. There they first resided in the famous and then new, Ellis Hotel, considered the best in town. It is quite possible it was there that he acquired his love for the white Stetson hat and Texas attire that was to be associated with him the rest of his life. He settled in the Post and Company offices and soon became a trustee of that company as well as secretary of the East Fort Worth Town Company. Post moved in May of 1888, from the Ellis Hotel to their ranch.

With his renewed health, he once again regained the confidence that was necessary in business. He persuaded businesses of many types to relocate to their land. He knew the importance of the location, close to the city and near a railroad and he stressed these advantages during his long and arduous business meetings for the next two years. He in fact laid out the town. This was also to be of advantage to him in later years when he was to build his own city in the wilderness, Post City. It seemed as though he had found his elusive gold mine. This was where he was to make the fortune he knew he was destined to make. But once again, doom was lurking in the background to spell disaster in his life.

In the fall of 1888 He suffered another nervous breakdown, this one more severe than the last. He was forced to abandon his work. His illness was labeled as chronic by the Texas doctors, but his family would not accept this diagnosis. They believed rest would once again be the cure. As before, they joined together and sacrificed by sending him away where he would be free from the daily pressures of work. Leaving the company to devote his entire time to recovery, he spent the summer of 1889 on the Atlantic seaboard. During the winter of that same year, he returned to Fort Worth. With his health improved and with new enthusiasm he turned his interests back to more adventurous businesses. This time his project was building a woolen mill, four miles southwest of Fort Worth. Knowing the significance of getting your manufactured product to market, he chose a location on the Houston & Texas Central Railway.

In the fall of 1890 he approached another ambitious project, another mill. This time the project was more inventive than before. Knowing that the West was fast filling with people who would need homes and these homes, out of necessity, would be built primarily of wood, he felt trees would soon become scarce. Post intended making paper from the over abundance of Texas cotton seed hulls. But his ambitiousness and over work once again took its toll on his health. This time it was even more serious. He became an invalid and rest would not be the answer this time. He needed expert medical attention immediately. The family had heard of a nationally known clinic in Battle Creek, Michigan, then no more than a wide spot in the road. It’s tactics were considered unorthodox for the times, but its reputation for success was widely known and could not be dismissed. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was their answer to what had been declared a hopeless cause.

Post, his wife and his daughter boarded a train for Battle Creek, Michigan. They arrived there in February of 1893. His deteriorating health had him Confined to a stretcher. He was only a shadow of the towering figure he was to become.

Battle Creek had become a gathering place for illnesses that common medicine had failed to cure. C.W.’s arrival in Battle Creek was to effect the future of generations of people around the world. It would not only affect breakfast foods, cereals, health and politics, but it revolutionized and perfected an industry that had not yet been envisioned; fast food and mass advertising. Oat meal used to be cooked for long hours in a hot kitchen on a wood stove, sometimes taking all night to prepare. Advertising was done only on a limited local basis and national advertising campaigns were thought useless. Is it possible that places like McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut and others inadvertently owe their allegiance to C.W. Post, and his advertising expertise?

The sanitarium had gained nation wide acclaim. Its approach to healing was through proper foods, meatless meals, mental science, calisthenics, water therapy and many fads of the time. The approach was controversial for its time, though it seemed effective, and the sanitarium reputation was unprecedented.

Due to the great success at the sanitarium of people like Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, may physicians, and advocated of various types of diets, fads and cure-alls flowed into Battle Creek by the trainload.

Dr. Kellogg and his brother had not yet successfully marketed a health food. But C.W. Post, the man who arrived on a stretcher, was the one to show them the way.
Having found a new way of eating and with his health recharged, Post remembered a concoction he had been served on the Texas Plains. Farmers wives, with little or no store bought goods had come up with a mixture of their own as a substitute for coffee.

The mixture was a blend of chicory, with roasted wheat and other grains found in the Texas Plains. Post began experimenting with the mixture after his health had been restored. Coffee’s side effects on the body were of concern to Post, but he liked the taste. He put all his efforts into making a substitute with the same taste, but without the ill effects that caffeine had on the body.

He established the La Vita Inn, a sanitarium at Battle Creek, and systematically began work on his coffee substitute. After a year of relentless work and experimentation, a suitable substitute was developed from wheat, bran and molasses, which he thought was tastier than chicory. He gave his mixture the name, Postum Food Coffee. At this time, 1894, not many food stuffs were advertised. Most advertising went to soaps, stove polish, patent medicine and the like.

After perfecting his Postum Food Coffee, Post was left with the problem of marketing his product. Getting the product into the public eye was the key to a successful product, as much or even more than its quality.

He knew that no matter how good a product was, if the buying public was not aware of it, they would never taste it. In February, 1895, Post went to the neighboring town of Grand Rapids, Michigan. With a larger population, larger grocery stores and a newspaper with a wide circulation, the Evening Press, he launched a massive advertising campaign.

His first move was expansion to a wider market. By advertising in a wider area, a wider market demand was created. After repeated expansion and advertising, Post had created the FIRST nation wide advertising campaign in this country. While C.W. Post has been called the "grandfather of advertising", he did not originate advertising though he did become the largest single advertiser in the country. He led the way for more diversified and flamboyant ad copy by what he preferred to call "plain words for plain people".

In the first year of business sales were a mere $5000. By 1896, however, sales had topped the $260,000 mark. 1897 brought sales of over $840,000 and a new product with which Post’s was to become synonymous, Grape Nuts, and shortly after came Post Toasties.

Post’s genius in advertising promoted a good breakfast food that could be prepared quickly and was packaged with health in mind. Other businessmen seeing the value of Post’s advertising campaigns, attempted to cash in on his success.

Soon Charles was to feel the pressure of the competition. Sales began to fall. A wide spread advertising campaign was launched targeting imitation products. Friends urged Post to make a cheaper grade of Postum, but he refused. With his usual cunning and courage, Charles took a great risk. He organized a separate company named Monk’s Brew and sold the product at one-fifth the price of Postum, five cents a package. The packages proclaimed they contained a product that was equal to the quality of Postum. This was a true statement. The boxes were indeed filled with genuine Postum, under the name of Monk’s Brew.

Post’s cooking process was also innovative and he sought to protect it from competitors who might attempt to duplicate it. He applied for a patent on his Cooking Utensil. It was granted to him in January, 1897. Grape-Nuts was introduced to the market for the first time in January of 1898, and to this day it is Post’s only product not successfully copied by a competitor.

By 1909 Grape-Nuts and Post Toasties had surpassed Postum’s annual profits of $1,460,009. Post attributed this to his advertising campaigns. Simplicity is what he used in his campaigns. He believed that intimacy was important to the women of the world. If they could relate to you as a friend, they would trust you and your product. This would influence their buying habits.

Charles bought large ads in newspapers nation wide. He spoke concerning health matters, and launched a Pure Food crusade. Through this he was directly responsible for getting the Pure Food Bill passed. Post had by this time successfully marketed his products in South America and England. W.K. Kellogg, a cereal competitor, had launched his breakfast food, but was not able to beat Post’s world wide reputation. It was not until after Post’s death that Kellogg’s sales made any substantial climb.

Most of Post’s advertising campaigns had been written by him personally. Post felt that fancy wording was intimidating to the average housewife. Simplicity, sincerity and plain truth were a language that people could relate to, and that was the key. By the twentieth century, Post had gained world acclaim as an authority on advertising.

Post's’s products had brought him great wealth. But once again it began to take a toll on his already frail health. He traveled extensively as a form of relaxation to countries of continental Europe. He went to England on a yearly basis. This allowed him the luxury of relaxation, but also a chance to keep in constant touch with his English branch.

His great wealth did not make him lose touch with reality. He felt a kinship with his employees. he tried desperately to maintain a paternal kindness toward them. It was not until his corporations has grown so immense he knew only a small portion of his employees, that his personal employee relationship with them ended, and for this he grieved.

Even though Charles was unable to be personally acquainted with his employees, he did no neglect them, nor did he ignore what he felt his duty to return to mankind a portion of what it had given him.

He believed that first impressions were lasting impressions. Against advice from his friends and associates, Post erected an elaborate hotel, Post Tavern. He remembered what it meant to be able to enter a strange town and find a comfortable bed, good food and a friendly atmosphere.

Charles’ concern for his employees did not stop with material things. He felt a true concern for their labor-management struggle as well. He paid well, and saw that his employees had as safe a working environment as possible. His fight with the American Federation of Labor soon became well known. Though his employees knew of his generosity, the rest of the world saw him as a merciless businessman. But Charles was not as he appeared to the masses, and soon the nation was to realize this.

Soon Mr. Post was elected president of the National Industrial association, an organization founded in 1903 that was against closed shop. He renamed it the Square Deal, with, "The National Organ of the Open Shop Movement," as a spearhead. Post was revered by capital as a gallant champion and by labor as its worst enemy.

In the fall of 1906, Charles employed a Texas rancher, T.P. Stevens, to look over some ranches for him in West Texas. Post bought 213,324 acres of land, including 333 square miles of Garza County, on which he was to build his town.

As C.W. Post became more active in political and labor activities, and with his daughter going to private school in Washington, he set up a Cabinet of management to handle his affairs in Battle Creek, as well as his affairs in Texas.

His Texas affairs manager was H.C. Hawk. Hawk was responsible for stocks, bonds, real estate and supervision of the Double U Ranch beginning in 1906. His other control included, Canadian Postum Cereal Ltd., Grape Nuts, Enquire Publishing Company, Home & Fireside Magazine, Young Fuel & Pure Ice Company and a labor publication known as Square Deal.

It seemed as though anything he touched turned a profit. All but one, that is, Elijah’s Manna. It was introduced in 1906, as a prepared breakfast food. The name in itself was to cause him much grief and anguish. The American religions accused Post of sacrilege. Though he protested, he was forced to recall the product and repackage it under the name of Post Toasties. Post Toasties made him a net profit of $2,185,820 in 1908.

The Story Continues in Post, Texas

DESIGN BY GCMATHIS